crankyOnce I collected my materials, I found that Norwescon fails The Badge Test on multiple counts:
1. The member name is unreadably small. Maybe around twelve point type at best. And it's not as though they can't print larger on the badge, because the membership number looks like it's in 20-point bold. There is plenty of space on the badge to print this information as well. But you know, if you think the primary purpose of a membership badge is to serve as an admission token, and you devalue the other uses, this is the sort of thing that happens. (Note that I'm not slamming Norwescon specifically here. As I've written many times before, I think the first purpose of the membership badge should be to identify us to each other so we know what each other's name is. It's clear to me that this is not a value totally shared with other members of convention-attending fandom.)
2. Even if the name was readable, the attachment method guarantees that roughly half of all badges will not be visible, as they give you a lanyard designed in such a way as to let the badge flip backwards freely. Personally, I changed my lanyard out for the only clip I had with me. But hey, again, if the purpose of the badge is admission token, you just briefly flash your badge to the door warden and be done with it.
Yes, I'm being cranky. I don't mean to be ungrateful to Norwescon in particular; after all, they invited me up to do Match Game SF, which I enjoy doing. I'll complain about any convention that fails The Badge Test.
