Nerdiquette 101

Laura Haywood-Cory has convinced me to help with her with an education project she has titled Nerdiquette 101.  The concept behind the project is to help some of our fellow con attendees to better understand what is and is not acceptable behavior at conventions (any time really).  It’s truly a disgrace that we have to even contemplate starting a project like this in 2012, but it seems some members of fandom are still lacking in social skills. 

[Note: The project also has an additional side bonus of promoting positive hygiene practices as well.] 

The background for Nerdiquette 101 stems from a series of bad experiences that a number of female SF fans have suffered through over the last several years (and some guys too).  Normally what happens is that some socially inept individual makes a horrible remark, or performs some inexcusable action, which leaves the woman feeling very uncomfortable.   Each of these experiences falls into the “dude, that’s just not acceptable” category, yet, sadly, many of the offenders have no idea that their behavior needs improvement. 


Our goal is as follows:

1. To educate the fans who are lacking in social skills
2. To encourage women to report improper behavior to the con staff or hotel staff
3. To educate the various ConComs that they need to take any reported offense seriously
4. To provide conventions written materials that can be included in program books or on “freebie” tables

We will be hosting our first ever panel for this project at RavenCon this weekend (Friday, 5pm).  Please stop by if you are at the con.

For those of you not going to RavenCon, Laura has recently created a Nerdiquette 101 page on Facebook.  She already has a one page info handout posted there for ConComs who wish to start taking action now.

I will post more on this project as it develops.