Octothorpe

141: A Whole Episode Without Business Meeting Content

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John is worried, Alison volunteers, and Liz is warm.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: None

  • Letters of comment
    • Chris Hurley (email)
    • Dave O’Neill (Bluesky, DM)
    • Ivan Sinha (Facebook)
    • Jesi Lipp (email, Facebook)
    • John Hertz (typewritten letter with pasted image from File 770 scanned by Fedex and sent by email)
    • Mike Glyer (email)
    • Neil Ottenstein (Facebook)
    • Nicholas Whyte (email)
    • Nuala (Bluesky)
    • Paul Weimer (Bluesky)
    • Rory Hennell James (Bluesky)
    • Tammy Coxen and Jesi Lipp (Bluesky)
    • We also heard from Doug Faunt and Farah Mendlesohn
    • Worldcon 2025: Seattle
      • Business Meeting
        • Jesi Lipp posted some excellent infographics on JOF
        • Jesi also posted a small table on our Facebook of attendances back to 2014 and John made them into a graph
        • NASFiC is gone
          • The USA has a national con now and it’s Dragon Con, so why compete? We will return to this question…
          • The end of fan-run conventions in the USA
            • NASFiC is gone, leaving Dragon Con as the de facto national convention
            • The Westercon by-laws have been repealed
            • Wiscon has not got enough volunteers to run an in-person convention
            • Gallifrey One is coming to an end, Showmasters Events are running a commercial replacement
            • GeekGirlCon and Penguicon are struggling
            • Arisia, Baycon, Boskone, Loscon have all shrunk (anecdotally)
            • The end of fan-run conventions more widely?
              • New Zealand: Fan-run conventions have been struggling since CoNZealand
              • Finland: SMOF News recently reported that Finncon is not running due to lack of volunteers
              • More widely to do with volunteering?
                • Maybe more true in the UK?
                • Picks
                  • John: The Tyrant Philosophers by Adrian Tchaikovsky
                  • Alison: Control Room B at Battersea Power Station (and Battersea Power Station Station)
                  • Liz: Woodworking by Emily St. James
                  • Credits
                    • Cover art: “Mildly Wes” by Alison Scott
                      • Alt text: A photograph of a cocktail bar at Battersea Power Station. The words “Control Room B” are above the cocktail bar, and the words “Octothorpe 141” overlaid in similar style.
                      • Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
                        • ...more
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                        OctothorpeBy John Coxon, Alison Scott, Liz Batty
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