Why I Quit the San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog Last Year (2024)

Warning: long read ahead. Here’s my version of Saturday. I’m not affiliated with the Unofficial Blog, but I’m friends with James, who works for them. James and I have met at the SDCC and connected over our love of Firefly and photography. I originally planned to skip what was surely to be madness in Saturday’s Hall H, but the presence of The Hobbit plus at least two other panels I was interested in I decided to brave the lines.

I’ve been coming to Comic-Con for a few years and each year the lines to the big panels and even outside events seem longer and often more badly managed. It used to be I could arrive at 6am and get a good spot, then it was midnight, then 6pm, now it’s coming down to 12pm or even earlier the day before. I keep telling myself I’ve reached my limit, but so far I’ve been willing to push myself to give up more and stay in line more to get that better spot for better photos. I actually put the blame for this on the shoulders of almost every tip blog for Comic-Con that I think helps fan the flames of line panic and anxiety in their tips and of course on the official Comic-Con organizers themselves for not having a better system than just endless lines.

I messaged a few friends, including James, about being line buddies on Saturday and to see when we should start lining up. We originally thought 4pm would be a good enough time to guarantee a decent photo spot (first section of the hall). I usually only let my husband cut in with me the morning after camping, but the new wristband system meant we’d both had to stick around for those to be handed out. We have a puppy that needs to be walked at least every 12 hours, but preferably sooner, so we gave up our entire Friday morning and arrived late to make sure both of us could stay at least until 10 pm and we’d hoped by then we’d have wristbands.

It seemed like a similarly popular day in Hall H (Friday’s Game of Thrones and Walking Dead) experienced a huge problem the night before since people were not officially lined up, but instead congregated unofficially waiting for the line to start right outside Hall H and once the line opened between 5pm to 6pm, there was a crazy crush of fans trying to be first. There was no official line, just an unofficial mob that made an unsafe, scary push all at once to the front. It was a horrible way to handle the new system.

I was hoping they’d fix this by the next day and have some way of handling people who will inevitably arrive before the line “officially” opens, whatever that means at today’s Comic-Con. And I’d like to point out Comic-Con never said when the lines could become official. They just said they won’t start handing out wristbands until 8pm – nothing about what to do until then. Did they really think people will casually arrive at 8pm one by one to pick up a wristband without lining up?

So back to Saturday, when I arrived a little after noon and texted James. He texted me back and said there was some confusion because there were already three unofficial lines and he was in one of them and Jeremy was investigating the others.

The line by the Gotham exhibit was the one James was in and there was maybe 80 or so people in it – of course most of them were saving spots for others so in the end I believe it ended up being around 150 people. At the front of this unofficial line was someone who has been in line since 4pm the day before. Yes, 4pm on Thursday. This was not someone associated with the Unofficial Blog, just a fan. Behind her were people who arrived at 3 am, 7 am, 8 am, etc – also nothing to do with the Unofficial Blog. I’m not sure when James or Jeremy arrived, but they were not the first nor were they the ones who created any of these unofficial lines. They were trying to make sense of what was happening themselves.

Here’s a video Jeremy posted interviewing the people who got in line, is the accusation that this is blog staff and orchestrated by the blog to block others? Because these are clearly fans who are just dedicated to being first, nothing to do with the blog: https://twitter.com/SD_Comic_Con/status/493059847777439745

What’s not on this video is that security wouldn’t let people officially line up. I think they kept telling people that they couldn’t tell others they were in a line, only that they were hanging out. That’s why the girl in the video says it’s a “secret” And as long as you were not blocking traffic, hanging out was allowed. There were two other lines like this, but none with as dedicated as a person in the front as the one by Gotham.

Yes, like me, James wanted to get into Hall H and we were both willing to put in the time to get in. In the current Comic-Con world, this is the fairest we can be. I’m not jumping in front of anyone more dedicated. Everyone ahead of us has been there longer – in some cases almost 24 hours longer. I was surprised how far away this “line” was from the actual Hall H. If security did nothing and all the gatherings remained unofficial, there would have been a mad dash for the actual line at 5 or 6pm like the day before, anyone just walking by the Hall H lines at the right time would have a better chance of being there than we were all the way by Gotham. If we wanted to be first, but unfair, we would be better off just showing up at 5pm and making a run for it instead of being in any unofficial line. This seemed like a horrible idea and especially unfair to the fans who’ve been gathering since 4pm the day before.

I think James tried to talk to security about making one of the lines or gatherings official or just figuring out how to handle the crowd that was gathering no matter what. Clearly, trying to insist there not to be a line was not working, even if security repeatedly asked people not to say they were in a line. There were people waiting to get in line even if it was not official. Having some sort of official place would make it more safe and avoid the mad crush from the day before.

I believe security on the ground talked to their supervisors some of whom came out to inspect the situation and the various unofficial gatherings. I think they chose the line by the Gotham offsite to be official because it had the people in it waiting the longest – the lady at the front since 4pm on Thursday and the people behind her at like 3am and 7am. Once again, this had nothing to do with the Unofficial Blog. It just happened that one of the staffers from the Unofficial Blog was also in one of the unofficial lines.

So all the blog staff did (and this was James, not Jeremy) was ask that they consider having something official happen because repeating what had happened on Friday night with a mad crush and run to the front was probably going to end in heartbreak for a lot of fans and perhaps even serious injury. Do you guys remember the lady that got run over when she ran across the street to get in a moving line a few years back? This was a scenario waiting to repeat.

This should not be considered a bad thing. Talking to officials was trying to help fans, especially the most dedicated, a fair chance at being in front instead of being crushed by a mob later.

I think Comic-Con picked the line that had the people waiting in it the longest not because someone bribed them to give preferential treatment to bloggers. Jeremy was not even there. He was away checking out the situation with the other unofficial lines and trying to decide what to say about it publicly.

Once the line was moved to the sidewalk by the Hilton Plaza and security told to tell people this was now an official line, James texted Jeremy about the developments and he came by and then tweeted out that the line was official and if you wanted to be in it where it was.

Here’s that tweet at 2:30 pm.

This is when the line probably had about 100+ people from the various unofficial gatherings announced to the world on a popular blog. I think there were unofficial grumblings about it around on Twitter beforehand. This is what all this hullabaloo is about? Really???

I guess people’s main beef is that Jeremy could have tweeted out earlier that there were 3 unofficial lines and gatherings and that he was investigating them, but I’m curios what fans would have done with this info. Would you have left panels at 11 am or whenever he actually became aware of the three “lines” to do what? Which unofficial line would you have joined? How would security handle 1000 new people milling around the side of Hall H?

This goes back to my personal bias that I think blogs are making these lines worse. Every tweet that goes out from a popular person that says “guys, you better get in line at 6pm if you want to get in” makes it more likely that if you’re a casual con goer and show up at 7am the next day you’ve been beaten by the more fanatical who were willing to forgo showers and beds for a spot.

I wish Comic-Con had a better system: selling VIP tickets, clearing halls, letting people bid fixed number of points for spots, anything but the longer and longer lines each year. Given what happened this year, I’m dreading the lines next year. I had to give up all of Friday’s programming and parties to have a good spot in Hall H. Next year, will I have to give up Thursday’s as well??

The wristbands just made this worse by making the lines form for the wristbands themselves.

All the wristbands solved is the early morning cutting by someone’s 20 closest friends. Now those 20 people have to make an effort to be there at 8pm for wristband hand out instead.

I don’t wish to enter a debate about anything else because I have no knowledge about anything else, whatever history you have between you is yours and I can’t comment on it. I’m not officially affiliated with the Unofficial Blog, but as I stated in the beginning I’m friends with James, who I want to repeat is a nice guy, with a kind, honest heart. And for a change I was there for most of what happened Saturday and, so far, none of these reports really reflected my experiences. It seems like the claim is the Unofficial Blog made themselves a line that they were in front of, when that’s not the case at all.
What they did is they didn’t report on the three unofficial lines that formed without them until one was made official. Why is that getting so much hate?

How did it benefit them personally? James was already in one of the unofficial lines (not even in the front but definitely over 100 people in). Would tweeting it out make him somehow lose his spot? No.

All the not tweeting out did was not have a 1000 panicked fans show up with no actual place to go and create an even bigger problem.

All the people in that unofficial line, all also not associated with the Unofficial Blog, were really happy when the line got made official, because we knew there would be no crush. We took care of each other. There was the girl with the Hello Kitty backpack and her brother in front of us and a large happy group behind us, one of whom had his iPhone charger catch on fire while waiting. None of these people have come online to participate in these discussions. I feel like most of the comments are coming from people who were not there. None of us got t-shirts like some posts implied. We put in a very long time – in the sun and then sleeping on the ground – to get semi-decent seats. If you didn’t get in Hall H, it wasn’t because you didn’t know about any of the unofficial lines at 11 am, but only found out about the official line at 2:30 pm.

It almost feels like we’re collectively taking out our frustrations with the lines on a blog that otherwise provides lots and lots of useful info. Can we channel all this negative energy into a positive and work on proposing ways to solve the lines and line management?

I hope if you’ve met me at the con you think I’m nice and fair because I try to be.

I like to take photos and share them with fans. Tony, you can even use my photos on your blog and I won’t get mad. If you see me in line I’m probably there to take photos of something I like. If you like the same things, I’ll be happy to talk to you about it. If we are there for different things, I promise I won’t dis your fandom. I will watch your stuff if you need to go to the bathroom, I’ll share my snacks with you if I have extra, and hopefully provide you with decent company, because that’s what lines are usually like. *nerdlove*

Whatever has been happening post this year’s Comic-Con is disheartening and sad.

If you have any questions, you can ask me on my twitter handle @egaal

Please let’s try to help official Comic-Con on finding an official problem to lines instead of dissing each other in such an unproductive way.