This will cover their reply on Tumblr [1] and their website [2]. Let's start with what was posted on Tumblr. (Note: Anything stated by DashCon is in blue.)

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This is a followup to my previous post.

Though kinder more forgiving souls are willing to give the DashCon heads the benefit of the doubt and label the mess "growing pains", the more I read of their series of misinformation and outright lies the more I'm inclined to believe otherwise.

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What happens when a group of fans with no relevant experience get together to run a three day geek convention? DashCon 2014. It begun its life as Tumlbr-Con, organized by fans who had no idea what they were doing.

While Dashcon was Tumbl-Con USA, they decided to create committees for each fandom to raise money for the convention itself. Their method would be to ask popular fanartists/fanfic writers to donate fanworks so that they could be auctioned off and the proceeds would go to the con. They first wanted to secure a convention area and get hotels. The way the committees were formed was absolutely fucked up, they literally put an open call on the blog and said “WHO WANTS TO FORM A COMMITTEE TO HELP US RAISE FUNDS?” they asked no questions whatsoever. [1]

What about the organizers? Surely they had the chops to handle something of this scale.

None of the main convention organizers appear to have a background in fan conventions or similar events. DashCon owners Megan Eli and Roxanne Schwieterman are a novelist “with 15 years of business experience” and a 20-year-old with “a degree in hospitality management,” respectively. [2]

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Been away a while, and there's a lot of topics I could go on about, but I'm not sure who's around anymore. Most people I know have moved on to Twitter, Tumblr or even resigned themselves to the bowels of Facebook.

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"Help a broke anthropology student go to field school!!!!" read the GoFundMe. The amount for the summer study abroad was raised, but a couple of months later another plea went up to help cover rent, bills, medicine and moving. A few days later followed posts about how much they’re enjoying the latest Grand Theft Auto, currently retailing around $60.

It was this that made me wonder something. Sites like Reddit, according to a friend, bristle when people stress STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) over the liberal arts -- a misconception of liberal arts students being less intelligent doesn't help -- but I wonder if people are being a little blind or naive in defense of the latter. People want to believe their degree is useful and their money well spent. They want to believe there's a future for them, but no matter how fascinating that degree is it might not actually be marketable. Case in point: anthropology.

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Recently an artist posted tips for making "freelance life easier by saving you time and money and keeping your morale up". Her tips included (summarized):

• Put dish soap on greasy pans first before water and rub it around
  
• Throw out scrubby sponges when they smell.
  
• Use vinegar for everything.
  
• Buy a cheap pumice stone to scrub porcelain.
  
• Shop at the 99 cent store for produce, food, etc.
  
• Don't shop at Goodwill or Salvation army. Instead shop at local thrift stores.
  
• "Couponing is a full-time job, and you often have to buy in large quantities."

There's some good advice there, but lacking in my opinion. Going over her tips, I'd add:
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"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon

Years back if you asked Shari where she saw herself in comics, it probably wouldn't be as a colorist. She could have stuck with what was familiar: black and white comics; a lot of people do. But I think it's a mistake to stick to only what you know. You may be good at it, but it also limits oneself, and opportunities can be missed.

Anyway, in the end, she added colorist to her skill set. First was Kill Shakespeare: The Tide of Blood which recieved good reviews. The last issue should be out this or the next month. Her next work released yesterday, Sheltered.

A PRE-APOCALYPTIC TALE OF SURVIVAL AT ANY COST.The men and women of Safe Haven have been preparing for any-and-all end of world scenarios for years. However, their bunkers, weapons and training can't save them from the one threat they never could have expected: Their own children. [1]

I'm happy with the reviews. Pre-orders were good, and hopefully people will continue to enjoy the series.

Now I'm just going to enjoy the nice things people have said:

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I took a trip down the rabbit hole, sort of. Bear with me.

While checking out the latest updates on the Sullivan's Sluggers Kickstarter fiasco -- I didn't pledge to that project, but and saddened to see the writer behaving so poorly -- I came upon one person's reviews of projects he's supported. One he ranked lower was Ashes. The names sounded familiar, so I dug a little. Lo and behold, I remembered this bit of drama.

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I've thought of this before, and I think I've mentioned a variation of this elsewhere: indirectly criticizing someone else's likes.

Person #1: I like [thing]!
Person #2: Uh-huh sure but know what's better? [Other thing that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the first thing]!

This bugs me. Just reeks of "I'm looking down on you for what you like because what I like, regardless of how relevant that interest is in this conversation, is clearly superior. I don't care that you didn't ask and you're specifically talking about that first thing, let's now focus on what I like." [...]

I caught myself before I did it [...] It was a slightly different form of this, though... some one posted "please pray for me" and I almost commented along the lines of "I don't pray, but I'll send good thoughts" essentially. Was what I almost said cruel or ill-intended? No. But if I'd said that it'd STILL be me commenting and making it about ME. Who the fuck cares if I pray or not? She didn't ask. No one did. Commenting with that would have been self-centered and egotistical and I would have been taking the focus off of her for no good reason whatsoever. [1]

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This is a fun little test of your writing. The site explains it thusly:

This free online software tool calculates readability : Coleman Liau index, Flesch Kincaid Grade Level, ARI (Automated Readability Index), SMOG. The measure of readability used here is the indication of number of years of education that a person needs to be able to understand the text easily on the first reading. Comprehension tests and skills training. [...] In general, these tests penalize writers for polysyllabic words and long, complex sentences.

I ran a few blog entries that are devoid of quotes from other sources through the tool and came up with the following:

Gunning Fog index : 9.25
Flesch Reading Ease : 61.77

Gunning Fog index : 9.75
Flesch Reading Ease : 62.46

Gunning Fog index : 11.20
Flesch Reading Ease : 57.80

Gunning Fog index : 11.22
Flesch Reading Ease : 59.79

Gunning Fog index : 8.22
Flesch Reading Ease : 68.92

When running a few of my short stories though the tool, it scored even higher on average. I don't place too much importance in such a rating, especially considering the rather unstructured, rambling nature of a blog. It is very interesting though.

To compare, I placed an excerpt from Winnie the Pooh and Through the Looking Glass into the tool and got the following results, respectively:

Gunning Fog index : 7.41
Flesch Reading Ease : 81.70

Gunning Fog index : 6.57
Flesch Reading Ease : 76.02