End-of-Year Acknowledgements
Here we are again, finishing another run through the Gregorian calendar. Thank you again to everyone who’s been reading, sharing links, and sending feedback.
As before, nearly all links in the event calendar have come from my notes from previous years. The remainder are discoveries from browsing around, plus regular checks of these sites:
SF2 Concatenation’s list of national and world conventions
Ansible’s UK event list
www.filk.info’s list of conventions
Meeple Mountain’s list of gaming cons
Steve Jackson Games’s convention and trade show schedule (now defunct)
Paizo’s convention calendar
Southern Fandom Resource Guide’s convention calendar
Convention Scene’s convention calendar
FanCons.com’s worldwide convention listings
I’m still on the lookout for convention calendars that are less centered on the US, particularly ones for non-English-speaking countries.
About the Substack Nazi Situation
When I was first thinking about starting SMOF News, Substack was experiencing an outcry about its hosting of anti-trans voices. The site being hyped up as the place to move to was Ghost, which had no discernible limitations on content. The other alternative was the various experiments in longform posts coming from major social media companies which had been happily monetizing transphobic content for years.
With no platform available that was free of bigots, the best choice seemed to be to at least pick a bigot-ridden platform that respected the old adage that money should flow toward the writer. Even though SMOF News is just a free fanzine and intends to remain that way, it felt important to lend a little support to a healthier publishing model by joining Substack.
Now Substack is experiencing a new outcry about its hosting of white supremacist newsletters with genuine Nazi symbolism. Substack has made it clear that it thinks those newsletters are totally okay to host. The hot new place to move to is Buttondown.
Buttondown is, like Ghost, a vanity press operation with absolutely no stated limits on content. While its social media presence has made comments like this one encouraging the idea that Nazis would not be welcome, Buttondown’s own site has no content policy, no acceptable use policy, and terms of service limited to disclaiming any responsibility for anything you may read there.
I agree that hosting Nazi content is bad and Substack’s arguments for allowing it are bad, and I’m open to moving SMOF News to a new platform. But if I’m going to make the effort to move it off this platform because of Nazi content, I would like to move it to a new platform which I can believe will be resistant to publishing Nazi content.
The convention world has learned by now that you can’t keep the bigots out with good intentions, or obscurity, or just trying to be friendly. It requires a clear notion of what you think bigotry is and an active defense against it. What I’m looking for in a Substack replacement is a clear content policy which at least hints at proactive measures for finding content that violates it, rather than an implied reliance on random vigilant outsiders to report violations. (Mailchimp’s acceptable use policy is a great example, except that it doesn’t appear to ban Nazis.)
Point me at a newsletter-making site that is ready to defend itself against Nazis, and I’ll see what I need to do to move. It would be nice if it bans transphobes too.
In Brief
Comic Market has received a medal from the Japanese Red Cross in honor of 26 years of organizing blood drives. More at Anime News Network.
ATL Comic Convention (Atlanta, Georgia, February 9-11) has added Alec Baldwin, Jared Padalecki, Genevieve Padalecki, Sonequa Martin-Green, Tom Cavanagh, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Denise Crosby, and Curran Walters as guests.
Indiana Comic Convention (Indianapolis, Indiana, March 22-24) has added Denise Crosby, Greg Baldwin, and Vanessa Marshall as guests.
Trek Long Island (Hauppauge, New York, May 31-June 2) has added Kathryn Lee Scott as a guest.
Event Calendar
Weekend of December 29-31
Furvester 5: Mad Science (anthropomorphic), Reutlingen, Germany
Yunyou Island (anthropomorphic), Chengdu, China
New Year’s Furry Ball, Newark, Delaware, USA
Bewhiskered 2023: Furries on the High Seas, Durham, North Carolina, USA
OKiCon (anime), Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Doki’s Winter Fest (anime), Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
Comic Market 103 (fan comics), Tokyo, Japan
Weekend of January 5-7
ShadowCon (relaxacon), Memphis, Tennessee, USA
GAFilk 2024 (music), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Anthro Northwest 6 (anthropomorphic), Seattle, Washington, USA
Japan Meeting of Furries, Toyohashi, Japan
Painted Desert Fur Con: The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro!! (anthropomorphic), Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Spartacon XXXIII (gaming), DeWitt, Michigan, USA
Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo, Oaks, Pennsylvania, USA
OrcaCon 2024 (gaming), Bellevue, Washington, USA
Animé Los Angeles 19, Long Beach, California, USA
Ichibancon 14 (anime), Concord, North Carolina, USA
SacAnime, Sacramento, California, USA
Taiyou Con (anime), Mesa, Arizona, USA
Anime-ZAP!, East Peoria, Illinois, USA
Fan Expo New Orleans (media), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
St. Pete Comic Con 2024, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Weekend of January 12-14
Chattacon XLIX, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Just added: ConVivial, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Arisia 2024, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Marscon 2024, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Further Confusion: Pixelated (anthropomorphic), San Jose, California, USA
MidWinterFrolic 2024 (anthropomorphic), Altura, Minnesota, USA
Snowcon 14 (gaming), Bangor, Maine, USA
Cascade Games Convention, Bellingham, Washington, USA
Dice + Diversions (gaming), Peachtree Corners, Georgia, USA
RiverCityCon (gaming), Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Midwinter Gaming Convention, Pewaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Geekway Mini: Geekway to the Future (gaming), St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Congress of Gamers Winter Session, Rockville, Maryland, USA
HexaCon 2024 (gaming), Broomfield, Colorado, USA
SCARAB 2024 (gaming), Columbia, South Carolina, USA
SaltCON Bryce (boardgames), Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA
28th Annual Chattanooga Railgaming Challenge, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Spartacon XXXIII (wargaming), DeWitt, Michigan, USA
BattleTex IV (wargaming), Houston, Texas, USA
Siege of Augusta XXXIII (miniatures gaming), Augusta, Georgia, USA
Ichibancon 14 (anime), Concord, North Carolina, USA
Anime Impulse, Pomona, California, USA
MondoCon 2024 (media), Budapest, Hungary
CONsole Room: Year 11 (Doctor Who), Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
Weekend of January 19-21
Labyrinth of ConFusion, Novi, Michigan, USA
COSine 2024, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
CanthroFur (anthropomorphic), Auvergne, France
Anthro New England 2024: It's a Nor'eastah!, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
KapCon 31 (gaming), Wellington, New Zealand
Ducosim (gaming), Amersfoort, Netherlands
ATG Expo (gaming), Waco, Texas, USA
Niagara Boardgaming Weekend, Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Super MAGFest (gaming/videogame music), National Harbor, Maryland, USA
Ohayocon 24 (anime), Columbus, Ohio, USA
Ikkicon (anime), Round Rock, Texas, USA
Animazing-Con (anime), Savannah, Georgia, USA
Orlando Anime Day, Orlando, Florida, USA
Central Florida Comic Con, Lakeland, Florida, USA
Albuquerque Comic Con, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Weekend of January 26-28
GenghisCon 2024, Wembley, Australia
Conflikt (music), online
Game-iToba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
TantrumCon (gaming), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Cancon 2024 (gaming), Canberra, Australia
VerminCon 2024 (gaming), Vermillion, South Dakota, USA
Whose Turn Is It Anyway? (boardgames), Durham, North Carolina, USA
Lantern Rite (Genshin Impact), Grapevine, Texas, USA
SSA+S Toracon (anime), Sarasota, Florida, USA
Anime Washington, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Isshocon (anime), Novi, Michigan, USA
UChi-Con 2024 (anime), Chicago, Illinois, USA
San Angelo Comic Con, San Angelo, Texas, USA
Vampire Fan Weekend (media), Allen, Texas, USA
Mouse-Con Bakersfield (Disneyana), Bakersfield, California, USA
Coda
Thank you for reading! Send tips, corrections, press releases, and letters of comment to: smofnews@gmx.com.