LogicTheory

Exactly..could you imagine having lots of photoshoot pics framed on your wall. It would start looking like some strange shrine to yourself lol. But I guess they are great for profile pics/social media. Again though, great guest SM :) Edit: That quote messed up, I was replying to crazydan182

Great guest. I'm not a fan of having my picture taken at all though, so it's a shame there's no way to just get an autograph

Hey, I like to collect 8x10's because I can still get them framed as one large piece. So say for example a show has 9 main cast members, I eventually have the option to get them framed like this: (I hope the picture shows) I also prefer 8x10s because at the event it's much easier to look after a folder with pictures in then it is a large poster. Not to mention when you leave the guests table and have a rolled out poster in your hand, it can be a pain to get rolled up and into it's tube without space and help... at least from what I can tell from observing others at the shows. Plus there's always fading to worry about. I keep my autographs in a proper storage box with polyester pockets. I scan them in and get frame able duplicates printed. I can't tell the difference once it's on the wall and it's nice to know I not only have a original stored away safe, but also saved online in case there's a fire and it can be printed again. I don't know how I'd be able to do the same with a large poster. I've personally never seen the point of getting DVDs signed. I moved to Blu-ray for a bit a few years back but then onto a digitally stored collection of TV shows and Movies. When ever I see someone getting a DVD signed it's the same as seeing a VHS getting signed...it just looks a bit..I dunno..dated. But my other love is technology, so I guess this wouldn't matter as much to other people. I can also see merit to having the physical item reflect the age that the show/movie was released. Signed props or statues on the other hand.. they can be cool. I have a couple of them, but I also got 8x10s done from those guests as well.

I'm not confused myself, it's just every time I read about it, I think "that's going to cause some confusion" and then when I read the linked post above, I thought I'd give my opinion on a better name I like "Diamond Bolt-On" or "Diamond Package" as it avoids all confusion. I only added "Upgrade" to my post because it's one of the many names floating around that SM have used. :)

Hi All, I'm not sure if feedback is wanted or if this has been mentioned before, but would it not be better to name the Diamond pass "Diamond Bolt-On" or "Diamond Upgrade" or something similar? I'm just predicting a little bit of confusion over it and it's much easier to explain "I have a Gold Pass and a Liam Neeson Diamond Bolt-On". Especially as people could end up with a gold pass and a couple of diamond passes for different guests. It could get confusing given that you'd expect a diamond pass to have everything a gold pass has and more when you first hear about it. Use the word "pass" only when talking about entrance tickets and "upgrade" or "Bolt-On" or "package" when talking about specific guest packages maybe. It keeps things clearer :) There's already this post here http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=86730 Thanks. Edit: Just wanted to add that in Jason's original announcement he only titled the section "Diamond Pass" and in the rest of the post called them "Diamond upgrade/packages" so perhaps they were never going to be called passes in the first place. They just need to have one name that isn't "pass". I guess we won't know everything about them until the first one is announced. Looking forward to it. :)

Jason, I just don't personally understand why your responses to people complaints never actually seem to be in response to their complaints. It's like you misinterpret what they are trying to say and then reply to that. This is not the first time that this has happened either. None of your responses to date have actually even acknowledged the lack of diversity at the event. Maybe I think differently to other people or something but it seems like a diverse line-up in the MOST important thing to an event like this. It doesn't "all come down to personal taste" it just doesn't". Here's an exaggerated example. Lets say we have 10 customers who all like completely different things/shows/films. That's where different tastes come in. You announce a show with 30 guests all from different fandoms. How many of those 10 customers are going to be happy. Anywhere from 0 to all 10 of them. Now lets say you announce 30 guests all from the same fandom. Well with those 10 customers that all like different things, the best you can do is make 1 of them happy with that line-up. Of course there's many more elements to take into account but at the end of the day the success of a line-up all comes down to making as many fans happy as possible, you obviously can't please them all, but you can't possibly get anywhere near when 20/29 guests are from 2 fandoms. I'm not trying to say you don't know what you are doing, because you do run the greatest shows in the UK!! I'm just saying that the reason they are the greatest shows is because of the "something for everyone" diverse line-up. I normally go with 3 - 8 friends/family members, we all like completely different things (from Sports to Star Trek) and there's always something for everyone. You do a great job at it and we're looking forward to 2015.

Actually never mind, I guess they just don't get it. There's 29 guests announced (not including the sports section). 20 of them are most known for Star Wars and/or Doctor Who. When I say the line-up isn't as diverse as SM events normally are, I'm talking about FACTS. This line-up is FACTUALLY not as diverse as we've come to expect. No matter how many times they want to belittle that feedback as personal taste..it doesn't change the facts. I was going to CM22 but the out right disregard of customer feedback on here has put me right off. My group of 4 will be voting with our wallets on this one. On a side note... you really need a PR guy. Would it of been that difficult to have just written "We at SM listen very carefully to all feedback we get and we have heard that some of you have concerns about the diversity and caliber of the guests we have lined up so far for CM22. I want to ensure you that for every show we try our very best to please as many fans as possible with the biggest and most diverse line-up we can. CM winter is basically a new show and as such we have to start small and work up to the size of our bigger events. I know that there isn't the greatest amount of diversity in this line-up but there's still going to be fans out there that are excited for this event and hopefully a future event will take your fancy. Thanks again for all your support and feedback." ..but instead we got our feedback overlooked and belittled.

I knew we would get the "it's personal taste" response. The majority of the complaints about the line-up, that I've read, have not been "oh there's no one for me from my favorite show" they've been about that lack of variety in the line-up. I get the point about it being a new show, but I swear the business model used to be to get 1 or 2 guests from as many fandoms as possible, so that there was something for everyone. This line-up seems like it'll have a few people with 5 or so on their meet list and many many more with 0. I really hope this gets through: It's the diversity of the line up that many of us have complained about...not that the line up isn't to their specific tastes.

Normally I agree with the "vote with your wallet" mentality but not in this case. SM isn't some massive corporate company that will only know if they are doing things right by looking at their sales figures. They have a discussion forum where you can voice your opinion on what they are offering you. As we've seen with LFCC summer, they do use the feedback they get on here to make improvements. No one is saying "CM22 doesn't have the exact guest I'm after". No one is also saying "fantastic line-up, but no guests for me this time around". Most people are saying "the line-up (at the moment) isn't up to the usual standard". I can't really understand why some people would want everyone to just keep quiet and not go. Isn't it much better that SM know why people aren't attending, so they can try to improve things for this event or the next one? I also don't understand why some people think threads like this are damaging to the events future... Again, surely everyone keeping quiet about their reasons for not going, could lead to SM thinking there's no demand for the event and potentially cancelling it? I have a hunch that there's going to be a couple of last minute announcements that'll make people a bit happier. So fingers crossed :)

This comment hits the nail on the head: I'm quite happy going and only meeting the 1 person I want to meet. I'd just like there to be the usual "something for everyone" diverse line-up that we've had for years.

I'm not surprised that there's people who don't recognize anyone. They've done a good job on the sports guests but just focusing on the "Film and TV" section it's the weakest I've seen. I think SM has had too many events too close together. I know we'll probably get the same old "it's personal taste" response, but MOST of the time the price is a rough way to judge the size and/or popularity of a guest. £10-£15 smaller guest, £20 medium sized, £25 pretty big guest.. and anything above that you can't really use price as an indicator.. This event has 0x £20 and 1x £25+ Film and TV guests. I think LFCCw had 3x £20 and 3x £25+ Guests. What if Amanda cancels? I'm still holding out hope that SM will pull out a couple of great announcements in the upcoming weeks. There's still time :)

Regardless of personal taste, I'd say this is one of the weakest line-ups I've seen. There's been times in the past where there hasn't been a single person I want to see, and CM22 has 1 guest I want to meet, but I'm still able to see that this line-up isn't as good.. For example, I'm not a fan of Game of Thrones, but if SM announce someone big from the cast, even though I wouldn't personally want to meet them, I'm still able to think "wow cool guest SM, that'll bring in fans on the day and help create that busy (but hopefully not too busy) convention atmosphere we all love".

I think it'll be even quieter then LFCCw.

With Diamond guests I'd say £400 would be considered cheap, considering what we've been paying so far at SM events. If you take someone like Carrie Fisher. An autograph and a photo cost £125... add in a meet and greet and/or a talk plus anything else you might get with a diamond pass and she would easily set you back over £200. I think it's safe to say that a diamond guest could cost double the amount of Carrie Fisher, so that would be over £400 When you have a diamond pass you are guaranteed to meet the guest and get an autograph. In order to get that guarantee (in ticket form) in previous events you would of needed a gold pass which is £175. Add in to the mix that SM have said tickets will be limited (maybe to as low as 100 tickets) and we all know that anything limited is instantly more expensive... (At the end of the day, if you've got 100 tickets and 10,000 people want them, you sell to people who are willing to pay the most.) I think £400 is too cheap of an estimate. That's not to say I would pay it personally, but you look at all the variables and what we've been happy to pay individually so far, and I'd be extremely surprised if it's any less. But of course it all depends on the guest and what SM can arrange. I can't wait to see what gets announced :)

Amanda Tapping is a pretty big guest and will bring in good numbers on her own. However having 1 guest on my list is the lowest amount I've ever had from a SM event. The success of a shows line-up really comes down to it's diversity, as different people like different things. I don't think it's very diverse at all at the moment and I think they need to add guests from different shows to bring in different fans. They've done a great job on the sports guests though.