Currently A Potato
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2024
Official statement from the con here: [ Source / Archive ]
An Important message to our attendees from the Furcation Board of Directors
You may have seen some notes, messages and information shared around during Furcation 2024 following ‘drama’ at the convention.
Unfortunately, the rumours are true and we are not being welcomed back to the Furcation 2024 venue.
This puts us into huge uncertainty as for a 2025 event to run, we need to now start the search for a new home for Furcation. As such, it is possible we will need to put in place a break for 2025.
Our hosts were incredibly unhappy with a number of things that happened across the course of the weekend and we are 100% in agreement with them. Across the weekend, there were a couple of large, drug-fuelled organised adult “parties” that took place in
contravention with both our Code of Conduct and our Terms of Service with the venue. A number of people were asked to leave the site under a zero tolerance approach which is as it should be. Both parties were attended by 30/40+ people in small accommodation spaces and were reported in to us by other attendees who were concerned by them.
What has followed is that those removed from the event instead of taking personal responsibility for what they have done, have sought to destroy the event for daring to call them out for their poor behaviour. This has also been supported by an individual
within our senior staff team who has been leaking out confidential information and discussions from within our internal staff chats. No doubt a friend of theirs but too much of a coward to own up for it. Followed up with a barrage of false Tripadvisor
reviews, drama spread on Twitter and various other misinformation, our venue has indeed said they will not be allowing us to return for 2025. They have also since discovered that some individuals took to damaging/destroying their accommodation in retaliation which Furcation LTD will now have to foot the bill for.
To say that we are deeply disappointed is an understatement.
We feel we speak for the whole of the furry community when we say to those people and
their followers/supporters.
You are not welcome in this community
The furry fandom is not a place of hatred, bullying and harassment and we hope that those ‘celebrating’ their success are noticed and shunned by the wider community. The bad news for you is that this isn’t the end of Furcation. We’re not going to let hatred and bullying win. Far from it.
This appears to have been isolated down to a group of around 50-60 attendees and a lot of the supporters they have online have never even attended our events but feel they have a right to comment on it.
For those who have destroyed their accommodation, we will be forwarding your details to the police. This is criminal damage and it will be treated as such. You will also now be receiving a lifetime ban from any future events run by Furcation LTD.
For the rest of our attendees, we are sorry that your weekend experiences have been ruined by the minority. Our venue may have become a bit ‘itchy trigger finger’ in regard to the rest of the event but honestly, with what they had to break up over Saturday evening, we don’t blame them. As always, it’s the few that ruin it for the many.
Furcation will return, there is no doubt about it. What that will look like, we do not yet know. Most of our staff team haven’t even been home 24 hours before we’ve been put into a position of making this statement. We haven’t had chance to decompress and
review what took place or even to open the feedback forms for completion at this point.
And we do stand by our decision to not run the feedback panel on Monday. Given the events of the weekend, our staff team have been left feeling deflated, demoralised and angry at the abuse and harassment that has been shared following those groups being removed from site. Nobody should ever be in a position to receive hatred and abuse for doing their job and upholding standards, especially when we are all volunteers working to put together one thing.
A weekend for the community to come together in a safe space where they can have a great weekend spent in the company of friends.
For the majority of our attendees, we did just that. And for that majority, we will continue to do so.
Watch this space for news of future events.
And for those who support the people removed from our event.
Do not darken our doorstep. You are not welcome.
You may have seen some notes, messages and information shared around during Furcation 2024 following ‘drama’ at the convention.
Unfortunately, the rumours are true and we are not being welcomed back to the Furcation 2024 venue.
This puts us into huge uncertainty as for a 2025 event to run, we need to now start the search for a new home for Furcation. As such, it is possible we will need to put in place a break for 2025.
Our hosts were incredibly unhappy with a number of things that happened across the course of the weekend and we are 100% in agreement with them. Across the weekend, there were a couple of large, drug-fuelled organised adult “parties” that took place in
contravention with both our Code of Conduct and our Terms of Service with the venue. A number of people were asked to leave the site under a zero tolerance approach which is as it should be. Both parties were attended by 30/40+ people in small accommodation spaces and were reported in to us by other attendees who were concerned by them.
What has followed is that those removed from the event instead of taking personal responsibility for what they have done, have sought to destroy the event for daring to call them out for their poor behaviour. This has also been supported by an individual
within our senior staff team who has been leaking out confidential information and discussions from within our internal staff chats. No doubt a friend of theirs but too much of a coward to own up for it. Followed up with a barrage of false Tripadvisor
reviews, drama spread on Twitter and various other misinformation, our venue has indeed said they will not be allowing us to return for 2025. They have also since discovered that some individuals took to damaging/destroying their accommodation in retaliation which Furcation LTD will now have to foot the bill for.
To say that we are deeply disappointed is an understatement.
We feel we speak for the whole of the furry community when we say to those people and
their followers/supporters.
You are not welcome in this community
The furry fandom is not a place of hatred, bullying and harassment and we hope that those ‘celebrating’ their success are noticed and shunned by the wider community. The bad news for you is that this isn’t the end of Furcation. We’re not going to let hatred and bullying win. Far from it.
This appears to have been isolated down to a group of around 50-60 attendees and a lot of the supporters they have online have never even attended our events but feel they have a right to comment on it.
For those who have destroyed their accommodation, we will be forwarding your details to the police. This is criminal damage and it will be treated as such. You will also now be receiving a lifetime ban from any future events run by Furcation LTD.
For the rest of our attendees, we are sorry that your weekend experiences have been ruined by the minority. Our venue may have become a bit ‘itchy trigger finger’ in regard to the rest of the event but honestly, with what they had to break up over Saturday evening, we don’t blame them. As always, it’s the few that ruin it for the many.
Furcation will return, there is no doubt about it. What that will look like, we do not yet know. Most of our staff team haven’t even been home 24 hours before we’ve been put into a position of making this statement. We haven’t had chance to decompress and
review what took place or even to open the feedback forms for completion at this point.
And we do stand by our decision to not run the feedback panel on Monday. Given the events of the weekend, our staff team have been left feeling deflated, demoralised and angry at the abuse and harassment that has been shared following those groups being removed from site. Nobody should ever be in a position to receive hatred and abuse for doing their job and upholding standards, especially when we are all volunteers working to put together one thing.
A weekend for the community to come together in a safe space where they can have a great weekend spent in the company of friends.
For the majority of our attendees, we did just that. And for that majority, we will continue to do so.
Watch this space for news of future events.
And for those who support the people removed from our event.
Do not darken our doorstep. You are not welcome.
Furcation takes place in the UK, not the US.Why would they even need to give another explanation? Do building codes in the US not have occupancy limits? If it's anything even remotely close to the Canadian building code then ramming 10 people into every 2-bed hotel room is absolutely a fire code violation, the rest is frivolous beyond that.