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Eastercon (Confusion 2021) - Day 4
I had a gaming thing scheduled with my brother for 3pm, so I only did a half day at Confusion on Day 4.
The Exoplanets panel had no tech issues. They wandered off topic a lot but it was entertaining nevertheless.
Annoyingly, as usual the previous panel crashed into the next panel, and so the buffering thing meant I didn't get into it until it had started. It was the In Memory of Storm Constantine panel and it had no audio. I really, really wanted to hear this, so set off to log onto Slide to tell the moderator that.
And discovered that I had no idea which of the 7 channels was the Storm Constantine one! (I hadn't written it down like I had with some other panels). No problem, I thought - I'll go look at the list of what's on today and that will say. But it didn't say on the "now happening" page, and the 12.00 panels had all vanished from the Monday programme page - it only had future panels showing, not current ones. I went round and round in circles trying to find the "whole of the programme" page which I knew had the info on it. FFS stop making vital info difficult to find.
So I jumped in and out of all the Slide channels until Kari posted a moderator message in one, indicating it was the Storm one.
Kari and Tech sorted the audio after a few minutes, so I got to hear most of the panellists stories about Storm. It was sweet and funny and made me cry in places.
The final panel I watched was New Keystones in SF. Again I missed the start, due to (1) the previous one not finishing until bang on 1pm; (2) the buffering thing lasting a minute or two; and (3) I am a human being who sometimes needs to pee!
I think the tech issues for this con would have been a lot less frustrating if the communications had been better. Stuff like:
The Exoplanets panel had no tech issues. They wandered off topic a lot but it was entertaining nevertheless.
Annoyingly, as usual the previous panel crashed into the next panel, and so the buffering thing meant I didn't get into it until it had started. It was the In Memory of Storm Constantine panel and it had no audio. I really, really wanted to hear this, so set off to log onto Slide to tell the moderator that.
And discovered that I had no idea which of the 7 channels was the Storm Constantine one! (I hadn't written it down like I had with some other panels). No problem, I thought - I'll go look at the list of what's on today and that will say. But it didn't say on the "now happening" page, and the 12.00 panels had all vanished from the Monday programme page - it only had future panels showing, not current ones. I went round and round in circles trying to find the "whole of the programme" page which I knew had the info on it. FFS stop making vital info difficult to find.
So I jumped in and out of all the Slide channels until Kari posted a moderator message in one, indicating it was the Storm one.
Kari and Tech sorted the audio after a few minutes, so I got to hear most of the panellists stories about Storm. It was sweet and funny and made me cry in places.
The final panel I watched was New Keystones in SF. Again I missed the start, due to (1) the previous one not finishing until bang on 1pm; (2) the buffering thing lasting a minute or two; and (3) I am a human being who sometimes needs to pee!
I think the tech issues for this con would have been a lot less frustrating if the communications had been better. Stuff like:
- Don't assume everyone and their dog is constantly glued to Facebook and Twitter. Put everything important on your website. Especially "how to" summaries and links to platforms/channels.
- Don't send out emails at the last minute. (If there is some sort of last minute emergency, fair enough).
- Repeated information is better than lack of information.
- Too much information is better than lack of information.
- If the platform to ask questions is different to the platform to watch the panel, it needs flagged up in LARGE FRIENDLY LETTERS in multiple places, so people don't have to go hunting thru emails to find it.
- If there are multiple channels/rooms for questions with generic names like "Room 1", then you need to include the channel name in the title of the panel EVERYWHERE that title is mentioned. e.g. Exoplanets in SF - Room 5.
- If the panels all start bang on the hour, then the panels need to end at 5 to the hour. Those 5 minutes are vital for meat space activities like comfort breaks, making cups of tea, feeding the cat, etc. As well as providing 5 minutes to get over the buffering issues. (Having 5 minutes for buffering from 12.55 to 13.00 is no use if the last panel I went to ends at exactly 13.00).