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selenay*sigh* The agenda for the business side of this year's Hugos came out today. There are two items on it that have the SF/F community pretty riled up and Seanan McGuire's commentary on them (with links to more in depth debates on each one) is here.
Go and read if you've ever felt any curiosity about the SF/F community's answer to the Oscars/Bookers and want to know what the kerfuffle is all about. Read it? Got mad? Yeah.
There are two issues here.
The proposal to prevent any Worldcon from ever creating a membership type that is cheaper than a supporting membership and only provides Hugo voting rights is ridiculous. When I think about how hard people work every year to try to *increase* the voting numbers, get more people involved, this proposal makes me shake. I'd love for there to be a membership out there that costs $5-$10 and gives Hugo voting rights because the usual cost of a supporting (or, god forbid, attending) membership is too high for many people. Particularly anyone who wants to sign up in order to vote and isn't interested in all the other papers and booklets that come our way. Every time someone looks at me with wide-eyed wonder when I say that I'm reading/watching something for the Hugos, it breaks my heart a little bit because it shouldn't out of the reach of the majority of fans.
And currently it is and this proposal is intended to keep it that way. In other words, it's all about gatekeeping who has a voice in the community and ensuring only the 'right' people vote in the 'right' way. Gah!
The other proposal may sound odd to some people. It's about getting rid of three of the fan categories: fan writer, fan artist and fanzine.
Now, a lot of people are probably thinking "so my favourite fanfic writer can be nominated?" and I'm going to immediately say, nope. Not *that* kind of fan writer. Or *that* kind of fan artist for that matter. Actually, not even that kind of fanzine. Those categories aren't about fanfic or flatbear drawing fantastic Avengers and Pacific Rim art.
(I remember the days when there were fandom-specific awards organised for fanfic and I never want to see one of those again. Oh god, the angst and bitterness and blatant vote rigging were awful. I love the fic community but the batshittery involved in fanfic awards almost made me want to leave fandom at times.)
The fan Hugos aren't about fanfic or media tie-in art. They're for people who write about SF/F without getting paid for it. They're for people drawing amazing art who don't make a living from it. They're about those zines filled with discussion and commentary and articles and a bit of original fiction, whether they're in print form or websites, that aren't run like an Asimov's or Analog.
They're awards given to people who aren't writing/arting for profit, they're doing it for the love of the genre and the medium. Do those awards sometimes go to pros? Yup, it happens. Some of the pros, in addition to their paying gigs, do a hell of a lot of writing about SF/F because they love the genre so sometimes they win the fan awards for what they're doing with their fan hats on.
This year there are a couple of people on the fan writer ballot who are definitely not pros and I think they're doing some of the best fan writing out there, which I love.
The main objection to the fan awards seems to be that fans are more likely to cross the nebulous line between mentioning they're nominated and actively campaigning for votes. Because obviously the pro writers never ever do that when they're nominated for novels or semi-pro zines or films. Nope, never seen that.
So the solution is to get rid of the fan Hugo awards completely. Hooray, problem solved!
Except, as Scalzi points out, there's no sign of fans logrolling/dogpiling their way onto the ballot. The fan Hugos aren't any more or less campaigned over than the pro Hugos. And the assertion that they're 'dead' awards is also crazy: Scalzi broke down the numbers and the fan awards have more ballots cast than some of the pro awards.
So this is, again, about gatekeeping. About keeping those pesky people who aren't sticking to the traditional (expensive) mediums off the ballot. About only allowing the 'right' sort of people to win Hugos.
Bullshit.
I can't afford to go to Lonestar this year so I can't vote at the business meetings. But if anyone out there is reading this and attending the con, please read up on these issues and go to the business meetings. I love fandom, I love this genre, I don't want to see our big awards being reserved only for the 'right' sort of people.
Go and read if you've ever felt any curiosity about the SF/F community's answer to the Oscars/Bookers and want to know what the kerfuffle is all about. Read it? Got mad? Yeah.
There are two issues here.
The proposal to prevent any Worldcon from ever creating a membership type that is cheaper than a supporting membership and only provides Hugo voting rights is ridiculous. When I think about how hard people work every year to try to *increase* the voting numbers, get more people involved, this proposal makes me shake. I'd love for there to be a membership out there that costs $5-$10 and gives Hugo voting rights because the usual cost of a supporting (or, god forbid, attending) membership is too high for many people. Particularly anyone who wants to sign up in order to vote and isn't interested in all the other papers and booklets that come our way. Every time someone looks at me with wide-eyed wonder when I say that I'm reading/watching something for the Hugos, it breaks my heart a little bit because it shouldn't out of the reach of the majority of fans.
And currently it is and this proposal is intended to keep it that way. In other words, it's all about gatekeeping who has a voice in the community and ensuring only the 'right' people vote in the 'right' way. Gah!
The other proposal may sound odd to some people. It's about getting rid of three of the fan categories: fan writer, fan artist and fanzine.
Now, a lot of people are probably thinking "so my favourite fanfic writer can be nominated?" and I'm going to immediately say, nope. Not *that* kind of fan writer. Or *that* kind of fan artist for that matter. Actually, not even that kind of fanzine. Those categories aren't about fanfic or flatbear drawing fantastic Avengers and Pacific Rim art.
(I remember the days when there were fandom-specific awards organised for fanfic and I never want to see one of those again. Oh god, the angst and bitterness and blatant vote rigging were awful. I love the fic community but the batshittery involved in fanfic awards almost made me want to leave fandom at times.)
The fan Hugos aren't about fanfic or media tie-in art. They're for people who write about SF/F without getting paid for it. They're for people drawing amazing art who don't make a living from it. They're about those zines filled with discussion and commentary and articles and a bit of original fiction, whether they're in print form or websites, that aren't run like an Asimov's or Analog.
They're awards given to people who aren't writing/arting for profit, they're doing it for the love of the genre and the medium. Do those awards sometimes go to pros? Yup, it happens. Some of the pros, in addition to their paying gigs, do a hell of a lot of writing about SF/F because they love the genre so sometimes they win the fan awards for what they're doing with their fan hats on.
This year there are a couple of people on the fan writer ballot who are definitely not pros and I think they're doing some of the best fan writing out there, which I love.
The main objection to the fan awards seems to be that fans are more likely to cross the nebulous line between mentioning they're nominated and actively campaigning for votes. Because obviously the pro writers never ever do that when they're nominated for novels or semi-pro zines or films. Nope, never seen that.
So the solution is to get rid of the fan Hugo awards completely. Hooray, problem solved!
Except, as Scalzi points out, there's no sign of fans logrolling/dogpiling their way onto the ballot. The fan Hugos aren't any more or less campaigned over than the pro Hugos. And the assertion that they're 'dead' awards is also crazy: Scalzi broke down the numbers and the fan awards have more ballots cast than some of the pro awards.
So this is, again, about gatekeeping. About keeping those pesky people who aren't sticking to the traditional (expensive) mediums off the ballot. About only allowing the 'right' sort of people to win Hugos.
Bullshit.
I can't afford to go to Lonestar this year so I can't vote at the business meetings. But if anyone out there is reading this and attending the con, please read up on these issues and go to the business meetings. I love fandom, I love this genre, I don't want to see our big awards being reserved only for the 'right' sort of people.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-10 06:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-10 06:22 pm (UTC)Ugh. Angry.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-10 09:40 pm (UTC)Yeah, after all that, I leave a one-word answer, but honestly, it's all I could think of that you haven't already said. *hugs*
no subject
Date: 2013-08-12 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-08-12 10:29 pm (UTC)I love fandom, but sometimes it makes me so mad :-(
no subject
Date: 2013-08-12 10:29 pm (UTC)