Is anyone else SUPER distressed over the revelation that carbon credits may have been manipulated to such a degree for profit that they may have amplified ecological harm rather than reduced it?

TIL if you start a blog post in a super-depressing way, it’s hard to regain your momentum.

One of the many many ways that you can help ameliorate the harms of capitalism on communities and the planet is through careful, thoughtful purchasing. Local helps, and independent helps, and supporting each others’ creativity can be incredibly nourishing.

We know that WisCon isn’t a single community, and is in no way homogeneous, but rather is a web of interconnections between many different communities, individuals, and groups. As a whole, we have some practices, relationships, values, and ideas in common, even though we may not be able to see those connections so clearly on an individual level. There are reasons we come to WisCon, and the reasons are in those broad commonalities.

Supporting each other — buying or otherwise appreciating the writing, artwork, craftwork, skills, and services of folks you have attended panels with, sat next to in the Con Suite, split a cab to the airport with, to whom you’ve handed out a nametag, or with whom you laughed over a speech — that’s a small act of mutual support, of strengthening the whole. We need that strength.

We don’t have an Art Show this year, and we don’t have a Dealers’ Room, and we aren’t able to stroll down to Room of One’s Own to be at the Guest of Honor reception that usually kicks off the convention Thursday night. But we can gesture powerfully toward those things by supporting the vendors, artists, and businesses that we love to see at WisCon, so that they can join us again in person in 2022.

You can access a list of vendors and artists who would love to sell you things at this link, which is a google sheet.

You can also find many of these folks by using the hashtags #WisCon, #VWisConDealers, #WisConDealers, #WisConArtShow, and #VWisconArtShow on Twitter and (possibly) Instagram. Happy shopping. 🙂

Are you an artist or vendor? Want to be added to the spreadsheet? Please leave a comment on that sheet and we will add you. Want to show off your wares? Consider signing up for Show & Tell!

In the meantime…Register here to join us TODAY AND TOMORROW May 29 & 30 at Visioning WisCon!

Good question! Apologies to all of you people who like to plan ahead. I am not one of you, but I admire your ways and regret any distress that the tardiness of this post has caused.

Our spaces for Visioning WisCon use Kumospace, a group video-chat platform that does not require any software beyond a browser.

We strongly recommend that you use Chrome browser to attend if possible, and that you take a moment to enable captioning within your own Chrome settings. Here are google’s own instructions on how to do that.

The first time you visit our Kumospace-hosted spaces, you will need to create an account, which requires only an email address. You can also use a Google/Gmail account as your login, if you are signed in to that account in Chrome.

You will have access to two different spaces. You can think of the first space as analogous to most of the convention space at the Madison Concourse Hotel (including the bar, the pool, the party suites, and the conference rooms). We’re calling this the Convention Space. The convention space allows you to hang out with other attendees, chat, and participate in spontaneous programming.You can think of the second space as analogous to the big ballroom where the Gathering, Dessert Salon, Vid Party, and SignOut happen. We’re referring to this as the Event Space. The event space allows you to hang out with other attendees, chat, and watch/participate in the scheduled events.

Why two spaces? Because everyone in every part of the event space will hear and see the events, as they are “broadcast” throughout all of the rooms in the space. Separate spaces allow us to have spontaneous programs happen simultaneously with the events, which would be difficult otherwise. Can you be in both spaces at once? If you have two computers, sure, why not. Please beware of weird audio double-echoes, though. Also beware of evil clones.

Speaking of evil clones…let’s talk safety.

Safety folks have Safety Stars on their names.

We ask that anyone who comes into these spaces register for Visioning WisCon, so that they have access to the information we are sharing via Eventbrite. We ask that you avoid sharing the links to the spaces.

Everyone who enters the spaces is subject to our Code of Conduct. If you have any concerns about behavior that you witness or are subjected to within the convention or events spaces during the hours that Visioning WisCon is underway, please direct message anyone with a star next to their name in the “people” list at the bottom of your Kumospace window. These folks are Safety staff, have admin powers, and can remove any attendee from the space.

There will be no Safety on duty prior to 4pm or after 11pm Central time. We will not close the space after hours and you are welcome to continue to use it as a social space, but please be aware that there will not be anyone enforcing the Code of Conduct.

Bad actors who are removed from the convention or event spaces will not be able to re-enter. Removals are permanent. Removal from Visioning WisCon may have lasting impact when we return to in-person conventions.

BUT WHERE ARE THE LINKS TO THESE PLACES???? At 4pm Central, please proceed in an orderly fashion to the Eventbrite page, where you will see a button with the text “Access the Event”. Ta da!

Register here to join us THIS WEEKEND May 29 & 30 at Visioning WisCon!

Okay, that was funnier and/or punnier in my head, sorry.

Even though we aren’t having a convention in the Madison Concourse Hotel this year, we’ve got the technology, and we can share feelings from afar — experiencing WisCon’s 11th Vid Show, but: online!

The Vid Show will be Visioning WisCon’s closing event, and we’ve cleared out three hours just in case everyone’s feelings overflow like some sort of bubblebath-related mishap, except with more neurotransmitters and zero heavy perfumes. Do we have enough vids for three hours? Do we have enough opinions and thoughts for three hours? HAVE YOU LITERALLY EVER MET ANY OF US? (Maybe you haven’t! Maybe all of your WisCons so far have been virtual and you only lurked! That’s totally legit, but trust me: yes, we could do it on opinions alone.) It’s kicking off at 8pm Central time on Sunday night (5/30), and winding down around 11pm.

For the uninitiated, “vids” are fan-made remix videos with something to say. As is usual for the WisCon Vid Show, there will be subtitled vids, a sing-along portion, and short shows on various themes.

The big difference this year is that since we’ll be using Kumospace, you can chat to your neighbor by voice or text within the convention space WITHOUT bothering anyone else and accidentally making a life-long nemesis! More details soon on how that will all work (making screenshots: so boring, so necessary), so stay tuned.

In the meantime, whether you miss hanging out in a darkened hotel room watching vids with your friends or you’ve never been able to make it in the past, join us — we hope you’re as excited to watch some curated vids as we are!

Register here to join us May 29 & 30 at Visioning WisCon.