thoughtful
hazelchaz and his posts, I had a bit of a diversion this morning reading about Ani-Magic, a small Southern California anime con. Like Chaz, I was taken aback by the convention's chair referring to the attendees as "customers." See my Pot-Luck Theory of Fandom. There ain't no "customers" at any of the conventions I've organized. If you're running a fandom convention whose attendees are "customers," then I suggest that your organizational model is broken.I get the impression that some people think the way I and some other people insist on the term "member" is just a way of evading ticket taxes or at most a minor eccentricity and that it has no substantive meaning. I think it points out a fundamental difference in attitude, and it's possible that you either get it or you don't, and being able to "get it" is a marker for the kind of "fandom," in which I've been socializing most of my life.