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From: davison@bnl.UUCP (Dan Davison)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Boskone 22: NESFA & greed (caution: flamethrower set on broil)
Message-ID: <882@bnl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 18:23:52 EST
Article-I.D.: bnl.882
Posted: Thu Feb 21 18:23:52 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Feb-85 05:13:44 EST
Distribution: net
Lines: 66

I've just returned from Boskone 22, and the news is not good.  As usual, they
had more people than they wanted; 2300 was the last number I heard.  Actually
I was so disgusted with the fall of NESFA that I didn't bother going to the
con Sunday and Monday.  First, however, the good news:

o the Boxboro party was *excellent*.  They really know how to throw a good
  party and a good time appeared to be had by all.

o the limited events available were for the most part well run



Now for the bad news, in increasing order of disgust (NESFA fen, you may not
want to read this):

o the parties were shut down by the hotel at 3 AM.  Somebody didn't do their
  work correctly; that's way too early.
   (ok-hotel problem)

o the elevators apparently read HHTTG, since they went on strike for most of 
  the con, making it an exercise in paitence to get to the various parties.
  (ok, another hotel problem)

o Long flame:

I will never again have anything to do with Boskone, NESFA, or their attempts
at getting the '89 ('90?) worldcon, except possibly to work against the last.
They were charging $22.00 at the door for => one day admission <= , the same
as for the full event.  I thought this was suspicious, especially since
the people working the registration desk offered the stunningly lame excuse that
"with these badges we can't tell one day people from all-weekend people".
In less than 10 minutes in theregistration area I heard *at least* 10
people express surprise and disgust...but they still paid.
The same people ran the '80 worldcon, had more people and still
had day memberships.  So the excuse is pure bu******.

What really stunned me was the reason NESFA was charging a uniform $22.00:
greed.  Yep, GREED.  The *** are buying a clubhouse and are using fen from
all over the northeast to generate money
for their relatively private use.  "But they deserve it, they've put on
great cons for 42 +/- something years".  Yep, they've put on great cons 
(interesting how they've slightly adjusted the meaning of the word, eh?)
but this is a gross violation and ripoff of everything fandom has stood for.

(as an aside, the '80 worldcon had an approximately $32,000 profit, so the
Worldcon committee knows what they're doing [figure from the Noreascon Memory
book]).

(flamethrower now set to "stun" rather than "broil")

o I also was informed several times that the lousy film/video schedule was
  deliberate, because they didn't want riff-raff (no not him!) off the streets
  coming in "just to see the movies".  Phoooooeeeeey.

Moral of the story: (part 1):
DON'T GO TO BOSKONE OR SUPPORT THEIR WORLDCON BID!


(part II): I guess the yuppie-me-generation selfishness can reach all types.
For some reason I thought fen were different.


dan davison
davison@bnl.arpa
davison@bnl.bitnet
...decvax!philabs!sbcs!bnl!davison