Talk:ConFuzzled

The article starts with "Also nicknamed 'The convention what'll never happen'". I did a websearch and didn't find any matches for that nickname. The nickname made me think of the term "self-fulfilling prophecy". What do others think of removing the "nickname" and adding "Confuzzled is a proposed convention"? --EarthFurst 21:51, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Apologies if my comments above seem harsh, it is just that after years and years of disappointment that I'm just hopeful that there will finally be a UK team who will succeed in holding a furry convention. --EarthFurst 22:01, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I have no problem with that. In fact, do we have a "Proposed conventions" category for convention which have not yet happened? I think that would be much more appropriate given the number of conventions in recent memory that never happened. --Douglas Muth 22:25, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I think that's an interesting idea, what would proposed conventions include? For example would Conifur Northwest 2006 (before it was cancelled) have been listed as a proposed convention? --EarthFurst 00:01, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

That's a good question. I was initially thinking of conventions that have yet to have their first year. FurFest NorthWest would have fallen into that category before its cancellation. I would think that RainFurrest, which is currently scheduled but has not yet had its first year would be a good candidate for that category. --Douglas Muth 02:43, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I propose the deletion of 'The convention what'll never happen' part, because it was used to describe the failed BritFur convention to which Confuzzled is not related in any way (different location, different founder and different staff, different aims etc). But rather than editing it out I wanted to see if anyone disagreed. It may be that that nickname is being used to describe Confuzzled and it simply hasn't reached my ears. But I do know that it was used by many (sceptics) of the original BritFur convention. Plus, Confuzzled is the only one that I know of that has reached the registration stage and has the venue confirmed! --Tungro 15:11, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Cons in the UK

This article makes no mention of conventions that have been held in the UK previously probably before many people who are in the fur scene can recall, in the early 1990's a bunch of conventions were held at Yately and Coventry, whil many people will go "yeah yeah but they weren't proper conventions" i'd completely disagree they were open to anyone in the world who was willing to travel and many had numbers into the 30's attending.

This is not the first convention in the UK.

By that same logic furmeets are conventions too? When Blue Phoenix was living in Sheffield she often used her house essentially as a venue for the Sheffield furmeets, and organised events to do around the city. Does that make the Sheffield furmeet a convention? I wouldn't say so, it's still a furmeet.

Essentially this all falls down to what one's perception of the word "Convention" is. I personally think we need to clarify exactly what a constitues a convention within the furry fandom and especially what seperates it from a furmeet. Graafen Blackpaw 17:20, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

30 isn't a lot of people. The average NorthernFurs meet brings nearly 70 folks. I personally say a convention is "a meeting of furries with numbers in excess of 100." However there is also deliberation that Red Blue & White was the first con last year. --Tori Belliachi 20:50, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

It's always been rather vague, but I would say:

• A convention is not purely a social occasion
• A convention tends to have an organized staff rather than just a host
• A convention takes place in a third-party building with dedicated sleeping areas
• A convention will probably have an area dedicated to vendors
• A convention tends to take place over more than one day and has programming to fill out the time

Under the last two of these, Howloween and even the wildly popular Furloween are not conventions, but parties. Conversely, FurFright has a similar theme but is classed as a convention because it has programming and takes place over three days. I do not think RB&W last year was the first con because it only took place over a single day. It was a party. This year might well be a different story, because it is intended to take place over more than one day and has other events. Still, they themselves appear to be classing it as a party.

The closest thing to a convention that I am aware of in the UK is Therians, but even that was more of a social gathering. --GreenReaper^(talk) 20:55, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

But, as has been mentioned on the UKFur forums, what is now Eurofurence 1 was classed as a "party," but it isn't now that it's grown up! --Tori Belliachi 15:30, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I think the simplest answer to "What is a furry convention?" is simply that is a convention where the target audience is furries. So what is a convention (other than a large meeting)? The US furry conventions copy the format of academic and business conventions. The main elements are networking and socialising (hence the name badges and functions), learning (workshops, panels, BoF sessions), exchanging ideas (artist and writers areas), and advertising and selling products and services (dealers den). The convention must remain unbiased, alternative points of view are presented (and in business conventions, competing products) - the selection process normally beginning with a "call for papers" The convention brings delegates from a wide geographic area to concentrate on something of very specific interest. Delegates therefore stay in a hotel or convention centre.

• Specific focus (in our case, furry in all its forms)
• Social and learning elements
• Unbiased
• Delegates come from far and wide
• Residential (ie. you stay at the venue)
• Paid for memberships
• Trade/advertising of goods and/or services.

Ian Curtis's Yateley Housecons came fairly close on a number of those points, but the clue is in the name: Housecon, plus it was a single-vendor event. Therians wasn't actually aimed at furries (again, the clue is in the name) - it was in the first instance a Howl, and didn't offer any planned learning experiences. -- Dingotush 15:53, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Article about ConFuzzled

ConFuzzled is in the Requested articles of Wikiproject:Furry for quite some time now. Since the con is having increased popularity, it would be a good time to start an article about it. But first some research is to be done. Also is the Pic of Brok you're using in this article okay to upload to Wikipedia? Is there any media coverage for ConFuzzled like in newspapers or magazines? --Yamavu 10:50, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

The Con book is an obvious source of material for an article, followed by the convention web site. I think it was/will be appearing in a YHA magazine, but I haven't seen it. I'm not sure about the Brok picture; that would have to be the decision of the chairman, Furble. Doesn't wikipedia proper require that images be uploaded by the copyright holder? --Dingotush 12:09, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

The image of Brok may be uploaded as it is under a CC-BY-SA license (as such, it should probably be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons). The reason I have not started an article myself is that I am not aware of any reliable source coverage of the event; Midwest FurFest had the same issue, and that was with over a thousand attendees. I'm not sure WikiFur News would qualify, but if you want to try there's articles here, here and here - you can make a wikilink on Wikipedia by adding WikiFur: to the front of their names and linking as normal. --GreenReaper^(talk) 14:40, 13 January 2009 (UTC)