WisCon online

[sasha_feather]

We had about 3 days of Spring, and now it's hot and muggy. Too hot for me, but the plants like it. Today I moved some more house plants outside. I started a few spaghetti squash from seed and planted them in the back. Lilacs and Wild Rocket are blooming.

Today my roommate and I saw two Sandhill Cranes with two chicks. The chicks looked half-grown already, despite the cool Spring. They were lounging under a Willow tree near the convention center. I turned my car around and drove back for another look.

WisCon was all online this year; a combination of live youtube streams, Discord chats, and Zoom room parties. I loved the vid show, which worked pretty well. I liked being able to watch panels after the fact and from the comfort of my home. I didn't spend much time on the Discord, which was a little overwhelming. Rebecca Roanhorse, the guest of honor, seems thoughtful, funny, and kind. She spoke about using reading and writing for survival.

Attending online means I didn't get to see many friends except on Zoom calls, but overall it was much less exhausting to experience a con this way. WisCon always feels like it feeds my soul, and I did get a bit of that this year too.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I too got my annual recharge, and in fact it was a better experience than the past couple years. It was easier for me to avoid things that ruffle my feathers.

I managed to stumble my way thru Discord, and it’s really complicated. It offers more features than Dreamwidth, and is much less interested in accessibility.

I loved hanging in the Disability Safer Space seeing ppl who were not me doing nifty stuff.

The popup Linguistics panel fed my soul. Ben Rosenbaum on “Dr Who as the Wandering Jew” was GREAT! I want all cons to offer this kind of time-shifting. We’ve done proof of concept now!

I’m totally toasted now. I spent four whole days without my nagging tool that forces me to Step away from the computer.

[sasha_feather]

I want all cons to offer this kind of time-shifting. We’ve done proof of concept now!

Yes, agreed! I love that people from all over the world can participate too.

Yes!

[netmouse]

Allowing us to connect across geography was very nice. And especially for Memorial Day weekend, since there are multiple cons all at the same time. If you could time-shift every year you could actually touch in on multiple events on overloaded weekends like that.

Personally, I was really glad to put things off because our cat died on Saturday. Given how the week was going, I would not have been at Wiscon anyway because he was clearly in decline (and also no money for travel), but this way I could see some things. I registered late and never got sent a Discord invite, but I looked over the program and watched some things, and looked through the Art Show and Dealer's room pages and picked out a present for a friend.

I literally just finally got a chance to sit down and watch "THE NOT HUGO AWARD-WINNING BUT VERY IMPORTANT NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL" which occurred at the same time we were holding a zoom meeting for our 9 yo daughter to chat with friends who had known her cat.

Great panel. Not one I was in the right space to watch at that time.

And I look forward to seeing which panels they have permission to make public, so I can share the Wiscon awesome with friends, and also through the Science Fiction Oral History Association facebook page.