[UPDATE 8 October]: Octocon and Pádraig Ó Méalóid have issued a joint statement resolving their issues. Fandom can be sensible, sometimes…
Proof positive that it’s not just giant multinational companies that are clueless about p.r. in the age of the internet, comes the saga of Irish sf convention Octocon banning Irish fan Pádraig Ó Méalóid without providing good reasons. They did this with the incredibly moronic assumption that they could keep this ban quiet when the banned fan is actually quite well known and active online and had no reasons to keep quiet. The ensuing comment thread on the post linked above is a wonder to behold, as one fan after another comes out and says “well, I don’t know anybody involved in this, but boy is this stupid” while the Octocon committee flails around tryind to defend themselves, coming across as increasingly petty.
As Gary Farber notes in the thread, when you ban somebody for credible reasons, nobody makes a fuzz, but then again such bans rarely happen before the convention takes place. So when you do feel you need to pre-emptively ban a fan, especially a wellknown fan, especially when everybody in Irish fandom seems to know there’s bad blood between you and said fan, do so publically, with good reasons and make these reasons know. Don’t try to do it on the sly and don’t do it because he hurt you widdle feelings. No matter how much of an asshole you think he is, banning somebody will only rebound on you otherwise.
UPDATE. It doesn’t help your case if you ban somebody with as sole explanation that it was “due to your behaviour at the convention some time ago and your online behaviour”, say the matter is not open for discussion and will not be discussed with anybody, then complain when Pádraig doesn’t get in touch with you but complains online (and afaik only after the matter became public knowledge anyway). Apart from anything else, it’s not up to him to humbly request why he was banned, it’s up to you to explain it properly in the first place.