Thank you for this Eric. I wanted to comment with something I said in my own locked journal.
Sadly it is in the best interest of a lot of people to paint Jan in as black a light as possible. They seem to hope that they can get people who would ordinarily support her to instead turn against her. I don't see that happening.
All this is ugly and has been brewing for some time. A lot of it stems from things pointing (by word and deed of the Powers That Be) to filk as it has existed being targeted for extermination. I can't say that I blame Jan for being cranky. I've never once said Jan might not have been cranky - I didn't see it, but it's very possible. If there wasn't an agenda against her and her filk track, it would have all been overlooked. God knows I've known people who make their life's work being nasty and objectionable who stay in power at cons for years - and Jan is a wonderful person who typically is sunny and fun to be with. Her frustrations were hardly enough to get noticed in most circles - unless, as I said, there's an agenda.
Firing Jan in the ugly (and questionable) manner that they did is what has caused the problem, that and smearing the conversation all over the front page of the Duck homepage, and other folks lashing out at her other places. If it had all been handled differently this could have been avoided and I think Duckon Filk could have been salvaged. They didn't, and I don't think it can be now. Honestly, I don't think they want it to be.
Will filk continue? Sure. Where there is a con there are always filkers. However, I don't think that the serious filk musicians will touch Duck with a ten foot pole for a long, long time. If the concom wants a bunch of random people sitting in a big circle singing songs out of Rise Up Singing, that's certainly what they're getting. If they didn't want that, they had a chance to do different.
no subject
Sadly it is in the best interest of a lot of people to paint Jan in as black a light as possible. They seem to hope that they can get people who would ordinarily support her to instead turn against her. I don't see that happening.
All this is ugly and has been brewing for some time. A lot of it stems from things pointing (by word and deed of the Powers That Be) to filk as it has existed being targeted for extermination. I can't say that I blame Jan for being cranky. I've never once said Jan might not have been cranky - I didn't see it, but it's very possible. If there wasn't an agenda against her and her filk track, it would have all been overlooked. God knows I've known people who make their life's work being nasty and objectionable who stay in power at cons for years - and Jan is a wonderful person who typically is sunny and fun to be with. Her frustrations were hardly enough to get noticed in most circles - unless, as I said, there's an agenda.
Firing Jan in the ugly (and questionable) manner that they did is what has caused the problem, that and smearing the conversation all over the front page of the Duck homepage, and other folks lashing out at her other places. If it had all been handled differently this could have been avoided and I think Duckon Filk could have been salvaged. They didn't, and I don't think it can be now. Honestly, I don't think they want it to be.
Will filk continue? Sure. Where there is a con there are always filkers. However, I don't think that the serious filk musicians will touch Duck with a ten foot pole for a long, long time. If the concom wants a bunch of random people sitting in a big circle singing songs out of Rise Up Singing, that's certainly what they're getting. If they didn't want that, they had a chance to do different.