I'm not opposed to noting them, it's a question of how and where. As you say, virtual events are "something new" - a different beast, akin to programs such as the Funday PawPet Show; and most organizations recognize that. MFF, for example, states that "Midwest FurFest 2020 is officially cancelled", giving December 3-5, 2021 as its next date. Likewise for AC and FC. It'd be incorrect to imply that they're "an instance of the convention" - as our lists do now.
... all Confuror 2020 presential activities to be held in Guadalajara Jalisco are suspended. In favor of the protection and comfort of our attendees, we have been able to reach an agreement with our venue and suppliers, who have been attentive from the beginning and in the face of the most current panorama has given us a green flag to proceed with this change, moving all our resources and hiring to 2021.
Confuror 2020 will be 100% digital, open for everyone and free of charge. [...] In order to facilitate adjustments to your plans, we are also anticipating the dates of the next Confuror edition, which will take place from October 28th to 31st in 2021, at the Fiesta Americana Hotel in Guadalajara.
The initial response of WikiFur's editors - in this case, an editor from Mexico, who's attended both prior instances of Confuror - has been to treat this as a cancellation, probably for the reasons I offered above; it's a qualitatively different offering, and the "actual" registration is being rolled over to the next year. We may need to adjust the wording on the article itself to be consistent with what's going to be done in 2020 - once we have a better idea of what that is - while noting the convention's own spin on it.
When it comes to WikiFur's map (which is still in the process of being updated for all the changes), it isn't accurate to give a location for an event that's not actually there. We run the risk of confusing viewers. I believe for that particular tool, listing the next physical event is the right approach, especially given its links with search engines that may obtain dates and registration pricing from it. To be honest, it's already tricky to keep track of ~170 events there, let alone adding virtual events to the mix.
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Much of what I've seen has focused on streamed comedy and music segments, accompanied by a frequently-spammy global chat. This is great for those who've never been to a convention, which in fairness may be a lot of the audience. I haven't found it so compelling. By comparison, software development conference Build offered a number of topic breakout sessions with smaller group sizes which proved more conducive to discussion. (The focus was still on presentation rather than discussion, but that's perhaps to be expected for a corporate event; it's an exercise in marketing, above all. And of course, they had a budget and full-time staff to work on it.)
I do see some promise in the use of VRChat - initially by JMoF, although many will know of it via Anthrocon (six-hour sample). There's also the VirtualFurence project, which is attempting to replicate Eurofurence's Estrel hotel - they just announced an event set there - and others like the Furality Online Xperience which (among others) has shown that entirely new events can be created. Here I'd disagree with the anon above, in that I think online events deserve no special prominence merely because they're associated with an existing organization, other than a mention on its own page - rather, it should be the programme of events that matters.
It's not yet clear that VRChat is effective in replacing panel discussions, dealing, or quiet conversations - the platform's policies forbid adult content, so in some ways it can't - but it does provide a social and dance experience... plus a way for people to flaunt wealth or modelling expertise via custom avatars and full-body motion capture. Building 3D models is creative and good for the economy! Let's see panels on that. (Unfortunately, from what I've seen, those without VR equipment may find the experience frustrating.)
One issue with such events is the turnaround time for replays, if there's one specific thing you did want to see but couldn't make. Judging by comments on YouTube and Facebook, there's demand for time-shifting; but to take one recent example, AC has not (yet) posted material from its event. The Virtual Anthrocon site seems to link only to the now-dead streams, with only opening and closing up on their official YouTube account; though silvergatomon seems to have captured and uploaded key sessions. The lack of response makes me wonder if they lost the footage. If it's still in the queue to be done, I fear it may be a little late; by the time they upload, people are likely to have moved on to the next interactive event. (Or maybe there's some kind of licensing issue which prevents highlights?)
More generally, it'd be great to see a fandom-wide collaboration to push out regular online events, of a higher and more consistent quality than any group could do alone. Siloing limited talent and technical expertise within existing organizations isn't beneficial. Perhaps something along these lines might be worth discussing at the next Furry Convention Leadership Roundtable, which I understand is to take place August 8-9... by which time there should be a better idea idea of what has and hasn't worked so far.
I'm not opposed to noting them, it's a question of how and where. As you say, virtual events are "something new" - a different beast, akin to programs such as the Funday PawPet Show; and most organizations recognize that. MFF, for example, states that "Midwest FurFest 2020 is officially cancelled", giving December 3-5, 2021 as its next date. Likewise for AC and FC. It'd be incorrect to imply that they're "an instance of the convention" - as our lists do now.
Confuror is taking a slightly different approach (as is FurSquared) which may need to be discussed among editors:
The initial response of WikiFur's editors - in this case, an editor from Mexico, who's attended both prior instances of Confuror - has been to treat this as a cancellation, probably for the reasons I offered above; it's a qualitatively different offering, and the "actual" registration is being rolled over to the next year. We may need to adjust the wording on the article itself to be consistent with what's going to be done in 2020 - once we have a better idea of what that is - while noting the convention's own spin on it.
When it comes to WikiFur's map (which is still in the process of being updated for all the changes), it isn't accurate to give a location for an event that's not actually there. We run the risk of confusing viewers. I believe for that particular tool, listing the next physical event is the right approach, especially given its links with search engines that may obtain dates and registration pricing from it. To be honest, it's already tricky to keep track of ~170 events there, let alone adding virtual events to the mix.
---
Much of what I've seen has focused on streamed comedy and music segments, accompanied by a frequently-spammy global chat. This is great for those who've never been to a convention, which in fairness may be a lot of the audience. I haven't found it so compelling. By comparison, software development conference Build offered a number of topic breakout sessions with smaller group sizes which proved more conducive to discussion. (The focus was still on presentation rather than discussion, but that's perhaps to be expected for a corporate event; it's an exercise in marketing, above all. And of course, they had a budget and full-time staff to work on it.)
I do see some promise in the use of VRChat - initially by JMoF, although many will know of it via Anthrocon (six-hour sample). There's also the VirtualFurence project, which is attempting to replicate Eurofurence's Estrel hotel - they just announced an event set there - and others like the Furality Online Xperience which (among others) has shown that entirely new events can be created. Here I'd disagree with the anon above, in that I think online events deserve no special prominence merely because they're associated with an existing organization, other than a mention on its own page - rather, it should be the programme of events that matters.
It's not yet clear that VRChat is effective in replacing panel discussions, dealing, or quiet conversations - the platform's policies forbid adult content, so in some ways it can't - but it does provide a social and dance experience... plus a way for people to flaunt wealth or modelling expertise via custom avatars and full-body motion capture. Building 3D models is creative and good for the economy! Let's see panels on that. (Unfortunately, from what I've seen, those without VR equipment may find the experience frustrating.)
One issue with such events is the turnaround time for replays, if there's one specific thing you did want to see but couldn't make. Judging by comments on YouTube and Facebook, there's demand for time-shifting; but to take one recent example, AC has not (yet) posted material from its event. The Virtual Anthrocon site seems to link only to the now-dead streams, with only opening and closing up on their official YouTube account; though silvergatomon seems to have captured and uploaded key sessions. The lack of response makes me wonder if they lost the footage. If it's still in the queue to be done, I fear it may be a little late; by the time they upload, people are likely to have moved on to the next interactive event. (Or maybe there's some kind of licensing issue which prevents highlights?)
More generally, it'd be great to see a fandom-wide collaboration to push out regular online events, of a higher and more consistent quality than any group could do alone. Siloing limited talent and technical expertise within existing organizations isn't beneficial. Perhaps something along these lines might be worth discussing at the next Furry Convention Leadership Roundtable, which I understand is to take place August 8-9... by which time there should be a better idea idea of what has and hasn't worked so far.