DISQUS

Well, I had a different kind of bad experience. I had booked by tickets to Coimbatore for my friends wedding, well in advance, got my tickets printed and was all set to go and bang just the day I was supposed to leave, I get the call saying the particular travels i had booked my trip with cancelled the bus. bad..but cant be helped.

The worst was that I had to follow-up for almost 3 months to get my money refunded. now that IS bad.

I would strongly disagree about the takeaway being just the coffee mug as suggested in one of the comments. I have no clue how barcamps are conducted in other parts of the world or outside Bangalore, but the ones I attended in Bangalore were pretty helpful in a lot of ways.

The best thing about barcamps is that its very democratic, gives you the ease to start a session, run it and walk out of something if its not your interest.
PPTs and whiteboards shouldnt be blamed for speaker centricity. There are always a few spoilsports who claim authority on the subject of discussion, stall other smoothly running discussions, but these are very stray happenings.

Rules?..I am not sure what kind of rules can help

Makes me smile :)