What is going on at Dashcon?

Dashcon, billing itself as the first large convention of Tumblr users, is apparently a major drama emitter today, with hotel contract issues, reports of a request for $17,000 in donations, further reports that got dropped onto the hotel's paypal(?!) and general gnashing of teeth and wailing.

If half these reports are true, I haven't seen a convention meltdown this bad since graduate school, when a first-time con invited Anne McCaffrey but booked a hotel in Kentucky during sportsball playoffs and ended up in de facto a turf war with what later became known as the Clay County Basketball Berserkers after their team lost.