complaints

[electrodude102]

this was my second time going to kumoricon,

the staff was mean, (both hotel and k-con staff)  the rent-a-cops were nice as far as i could tell.
k-con staff just seemed to abuse there mod-powers with a "im better than you attitude"
the hotel staff were 50/50 some were trying there best to put up with us, while others just looked/acted angry all the time...

people were making out every f%(#*g where. every time i sat down in the ballroom (ex, opening ceremonies, cosplay show ...ect ) people were making out right in front of me and being all lovey-dovey, it made me want to vomit.

LOTS of people were acting immature :/

EVERY time i tried to sit down, someone says "sorry you cant sit here, go sit over there" i would move then some other staff member would do the same (repeat this 3 times) finely i said "F*#K IT IM NOT MOVING ANY MORE" and they finely left me alone.

i got lost alot the only things i found were the rooms on level 3,the vendors, and the ballroom

elevators were stupid, few people at a time, mile long lines, slow as ****, ect ect

hilton hotel was a bad idea all together its vertical and in the center of town
(double tree was nice cause it was the hotel, lobby, parking garage, park, and mall all next to each other)  i heard we were banned from there?

anywho i did enjoy the con a little, but overall im disappointed HOPEFULLY its all fixed next year 

was there even closing ceremonies? i went to the auction for a bit ang there were only like 50 people there

oh and i think it would be  better if the vender's didn't immediately GTFO at 2~ i wanted to buy "last Minuit" stuff and they were already closed...

read, improve, retry, repeat.

DONT DO IT AT THE HILTON HOTEL NEXT YEAR, PLEASE.

[Mister_manji]

i heard we were banned from there?

No. They love us there.

[Teddy_Bearxx]

I heard its at the convention center next year.
and I agree the DoubleTree was much better.

I didnt see any make outs.
I did mine with little pecks.
-_-"

I think Kumoricon should stay at the DoubleTree becasue the Park and mall.
Its much better there.

[xxxchihiroxxx]

we werent banned from the double tree we just out grew it.

as of now we are planned to go to the hilton next year again unless the two year contract can be broken.

[StarryShay]

We could...ask them nicely to rip up the contract. ._.

[Teddy_Bearxx]

If I can find Austin, I'll talk to him about it.
But I think that the Hilton in a way would be better
for rooming.

[allstarsniper32]

I understand that public displays of affection bother some people but come on now, if I want to go someplace where you can't kiss someone then go back to high school.

I'm just going to say that yelling and swearing all throughout your post isn't really that mature and therefore you shouldn't ask for people to be "civil" with their posts when you weren't that civil yourself.

If it's at the Hilton again next year I agree that hopefully it runs a lot more smoothly.

oh electrodude, if you want to go to a con where people don't act immature then go to a small con. I think you would enjoy Mewcon and Akicon a lot more.

[Teddy_Bearxx]

Yeah.
and Kumoricon is just getting bigger and bigger.

[legoman60]

I believe the main problem is (atleast now) that a great deal of people are treating Kumoricon as if it is still a rather small con. Compairative to Sakuracon, it is but not by much (this year we had apporx. 1/4 the attendance they did). We are also growing at a greater rate that they did (last year was our fifth and we had 4,470 Sak had 2,328 in their fifth). This means that we do not have much to compare to. As I heard, the main reason we moved to the Hilton was because that raised our overall capacity limit to 10,000. Sak didn't hit that until year ten, but they did move to the convention center in year nine.

What it has come down to is (as it appears to me) many people are trying to compair us to Sakuracon when, compairing by year, we are doing better than they are. This coupled with others overestimating our growth (we in no way needed a 10k capacity this year as that was well over double our attendance last year) has caused a great deal of problems overall.

(numbers are pulled from wikipedia like 5 min ago)

[BigGuy]

 The 10,000 people number has been misrepresented a bit. That Hotel processes the Portland Marathon contestants. They register there and check out some vendors set up and then for the most part they leave. Which is a completely different set up from us have all our people stay in and at the hotel for the weekend.
 

[Miss Amanda]

I concur that the location was awful and all staff was rude and mean with few exceptions like "Mike" who was on the elevator the whole time. My group specifically tried going for his elevator if possible.
My friend wore a "**** me I'm legal shirt" and a few specific staff yelled at her about it on multiple occasions but the mass majority of staff appreciated the humor behind it. We were on our hotel room floor (no where near convention floors) practicing our skit for the contest and a k-con staff member came OUT of the elevator, told her it was inappropiate and to change then got back ON the elevator. At the point k-con staff violated us and our 'freedom of speech' rights as HOTEL GUESTS AND NOT KUMORICON GUESTS.

Another complaint I had in relation to con staff was the peace bonding table and the BS they pulled there. I had a toy pistol I got from a fair booth for like 5 bucks for my L4D cosplay. I went STRAIGHT from my room to peacebonding (this is on Saturday mind you) and showed it to them to get it peacebonded. They refused to peacebond it because you can cock the gun and it make a clicking noise when you pull the trigger, nothing like a real gun. They told me to glue the cocking mechanism or they would not peacebond it (They claimed it as an airsoft weapon despite it NOT falling under any airsoft guidelines.). Okay, that's fine. But over the next three days I saw the exact same gun as well as many machine gun, shot gun, etc guns that you could cock/pull back a certain piece of the gun and pull the trigger and it would mimick firing a weapon that WERE peacebonded. At that point I felt VERY discriminated against.

All the hotel staff I met were VERY nice and sweet and trying to do their best in keeping to codes and such. The mask rule for the lobby upset me at first but I understood their reasoning and I had no other security issues. As a member of a smaller convention where I live I can see some POVs of con staff at this convention but a lot of it was complete BS and I will NEVER spend the money it took to get me from my state to Oregon for Kumoricon again. I will not be attending again, and I realize as one person it's an empty type of threat but think that hundreds more people like me were offended as well.

[AllyKat]

I aggree, there is a big difference between maximum room capacity vs maximum convention
capacity. Each hotel room obviously has a room capacity (that way too many people ignore
^_^ ) And each hotel meeting room has a max capcity (that we wish we could ignore). The
convention staff has to calculate all these things into there numbers when figuring out how
many people can attend the con on any given day. For a smaller example:

The hotel I work at has 67 rooms 3 of which have a max capacity of 6, 15 have a max capacity
of 2 and the rest have a max of 5. which means our hotel can hold 293 people... but our
meeting space has room only for 75 people... at best 100 with our breakfast room open to them.
Which means that a meeting at our hotel can really only have 100 guests... regardless of how
many we can stuff into the hotel rooms... it's about the meeting rooms!

~Allykat

[reppy]

My friend wore a "**** me I'm legal shirt" and a few specific staff yelled at her about it on multiple occasions but the mass majority of staff appreciated the humor behind it. We were on our hotel room floor (no where near convention floors) practicing our skit for the contest and a k-con staff member came OUT of the elevator, told her it was inappropiate and to change then got back ON the elevator. At the point k-con staff violated us and our 'freedom of speech' rights as HOTEL GUESTS AND NOT KUMORICON GUESTS.

Unless there was someone else wearing this shirt, I think I saw your friend.  And while you and some staff members might find it funny or cute, there are lots of children at the convention that don't need to be exposed to that.  Heck, I'm 24 and I'm not too particularly impressed by it.  Also, "freedom of speech" doesn't apply to private property.  Of course, if your friend only wore it hotel floors I don't see why Kumoricon staff should care.  I imagine it was just someone that didn't know the rules.  Remember, they're volunteers.  Not worth getting terribly upset over, imo.

[Miss Amanda]

My friend wore a "**** me I'm legal shirt" and a few specific staff yelled at her about it on multiple occasions but the mass majority of staff appreciated the humor behind it. We were on our hotel room floor (no where near convention floors) practicing our skit for the contest and a k-con staff member came OUT of the elevator, told her it was inappropiate and to change then got back ON the elevator. At the point k-con staff violated us and our 'freedom of speech' rights as HOTEL GUESTS AND NOT KUMORICON GUESTS.

Unless there was someone else wearing this shirt, I think I saw your friend.  And while you and some staff members might find it funny or cute, there are lots of children at the convention that don't need to be exposed to that.  Heck, I'm 24 and I'm not too particularly impressed by it.  Also, "freedom of speech" doesn't apply to private property.  Of course, if your friend only wore it hotel floors I don't see why Kumoricon staff should care.  I imagine it was just someone that didn't know the rules.  Remember, they're volunteers.  Not worth getting terribly upset over, imo.

The point is the staff member made a point to tell her off while we were not in convention area. That freedom of speech factor only should have been talked to about by a hotel staff person not a kumoricon staff person. My point is discussing what is okay and not okay for kumoricon staff to say and what isn't before the convention. We realize there were children there and she changed after our practice. But either way, it offended. Volunteer or paid employee they had the responsibility to make that choice and they made the wrong one that just happened to rub paying hotel guests the wrong way.

Editting with one more thing I had a problem with that seemed unfair.
The masquerade rules both online AND in the convention book stated to jeans, flip flops, etc in the masquerade. I wore a gorgeous dress as part of my Miku cosplay to the ball and great mask, and I was forced to wear shoes that were too big for me and gave me huge blisters. I was gonna suck it up with no complaint because hey, flip flops were against the rules. Whatever right? WRONG I got into the masquerade, sat/danced until more people came in and 1) Jeans, I saw at least 6-7 people wearing jeans. I wouldn't have cared if it were cosplay but HELLO, it said cat ears aren't cosplay, and that's what these guys were wearing. Jeans a print tee and a half-assed mask. 2) AT LEAST half the people who's shoes I noted were wearing flip flops. Another slap in the face. Thanks a lot for bending the rules k-con. And 3) but not as important because masks were still being worn, but still annoyed me to no end seeing as I purchased a mask for like 5 bucks and put effort into it I saw some of the worst excuses for masks... paper taped to your face shouldn't have counted in my opinion.

[reppy]

There does seem to be a lack of communication amongst staff members that makes things more difficult than it should be.  I don't know the logistics behind their communication so I don't want to critique it, just going by other people's purported first-hand experiences.  That said, maybe next year they can make sure every staff member has a cell phone that works in all floors of the building and is subscribed to a special Kumoricon staff Twitter for instant updates.  This would especially be great in the case of an immediate change of plans.  Either that or CB radio.  'Course, then you have the issue of running out of batteries and buying like 100 CBs. ^_^;

Honestly, I never had an issue with staff.  I didn't even notice them, which I think is a good thing.  About the only issue I had was going to head down to the ball room only to find out it was closed for the gaming competition.  That's fine; I understand why.  However, I wish there was a sign or something (maybe I missed it?) a few feet in front of the escalators.  So instead of me walking up and wondering why a guy is standing in front of me and won't let me past, I would see the sign and turn around.   I think this would also make their jobs easier (and less stressful) since they wouldn't have to deal with turning so many people away.

[Slash5150]

There does seem to be a lack of communication amongst staff members that makes things more difficult than it should be.  I don't know the logistics behind their communication so I don't want to critique it, just going by other people's purported first-hand experiences.  That said, maybe next year they can make sure every staff member has a cell phone that works in all floors of the building and is subscribed to a special Kumoricon staff Twitter for instant updates.  This would especially be great in the case of an immediate change of plans.  Either that or CB radio.  'Course, then you have the issue of running out of batteries and buying like 100 CBs. ^_^;

Honestly, I never had an issue with staff.  I didn't even notice them, which I think is a good thing.  About the only issue I had was going to head down to the ball room only to find out it was closed for the gaming competition.  That's fine; I understand why.  However, I wish there was a sign or something (maybe I missed it?) a few feet in front of the escalators.  So instead of me walking up and wondering why a guy is standing in front of me and won't let me past, I would see the sign and turn around.   I think this would also make their jobs easier (and less stressful) since they wouldn't have to deal with turning so many people away.

Getting a cellphone that works on all floors isn't possible for everyone. I'm not going to bounce from my current plan to Verizon or Sprint just for Kumoricon.

But Amanda, I understand your frustration and want to just say this,  I understand that at the time your friend was wearing the shirt, I can see the humor in it, and I can also understand the total BS behind random staff member coming out and complaining.  But even though you are a hotel guest at the time, technically you are still part of Kumoricon as you purchased the badge and what not, at least thats what makes sense to me.

[MichaelEvans]

I saw the **** me I'm legal shirt on someone and just smirked.  Of course I think it would have been better received by all if it had actually been partly censored.  Anyone who already knew the F-word would get it, anyone who didn't would ask, and hopefully receive proper guardian guidance so that they didn't misuse the phrase in the future.

[Slash5150]

I saw the **** me I'm legal shirt on someone and just smirked.  Of course I think it would have been better received by all if it had actually been partly censored.  Anyone who already knew the F-word would get it, anyone who didn't would ask, and hopefully receive proper guardian guidance so that they didn't misuse the phrase in the future.

Pretty much the only thing that can be done about something like that is to throw on some kind of dress code. 

It also needs to be stated that if you register for Kumoricon, at all times during your pass (So if its a saturday pass and its a sunday you're exempt, but if its a 3 day pass then yeah) you have to follow Kumoricon's rules.  Because IMO, you could be at pioneer courthouse square, if you decide to mess around there or something and people know you're a part of kumoricon, the first thing thats going to be thought is "So thats what kind of people go to that convention?"

I was gaming staff, yeah, but it didn't matter where I was, the exec tower, mcD's, lobby, I still gave the hotel staff and security respect as I didn't want to give myself, gaming or the con itself a bad name.

[electrodude102]

I understand that public displays of affection bother some people but come on now, if I want to go someplace where you can't kiss someone then go back to high school.

'just kissing' is fine, i don't mind it at all, the "lovey dovey" crap is what gets to me.

I'm just going to say that yelling and swearing all throughout your post isn't really that mature and therefore you shouldn't ask for people to be "civil" with their posts when you weren't that civil yourself.

the cussing is part of a quote so thats why i wrote it (well the cussing @ kissing wasn't and i dont know why "slow as ****" is *'ed out...(technically thats a figure of speech, not cussing)).

[where did i tell people to post civilly ?_? (or were you talking to someone else?)]

[JeffT]

I saw the **** me I'm legal shirt on someone and just smirked.  Of course I think it would have been better received by all if it had actually been partly censored.  Anyone who already knew the F-word would get it, anyone who didn't would ask, and hopefully receive proper guardian guidance so that they didn't misuse the phrase in the future.

We ban profanity (among other things) on signs. I don't see why we can't make the same rules apply to clothing. I would have proposed that during our policies revision meeting, had the idea occurred to me.

[babysugarbear28]

I concur that the location was awful and all staff was rude and mean with few exceptions like "Mike" who was on the elevator the whole time. My group specifically tried going for his elevator if possible.

Lol... Mike has been sleeping at my place since con because he has some wicked vertigo from being on the elevators all weekend. I will let him know that you appreciated him it will probably make his day.

just a few notes from a tired mind... I don't mind appropriate kissing/hugs, I do mind heavy making out/massive displays of affection. If I see a tongue being shoved down another person's throat that is too much for me. Either find another place to do it or wait until you can. I am glad you all like eachother but we don't need to see it.

and the "**** me" shirt... yeah I could see that being a problem... the staff member shouldn't have approached you outside conspace but in the conspace it isn't appropriate especially seeing the wide age range of attendees (I know one of my good friend's brought her 6 year old and wouldn't want to have to explain to him in the least bit what the shirt means.) I agree... censored it would have probably been pretty funny but I also agree uncensored it was not appropriate for all ages and I always agree with the thought about how when our attendees go into public or interact with hotel staff ect we are judged upon the way that we act. If a mom saw an attendee in the street with that shirt and she had a kid interested in going she might not take her kid based on seeing that thinking (as people do) that that was how we all were or acted ect as a whole. It is sad but that is the mentality of people.

[MichaelEvans]

We ban profanity (among other things) on signs. I don't see why we can't make the same rules apply to clothing. I would have proposed that during our policies revision meeting, had the idea occurred to me.

On the other hand, it is interesting to consider the difference in dress code between wearing something that merely communicates via text, skimpy but legal cosplay, and saying the contents of the shirt out loud.

Which do we allow, how do we define a line?  Such things are not for an individual staffer to unilaterally decide.

[Prinz Eugen]

We ban profanity (among other things) on signs. I don't see why we can't make the same rules apply to clothing. I would have proposed that during our policies revision meeting, had the idea occurred to me.

I vote YES. My opinion is that common, public-space decency fits kinda like the air-waves (radio & TV network) standards. If you can't say it on the radio, I don't want to see it on a T-shirt or bumper sticker in PUBLIC.

Yes it's your 1st amendment right but being lewd in public is not a right. Save that sort of T-shirt to wear inside the type of bar or club that has *no windows.* (just my opinion.)

..and saying the contents of the shirt out loud. Which do we allow, how do we define a line?  Such things are not for an individual staffer to unilaterally decide.

Only a few years ago, at the Columbia County Fair (which except for the beer garden is a DRY site) one of the now-retired deputies told some punk to dump out his beer. The twit started mouthing off.

Know what happened? The deputy grabbed him by the EAR and took him to the ground,
flipped him onto his back and leaned over, brimmed hat, county star and all, and said:
" ... and we'll have none of THAT - there are LADIES present."

Also in some areas of California, the cops' rules of engagement are if they ask you a question or make a legitimate command, and you mouth off with ANY unprintable word, they get to TAZE you.

[Animeman73]

Never been too keen on profanity myself. Speaking from an adult's perspective I find cussing, cursing, and name calling break down the lines of communication. Besides which Kumoricon has a lot of impressionable kids there. Parents out there would you want your young ones to see such vulgar language used in what's supposed to be a safe and friendly environment? I didn't think so. If there's a measure to say that no profanity should be allowed in the convention area I'm all for it, this world we live in has way too much negativity as is. And in my own personal opinion we all could do with a long overdue case of chill.

[Prinz Eugen]

Never been too keen on profanity myself.

... and that's actually one of the things I enjoy while watching anime ... grammatically there are very few swear words in the language anyways. I dislike how English translators try to sub in cusswords in a mistaken belief that this somehow makes the characters contemporary, or even 'edgy.' Anyone who reads even a little Shakespeare in school can know that a formidable vocabulary of CLEAN and EXACT adjectives, plus a quick sharp wit can TOTALLY DEVASTATE an opponent; often with the most COMICAL results. (Works best when the target thinks he was complimented at first ... then ... 'Hey wait!' **) MUCH more ENTERTAINING than a blue streak ANY day.

** "Monsieur, you are every other inch a gentleman..."
"Why thank you..."  -->   -->  "Hey, WAIT!"