Melbourne's MiDFur to change name, dates, venue
Chakat Goldfur reports that MiDFur 2012 (14), Australia’s largest (474 attendees this year) and oldest (since 1999 as a house party; 2008 as a convention) regular Furry event, will be the last under that name or in December. Its next meeting will be under the temporary name of Egyptian Nights, January 10-12, 2014, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The change is due to the growth of the convention making hotels uncomfortably small, and because December is an inconvenient month for many OzFurs. MiDFur stands for Melbourne in December Furmeet, so changing the month has made the name obsolete.
The next convention will be known by the name of its theme until a new permanent name is chosen; and will always be in mid-January. A contest is being held to select the new name. Also, some fans were never happy about the small furmeet growing into a “giant” formal convention, so they will get to continue to meet as a separate informal December gathering.
Update (5 Jan): The MiDFur board have picked a slate of ten convention names (from over 400 submissions), which are now open for voting.
Update (7 Jan): Voting is now closed.
Read more: MiDFur picks new name, ConFurgence; but did poll mislead?
About the author
Fred Patten — read stories — contact (login required)a retired former librarian from North Hollywood, California, interested in general anthropomorphics
Comments
My suggested names, in descending quality:
Furroboree (from Corroboree) - Furtropolis - Furpocalypse
KoalaCon - BoomerCon
Fur Dinkum - Furlacine Fever
Don't send me your suggestions. Send them to the contest link!
Fred Patten
I did that! Just repeating them here. :-)
o.0 Egyptian Nights? What does an Australian furry convention have to do with Egypt?
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Not much more than any of the other conventions have to do with their annual themes. That's why they're looking for a more permanent name.
It's weird to name the con after the theme. MiDFur as a name described when and where the convention was held. Anthrocon describes what the convention is about. The cons have had themes but those change and aren't part of the name. It's weird to name the whole convention after the theme because then the name and content do not match up. It's like going to an event called "Spacemen" only to find it's a real estate party with a space theme.
I would've thought the best option is to keep the original name until a new name is decided upon.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
The name MiDFur is being given to the community, so -if- the community organises a midfur meet by this December ('13), that would be confusing, as Egyptian nights is in Jan 2014...
So having a meet Dec '13 then a con Jan '14 under the same name would just confuse people. (assuming that happens)
And the name MiDFur did not only say where it was held, it also stated -when- it was held... and since the con is moving to January now, the name does not hold true. (although that is one of the lesser points for the name-change)
The name is just a temporary thing to avoid confusion if the Melbourne community organise meets under that name in the meantime...
Also, the naming competition closes at the end of January, so who knows, they might apply the new name to the '14 con, or they might wait until '15... Guess we will find out!
Keep an eye on the facebook page, website, and twitter... the PR department will keep everyone up to date :3
Sure . . . if it's in the con's best interest to do so. You think they tell us everything? Wake up, sheeple! ;-p
The MiDFur board have picked a slate of ten convention names (from over 400 submissions), which are now open for voting.
For archival purposes:
Only one out of ten was able to avoid fur or furry. Maybe we aren't as imaginative as we like to think.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Or the former MiDFur board isn't as imaginative. I consider GreenReaper's suggestions of Furroboree and Fur Dinkum to be much better names for an Australian Furry convention than any of the board-approved ten finalists. "Fur" really fits here.
Fred Patten
And three of them reuse the initials CF! I can't in good conscience vote for one of those.
I ended up voting for Furvival, because by Frith, it's short, isn't just descriptive, doesn't partially violate Morphicon's or Further Confusion's trademark (though I've never been a fan of the latter), and doesn't enforce a political system.
I admit I still prefer Furroborree to FurGather, but I don't know if it would be politically incorrect.
Voting for MiDFur's new name is now closed, according to the poll. I guess they had a clear winner!
Post new comment