2015 Hugo Awards - it's like a sciFi story of internet trolling

[BobCox]

Really:
http://www.dailydot.com/geek/hugo-aw...uppies/?tu=gav

http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2...oughts-on.html

http://io9.com/the-hugo-awards-were-...nly-1695721604

ETC.

No Award: place every Sad/Rabid Puppy nominee under No Award, even if it means choosing it as your first choice. (Deirdre Saoirse Moen has a handy guide for how to do this.) To be clear, trying to achieve this result will take some doing. It will mean not only voting that way yourself, but publicizing the fact that you've done so and why. No Award has only won a category once in the Hugo's history. To achieve that result six times in a single year will be no small matter.

[DaveGodfrey]

My twitter feed has gone completely kablooie about this. Honestly the part that surprises me the most is that Vox Day is still a thing. I thought he'd have exploded in apoplexy over something by now.

[BobCox]

I sad, cause no good choices in Sci-Fi Awards Show how Corrupt the system is.

I don't pick False alternatives, I Still Subscribe to Analog via Snail Mail Hard Copy.

[fleet-footed Urban Youth]

arthur chu tweet spotted; issue ignored.

[Skeeve]

Someone explain this so I don't have to follow links, please.

Pretty please?

[uncool]

Goddamnit, why do I feel the need to summarize these things?

Conservative science fiction fans have felt for some time that science fiction has been gaining a liberal/leftist slant. This supposedly appears in multiple aspects - which stories are being written, which are being published, which are being hyped, which get awards, etc. Some conservative writers attribute this to exclusion by liberal/leftist writers, fans, etc. - that conservatives only can publish through one publisher (Baen) and are excluded from other publishers, that they are excluded socially from scifi groups, that prominent members of the scifi community don't talk about stories by conservative writers, that they are excluded from nomination at the Hugos, etc.

Larry Correia is one of the more prominent conservative writers online. He subscribes to the above theory, as well as the idea that there are "whisper campaigns" meant to exclude conservatives and promote specific liberal/leftist stories, specifically from being nominated at the Hugos. He organized a campaign 2 years ago called the Sad Puppies in order to show how easily the nominations could be gamed - claiming that they were already being gamed, just not as openly. This campaign puts forward a slate of candidates for each category at the Hugos, and suggests that people vote for that slate. It is now co-led by Brad Torgerson.

The first and second year, the slate tended not to do well. This year, however, the slate managed not only to appear for several nominations (as some of the top 5; as far as I can tell, people vote on the top 5 nominations in each category), but also to completely sweep some of them. Many people in the scifi community are outraged at this; some, including John Scalzi (effectively a liberal/leftist counterpart to Larry Correia), have suggested that people vote No Award above all of the Sad Puppies. There have been suggestions to change how voting is done at the Hugos, outrage from both sides, etc.

Another scifi writer named Vox Day, who is already famous on the internet for his blog (which has been accused of being racist, sexist, etc.; I haven't dug deep enough to check this for myself, but so far the accusations seem to be pretty close to the mark) put forward another slate called the Rabid Puppies slate; there was heavy overlap between the two, but they are independent.

Of course, the mainstream has gotten into it now, and has managed to fuck up a huge proportion of the facts. For example, Entertainment Weekly published the following as the first line of a piece:

The Hugo Awards have fallen victim to a campaign in which misogynist groups lobbied to nominate only white males for the science fiction book awards.

and then had to publish the following correction:

CORRECTION: After misinterpreting reports in other news publications, EW published an unfair and inaccurate depiction of the Sad Puppies voting slate, which does, in fact, include many women and writers of color. As Sad Puppies’ Brad Torgerson explained to EW, the slate includes both women and non-caucasian writers, including Rajnar Vajra, Larry Correia, Annie Bellet, Kary English, Toni Weisskopf, Ann Sowards, Megan Gray, Sheila Gilbert, Jennifer Brozek, Cedar Sanderson, and Amanda Green.
This story has been updated to more accurately reflect this. EW regrets the error.

Many sites have suggested that Gamergate was involved in this; for the most part, this seems to have been based on a single game developer, Daniel Vavra, publicizing the Sad Puppies slate to the Gamergate hashtag. Vavra has held the focus of the gamergate movement at times due to his game, a medieval game located in Eastern Europe, being criticized for lacking people of color. Vavra says he saw similarities between his situation and the situation conservative scifi authors claim to be in; as such, he posted the sad puppies slate on the gamergate tag. As such, articles have claimed that the Sad Puppies campaign is gamergate-affiliated, that gamergate has flooded the Hugos, etc. From my own observation, the Hugos were barely mentioned on KotakuinAction until after this, though there have been some links to Correia's blog about difficulties that conservative scifi writers have faced.

[SkepticTank]

Some group of internet trolls rigged the system, and got [something something] nominated in all the available spots in all the major categories.

[fleet-footed Urban Youth]

better summary: kill all nerds

[Skeeve]

Goddamnit, why do I feel the need to summarize these things?

edited quote text

Thank you. Now all the tweets and posts make sense.

[DaveGodfrey]

The best novella category has three entries written by John C. Wright (who I only know from having completely lost his mind over the end of Avatar: Legend of Korra, where two female characters end the series holding hands, and were confirmed to be a couple by the series writers).

The thing that's most entertaining to me at least, is that rather than encouraging people to nominate a range of works by writers with a similar outlook to themselves, they all voted for the slate. And therefore missed nominating a (apparently very good) biography of Robert A. Heinlein, who I'm pretty sure they're all be big fans of. I'm pretty sure there's a couple of others they missed too.

[uncool]

The best novella category has three entries written by John C. Wright (who I only know from having completely lost his mind over the end of Avatar: Legend of Korra, where two female characters end the series holding hands, and were confirmed to be a couple by the series writers).

I think Popehat summed it up pretty well:

Come for the "can't top this wharrbargl" post, stay for the "yes we can" comments. http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/12/t...n-of-a-legend/

Please read it. It's fucking hilarious.

And now the big names are weighing in. George RR Martin is writing a series of posts about it. The first three took a few hours; the next two will take a couple days, and the last two are going to take a couple of months assuming he gets to the last one at all.

[schneibler elf]

This reminds me of the time george r r Martin lost the Hugo to Harry fucking potter

[DaveGodfrey]

Its a vote, so its perfectly understandable that would have happened.

[DaveGodfrey]

I think Popehat summed it up pretty well:

Please read it. It's fucking hilarious.

That's the post I was referring to. I'm not reading it again, it took long enough cleaning the frothing spittle off the inside of my monitor the first time.

[uncool]

That's the post I was referring to. I'm not reading it again, it took long enough cleaning the frothing spittle off the inside of my monitor the first time.

Heh, I was talking to other people. It's a hilarious piece of insanity that begs to be laughed at.

In other news: GRR Martin has waded in with one of the best series of posts I have ever seen in internet slapfights on this level. He's strongly against the Puppies, but backs it up with literally pages of evidence; he's called out strategies that his own side proposed.

And he called out the main weakness in the Sad Puppies side: that they have basically presented no evidence. Instead, they have generally presented how they have felt as conservative authors. GRR Martin invited them to present factual evidence, and I'm interested in seeing whether any evidence is presented.

[BobCox]

I grew up Reading My Dads ongoing Analog magazine subscription.

Read the early versions of Dune to Enders game etc. and this has killed the awards prestige, while confirming it LOL
JMHO

[fleet-footed Urban Youth]

And he called out the main weakness in the Sad Puppies side: that they have basically presented no evidence. Instead, they have generally presented how they have felt as conservative authors.

see also: fox news and "liberal media"

[schneibler elf]

here's his blog where he made those posts:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/

[schneibler elf]

reading through those, i knew he'd been around awhile, but i did not realize he had been nominated for and won so many hugos

[schneibler elf]

jesus Christ

http://monsterhunternation.com/2015/...d-sad-puppies/

[schneibler elf]

never heard of this guy, but he sounds like the most butthurt man baby I've ever heard of.

[schneibler elf]

holy shit i couldn't have imagined something worse than gamergate

[Testycalibrated]

I liked his butthurt rant. I can't tell how much of it is trolling and how much of it is genuine and that's something I find mildly admirable.

Not that I have a shot an that award anyway since it's rigged.

[Testycalibrated]

martin wrote game of thrones, right?

damn it I have to google that now.

[Testycalibrated]

OMG, humans.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/sad-puppies