Post AktJcNPP0KTtB8aPDs by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #AktG0AIL0u6DdjMylk by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
       2024-08-12T11:32:30Z
       
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       Note: I suspect there was more than just "Finalist A" involved in shenanigans.  I need to spend more time to write this up, but see this timeline chart of supporting membership counts over the past few weeks.  Note how China & later Scotland are different from other countries.NB, this chart is a bit misleading, as I wasn't properly tracking the membership data until the end of June.  In reality I think Chinese supporting memberships were very low until quite a bit later than the chart implies.
       
 (DIR) Post #AktG0BINIFisk8OWSu by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
       2024-08-12T11:33:39Z
       
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       Remember that the Hugo Admins statement says that "at least 377 votes have been cast fraudulently", but that only 377 votes were disqualified.Assuming the memberships that suddenly appeared in late June/July time all voted, there could be *a lot* more than 377.Looking at the stats, there are finalists that received a lot of votes compared to their rivals, but even then they didn't win.Perhaps them not winning was sufficient that no further action was deemed necessary?   (My speculation)
       
 (DIR) Post #AktG0CBJzxfvUY6P6u by gmcgath@liberdon.com
       2024-08-12T12:07:45Z
       
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       @ErsatzCulture You'll recall that when China won the Worldcon bid, more than a few people in fandom said it was "racist" to suggest that it had been bought, even though there were suspicious memberships (no postal address). I haven't noticed such accusations happening lately. Have these people faded into embarrassed silence, or am I looking in the wrong places?
       
 (DIR) Post #AktG0D62b52sKSdhWC by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
       2024-08-12T11:50:49Z
       
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       Also, when I became aware of the jump in memberships, I reached out to multiple people in Chinese fandom, to see if they knew of any genuine organic reason for the sudden interest.  No-one did.I couldn't find much mention of Worldcon/Hugo stuff on Weibo, XHS or Bilibili either.
       
 (DIR) Post #AktGihvpJVDyhk508u by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
       2024-08-12T12:15:51Z
       
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       @gmcgath I genuinely don't know.For my part, I sat on the stuff I was seeing on the Glasgow memberships for several weeks, because I wanted to check out as much as possible with the contacts I've developed in China whether there was a reasonable explanation, what their thoughts were, etc.FWIW I've seen a number of exasperated comments over the months about some of the more ignorant stuff that's been posted in places like File 770, Facebook etc.
       
 (DIR) Post #AktJcNPP0KTtB8aPDs by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
       2024-08-12T12:26:19Z
       
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       @gmcgath And regarding the Chengdu Worldcon bid, I don't recall seeing anyone in the Anglosphere saying anything about the genuine Chinese fans who supported the bid, and were promised access to all the three ceremonies, but then got screwed over when the organizers decided to have a lottery instead to determine access, and only being allowed to enter a single ceremony.  (Plus other stuff that escapes me right now.)
       
 (DIR) Post #AktJcP9WWKy4aTAkka by gmcgath@liberdon.com
       2024-08-12T12:48:19Z
       
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       @ErsatzCulture  I briefly mentioned that issue in my blog. https://garymcgath.com/wp/worldcon-train-wreck/