I respect their bluntness

Especially since it's fundamentally a social activity. Why wouldn't you consider your presentation if the main part of your hobby is hanging out with other people?

So, in my experience, it's less unhygienic, and more a problem with not covering up their natural smells. Sounds similar, different things. I'll explain me experience with TTRPGers.

All the ones I know who fall into the funk trap are autistic folk, and the issue isn't that they don't bathe, it's that they can't stand those strong chemical smells they associate with body washes and deodorant*. So they bathe, but they use mild soaps, soaps designed for children, or unscented soaps, and they don't wear deodorant.

Which creates a situation where the hygiene is okay, but the funk is still there, once they're all in a group together. One on one, you really don't notice, but get 10 folks in a room for game night, or a couple thousand together for an event or convention, and the funk becomes overpowering.

That said, I do know two that have just a general aversion to bathing, and consistently reek

*Edit to add

Also an issue with texture on the skin. One of my best friends is autistic, and he cannot handle the feeling of deodorant on his armpits. It tacks the hair down, it's apparently sticky feeling, and he just goes into total meltdown until he can get it off. He can't focus on anything else.

Super Smash Bros also seems to have the same problem.

They tend to attract autistic people, who can have trouble with bathing for various reasons.

That guy got banned for harassment.

But all he did was highlight the lack of hygiene and care that players who came to these events had.

Safe space is one thing, but I'm glad butt crack guy exists and we need more public (or private) shaming about basic hygiene.

Um it's a ferret not a cat.

The 6-2-1 guide for all conventions: 6 hours of sleep every night, 2 meals each day, 1 shower each day. It's a vacation for a lot of people sure but that doesn't excuse bad manners and not taking care of oneself.

I went to an anime con back in like 2004 or so, there were flyers handed out that talked about hygiene.

There were also placards and signs about not touching people without permission. (Focusing on women and girls in costumes)

The sweaty part isn’t their fault, especially last week in London, but the rest is.

Signed, a ~~person with a very efficient internal cooling system~~ real sweaty Betty

yes, but it is can be a larger than usual problem in some groups.

I know anime conventions in Minnesota struggled with that a lot in the 2000s. It took about half a decade of posters, campaigns, and a small group of people who were willing to be blunt and tell people "this sign is directed at you my dude"

It all did lead to improvements though! It is vastly better than it was back then.

Alternatively there was the MTG asscrack meme which did increase belt sales.

It's one thing to have other smells than what you are used to, but just because you don't smell your own body odour doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. If you struggle to shower more than once pr week, or just sweat a lot, you need to realize and implement a shower when meeting other people rule.

I'm not saying you have to shower every day. I'm just saying if you struggle to shower for yourself, make it a rule to shower for others.

If you say fuck others, they can swim in my stink, then you can fuck off from these events or accept people making comments about it.