A comment I posted elsewhere...
Someone elsewhere asked about the experience of an online con, and this is what I posted about Flights of Foundry, which I participated in this weekend while also doing cover work.
I attended parts of Flights of Foundry this weekend, and that experience was more-or-less OK. The most frustrating part of it for me was figuring out, among a number of emails from FoF, Eventbrite, and Sched, exactly which email had the correct link to get to the page with the links to the video streams.
There was also annoyance with signing up for Sched--I already had a Sched account using the email I signed up with (for the JoCo cruise), but Sched didn't recognize that and so I had to re-register with the email, for Sched to then say "Oh wait, you actually have an account! Change your password!" and then do that for Sched to FINALLY connect my existing account with the FoF Sched.
The Discord link and some other information was waaaaaaaaay down at the bottom of the page with all the stream links, so I missed that at first. There was no table of contents or "On this page" section at the top with links to the various parts. Speaking from an accessibility standpoint, forcing screenreaders to tab through everything every time they wanted the Discord link, or forcing people with wrist problems, like me, to scroll all the way to the bottom is not optimal.
I rather enjoyed the Discord discussion being separate from the streams, because it allowed for easy transferring of the discussion to the "hall-con" channel after the panel, as if you were going into the hall to continue talking. OTOH, I know at least one person who hated having the discussion separate because they couldn't keep Discord and GoToWebinar open on the screen at the same time and see both. Because my computer kept bluescreening (issues unrelated to the con, I think--it's been doing this for a while) I ended up with the panel on my iPad and Discord on my secondary monitor, and using my primary monitor for design work I was doing during the day.
Other than the technical stuff, my biggest annoyance was not hearing about the convention until two days before it started. I would really have liked to get into one of the workshop sessions, but by the time I heard of the convention, the opportunity to do that had passed.
So if anyone knows of cons going on online--I already know about Wiscon, which I've signed up for, and Worldcon--especially ones with associated workshops, please let me know.
I attended parts of Flights of Foundry this weekend, and that experience was more-or-less OK. The most frustrating part of it for me was figuring out, among a number of emails from FoF, Eventbrite, and Sched, exactly which email had the correct link to get to the page with the links to the video streams.
There was also annoyance with signing up for Sched--I already had a Sched account using the email I signed up with (for the JoCo cruise), but Sched didn't recognize that and so I had to re-register with the email, for Sched to then say "Oh wait, you actually have an account! Change your password!" and then do that for Sched to FINALLY connect my existing account with the FoF Sched.
The Discord link and some other information was waaaaaaaaay down at the bottom of the page with all the stream links, so I missed that at first. There was no table of contents or "On this page" section at the top with links to the various parts. Speaking from an accessibility standpoint, forcing screenreaders to tab through everything every time they wanted the Discord link, or forcing people with wrist problems, like me, to scroll all the way to the bottom is not optimal.
I rather enjoyed the Discord discussion being separate from the streams, because it allowed for easy transferring of the discussion to the "hall-con" channel after the panel, as if you were going into the hall to continue talking. OTOH, I know at least one person who hated having the discussion separate because they couldn't keep Discord and GoToWebinar open on the screen at the same time and see both. Because my computer kept bluescreening (issues unrelated to the con, I think--it's been doing this for a while) I ended up with the panel on my iPad and Discord on my secondary monitor, and using my primary monitor for design work I was doing during the day.
Other than the technical stuff, my biggest annoyance was not hearing about the convention until two days before it started. I would really have liked to get into one of the workshop sessions, but by the time I heard of the convention, the opportunity to do that had passed.
So if anyone knows of cons going on online--I already know about Wiscon, which I've signed up for, and Worldcon--especially ones with associated workshops, please let me know.
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JOF has just switched to pointing to this, though:
https://locusmag.com/2020/04/virtual-sf-events/
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I'm really rethinking this whole Locus subscription, I'm glad I just got a six month set of issues. I like hard copies, though, that's why I paid for it.
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I also found out I have two Eventbrite accounts, one of which I hadn't used in long enough it still had my deadname. (more to the point, my password manager didn't know about it.) somehow this is the one that I needed to use in order to get into the con. I have no idea how that happened.
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I should attend an online one once I have the latest out the door. Possibly Fencon will wind up that way, thought it's still in the Schrodinger box for now.
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