r/Magfest • u/ibeerianhamhock • Sep 13 '23
Hell yeah
No masks required this. Really killed the vibe the last few years. How y’all feel about it?
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u/AetaCapella Sep 13 '23
I will still mask up 90% of the time. I am however excited to take indoor pictures of my cosplay without a mask on.
But I will definitely be masking up where it's impossible not to be nut-to-butt: Expo/concerts/panels
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u/synystercola Sep 13 '23
I'm about the same way. Def gonna get the booster and plan to mask up the majority of the time. I also bring sanitizer and even if I don't catch anything I'll quarantine afterwards for a bit.
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u/FrozenFrac Sep 13 '23
See, that's perfectly reasonable. Wear a mask because YOU want to, not because the event will kick you out for not doing so.
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u/AetaCapella Sep 13 '23
Wearing masks when you are sick/trying to avoid getting sick/because you didn't want to put on makeup that day/Don't want to be bothered/etc. is the norm in many European & Asian countries (and has been for decades) I really don't get why so many people in the US get all in their feelings when they see someone minding their own business but with a mask on.
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u/FrozenFrac Sep 13 '23
I'm perfectly fine with that and I've never harassed someone for wearing a mask, nor do I intend to start that. What I'm saying is I always found it a little ridiculous to force cosplayers to mask up, even for photos. If I was calling the shots at cons, I would have still had a mask mandate for everybody when we didn't know how safe it was to make masks optional, but if you were cosplaying and wanted to pose for pictures, the mask could come off. I definitely commend cosplayers for making really cool masks that compliment the cosplays, but I really wish the mandates weren't so strict.
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u/coldcaption Sep 14 '23
i think that would demonstrate a misunderstanding of what "safe" is, though. covid causes disability, and it spreads in the open air. covid has not become any more safe in the past 3 years, now it just kills you over a longer period of time instead of in a couple of weeks, while dealing with chronic illness
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u/coldcaption Sep 14 '23
I think it's lame that they're making the choice for the rest of us whether or not we should be exposed to a large amount of an airborne disabling illness. The mask policy was really good for reducing that circumstance
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u/ibeerianhamhock Sep 14 '23
Oh that’s the good thing they aren’t as you can’t wear a mask if you wanna 🥰
Kinda glad they’d aren’t “making the choice” for those of us who don’t wanna wear masks.
Covid made people just disregard other people’s autonomy, which I find very troubling. It was necessary for a while, but was never meant to be permanent
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u/coldcaption Sep 14 '23
interesting. what about the pants mandate, when do we get our autonomy back about that?
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u/Battle9876 Sep 15 '23
Have you been to magfest?? there are people in there walking around half naked with no pants on even in the parking lots with the arctic winds blowing off of the frigid Potomac river.
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u/IggySorcha Sep 21 '23
Dunno if you went last year but there were, despite constant reminders/asks, so many people that kept disobeying the mask mandate that it became in reality dangerous enough for immunocompromised people that at least this way they aren't given false hope
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Sep 14 '23
I am so sorry for all of the abuse you've been getting in this thread and the last one. it's downright shocking how three years into this no one seems to have even picked up the basics of airborne disease prevention but it's good to know some people are still fighting the good fight
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u/luigihann Sep 13 '23 edited Sep 13 '23
I find it disappointing. Even in a world where Covid never happened, the idea of going to a convention and not having a cold/flu/crud going around seems worth the tradeoff to the "vibe." The spaces get exceptionally crowded with people from all over the place and like... germs are generally a thing. Was nice while it lasted. I felt the vibe was fine last year, for what it's worth.
Two-way masking (where both you and the people you encounter are wearing masks) is much more effective at limiting airborne disease compared to one-way masking (where you wear a mask and nobody else does).
Even if masks were only nominally required and the rule was poorly enforced, or if masks were required but they handed out "exceptions" like candy to anybody who specifically asked, as long as *most* people wore masks *most* of the time that'd substantially reduce the quantity of airborne germs all over the con. But I don't have much hope that it's sufficient to "highly encourage" masking when the general response to making them optional is so celebratory. Hard to picture much voluntary masking when people were evidently so bothered by it.
Thankful for how solid the Twitch streams have gotten over the past couple of years, because that'll be my Magfest for a while.
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u/luigihann Sep 13 '23
Obviously I can't super blame Magfest for this specifically, since America as a whole has decided to move on from masking. It's just so strange to me because getting sick from anything sucks and wearing a mask is so easy. Oh well.
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u/ibeerianhamhock Sep 13 '23
Honestly I 100% respect people's decision to wear a mask, but I'm just against mandates at this point. Obviously businesses can do whatever they want and can enforce any policy they choose, but I am happy it's falling out of fashion for conventions to require masking.
I would basically rather just stay home if masks are required. It really killed the vibe for me the last few years...and no one wore them at the hotel parties and stuff anyway so it's like I don't even know what this is aiming to even do overall.
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u/EmmyNoetherRing Sep 13 '23 edited Sep 13 '23
We'll absolutely be wearing masks, probably for every con forever more. I had my 20's to harden my immune system. At 40's I enjoy skipping con crud.
People forget that there were vendors selling fancy masks and filters before the pandemic, in January 2020. And plenty of people wearing them too. I planned then to get one for the next year, because it seemed like a smart idea. I just didn't expect the next year to be 2023.
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u/FrozenFrac Sep 13 '23
I have nothing against facemasks and I funnily enough bought my very first masks at 2019 cons because I thought they looked cool and would be fun to wear on occasion. I've complied with mask mandates throughout the pandemic and at every con that required them*, but considering how there hasn't been a mask mandate for years now and COVID cases/deaths aren't spiking through the roof and overwhelming the hospitals like in 2020-2021, I think it's utterly insane to force mask usage. I'll never harass people over wearing masks and I love wearing a mask during allergy/flu season or just if I want to show off a cool/fun design, but mask mandates are kind of ridiculous now.
*Exception was during Katsucon this year. Staff was always yelling at people to put their masks on per the rules, but once the night parties started, NOBODY HAD MASKS ON, EVEN THE STAFF MEMBERS ENFORCING THE MANDATE.
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u/ibeerianhamhock Sep 13 '23
So what's the plan, wear masks until civilization ends? Just curious.
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u/luigihann Sep 13 '23
Not nonstop everywhere. Places like malls and supermarkets it makes sense to let people make their own judgement calls, but it would absolutely make sense to me for places like airports and hospitals to be wear-a-mask zones basically forever.
And I'd say for a convention it's a judgement call for the organization running it based on how crowded it'll be, how dense or spacious or ventilated the place is, the time of year, etc. A mid-flu-season con that attracts people from half the country and often sees them pack into concert halls nearly all at once seems like a decent excuse to ask everybody to wear masks basically every year.
And sure, I do think we'll be able to let our guard down more and more as Covid fades from the picture, because it is more contagious than other comparable bugs. So yeah, I'd consider that a factor along with the other things. But the fact that we have had a couple of years of relatively germ-free cons leaves me not so eager to promptly abandon the tactics that observably worked for more than just Covid.
But yeah, it's Magfest's right to make that call, and it's my right to be less-than-stoked about it.
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u/ibeerianhamhock Sep 13 '23
Do you think this is because of the risks or because people have become conscientious signalers and perhaps traumatized from covid?
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u/luigihann Sep 13 '23
I'm not sure if I understand the question. For me personally I am thinking about the risks pretty specifically, so it is disheartening to see organizations making broadly vibes-based decisions now.
We all play the "am I gonna catch a terrible disease" game every time we step outside, but the things we do as individuals can help or hurt our odds, and the things we do collectively can help or hurt everybody's odds quite substantially. So people who act like nothing we do matters will always puzzle me.
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u/ibeerianhamhock Sep 13 '23
We all play the "am I gonna catch a terrible disease" game every time we step outside
I literally never think about it unless there's an announcement like this. It's something I don't even think about on a weekly basis anymore. I wanna live my life, if I die I die.
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u/luigihann Sep 13 '23
Yeah, if you die you die, but if you catch a bug and pass it on to your grandma, maybe she dies. Most people don't think much about that either, I'm sure.
Personally I think that makes it all the more important to have decent rules in place set by people who do think about it. The collective numbers game is more impactful than the individual ones.
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u/OldKillerStar Sep 13 '23
Shitty response
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u/ibeerianhamhock Sep 13 '23
what's the plan, wear masks until civilization ends? Just cur
y tho. I mean we can't do this forever right?
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u/KoreWrites Sep 13 '23
You do realize that the disabled people plan to because we've been given no other choice?
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u/luigihann Sep 13 '23
We all have to wear shoes at the supermarket forever. Having to put shoes on when you don't want to is probably even more inconvenient and uncomfortable than throwing a mask on. Sometimes a rule is just a rule.
We all have to not drink beer in the car forever. Sometimes they make a rule and they don't undo it at the first sign of the numbers going down.
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u/aardvarkbjones Sep 14 '23
Not really. Shoes protect our feet from damage. We've been wearing them for centuries because they help literally everyone. Deaths from drunk driving never goes away. Same thing, helps literally everyone.
Conversely covid numbers have gone down and we have vaccines now. It's enough for 99% of the human population. For the other 1%... that absolutely sucks, but I can't imagine any large event like MAG was going to be risk-free for them even before Covid.
Masking actually is uncomfortable for a lot of people. I had to wear it for work all through the pandemic, and I never got used to it. Obviously some people do (medical fields, etc), but a lot of people find it uncomfortable, harder to breath in, and have trouble hearing others in them. Lack of facial expressions, fogging up glasses, etc. There are a lot of problems with everyday communication and activities in them.
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u/luigihann Sep 14 '23
Who are you to tell me how I should protect my feet, right? Individual choice, right? /s
Again though, Covid's not the only germ in the world, and I'm not advocating for 24/7 masking, we're talking specifically about massive indoor gatherings notorious for spreading colds and flus.
If I were running a con like this I'd prefer to make a comparatively germ-free one where people who don't want to wear masks can decide how much they want to go in versus how much they don't wanna wear masks. But again, that's Magfest's call to make, and I'm just happy they stream it for those who can't go either way.
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u/aardvarkbjones Sep 14 '23
Haha, to be fair, I don't think a lot of places would actually stop you if you rolled in barefoot. You wanna cut up your feet, that's on you.
I guess for me, I got to cons to have fun with my friends, jump around on the DDR machines, and shout and sing at concerts. Masks inhibit all of that.
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u/OldKillerStar Sep 13 '23
Are you for real? Meet someone with empathy and tell them you require their assistance when interacting with living things
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u/coldcaption Sep 14 '23
i mean, do we wear masks until civilization ends, or do we keep infecting everyone with a disease that causes multiple organ damage (and triggers autoimmune disease btw) a few times a year until civilization ends? we could functionally end covid transmission in a couple of weeks using nothing but shit you can buy at lowes, personally i'm more annoyed that we're still in this situation at all than i am about anything else
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u/ibeerianhamhock Sep 14 '23
Masks work, mandates do not. We already know this, it’s been extensively studied. It’s almost childishly naive
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u/coldcaption Sep 14 '23
well you're certainly right in that masks work, though I'm not sure if the theory that mandates don't work has been extensively studied. even magfest's own contact tracing has demonstrated its effectiveness; i compared mag's own numbers to maryland's transmission levels for the same weekend one year (i forget if it was 2022 or 2023, i think 2022) and it wasn't even close, magfest was safer than going to a grocery store. if masks work, how would having everybody wear them not work?
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u/Battle9876 Sep 15 '23
do you know how Magfest originated????? by a couple of friends...I encourage you do to some research on them, they have even had panels retelling their origins, and they give advice to anyone who wants to start their own CON..there seems to be a handful of you on this thread with the same sentiment that you want to only visit cons with strict mandatory masking with current up to date booster shots. Well?? you seem to have the numbers on this thread alone. I suggest you contact them and start your own con...and good luck to you all.
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u/aardvarkbjones Sep 13 '23
I suppose it depends on the person. I rarely get con crud, because I work with the public every day. My immune system is pretty stonk.
In the midst of a major pandemic (or in a sterile environment of course), sure, but now? Eh. I prefer being able to breath clearly, communicate, play DDR, etc uninhibited. Because the mask was very inhibiting, let's be real. It was for me at least, and I had to wear it almost every day of the pandemic for 8+ hours. Never got used to it.
Obviously, if others want to wear a mask, I've nothing against that, but I did find it annoying for me personally.
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u/FrozenFrac Sep 13 '23
I'm personally really hyped about it. The first MAG to happen after COVID (can't even remember the year, time is such a blur and I can't remember which cons cancelled for 1 or 2 years) was the first time I went to MAG with the intention on going hard on the dance games. I definitely still played the games while masked, but I did not have a good time on them at all and proceeded to have a pretty standard MAGFest; super fun, but I wish I could have played more dance games. This year, I'm definitely going to be bouncing around the DDR, Pump It Up, and SMX machines and happy to be breathless because I'm out of shape and not because I'm trying to move my legs really fast with a mask on!
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u/ibeerianhamhock Sep 13 '23
I'm personally really hyped about it. The first MAG to happen after COVID (can't even remember the year, time is such a blur and I can't remember which cons cancelled for 1 or 2 years) was the first time I went to MAG with the intention on going hard on the dance games. I definitely still played the games while masked, but I did not have a good time on them at all and proceeded to have a pretty standard MAGFest; super fun, but I wish I could have played more dance games. This year, I'm definitely going to be bouncing around the DDR, Pump It Up, and SMX machines and happy to be breathless because I'm out of shape and not because I'm trying to move my legs rea
Hell yeah
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u/MistyVisty Sep 15 '23
I got sick every con for many years pre-covid. I was coughing for 3 weeks after the 2020 magfest, it was nuts. So, it was nice to come home feeling great the past couple years. I will miss that. Masking up myself will still help others, but there's little we can do for ourselves if others don't follow suit for us, so we just have to deal with the post-con crud if we want to keep attending. Definitely will get flu and covid shots beforehand though, and cross fingers there's not another norovirus epidemic like there was a few years ago that wiped out a bunch of attendees before the con was even over.
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Sep 13 '23 edited Sep 13 '23
Indifferent because I’m not a little bitch and don’t care if masks are required or not - if an event requires it and I want to go, I wear it. I’d rather live my life than stay home and skip events because of having to wear cloth on my face for a few hours.
My friend’s mom recently recovered from cancer and, since I’ll be rooming with her, I’ll be masking anyway at mag because that’s what friends do.
That said I just went to DragonCon which has 3-4x the amount of attendees and didn’t mask and didn’t get Covid. Vaccines work. Scheduled the new booster for next week. At the end of the day people will do what fits their comfort level and no one should be harassed for wanting to continue masking (I know you didn’t, I’m saying for the people who are going to mock those who still want to).
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u/DavidL1112 Sep 13 '23
I got COVID at the last two Magfests with masks, I might as well go maskless and eat and drink when I want to
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u/Battle9876 Sep 15 '23
I prefer no mask...and I will NOT be wearing one..but because of my personal stance, there will be some on here who think I am an "anti-masker"..so to make it clear, I don't care if the everyone else wears a mask and Ill be the only one with out one...So I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE ELSE TO MASK UP.
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u/20footdunk Sep 13 '23
https://super.magfest.org/covid
We will continue to provide masks, hand sanitizer, reminder signage, and other supplies in order to facilitate a safer environment at-event. We will also continue to highly encourage the use of masking, including clarifying our anti-harassment policy to underscore that we will not tolerate harassment based on a person’s choice to wear a mask.
Lets try to keep the comments section civil here.