Well, the important thing is that you got to feel smug about it.
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It’s Sunday!
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They may not have enough google-fu experience, can have a braino, or their coffee did not kick in yet. If you are so inclined, a suggested search query communicated in plaintext is both helpful and educational. lmgtfy link is unnecessarily condescending, hiding it behind a link shortener is outright douchey. But what to expect…
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Okay, but this was a particularly obscure topic. People shouldn’t have to Google to even figure out what a blog posting is about. Even most people interested in SF have very little idea of how the Hugos are decided on, and certainly don’t know about the voting blocs and what they are for or against.
I tend to make fun of Wired, but this article from Wired is kind of what should have been posted here:
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Asimov’s, Analog and Fantasy and Science Fiction are all SF magazines. I’m not sure they did many readers polls, or gave awards, but in terms of subscription base-- yes. many times that of the Hugos.
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Oh, don’t get me wrong, I was 100% against the puppies. But if you know where their claims come from they’re easier to demolish.
(In short, they messed up the Hugos this year because SCALZI! OH I HATE HIM SO MUCH!)
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Well, the pool is limited to people willing to pony up $40 to become a supporting member of the WorldCon organization. There’s no upper limit to who can do that, but it does sort of self-select for people who care enough and can afford the fee. I don’t see that changing as running the Hugo’s does cost money.
This year saw a rather huge increase in membership sales, something the puppies have already taken credit for. I think the puppies expected more of those new members to be sympathetic, though.
And not every worldcon member votes for the Hugos even though they are entitled to. Something like 6,000 this year didn’t cast a ballot. A fact that has certain puppies claiming yet another conspiracy about vote-rigging. Which would be pretty dumb. Why vote-rig the election? It would have been easier and cleaner to vote-rig the nominations if that were your goal.
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Oh, I’ve followed the saga. That said, they are masters of shifting goalposts. You can’t demolish an argument if it is always changing and retconning itself.
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I joined this year for the first time despite being a lifetime SF reader (and I’m 44 now). I did it specifically to counter the influence of Vox Day and his cretins.
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All the puppy nominees finished behind “No Award” in the ranked ballots.
Am I missing something, or is this not accurate? It looks like they won Guardians of the Galaxy in the movie awards, and at least came in ahead of No Award in the TV awards. Not that that’s much of an endorsement…
I knew about the Asimovs/Dells already - they’re for unpublished stuff only, so judging rather than voting is pretty much necessary. And I know about Analog and their polls, I used to subscribe. But honestly never heard of the FSF awards, and googling only bought up fantasty football stuff, and F. Scott Fitzgerald awards.
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…and nearly succeeded, and did indeed succeed in bull-rushing the process into outcomes that the rest of the electorate almost certainly didn’t want. Is “no award” in so many categories what the non-Puppies really wanted? Were there truly no worthy novellas published (for instance), or simply none nominated? That’s a pyrrhic victory at best, and the more convincingly you argue that the Puppies were just a fringe group of malcontents, the more disappointing it is that they so disrupted the process.
But that’s not really my point! What I’m saying is that, this was the easy “win.” Racists and homophobes and MRAs are villains so obvious and one-dimensional they could have come from Puppy-nominated stories. But if they can game the vote, then all the fractious little factions in fandom can and will. (I mean, that’s the entire history of fandom, going back to the pulp 'zines: arguing about what oughta count.) One of those factions will electioneer and organize better than the others, and that will be that. And that’s the best case scenario. One novel prize, one novella prize, one short story prize, over a genre that’s too big and broad for that to work anymore.
So forget the Hugos, which–if this year proves anything–are going to be at best a measure of the politicking and faction-making skill of the nominees. And maybe that’s what it always was! George R.R. Martin has said as much, in his “screw this” reaction to the Puppies a few months ago. But it’s going to be worse now that the Puppies have shown that it can be done. Sure, the winners probably won’t be terrible political diatribes most years, but as a prediction as to what any given member of fandom might like, the Hugos are forever going to be looking up at coin flips, to say nothing of recommendations from friends or writers with similar tastes.
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The smug is strong with this one, I see.
You mean other than the more than six month long plus controversy posted about here on Boing Boing many times (and many other SF blogs)?
This is not an obscure topic to anyone who reads Science Fiction or Fantasy (or Boing Boing) on a regular basis. That is like saying Gamergate is obscure.
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Wha?
[post must be at least 6 characters]
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Their claims aren’t logical or grounded in reality. There’s nothing to “demolish”.
Feel free to educate yourself, but engaging conspiracists with facts is not a productive use of time beyond that self-education.
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I don’t care to interact with him, have told him such, and have asked him to just go bother other people. If Boing Boing had a kill or mute list, he’d be in it for me. Hell, I’d be happy if he couldn’t see anything I posted here too. If you read over his post history, he’s got a lot of issues with women and other minorities in technology spoiling his fun and seems to think that the scientific work done in the Nazi deathcamps and its usefulness outweighs any issues with, say, genocide, that was the basis of it.
Basically, he’s an unapologetic (if probably sincere) old school white dude who is rather insensitive (and actively so) on anything to do with privilege, minorities, or gender.
I don’t feel a need to interact with him on any level and, generally, don’t reply to him (which he knows) but he keeps trying and trying.
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[quote=“sfrazer, post:67, topic:64320, full:true”]Well, the pool is limited to people willing to pony up $40 to become a supporting member of the WorldCon organization. There’s no upper limit to who can do that, but it does sort of self-select for people who care enough and can afford the fee. I don’t see that changing as running the Hugo’s does cost money.
[/quote]Dropping the price a bit for a Voting membership might open it up some. I don’t know, not something I’ve really thought terribly hard about. Make up price on volume, might work out.
[quote=“sfrazer, post:67, topic:64320, full:true”]This year saw a rather huge increase in membership sales, something the puppies have already taken credit for. I think the puppies expected more of those new members to be sympathetic, though.[/quote]Yep - something like 11K, wasn’t it? And I suppose they’re technically correct on the point - they certainly drew a lot of attention from people who didn’t want them to get their way, though I think they might not like that idea so much. That, and the controversy still drew a lot of attention regardless, which probably clued a few people in.
[quote=“sfrazer, post:67, topic:64320”]
And not every worldcon member votes for the Hugos even though they are entitled to. Something like 6,000 this year didn’t cast a ballot. A fact that has certain puppies claiming yet another conspiracy about vote-rigging. Which would be pretty dumb. Why vote-rig the election? It would have been easier and cleaner to vote-rig the nominations if that were your goal.
[/quote]Well, nobody ever accused them of being the brightest of sparks.
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What is this Puppies thing? Is this a book? Can someone explain to this in simple terms with possible links to books? (I searched amazon for puppies but it’s too generic)
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If sincere, see previous links in the thread you’re reading here.
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