From: toddpw@cco.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Subject: Another Otaku responds to Dave M.
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 11:16:58 GMT

I too can no longer sit quietly. Dave's "innocent puppy" postings would be
enough to make me suspicious even if I _hadn't_ heard any rumors. I do not have
facts, but I seriously question those posted by Dave Medinnus, and I am going
to have a seizure soon if I don't speak my mind about this. So I will post only
my opinions and my own observations and everyone is free to ignore them.

I do not think that ANYONE "doesn't care about the fans". EVERYBODY cares about
the fans -- but there are other things that they also care about, like stable
incomes, and personal egos, and so on. I do agree with the statement that all
these shenanigans have only hurt the credibility of EVERYONE involved with no
exceptions. Worse, I fear that this will lose us so much face with the Japanese
that it will set back our relationship with them by a year or more. And then
NOBODY wins, except maybe the personal egos.

fafhrd@clubzen.fidonet.org (David Medinnus) writes:

>sold out; that I didn't care about the fans. When MT harrassed and 
>hamstrung his new Chairman after pledging non-interference, and the new 
>Chairman and his staff resigned, we have all been accused of not caring 

I do wish you'd stop accusing Mike of being the only evil party in all this.
I cannot believe that ANY ONE PERSON is responsible for it all. If anything,
_my_ past dealings with Mike would lead me to suspect that he and James M.
were set up by somebody else. I would ask you to check YOUR facts before
posting them because frankly they are totally out of character for both Mike
and James.

>promises the world, and delivers almost nothing. We have seen, and have 
>suffered working for MT; we KNOW that a con run by him will be a 
>disaster. So we refuse to be a part, and to perpetuate the problem. 

This is the most ludicrous thing I have heard in a LONG time.

I worked bit staff at both conventions. NEITHER was a disaster, and we in reg
had quite a few people complimenting us on how 92 was a lot better than 91, and
a few people complaining because their checks had been cashed by AnimeCon Corp
AFTER the transfer of memberships occured; Mike told us to honor all of them
and absorb the loss, so that's what we did. We also bent over backwards, on
Mike's orders, to accomodate the unruly number of extra "guests" that showed,
just to placate some of the larger egos in fandom.

I don't care what you post here; you are not going to convince ME that Mike's
convention was a total disaster, because it wasn't and I saw it first hand.
Oh, there were problems; Mike freely admits that he was an inexperienced chair.
He also admits that he learned a LOT. If you had problems with Dealers room
because of Mike, complain about THAT -- throwing the Expo together in six
months (or less) wasn't easy for anybody, and frankly I am amazed to hear
somebody in your position raking Mike over the coals as thoroughly as you are.

If anything, Dave, your decision to exhume AnimeCon was the real disaster --
it started all this. Without your support AnimeCon would never have stood a
chance and there never would have been A Tale Of Two Cons in the first place.
So I find it really disgusting that YOU are the one studiously posting PR fluff
to the net. I have long since reached the point where I cannot believe half
of the "facts" you are posting, and if YOU believe them then _I'd_ start
questioning your informants.

>don't make a f*cking dime. We do spend many hours a week at it, though; 

You make a lot of dimes at your store. That's a perfectly valid reason
to do cons, and there's nothing wrong with admitting that, as long as you
DO admit it.

How much money does Mike make off it? Less than you, to be sure. In fact, most
of us will never know just how much of a personal loss Mike took on the Expo.
Mike spends a lot of his own money to make himself the #1 Otaku, and I for one
think that the title is very well deserved.

>So, whatever happens here in the Bay Area, kindly stop crying "They don't 
>care about the fans" and "They are all making money off of the otaku". 
>All your whining does is show how little you know about the situation, 
>and about conventions.

We don't HAVE to know what is going on to see that SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG
and your posts are not the full story. It is so obvious that I shouldn't have
to be the one telling YOU.

>think I'll take this time to point out that if we didn't make disclosures 
>on-line about what is going on, y'all would scream "Cover-up!" and start 
>spinning conspiracy theories. The way I see it, no matter what we do, 
>y'all are going to whine and complain.

Actually, your periodic "I'm innocent and Mike is the Big Bad Otaku" posts
practically INVITE this kind of nervous bitching from the fans. I'll even go
so far as to say that Mr. Medinnus, your posts are so suspiciously lopsided
that I am now skeptical the minute I see your name on them. I _used_ to only
be skeptical after I read them...

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ cco.caltech.edu