Homestuck Hunters: Giving Fandom A Bad Name

[MedicAR]

As part of keeping up the "Appearances" thread, I follow various creators and conventions on Facebook. It is usually marginally helpful, but occasionally you get a little extra information. Today made me scratch my head, though. I found this posted by Phoenix Comicon:

 

Phoenix Comicon takes the physical and mental well being of our attendees, volunteers, and guests seriously.

 

We are aware of the "Homestuck Hunters" and are working with the Phoenix Convention Center and the City of Phoenix police department's Community Response Team to investigate and monitor this group. The Community Response Team is a specialized section of the Phoenix PD that handles any threats, protests, and/or demonstrations. They monitor all Facebook and other social media activity of various groups with regards to demonstrations, threats, and/or protests.

 

Phoenix Comicon maintains a zero tolerance policy in regards to harassment or bullying of our attendees, volunteers, and guests.

 

We work closely with the Phoenix Convention Center, its internal security, and the City of Phoenix Police department to ensure the physical and mental well being of those who attend is protected.

 

For those who have shared information on the above group with us, we thank you for your concern. We share it as well. We are aware the original Facebook event page has been deleted and a new page has been created. We ask for vigilence in continuing to send us information you know about this group, or any others that seek to harass our attendees.

 

Should you have information about the above group, or additional concerns, please contact me directly at matt.solberg@phoenixcomicon.com.

 

Phoenix Comicon is a fun event of families and friends sharing in their joy of pop culture. Working together, we all can ensure each who attends has a fun, and safe, weekend.

 

Thank you,

 

Matt Solberg

Convention Director

 

Being the old fogey that I am, I was unfamiliar with "Homestuck" much less the cosplay that it has spawned. I had to poke around on the inter web thingy to even find out what "Homestuck" is and had to look even more to find more than spite filled references to "Homestuck Hunters." The best that I found was this:

 

Those going to PCC in Homestuck please be aware of a group of people who call themselves Homestuck Hunters.

 

I recently came across them and their main focus was to harass Homestuck cosplayers because they were tired of seeing homestuck at conventions.

 

They joked about making styrofoam head painted gray and stabbed through with a stick. I am not going to take that as a joke because the fandom has received death threats before.

I am utterly disgusted because a few friends of mine are in that group and wanted to get a warning out to the younger Homestucks who will be attending the con to stay together in groups and around an adult.

 

There is one guy who made the group who is set on harassing Homestucks and others who joined but don’t know what the group is for but go along with it.

 

I will do my best to talk with this group but this has been a warning.

 

At least I have some idea as to what this mess is now.

 

Cosplay leaves me scratching my head. It was one thing when fans made their own costumes to wear to conventions to emulate their heroes. Then came the professionals in costumes. They were there to promote movies, publishers, TV shows, or just make money posing for pictures. Not my thing, but okay. Now we have a variety of cosplayers for a variety of reasons. There are some that are fans, there a few "pros," and then there are the attention hounds that I believe have been discussed here again and again. We may not like them, but we tolerate them. We want them to go away, but don't threaten them with any harm.

 

This group, Homestuck Hunters, doesn't tolerate a very specific group of cosplayers. The ones that dress as "Homestuck" characters. We all know the guy that loves Marvel and hates DC and vice versa, the ones that hate Spider-Man but love Iron Man and so on. But, as a rule, we tolerate each other. We don't post threats and don't seek out those that disagree with us about characters or titles to cause them harm. We may tease and bait but we don't taunt and batter.

 

Now, the big question, why do I care and why should you care? To put it simply, we should care because it reflects on all of us. Conventions are getting bigger and bigger every year. Keeping track of creators' and celebrities' appearances keeps me looking at guest lists pretty regularly and even the small shows are drawing bigger and better names every day. Bigger and better names mean better attendance. Better attendance means that despite any and all "doom and gloom" scenarios that are put forward, this hobby is, at the very least, solid. Hopefully, it means it is actually growing. If the "Homestuck" crowd is turned away by a few malcontents, who will be next?

 

Conventions are supposed to be safe havens for fans. We may not like each other, but we still tolerate each other. Vulcans don't shiv the Jedi in the parking lot. There is always a bad element, books and art get stolen, we see plenty of evidence of that but we shouldn't tolerate any violence or threats of violence against our own.

 

If you see something, say something. I'm not saying swoop in and start cracking skulls. I'm saying if you are aware of this group or groups like this that are looking to harm fans, speak out. Conventions have survived by combining comics, sci-fi, fantasy, and more. We need to stick together, now.

[brendanb438]

Not a fan of the cosplayers. All they do is create choke points at bigger cons. Why don't they create their own cons and stay away from the comic book ones? Oh wait they already do this type of yet still show up at comic book cons.

 

 

[Hado]

Thanks for sharing, I would hope that any harassment would be reported but at least now we're informed as to a specific problem.

 

What the hell is wrong with people

[lizards2]

Thanks for sharing, I would hope that any harassment would be reported but at least now we're informed as to a specific problem.

 

What the hell is wrong with people

'Tis easier to hate than to love

[Hado]

Thanks for sharing, I would hope that any harassment would be reported but at least now we're informed as to a specific problem.

 

What the hell is wrong with people

'Tis easier to hate than to love

We need to stop all this dork on dork crime.

[lizards2]

Thanks for sharing, I would hope that any harassment would be reported but at least now we're informed as to a specific problem.

 

What the hell is wrong with people

'Tis easier to hate than to love

We need to stop all this dork on dork crime.

I watched American Splendor today - it was awesome!

[Hado]

Thanks for sharing, I would hope that any harassment would be reported but at least now we're informed as to a specific problem.

 

What the hell is wrong with people

'Tis easier to hate than to love

We need to stop all this dork on dork crime.

I watched American Splendor today - it was awesome!

I've never heard of it, imdb's summary sounds like it would be something I'd like.

[lizards2]

Thanks for sharing, I would hope that any harassment would be reported but at least now we're informed as to a specific problem.

 

What the hell is wrong with people

'Tis easier to hate than to love

We need to stop all this dork on dork crime.

I watched American Splendor today - it was awesome!

I've never heard of it, imdb's summary sounds like it would be something I'd like.

It's a good lesson on how not to live your life. That being said, an interesting biography of Harvey Pekar.

[Hado]

I'll check it out (thumbs u

 

Thanks

[Gsims718]

This is ridiculous. To pay money to go to a convention with the intention of just harassing people just because you don't like who they choose to dress as is insane.

 

All that said.. Who wants to start a DC Fan hunters group with me?

[COI]

Now, the big question, why do I care and why should you care? To put it simply, we should care because it reflects on all of us. Conventions are getting bigger and bigger every year. Keeping track of creators' and celebrities' appearances keeps me looking at guest lists pretty regularly and even the small shows are drawing bigger and better names every day. Bigger and better names mean better attendance. Better attendance means that despite any and all "doom and gloom" scenarios that are put forward, this hobby is, at the very least, solid.

 

So you want more attendance at cons, but you want cosplayers to go away? What kind of attendees would you like?

[Hado]

I don't understand why people care about what other people wear. Sure some costumes are slow, or overly large. Sometimes people block the aisle for photo's.

 

Take a deep breath and remember you're at a convention celebrating your hobby, it's not supposed to be stressful.

[Mr Wiggles]

We may not like them, but we tolerate them. We want them to go away, but don't threaten them with any harm.

 

I don't think "we" is the correct term.

[Gsims718]

We may not like them, but we tolerate them. We want them to go away, but don't threaten them with any harm.

 

I don't think "we" is the correct term.

 

I'm pretty sure there are a few people on this board who dress up.

[COI]

If you want large conventions with lots of attendees, you're always going to have problems. People are diverse, their interests and hobbies are diverse, and if you collect large groups of people together there's going to be discord, whether it's cosplay dorks annoying comic dorks, or comic dorks annoying porn stars, or porn stars annoying Roy. It's unavoidable.

[Mr Wiggles]

 

I'm pretty sure there are a few people on this board who dress up.

 

?

 

My response was in regards to not wanting to be included in a "we" statement that I don't agree with. I'm 100% for any individual to enjoy their con experience in the way the want as long as it doesn't harm anyone in the process. This includes dressing up if you so choose to.

[Gsims718]

 

I'm pretty sure there are a few people on this board who dress up.

 

?

 

My response was in regards to not wanting to be included in a "we" statement that I don't agree with. I'm 100% for any individual to enjoy their con experience in the way the want as long as it doesn't harm anyone in the process. This includes dressing up if you so choose to.

 

I was in agreement with you.

[lizards2]

 

I'm pretty sure there are a few people on this board who dress up.

 

?

 

My response was in regards to not wanting to be included in a "we" statement that I don't agree with. I'm 100% for any individual to enjoy their con experience in the way the want as long as it doesn't harm anyone in the process. This includes dressing up if you so choose to.

 

I was in agreement with you.

I think people who argue for the sake of argument should be agreed with.

[bababooey]

 

I'm pretty sure there are a few people on this board who dress up.

 

?

 

My response was in regards to not wanting to be included in a "we" statement that I don't agree with. I'm 100% for any individual to enjoy their con experience in the way the want as long as it doesn't harm anyone in the process. This includes dressing up if you so choose to.

 

I was in agreement with you.

I think people who argue for the sake of argument should be agreed with.

+ 1

[The-Collector]

Thanks for sharing, I would hope that any harassment would be reported but at least now we're informed as to a specific problem.

 

What the hell is wrong with people

'Tis easier to hate than to love

We need to stop all this dork on dork crime.

I watched American Splendor today - it was awesome!

I've never heard of it, imdb's summary sounds like it would be something I'd like.

 

It is worth watching for Paul Giamatti as Harvey alone.