My first convention this year was a hybrid one. I was attending it only virtually as it was held way too far from where I live. Yet it was fun to be there. And to help – helping is always fun.
The Discord Duty
In December I was asked whether I could help with Discord for Capricon 42. I mentioned that I am willing to help but that I there limitations to what I can do there. Yet we discussed and it seemed that what I knew was enough And so I was on-boarded. It took me some time to create and set-up the server for the con. There were many discussions on how everything should (and shouldn’t) work. It was pretty fun and I learned a bit in the process.
Of course some things didn’t work exactly as planned. Firstly the YAGPDB bot stopped working and we had to grant some permissions manually. The good thing is that it happened some time before the con and during the US night so not many people were affected. Then when we launched the Scavenger Hunt. Soon we found out that the bot uses OR operator instead of AND when checking prerequisites for granting a role. I tried solving this but it was beyond my skills. Yet thanks to Hobbit (thank you again!) the issue was solved. There were also some concerns as to how some minor things worked. Yet in general I have a feeling that the server served the purpose – I hope others have similar feelings.
The Facebook profile picture of Capricon 42. I really love this design!
Programming
I was not able to participate too much in social life of the convention. With seven hours time difference I was asleep when the online parties were starting. I had a bit of fun in observing Discord but my social life was mainly limited to pre-con conversations with the team. At Capricon 42 I spent most of my time taking care of Discord and watching programme items.
There were items happening online and on top of that one programme room at the con was streamed to the internet. I must say it worked pretty well although had some hiccups. At the first item I attended the volume was very low but it was corrected on the fly (thank you tech team!). There were some issues as there were only two microphones for the panellists. Sometimes it was difficult to hear people speaking but overall the streaming went pretty good. I watched a few of the items and was able to follow them.
I followed my taste and I attended some conrunning items, a bit of literary ones and some scientific ones. It was pretty good. One night I stayed a bit longer than planned and I am very happy about that. I listened to panel “Space Operas vs Space Operas” and I learned that there was a musical basing on one of the stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. The musical is called The Hidden Sky. I was not able to find it anywhere but on the website of the creator three sample songs are available. Oath is my favourite one. Should anyone know if it is possible to buy a recording of whole musical I would be grateful for information.
The cover of the souvenir book. I am a bit jealous I have only the PDF version.
Beginning of the Convention Year
It came out I was not the only person who used the Polish flag for their badge. I was so glad to meet a US fan of Polish descent. We had a nice chat – not very long (as he was attending in person and went for the con). But I hope to continue this acquaintanceship. I would love to meet him in person one day (maybe at Chicon 8 later this year?).
Capricon 42 was a good beginning for my 2022 convention season. I hope that this year I will manage to attend some cons in person though. I love online conventioning but it is two years already since I visited my last offline con. It is time to change that.