Most participants today received a private mail probably including this text:
"I thank you once again for your application and your consideration of the event. Your consideration, as well as that of all other applicants, means a lot to me. I also encourage you to consider applying for future editions."
I strongly believe we need neutral and anonymous statistics in that kind of events, if we cannot have information about the event, if we cannot go there because we don't satisfy the "secret" criterions, how can we trust any organizers if we are either not and sometimes never picked or selected?
The answer is pretty simple, we need neutral anonymous statistics and probably more private and personal feedback: if a notation is used to rank the participants, the rejected participants need to know either their failed notation (with the reference notation to the "last" participant that was granted access so he/she can know what are his/her chance to enter the event) or with the reference ranking he she reached and how much place the event would need to add for this attempt to accept it. I believe we don't need that for the accepted participants. Maybe there should be an option to opt out for the private feedback but this information should be communicated by default.
Please don't reply it cannot be done because it probably can be done in some way, from the instant you can build a list of participants, you can provide hints or useful data to to the rejected participants. For example, if You do ten rounds of selections because you have way too much applications, you can tell them at which round they were rejected. It might be a bit more difficult but it can be done. This can be done in a second time but I believe this has an interest for You and Your convention.
I insist this is a delicate question and it should not be solely and silenty rejected by convention organizers in preferring a culture of the secret: such cultures only encourages bad practices and unregulated actions, the biggest risk being establishing a double standard in the pratice and allowing to not respect your own criterions, this will only harm your event if you choose to not communicate to all of your participants, including the unselected ones, the legitimate information they desserve.
I'd also like to thank everyone who read me, this text is under cc-by licence, so it might be reproducted for any purpose as long any modification performed is communicated. In other words, feel free to share or quote it, but don't alter my wording...
For those who don't know me: I am a french cosplay photographer and videographer, active since 2008 (and 2011 for videos), i've done more than 800 cosplay dedicated shootings over the years, gone to more than 250 conventions and I've met hundred of people. You are free to not like my works or not like what I wrote, but please stay polite and nice as I believe this issue has to be raised at least once.
Someone told they "I heard they had than more 1000 applications". Well we don't have any official statistics, so we don't know if this information is legitimate and can be trusted. I also believe this won't solve Volta main's problem: probably way too much people are wanting to go there and telling them to continue applying will most likely not improve the situation. At least, I we can have a few exact statistics, we could know how is the exact situation and do not put too much hope when attempting to go there.
Just to be more complete, what kind of statistics could we expect?
* have two main categories: cosplayer / photographer.
For each category:
* indicate the total number of people that attempted to participate.
* indicate the total number of people that were accepted.
* in option, after the event, indicate the total number of people that actually participated the event (after the event).
* still as an option, a sub category: country provenance of the participants, rejected or selected could be something possible, as long there are enough people in this category (more than 5 persons I'd say); otherwhise they should be grouped together into an 'other country' category.
Those stats should be anonymous and would probably help people in understanding what would be their chance of actually success in participating to the event.
A final word to the participants that were rejected (like me):
While you could attempt other events similar to Volta or Pixelmania (there are new events being created each years)...
Or go to public conventions or events that have a nice exteriors: Dokomi, Lucca, Sigurta, Kamiplay, Harajuku, Japan Party...
You can also shoot together with people that were rejected or people that are available in your area. Private shootings will almost always offer you better conditions than convention ones. Events like Volta are limited in time and do not provide necessarily the best shooting conditions, because the timeframe is very short and the other people going there can have a very busy planning, supposed they can and want to shoot with You. Don't hesitate to bring people with You for those private shootings, they'll be of help and they'll help in your safety.
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