Alright guys, here's the deal--roughly half the staffers are bigger noobs than the lowliest gofer, and they've got sticks up their asses, as well. Between personal vendettas against certain guests/panels and using their badges to skip to the front of the crowd, there's probably only about twenty of the 300-odd that don't horribly abuse their power.
That said, the sign policy is real, well-publicized, and is supposed to be universally enforced. While a non-anime costume is allowed according to policy, any signs must be part of an established costume--so basically, all you needed to have your "Pool's Closed" signs approved was a trip to Spec Ops with an example of the "character" using the sign. You'd get good results with a fake manga page, I'd bet so if someone drew a brief storyline about Habbo Man carrying the sign as part of his day-to-day wear, they can't legally say shit to you--just distribute it on /con/ before the convention starts to all of the cosplayers could print out a copy to bring with them. Anyone who does so needs to be called out promptly by a member of Spec Ops, and you should ask for Spec Ops until you see someone who won't tell you "4chan costumes=b&".
Unfortunately, the signs policy means that all signs that can't be verified this way are supposed to be confiscated. This rule had to come about because apparently lolis were hanging out in front of the Dealers' Room in years past offering handjobs for cash/plushies/pocky (sounds like a good deal!) and that sort of thing is frowned upon when it's not happening behind scenes in Fred-chan's hotel room.
in b4 GTFO staff fag, etc.
