Overall I wanted to hold off a bit on writing or documenting this situation, but after a few of these incidents I don't think retaining silence is going to ebb these from occurring in the future. Good work was done to keep things on track in spite of these situations, and great thanks goes to the staff for being patient and keeping a cool head in these situations. Having them all in on place and recorded also helps those in authority understand the patterns and work together to counter these type of situations and to hopefully prepare themselves on how to deal with increasing situations of Swatting of larger conventions, furry or not.
I've moved these observations people have made on dealing with these situations, along with my own thoughts on dealing with these future occurrences. Hopefully these situations will go away, but it's good to keep prepared.
Prospective attendees
While it may be easier to simply highlight these threats as a reason to skip in person gatherings and shift to an online only approach, it is not healthy to change one’s behavior due to the actions of the wicked. Instead, share stories about the events and good times and actions you saw at the convention. Allow staff to handle media interactions regarding any situations such as this.
As far as the utilization of social media in these moments, take a page from the words of Nick Wilde from Zootopia, try not to let them see that it gets to you, even if it does. Instead of showing fear or sorrow, highlight how upset and disappointed you are at the behavior instead. State firmly how it’s unacceptable to attack the rights of furries to assemble. Try to refrain from speaking with fears of the future, the spreading of fear is the desired outcome here, so speak not with fear but with firmness. At least in public.
While the situation is considered active, refrain from posting photos of the situations onto the general public facing posts on social media. If the situation is not a swatting but an actual active shooter situation, it can be harmful to post where people are evacuated to on social media as the hostile person can be reading the feeds. However, do inform other friends and furs what is going on with photos is fine if it’s done in private direct conversations such as on Discord or Telegram, or direct message features on Twitter.
Prospective convention operators
For staff, good work has been done on working with the facilities and hotels to evacuate the spaces. Despite the difficulty presented things rebounded quite well. One noted thing that happened in both of these situations that could use improvement was that the convention social media account seemed to have auto-posting of the times and activities that retained its publication in spite of the changing circumstances. So, if you are utilizing scripted auto-posts in your social media account(s), be sure you have a kill switch that can be activated in these kinds of extenuating circumstances.
Also go over what the convention will do in case of an hour or two disruption to the schedule, just in case.
I would also try to bring in the Public Relations person from Vancoufur to lead or be heard in any convention gathering roundtable discussions on handling public relations during adverse crises. The grace and promptness of Vancoufur’s response to the situation went above and beyond expectations and was seen as applaudable by many.
Prospective perpetrators
And for those perpetrating the acts. In the end, utilizing the organizations designed to keep the citizenry safe in a means to terrorize them will not go unpunished. Every time this individual or group tries to create an auto-immune response and utilizes our governments as unwitting henchmen in their plot of vengeance or indignation is but one more opportunity that they will be caught. The irony here is that while the fear furs on the ground during a swatting incident is mostly temporary, that same fear will shadow the perpetrators for far longer as it will never be over for them until they are caught. They should quit while they’re ahead, and not keep pressing their luck.
For now, furries will simply endure and be prepared, as we always have.
Overall I wanted to hold off a bit on writing or documenting this situation, but after a few of these incidents I don't think retaining silence is going to ebb these from occurring in the future. Good work was done to keep things on track in spite of these situations, and great thanks goes to the staff for being patient and keeping a cool head in these situations. Having them all in on place and recorded also helps those in authority understand the patterns and work together to counter these type of situations and to hopefully prepare themselves on how to deal with increasing situations of Swatting of larger conventions, furry or not.
I've moved these observations people have made on dealing with these situations, along with my own thoughts on dealing with these future occurrences. Hopefully these situations will go away, but it's good to keep prepared.
Prospective attendees
While it may be easier to simply highlight these threats as a reason to skip in person gatherings and shift to an online only approach, it is not healthy to change one’s behavior due to the actions of the wicked. Instead, share stories about the events and good times and actions you saw at the convention. Allow staff to handle media interactions regarding any situations such as this.
As far as the utilization of social media in these moments, take a page from the words of Nick Wilde from Zootopia, try not to let them see that it gets to you, even if it does. Instead of showing fear or sorrow, highlight how upset and disappointed you are at the behavior instead. State firmly how it’s unacceptable to attack the rights of furries to assemble. Try to refrain from speaking with fears of the future, the spreading of fear is the desired outcome here, so speak not with fear but with firmness. At least in public.
While the situation is considered active, refrain from posting photos of the situations onto the general public facing posts on social media. If the situation is not a swatting but an actual active shooter situation, it can be harmful to post where people are evacuated to on social media as the hostile person can be reading the feeds. However, do inform other friends and furs what is going on with photos is fine if it’s done in private direct conversations such as on Discord or Telegram, or direct message features on Twitter.
Prospective convention operators
For staff, good work has been done on working with the facilities and hotels to evacuate the spaces. Despite the difficulty presented things rebounded quite well. One noted thing that happened in both of these situations that could use improvement was that the convention social media account seemed to have auto-posting of the times and activities that retained its publication in spite of the changing circumstances. So, if you are utilizing scripted auto-posts in your social media account(s), be sure you have a kill switch that can be activated in these kinds of extenuating circumstances.
Also go over what the convention will do in case of an hour or two disruption to the schedule, just in case.
I would also try to bring in the Public Relations person from Vancoufur to lead or be heard in any convention gathering roundtable discussions on handling public relations during adverse crises. The grace and promptness of Vancoufur’s response to the situation went above and beyond expectations and was seen as applaudable by many.
Prospective perpetrators
And for those perpetrating the acts. In the end, utilizing the organizations designed to keep the citizenry safe in a means to terrorize them will not go unpunished. Every time this individual or group tries to create an auto-immune response and utilizes our governments as unwitting henchmen in their plot of vengeance or indignation is but one more opportunity that they will be caught. The irony here is that while the fear furs on the ground during a swatting incident is mostly temporary, that same fear will shadow the perpetrators for far longer as it will never be over for them until they are caught. They should quit while they’re ahead, and not keep pressing their luck.
For now, furries will simply endure and be prepared, as we always have.