yeah. maybe make it a point to train the yoji and info booth staff to politely remind people to respect people's space.
All staff get some degree of training, though whether it's enough is always open to debate. There are a lot of things to cover, everything from how to deal with serious troublemakers of the kind kylite was just talking about (or worse), to how to explain to a Sexy no Jutsu cosplayer that three strategically-placed cotton balls don't meet dress code.
But at some point, there really isn't much more we can do - and unfortunately, there's almost nothing we can do about things outside conspace. We can remind people until we're blue in the face in the con handbook, con policies, forum postings, bag stuffers... but people don't always get how this applies to
them, not just "those other people." Ultimately, the decision to be considerate or to be inconsiderate lies with the individual.
This is where the
"Evil Monkey" principle becomes important. People may or may not care about what's printed in a con book, but they do care if they see other people looking at them reproachfully when they try to jump on someone. Or if they see their actions (not
them, their actions) described in a forum posting as being the reason someone almost got hurt. Or if they hear one of the people beside them yell "Wait, STOP! No chasing people!" People are a whole lot less likely to do something wrong if even one person questions it than if they think "everyone" is doing it too.
There's only so much we can do to change people's perceptions. We're the cranky, mean old staff who want to keep you guys from having fun, after all.
But there's a lot that you guys can do just by talking about it, and by saying something when you see things like this happen.
Sometimes you have to be the change you want to see.
