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EF24 Feedback (Many points)

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Rishary:
EDIT: The polls in this thread were removed due to suspected manipulation, answer the polls in the SFW EF24 telegram group instead (Search there for #EF24Feedback, poke me on telegram @Rishary if you need help finding them)

Another year of amazing experiences and unforgettable adventures is behind us. Many aspects this year left a positive mark on me (Smooth handling of the AC issues early on, food trucks, generally no/short delays, even greater dance variety than usual). I would like to thank everyone that helps bringing this incredible convention to life year after year. Still, I do have a few points which I believe are worthy of discussion in order to make the next years even better for everyone involved.
I’m aware that some of these points were raised and discussed before but I feel that they are still as relevant as ever.

Pawpet show
Every year I stand stunned by the amount of talent poured into this production, it is truly awe-inspiring. However there are two points regarding the show which I would like to bring:

* The overall length - It is simply too mentally exhausting to watch such a show for 3.5 hours (not including delays / queueing). This leads to getting bored during the occasional slow moving scenes and missing key details which hampers the overall ability to enjoy the show. I would like to see the general opinion regarding this so please answer THIS poll. EDIT: Poll removed due to suspected manipulation, answer the poll in the SFW EF24 telegram group instead!

Common arguments and my responses:
“It’s just another panel, if you don’t like it - don’t attend”
This would only be relevant if the majority of the show’s audience prefers to watch a show with the current 3.5 hour, three-act format rather than a shorter two-act one. Hence the poll.

“The performers put their heart and soul into this show, they deserve the more time to have their fun”
If the mindset of the show’s production is to maximize the enjoyment of the performers first and the audience only second, there is no reason to even collect feedback from non-performers, just let the show’s crew do what they want (please confirm if this is indeed the mindset).


* The long transitions - Listening to such musical breaks between the scenes is not fun. I understand that some of the scenes require a long time to set up, but having more impressive scenes at the expense of long transition times between them - isn’t a good tradeoff in my opinion. Either consider setup time when designing the scenes and make them less demanding if necessary, or find a better way to fill the transition (More dialog? Recorded story progressing animations?).
Early dealer’s den access for (super) sponsors.
Simply put, this goes against what I perceive as the general mindset behind having sponsors in the first place. When someone sponsors, they should be doing that because they want to first and foremost support the con, not because they want to buy extra benefits and help the con only as a side effect.
I imagine that quite a few people that can’t afford to super sponsor would happily queue up long before the den is open just for a commission from their favorite artist. In other words, early access is just commission tax and I would like to know if it indeed helps the con at all so please answer THIS poll. EDIT: Poll removed due to suspected manipulation, answer the poll in the SFW EF24 telegram group instead!
Another thing to mention is that people can simply ask a friend of theirs that does super-sponsor to get the early slot for them, completely missing the point of “Getting more people to super sponsor”.
By the way, it is worth noting that the other additional gifts and perks are great.

Common arguments and my responses:
“Without this, we will lose too many sponsors and the cost of the con will increase”
Could be, which is why I opened the poll.

“If they can afford commissions they can afford to (super) sponsor”
First, this might not even be true considering the 160€ super sponsor fee can be more than triple the cost of a commission. Second, even if it was true, not everyone would agree to pay 200€ for a 50€ commission even if they could afford it (even more so if most of the money doesn’t go to their said favorite artist).

“Just commission said artist outside of the con”
A lot of artists very rarely (if at all) have slots available online so this isn’t really an option. If it was an option, then the early access benefit would be diminished anyway and wouldn’t single-handedly get people to sponsor.

“You are just upset because you can’t afford it”
I’m upset that I even have to bring this up as I did hear this. No, I can easily afford it and would happily super-sponsor the con as soon as the early access is revoked.

Feedback session
I was extremely satisfied to see a timeslot dedicated to this important subject this year. My satisfaction, however, was short-lived and sadly disappeared without a trace after spending 5 minutes in the session which sadly turned out to be a just a session with one guy that writes our feedback, which is pretty much the same as writing it here or in an email. I expected a bigger session with relevant people from different departments that could participate in live discussions and answer questions regarding the points that the attendees brought.

Water availability
As a non-suiter (working on fixing that :) ), getting water to drink is way more tedious than it should be. My options were:
a. Drink at a bathroom and settle for warm water.
b. Wait in a long queue at a bar just for water or ice.
c. Carry a bottle around everywhere.
I have done all three of these and can’t say I was happy with any of them (for obvious reasons, I hope).
Would it be possible to have extra water coolers around the con, or readily available water pitchers at the bar?
This was especially relevant for people at the club stage who had to go down and back up for any options that isn’t c (even fursuiters!).

Main bar service
(Note: I have later learned that you could also order most things at the other bar across the lobby. If more people did that it might have solved this point completely).
This might be only my perspective, but I felt that the people working at the main bar were slacking off and provided poor service that only passes as acceptable by furries. There were times where there was only one bartender on the entire bar which resulted in an extremely long queue. It took me almost 30 minutes to order a hamburger and then 30 minutes for it to arrive. This would not be acceptable if this was a business convention.


Cifer:

--- Quote ---Early dealer’s den access for (super) sponsors.
--- End quote ---
To my knowledge, the basic idea was that these are people who are helping to keep the con capable of sustaining the more elaborate events and as a token of gratitude, they get stuff like some alone time in the dealer's den or priority seating in stage events. While I don't know about your experiences, I haven't heard of artists being completely sold out within the sponsor time - most that I know were definitely still taking commissions at least on Friday. So in the end, the sponsors get the same stuff everyone else is getting, just with a little more comfort.

MOW:

--- Quote from: Cifer on 31.08.2018, 22:58:09 ---
--- Quote ---Early dealer’s den access for (super) sponsors.
--- End quote ---
To my knowledge, the basic idea was that these are people who are helping to keep the con capable of sustaining the more elaborate events and as a token of gratitude, they get stuff like some alone time in the dealer's den or priority seating in stage events.
--- End quote ---

The idea is that early access doesn't take anything from EF's budget, unlike sponsors' gifts, nor does it require significant other ressources like supersponsor-only panels. So it gives people some value without taking away from the actual sponsored amount.

Rishary:

--- Quote from: MOW on 01.09.2018, 00:03:44 ---The idea is that early access doesn't take anything from EF's budget, unlike sponsors' gifts, nor does it require significant other ressources like supersponsor-only panels. So it gives people some value without taking away from the actual sponsored amount.

--- End quote ---

Just because it doesn't cost anything to the con doesn't mean it's a fair perk, especially if it doesn't actually increase sponsorship (hence the poll).
If it indeed doesn't increase it, then all it does is cause unfairness towards people that can't afford it, especially newcomers who are unlikely to sponsor on their first con and can't get a commission from their favorite artist even though they are willing to queue up hours before time.

o'wolf:
Regarding the long time between scenes of the pawpet show: it's a valid complaint and we apologize for that. They were way too long, indeed. We've already isolated one major factor that lead to it and will improve our processes to avoid at least that one in the future. We'll continue to evaluate where else we can cut down setup times as well.

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