Panel Suggestions for CON.TXT 2018
Mar. 5th, 2018 07:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trixie posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
con_txtLAST EDIT: Submissions are now closed. Thanks, everyone! Stay tuned for voting.
EDIT: Good news! We're expanding submissions period by one week to give people a little more time. Submission will now close at midnight on April 7th.
We are now taking panel suggestions for CON.TXT 2018 from people who are interested in moderating panels from everyone! We are now open for suggestions without moderators (and seeking moderators for those suggestions), so if you have an idea but no moderator put in your suggestions! If you like to moderate and/or see an idea you would love to take on, drop a comment and volunteer!
Brief FAQ:
Q: What is a CON.TXT panel?
A: Generally, a panel is a discussion among all attendees led by one or more moderators who have prepared some leading questions. Some panels include a lengthier presentation by the moderator.
Q: What is a good CON.TXT panel suggestion?
A: You want a catchy, yet informative title and a two- to four-sentence topic which raises specific questions. Warn for spoilers if your panel will include them. Use a fannish in-joke or two. Say up front if you're making a presentation to attract newbies or intend to hold a detailed dissection of book eighteen in the series.
Q: Are you taking all suggestions?
A: We'll be putting all suggestions up for a vote by our attendees and as many as possible will be scheduled.
Q: Won't voting eliminate smaller fandom panels?
A: We make sure that we're offering a wide range of panel topics, so the voting helps us choose among similar panels, or to decide which suggestions should be combined. It's not a strict numbers cut-off.
Q: What if someone else has already suggested something that I was going to suggest?
A: We prefer panels to have more than one moderator. If you're interested in moderating it, comment on their suggestion and offer to co-mod!
Q: How many panels can I suggest?
A: As many as you like. We won't schedule you to moderate more than three of them, so if they all make it through the voting process we'd appreciate your help in keeping a lookout for co-mods or understudies!
Q: What if my friend wants to moderate this panel I'm suggesting?
A: That's fine; you can put your friend's name in as moderator and we'll consider it to be their suggestion. Please don't put people's names in without making sure they're willing!
Q: What if I suggest a panel now and then change my mind later on?
A: We'll check in with all potential moderators after voting to make sure you're still enthusiastic about the topic.
Q: How can I find a moderator for this great panel idea I have?
A: There's a brainstorming comment thread on this post. Please post there, talk to your friends, and reach out on whatever social media your fandom prefers. If you can't get a bite, make your suggestion here anyway and we'll see if we can rustle someone up.
Q: How do I pick a category?
A: A meta panel is one with a topic that's not tied to any particular fandom, although certain fandoms may be discussed or used as examples. A multi-fandom panel has a topic that's common across several specific fandoms. A single fandom panel goes into depth in a particular fandom. A how-to panel teaches how to do something.
To propose a panel for CON.TXT 2018, please comment on this post with the following information:
Title: A Short Yet Interesting Title
Mod(s): the badge name(s) of interested moderator(s) -- please list your own badge name if you would like to moderate
Category: Meta, Multi-Fandom, Single Fandom, How-to
Description: This is a longer description of the panel which will be shown in the program. This should be as specific as you think you can be in a paragraph!
Other notes: These notes will not be part of the final listing for the panel, but can include things like requests for additional moderators or general thoughts on panel content which you'd like to get fleshed out in further comments.
To propose a change or expansion to an already suggested panel or to volunteer as an additional moderator for it, please reply to the suggestion and not to the main post so that each panel's discussion is threaded. Note that if two suggestions seem to be very similar we may merge them into one, so check what's already been proposed before suggesting a new panel to see if the original suggester wants to work with your ideas.
To like, fave, +1, or upvote an already suggested panel, please wait until we assemble a final poll in April! No "votes" in the comments can be counted toward the final reckoning.
An example from 2016:
Title: So You Want to Mod a Panel
Mod(s): Arallara, Ellen Fremedon
Category: How-to
Description: If you've never modded a con panel before, but you've always wanted to give it a try, this is the panel for you. Whether it's your 1st con or your 15th, we'll give you tips on putting together an engaging, fun panel, and share stories from successful and disastrous panels of the past. Everything you'll need to know to feel confident stepping forward as a panel mod.
Other notes: Yes, this will be a real panel.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-02 03:41 am (UTC)Mod(s): KateKintail, ??
Category: Multi-fandom
Description: Drowning in WIPS? Don't have time to read yet another novel-length fanfic? Come share your favorite one-shot recs! This is your opportunity to share that perfect one-shot you read once upon a time that will make everyone fall in love with your favorite fandom or pairing. Or maybe you've got a one-shot that's too wild or too hilarious to make it onto a normal rec list. Bring us your PWPs, your fluff, your crack pairings yearning to be read!
Notes: I don't mind modding solo, but if others want to join in, that's great as well. I feel like this would be more like a group share session than a formal panel discussion.
Title: We Hurt the Ones we Love
Mod(s): ??
Category: Multi-fandom
Description: Writer: Hello, I'm a writer... and I love hurting my characters. Group: Hello! Let's talk about the hurt/comfort genre including various types of H/C, tropes, most whump-able characters, and favorite recs.
Notes: I can mod or co-mod this if no one else is interested and it gets picked (might be able to rope a friend into co-modding with me)
Through the Years
Date: 2018-04-02 12:59 pm (UTC)- How do you identify with fandom?
- How did you get involved in fandom?
- How do you participate in fandom?
- What was the first fandom that had an impact on you and how?
- How do your early fandoms compare to those that intrigue you today?
Re: Through the Years
Date: 2018-04-02 01:00 pm (UTC)Re: Through the Years
Date: 2018-04-02 07:19 pm (UTC)Re: Through the Years
Date: 2018-04-08 02:23 am (UTC)Title: Beta, What Beta?
Mod(s): Donna
Category: Meta
Description: A discussion of fandom participation over time.
Thoughts for discussion:
- How do you identify with fandom?
- How did you get involved in fandom?
- How do you participate in fandom?
- What was the first fandom that had an impact on you and how?
- How do your early fandoms compare to those that intrigue you today?
Other notes: Would love a co-mod.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-02 01:14 pm (UTC)Title: Beta, What Beta?
Mod(s): Donna
Category: How-to
Description: A discussion of fanfiction beta (not A/B/O, not that there's anything wrong with that!).
Thoughts for discussion:
- What are betas?
- What does a beta do?
- How does a writer find a beta?
- How does a wannabe beta find a writer?
- Are there rules? (Really more of guidelines)
- What if the writer/beta relationship is not working?
Other notes: Would love a co-mod.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-05 12:51 am (UTC)Mod(s): Dee Laundry
Category: Multi-Fandom
Description: This is for everyone who's into something in fic or art that no one else seems to be. Mpreg? Gore ... or vore? RPF? 'Stuck with a baby' trope? The intricate protocols of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV? Income Tax 1842? Come to this panel and tell us about it so we can support you in celebrating the awesomeness! Of course, you must agree to squee over everyone else's favorite, too.
Title: Back Seat -- White Fans Unpack Themselves After Black Panther
Mod(s): Dee Laundry
Category: Single Fandom/Meta
Description: Black Panther was an amazing film that had a lot to say. This panel is for white people to ask ourselves: What did we learn and how can we apply what we learned in the real world? For example, 'colonizer' was used as an epithet; do we understand what that means and how not to be defensive about it? How do we celebrate a movie that's not about us without making it about us? And what steps can we take to address systemic racism in fandom overall? People of color are welcome to attend if they can stand white people awkwardly fumbling through discussions about race.
Other notes: I would love another moderator, particularly if you have experience with discussing white privilege and anti-racism action.
Title: RIP WIP
Mod(s): Dee Laundry
Category: How to
Description: Sometimes works in progress are fun and exciting gems; sometimes they are rocks weighing us down from real forward movement. This is an opportunity to let those never-gonna-get-finished snippets go! Each person will have the opportunity to read from or display a work in progress, say a few words in commemoration, and then say a final "Rest in Peace" while putting the WIP in its final resting place. Funeral attire welcome but not required.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-06 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-08 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-08 03:13 pm (UTC)really the last one this time
Date: 2018-04-05 01:43 am (UTC)Mod(s): ?
Category: Meta, How-To
Description: Through the history of slash fandom, fans have kept their slash participation secret, or public, or both, through carefully controlling their privacy and their identities. How are we managing that in these days when slash fandom is going mainstream - and online privacy isn't?
no subject
Date: 2018-04-05 03:17 am (UTC)Mod(s): TreeWishes
Category: Meta
Description: Though some will contend that "slash" simply meant "gay" back in the day, it has also meant something more complex, that both transformed and perverted (in a good way!) canon media. Today, you can't swing a sex toy without hitting queer, remixed, and incredibly complex canon TV, movies, and books - along with youtube videos, self-published erotica, and really just about anything you seek. What does it mean to be a fan of what used to be slash in the modern day?
Other notes:
no subject
Date: 2018-04-05 03:45 pm (UTC)Mod(s): @v_greyson & J.Rho
Category: Meta, multi-fandom
Description: Let’s talk about what makes stories about submissive guys compelling. If you liked the 27 takes of Leia slapping Poe, you’ll probably like this panel. Featuring bonus discussion on the inversions/subversions/(perversions?) of male submission in fiction, also known as It’s Been Twelve Years And I’m Still Thinking About “Take Clothes Off As Directed.”
no subject
Date: 2018-04-06 12:28 am (UTC)Mod(s): ??
Category: Multi-fandom, meta
Description: Is there something on your mind that’s not a whole panel, but you need to share your thoughts and/or feels about it for 90 seconds? Attendees will be invited to drop panel ideas in a hat, and then we’ll draw them and try to get through as many as we can! Kind of stolen from WisCon (which purloined it from Arisia), but kind of based on that party where everyone had to give a three-minute presentation on any topic.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-06 01:34 am (UTC)Mod(s): ?? & @v_greyson(??)
Category: Meta, multi-fandom
Description: Enough with the dystopian, desaturated sci-fi, superheros, schools of magic, and, frankly, real life. Let’s ride a technicolor rainbow to a better, gayer future. Preferably in space. We’ll talk about the canons and fanons that imagine how things could suck less, from escapism to utopia. Why is it important to dream a better future, and what is that future like?
no subject
Date: 2018-04-06 01:54 am (UTC)Mod(s): ??
Category: Single Fandom
Description: A Leverage panel! Whether you’ve watched every episode or you want to learn more, come for the heists and stay for the found family, competence kink, OT3, and, of course, the ice-cold revenge served to bad guys who definitely had it coming.
Other Notes: A brief list of disregarded panel name ideas - “We Provide...Panels” (sounds like some kind of construction company), “The Con.Txt Panel Job” (hmm...), “Let’s Go Steal a Panel” (not bad, actually), “Damnit, Hardison!” (I was tempted).
no subject
Date: 2018-04-06 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-06 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-07 03:02 pm (UTC)Mod(s): Lightgetsin, gnomad
Category: Single Panel
Description: Let's talk about Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London books! The series has been chugging along now for a while with no signs of ending in sight. Let's speculate about where we think Peter and the gang will go next, how many other media we think it will expand to (where IS that TV series, anyway?), and share recs for the good fic.
Title: Fire & Ice
Date: 2018-04-07 08:01 pm (UTC)Category: multi-fandom
Hockey! Are you a fan or want to be one? We'll be discussing both RPF and original fiction fandoms. This is the perfect chance to learn about a new fandom/pairing or pimp yours. We've pretty people banging into each other at high speed, hockey hugs and of course, a great sport! Women's hockey will be included!
no subject
Date: 2018-04-08 12:54 am (UTC)Mod(s): kalakirya, whoever else wants in
Category: single fandom
Description: A critical role panel! In which we discuss The First Campaign (how far ahead was Matt planning? What was going on with Gilmore and the whole God's Child thing? Trinket: great bear or Greatest Bear?), The Second Campaign (WHAT IS GOING ON WITH EVERYONE'S BACKSTORIES OMG) and whatever else we want to squee over
no subject
Date: 2018-04-08 02:32 am (UTC)Mod(s): Donna
Category: Meta
Description: Tropes are an integral part of fanfic. Let's discuss favorite tropes. How do tropes mix and match in various fandoms (which seem to appear together frequently)? Are there tropes that are specific to certain fandoms? Do some fandoms lend themselves more to certain tropes than others?
Other notes: Would love a co-mod.