So, why is it that conventions only can ban someone like Diezel now that he has discussed making a fake Covid-19 vaccine card?

It's time for another LinnThread filled with facts, a full excel sheet, and loads of data https://twitter.com/vexwerewolf/status/1386897547080392704

I decided to survey the Codes of Conduct of the 20 most attended conventions (using data from their last in person event) to check out what their rules were.

(Nordic FuzzCon was excluded as I could not seem to reasonably find theirs so was replaced with Alamo City Fur Con.)

First, let's discuss some VERY common language found in a majority of these codes of conduct. A majority of these conventions have language that reads like the following.

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If you spend your time reading over twenty Codes of Conducts, you might notice a ton of them use the EXACT same language.

Some even attribute it to that used at Anthrocon and thank them for the ability to use it.

This shows just how massively influential Anthrocon's Code of Conduct is on the ENTIRE furry convention scene.

However, you may also notice something else interesting: the Universal Code of Conduct (UCC) framework for furry conventions.

So a large majority of conventions simply seem to be copying these basic frameworks while giving them minor changes to suit their purposes.

This will make the following data make SO much sense.

The following excel sheet contains data on six categories. Some of these are based on things that'd make it easy for conventions to ban dangerous attendees, others based on things the community has asked for this previous year.

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Here it is in all its glory. Please make sure to check the notes where I explain things like .5 scores, .2 scores, and a few special exceptions. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uvbTXtobRA4RVbqRVsmaOfWNCcrwrPLUfxwIl1Qbo5c/edit?usp=sharing

Big things to notice:

HALF of the 20 most attended conventions can ban someone "at any time for any reason" which could include ANY reason. Like being horribly racist and transphobic on Twitter. (Looking at you Diezel.)

Things could depend by state or country, but if literally HALF the largest cons in the world can implement it, it's VERY possible the rest could too.

Not a SINGLE convention has an Accessibility Policy, something standard at conventions in basically any other fandom and professional setting.

"What's an Accessibility Policy Linn?" I'm sad you have to ask, but here's an example: https://www.anime-expo.org/accessibility/ 

I'll be blunt here: there are ZERO excuses for this minus not caring enough about disabled attendees to create a policy like this and enforce things to make cons more accessible.

As virtual cons become more scarce, conventions need their feet held to the fire to do this.

Despite it being asked for by TONS of BIPOC furries this previous year, I only found a single con that banned cosplay for law enforcement or military officials.

Legitimately going to give a HUGE high-five to Texas Furry Fiesta on that one. Every con should follow suit.

Several conventions half-heartedly ban anything that could have a "hate symbol" on it (some only saying things that are offensive based on staff discretion).

Not a single con prevents folks from cosplay as an indigenous person in their traditional attire.

This is why we see so many furries with characters that have "Native aesthetics" or the like absolutely get away with it. Not a SINGLE con explicitly bans this.

Some cons don't even ban hateful attire AT ALL.

Harassment at cons is incredibly dicey. It's usually listed as something incredibly vague, mostly "making someone else uncomfortable."

"Costume is not consent" and "no means no" is mentioned a lot. Explicitly banning race-based or sexuality-based harassment not so much.

So why wasn't Diezel being banned from cons potentially earlier?

Well, him being transphobic and racist is literally not explicitly banned in the rules. At all. In fact, it only is at HALF of the most attended conventions.

That and online harassment is basically unmentioned by anyone, minus Alamo City's con which states that it counts! Which is incredibly unique (and pretty cool).

So being horrific online, is okay. Just don't do anything AT the con. Or threaten it directly.

"So what do we do with this information Linn?"

I'm not a lawyer, and some of these rules are likely written for very specific reasons. However, we've seen that it's VERY easy to implement far better policies with basically zero issues (since so many other cons manage this.)

A good number of these codes of conduct have emails where you can contact the staff to discuss this.
Harassment isn't the goal here. Let's be real, a ton of cons likely copied their stuff from someone else without even thinking about this stuff. Hanlon's razor y'all.

In this case it's not stupidity (You try running a con and tell me staff is stupid. It's SO difficult.) but likely just a lack of thought having never needed to consider this before.

So why not try to raise awareness to enact positive change?

Is someone really dangerous attending a con? Someone that has behaved horribly? Tell the convention that they are causing you "excessive discomfort" and point to their rules.

You got a 50/50 shot of them having it in their Code of Conduct.

Now the biggest kicker: we gotta change the culture surrounding con staff.

Wanna know why half of all cons can simply remove these people and simply choose not to? It's because they don't CARE to.

Conventions are hard enough to run and I understand how hard it is to get staff for things like this (I've literally been con staff.)

However, we can't simply allow people to keep positions at cons anymore that are apathetic or antagonistic towards people's safety concerns.

Conventions, you have to make it safe for progressive folks or marginalized people to even volunteer to be staff to replace these folks.

When we see your rules are terrible? We know it's not a safe place for us, so we don't step up. Make it better, and you'll have our support.

Anyways, that was LONG. But I'll retweet it in the morning when people will actually see it. I hope this is shared a ton and can really inform people!

P.S. If you see any of my data is wrong, I collected it from the current public listings on convention websites.

If it's not up to date, tell the con staff in a polite manner. it's easy to forget stuff like that! Then tell me so I can fix it ;3