_{Written by: Porkchop}

_{Published on: 2026-01-31}

Last year I did my first ever fan panel at Citrus Con, which is an 18+ con for BL and other queer media. Citrus con has a wide array of activities for fans including educational panels, industry panels, fan experiences from all over the world, lots of games, watch parties, and many interesting guests. The con is also free and held completely online, making this one of the most accessible cons that I attend.

I have attended Citrus con since it was first held in 2023 and each time it gets bigger and better.

While having bigger guests is nice, I appreciate that Citrus con has been able to maintain it’s welcoming atmosphere. There are so many fans from all over because they hold panels almost the entire day to reach several time zones. Every year I leave Citrus con with so much more knowledge and inspiration. I almost feel this urge to create after being around so many like-minded creatives and learning new techniques to show my love for BL. This is the reason I decided to do a introductory panel on BLCD at Citrus con.

I was a little nervous about doing a con panel. I’m not exactly shy, but I’m also not the most charismatic person in the room. I was also worried about not being an “expert” on drama CDs. I didn’t want to feed into the misinformation already apparent on social media. In the end, I decided to just try. I thought with the Citrus con community being so welcoming, people would be more open to my panel, even if there were some mistakes. All of my anxieties were immediately put to rest at the con. People were so receptive! Everyone was so ready to learn and just wanted to talk about their favorite BLCDs. When the panel was over, I felt silly for ever being nervous. Of course BL fans want to talk about BL!

I created a relatively short video on basic information needed to enjoy BLCD and it is available on Citrus Con’s Youtube. I wanted to tailor recommendations for BL fans while keeping the information light and digestible. The plan was to get people excited about BLCD without overwhelming them with information. It can get very hand-wavy with definitions because a lot of words overlap. I also didn't want to create any strict rules that would keep people from talking about or looking for BLCD.

Genuinely, it made me so happy to see people excited about something as important to me as drama CDs. I am beyond thankful to the whole Citrus con staff for letting me put on my nerdy little fan panel.

Outside of my own panel, some of my favorite panels for this year were about fanfiction. I saw one panel about maintaining a good relationship with beta-readers (probably something I need to do). Not only did they break down the role of beta-readers from an industry stand point, they also gave tips on how to be an effective beta-reader. The main takeaway, for me, was communication. Writers need to communicate what they need from betas, and beta-readers need to communicate what they’re capable of doing. Apparently, it's normal to have multiple beta-readers. Another panel I enjoyed, content-ification of fanfiction, urged fans to interact with their favorite fanfic writers, not as a common courtesy, but to show that they appreciate the “gift” of fanfiction and the time that it took to write said fanfiction. Give kudos, add a comment, tell writers how much you love their fanworks. That seemed to be the message. There was a lot of community-minded panels, which is needed now more than ever.

P.S. I wrote this like a week after the con but then never posted it (classic porkchop).