The Rising Cost of Postage

[billroper]

This is going to suffer from severe selection bias, but what the heck! Let's give it a try.

[Poll #1045659]

Comments

[geekymary.livejournal.com]

I've never really cared about a con's progress report. But that's me.

[braider.livejournal.com]

There are a few people who still don't have regular enough computer access to receive mailings via email. However, those are in the minority. When people sign in, make them specify if they want to receive mailings electronically or by post. Honor their choice.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

If you make them specifically opt in for physical mail delivery, that's probably a good solution.

Opting in for email-only delivery doesn't work so well (in terms of reducing the amount/cost of mailings) unless you go to a lot of effort to urge people to opt in, in my limited experience with non-SF mailing stuff and my own unscientific impression of how people act.

[katyhh.livejournal.com]

Yup, what she said. Have them tick a box if they want to receive their PR by post.

[pheltzer.livejournal.com]

It probably depends on the size and scale of the convention. For something like a Worldcon... people expect them and get bent out of shape if they don't receive them. For a local regional con... really all I care about is whether or not the convention is actually going to happen where and when you said it was going to happen. And I can get that from the website.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

The progress report is not the same as the little reminder mailing that says con is coming, and it's time to sign up, right? That physical mailing was the little kick that reminded me to reserve a room at OVFF.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

And I get to learn how to compose my first one shortly, for OVFF.

help!

[poltr1]

I like the either/or option (paper or email) myself. I know I have enough paper clutter lying around, but part of me still thinks I'm someday going to get around to assembling a scrapbook of all the cons I've been to.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

But it can be a postcard. It's mostly saying, "We're still here! Register now and save money!" It lets folks know what hotel to make reservations for, and reminds the procrastinators among us that we'd better hurry up. (Procrastinators? In fandom? Uhhh....) I do recommend postcards or day-glo paper, though, and no envelopes!! Strange envelope = junk mail.

[mdlbear]

The PR could be on the web, with just a short *text* email and a postcard as a pointer (with a couple of the high points listed).

I don't like to get huge HTML emails, and for the most part don't read them.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

These days I never even hardly look at flyers, let alone a progress report. That's what web pages are for.

This, of course, means I expect conventions to keep their website updated.

I would think a post card mailing to remind people the convention is coming and in LARGE letters point to the web site.

And, just to finish the point, I am very leery of conventions that don't maintain an informative website.

[carolf.livejournal.com]

Some thoughts:

Not everyone is as on-line as others. If your audience is largely techie, this is probably not an issue. Otherwise ...

I have no strong preference for relatively short amounts of text. Something that is no more than a pamphlet can be as readily acessed on the web site as not. But LONG, information-heavy things I want on paper, for all the ways in which paper offers more flexiblity than computer screens. FKO progress report works fine for me on-line. Worldcon progress reports would not.

Sending forms to be filled (registration forms, for example) via email can be problematic, especially since different mailers and browsers handle forms differently. Not *everyone* is on Microsoft.

You might run into trouble with spam filters. Each comcon would have to decide how important that is in expanding or contracting its audience pool. You might also run into a problem with folks whose main email is job-related, and possibly off-limits to such mailings.

For people like my better half, email works better than snail mail -- most of the snail mail is mine, anyway. For people like me, however, you're risking my not noticing you in the list in my email box, whereas paper gets noticed, if for no other reason than I have to pay attention to what I can simply pitch vs what I have to carefully shred vs payment checks.

HTH

Progress Reports

[hazelchaz]

Definitely depends on the size, that is, the complexity of the convention.

For Worldcon... I think we still need to have them, but we could certainly do them better. Noreascon's and Nippon's are among the better more recent ones.

For animelosangeles, we print up postcards with the basic info about the convention (see my "dates rates places faces nametag mailbag" mnemonic) and a few short paragraphs with what new information we want them to know.

Most of the postcards go to people who haven't pre-registered because so many of them join at the last minute or at the door. (Last year at the two-months-out mark we had about 200 people pre-registered; the total attendance was 1785.) So the "news about what we're planning" has to be punchy headlines to get their attention, especially features that are new this year.

I'm also shepherding a similar "postcard progress report" arrangement for Gallifrey One. The headlines -- mostly about the confirmed Doctor Who writers/actors/etc. attending -- go on the card, and it gets mailed out.

In both cases, the postcard refers people to the website for more detailed information. So people get something physical in the mail, they can skim it quickly and see what the "headlines" are. For many of them, that's really all they need anyway. (We might put the hotel's address and directions on the last postcard we send out pre-con.)

Re: Progress Reports

[hazelchaz]

And if you wonder why I'm using an anime con as an example in a question that talks about s-f cons, it's because we're running it largely along the lines of another s-f con. For example, it's the only anime convention in the state that has a con suite.

[hms42]

Definately will need a paper PR. Not everyone is on broadband.

Harold

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

Roger wilco.

Pester me if you don't get OVFF PR2

[oreouk.livejournal.com]

I like having the option to get only one hard copy set for the household, rather than in duplicate as always used to happen. I like the last mailing before the con (with a map of how to get there) to be in hard copy because then I can't forget to print one out before I leave work the day before the con. The interim ones can be e-mail but I have a tendency not to read them whereas the hard copy versions sat on the kitchen table and did get read. Though if I'm being really honest that happens a lot less now that we have kids and mealtimes are a lot busier as a result.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

Larry's been overlapping Alan's and my address labels on a single copy of OVFF mailings for years, which takes some mindfulness, considering that our last names are still different even after marriage.

But now that I'm on concom, we didn't get a mailing. I'm gonna hafta ask for for a hand-to-hand copy.

[blueeyedtigress.livejournal.com]

Never thought much of progress reports. No good to me, says I ....