December 31, 2024
FanCons.com Announces Update to Policy for Listed Events
by Patrick Delahanty, FanCons.com Administrator
As 2024 draws to a close, we are taking a look back on the year and setting some goals for the next year of the FanCons.com site. In 2024, we listed 2,008 events—a significant increase from ten years ago when we only listed 864 events. In fact, we've consistently listed around 2,000 events each year for the past five years. With so many conventions and a small volunteer staff, it's become increasingly difficult to keep up.
After reviewing our options and the types of information being submitted, we've decided to make some changes to our policies to better align with the original purpose of the site.
I launched AnimeCons.com in late 2003 as a site intended to list every known anime convention—past, present, and future. In that year, there were 147 anime conventions. (It's possible a few were missed initially and added later.) Over the years, the number of anime conventions grew, and the distinction between anime conventions and other "pop-culture" conventions began to blur. I started receiving more and more submissions for conventions that were anime-adjacent, making it increasingly difficult to determine which events should be listed and which should be excluded.
At the beginning of 2012, I launched FanCons.com to address this issue. While both sites shared a common database, AnimeCons.com would only display conventions with anime programming, while FanCons.com expanded to include any type of fan convention. This allowed submissions for comic, furry, horror, sci-fi, and other conventions. A few years later, I created specific sites for some of these sub-genres, making it easier for fans to find conventions focused on fantasy, furry, horror, science fiction, steampunk, toys, and video games. After the initial setup of each site, they required minimal maintenance, as they all pulled data from the same FanCons.com database. Fortunately, I've had several volunteers who've helped curate this data, making it possible to manage without having to do it all myself.
In recent years, particularly after conventions resumed following the COVID shutdown, we've seen a surge in submissions for collectible and hobbyist shows, including card shows, pin collecting shows, swap meets, and fan marketplaces. These events are often held multiple times a year—sometimes monthly. As you can imagine, keeping up with literally hundreds of submissions for these events has taken time away from other important tasks, such as processing submissions for traditional conventions, adding missing guest listings, or finishing development on a new member registration system to replace our long-broken one. While we've previously rejected submissions for events that focused exclusively on sports cards, we've allowed others—especially those selling Magic: The Gathering or Pokémon cards—to slip through. Unfortunately for those show promoters, that will soon be changing.
To better manage our resources and maintain the site's original purpose, we're refocusing FanCons.com on fan conventions. While collectible events attract large crowds, they often lack the type of programming or interactive content that typically defines a fan convention. Going forward, we want to list events where you can go and participate in convention programming. We want to feature gaming events where attendees can play games, not just buy cards. We want to list comic conventions where you can engage with others about comics, not merely browse tables of back issues for sale. We want to feature toy conventions that celebrate fandoms like Lego, My Little Pony, or Transformers rather than events which only have vendors selling vintage Hot Wheels or Barbies. If you see a video game convention listed, we want it to be a convention where attendees can actively participate in gameplay or tournaments—however, tournaments alone are not actually conventions.
To achieve this, we will no longer accept submissions for collectible shows, swap meets, flea markets, or geek marketplaces. Additionally, we will stop listing weekly or monthly events being held at comic or collectible shops that are promoted as "conventions" or "mini-cons". Some events may still blur the line, and we anticipate having to make some tough decisions. We understand that some event promoters may be disappointed or upset with these changes, but after carefully considering our options, we believe they are necessary to maintain the site's integrity and focus.
These updates are now reflected in our Policy on Listed Events, which also outlines other event types we do not list, such as club meetings, film festivals, concerts, bar crawls, music festivals, and karaoke contests. Any events currently listed that do not meet the new criteria will remain in our database, but we will no longer publish future dates for these types of events.
Patrick Delahanty is the creator and administrator of FanCons.com. He has attended 195 fan conventions since attending his first in 1991. Thanks to his son, he's also frequently attending train shows (but those get listed somewhere else entirely).
