Just re-read this post from last year’s DragonCon shenanigans and I thought I’d post a short follow up to that.
[This post has been edited to make it more a general set of rules, rather than about our nonexistent pub. These are our beliefs and we stand up for them. -Angela April 2021]
We did not attend DragonCon at all this year. While there was lots of FOMO and pouting (on my part), overall, I don’t feel we missed much. What did happen was that our biz partner, who works with the bar that wanted us to do the whole con FOR FREE, actually got PAID. Yup, so while we were vilified for bowing up and not wanting to do a con for free, they ponied up real money for our biz partner to do the con. SO I GUESS WE WERE ON THE RIGHT TRACK, EH? I fucking hate that con and the people who treated us like shit, THEN turned around and did as we asked in the first place.
Which is the lead in to the fair treatment post from last year. Turns out that fair treatment is actually possible from the very bunch of folks to said it was “impossible” a year ago. Goes to show that you should not give in when you know things can be better. I’ve got a history of stirring the pot, and I’m glad that this time someone I know gets to benefit. We are VERY happy that our biz partner got the gig, got paid and got another gig out of it. He deserves it!!
Fair treatment is not an option. We believe that everyone deserves equal treatment and a certain level of behavior should be expected from everyone interacting in public.
Here are our general Rules of the House:
1. We have a zero tolerance policy for harassment. If anyone feels harassed by you, you will be asked to leave. We reserve the right to eject anyone for bad behavior.
2. We also have zero tolerance for hate speech of any kind, which includes offensive clothing. You will be asked to take off the hat or turn the shirt inside out. Or you can leave.
3. We will not tolerate abuse of our games. These games are expensive and we’ve spent hundreds of hours refurbing them. If you beat on the games, you will be asked to leave.
I think that upholding our core beliefs is essential to creating a great overall environment. We’ve even gone so far as to not have certain shooter games (Police Trainer, for one) that involve shooting people. We feel that this type of game is inappropriate with the current atmosphere of police shooting people in the face and rampant mass shootings. We have shooter games, but they are alien and/or carnival based ONLY.
We think that being aware and treating people fairly is just the way to run our lives and our business.