Ditto was a

science fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was ...

convention held annually in the autumn in North America. It was named after the

ditto machine A spirit duplicator (also referred to as a Rexograph or Ditto machine in North America, Banda machine in the UK, Gestetner machine in Australia) is a printing method invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld that was commonly used for much of the ...

, which was commonly used to print fanzines before the advent of cheap

photocopying A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...

. The first Ditto was held in 1988 in Toronto for fans who could not attend the

Corflu Corflu is a science fiction fanzine convention held each spring in North America (and three times in Britain). It is named after a slang term for the "correction fluid" used in mimeograph printing, a common way to produce fanzines before the arrival ...

convention, which was in Seattle that year. Affordability became a goal for the organizers of each succeeding Ditto, along with finding "interesting sites." Ditto was held roughly six months after Corflu, and the location was generally on the opposite side of North America. Regional groups took turns hosting Ditto. Later Dittos sites included

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

(1995),

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

(2003), Orlando, Florida (2004), and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2005). The last was held in 2007 Mendocino County, California.

External links

Dr. Gafia's Fan Terms

Fancyclopedia entry
Science fiction conventions 1988 establishments in North America {{sf-convention-stub