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1. So, at the Worldcon this year there was a person who was going from panel to panel, bothering panelists by trying to get them to "collaborate" with them on a project and sliding the proposed project to them on a piece of paper. Folks, I cannot stress to you how obnoxious this sort of thing is.

2. First, they're at a fuckin' panel, they're not going to have time to discuss anything else with you. Second, it's inappropriate to corner anyone in a time/place where they can't leave. Third, such proposals should route through an agent/representative, not be presented at a convention.

3. If some random presents me with anything in the hope of collaborating with me, I AM NOT TAKING THAT SHIT. I'm not even looking at it. It's an open invitation for that random to attempt to sue me later for "stealing their idea" or whatever. Also, fuck you, random, for putting me in that position.

4. When, in fact, this person showed up at a panel I was on and tried to slide a paper at me, I did not take it and I immediately shut them down with "No," and a refusal to have anything to do with them. I have the advantage of notability that I can be blunt and curt, but not everyone does.

5. I did not look at the paper presented to me but others who looks at theirs told me that what they had seen there had all the hallmarks of being "AI" generated, so that's somehow even more obnoxious; this person bothering panelists couldn't even be bothered to come up with their own bad ideas.

6. This person at the convention was annoying enough to enough people that they were eventually reported to convention for, effectively, harassment. I don't know the final disposition of the complaint, but the fact is this person shouldn't have been pestering all these people in the first place.

By Sunday, the person was no longer on the list of panel participants and did not show up to the panel they were slated to moderate. (The questions they sent ahead of time to the other panelists were more AI-generated garbage, naturally.)