Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 22:00:39 -0500
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Capclave
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

lee gilliland wrote:

> I don't think that anybody has any objections to "fans who are also X".
> Problem is where we get people who are "non-fans who are exclusively
> X".  If they're not fans, let them run their own con.
>
> On the non-fan obnoxiousness scale, gamers are at the bottom (unless
> they migrate to another class, like "drunks").  Give 'em a table and
> they're happy.
>
> --
> Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
> Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
> "Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."
>
> I think what bothers me about the entire discussion is that had none of us
> be welcomed at a con, we would not now be fans.  We need to decide on
> individuals on an individual basis - not letting goths in because thier
> goths is akin to allowing the color of your skin or the faith of your
> forefathers to be the differencing factor.

Speak for yourself.  I was a fan for several years before I met anyone, and
that -- my first WSFA meeting in September, 1954 -- came a year before the
first con I attended.   No one "welcomed" me at my first con -- the 1955
Worldcon -- either, but I ended up sharing a room with fans I've known for all
the years since then, one of whom was Harlan Ellison.

--Ted White