I have to say, as a longtime Convergence attendee and former Convergence
co-chair, I'm very dismayed at how things have shaken down this time
around, namely because Hollywood and Dallas posted their bids on MySpace
for who knows how long before the bid season officially began.
According to the rules, bids could go public beginning on April 14,
2007. Hollywood's first comment on its MySpace is dated October 21,
2006. Dallas' first comment is from early February 2007. Dallas' first
blog entry is dated April 11, 2007. Hollywood has a blog with event
details -- I saw it last week, but in the last day, it has been marked
private or "friends only." Still...it's there, the bid MySpaces are
there, and no one gets 400+ friends overnight unless you're some
celebrity.
The rules for bid submission are clear as day on any number of Usenet
newsgroups, LiveJournal communities, and mailing lists, not to mention
altgothic.com. Siobhan sends these rules out every year for prospective
committees to review and familarize themselves with. Did I miss the
memo that said bid committees could post bids early and on webspace
other than altgothic.com?
In years past, it seems that having secret bid websites that included
instructions on how to do mail-in voter registration would have resulted
in that city's elimination from consideration. Sure, a lot of
campaigning/brainstorming for bids went on at the preceding
Convergences, but there is a HUGE difference between that type of
activity and posting bid specifics, right down to host hotels, events,
and laminate/hotel costs, as these two committees have done.
Every past bid committee has followed protocol. I strongly feel that to
allow these other two cities to bid officially, when they have
ignored/circumvented/not read the rules and have been bidding
unofficially on MySpace for some time, sets a dangerous precedent for
future Convergence bidding and is grossly unfair to the Ybor City
committee.
Eilis
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