Posts by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AbVN21G8N1ldBs3OlM by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2023-11-05T18:44:36Z
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@gmcgath I was referring to the fact that there were three Chinese winners, not two...
(DIR) Post #AbkAl006E5UwUKvRku by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2023-11-12T18:36:39Z
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#Worldcon #ChengduWorldconSo it looks like the Chinese and English-language sites for the Chengdu Worldcon are no longer accessible...https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/chengduworldcon.com?www=1https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/en.chengduworldcon.com
(DIR) Post #AbkAlNCHyvumQno0Rs by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2023-11-12T19:05:15Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu-dreg_project
(DIR) Post #AbkCP67kyinZ19BwW0 by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2023-11-12T22:26:11Z
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@gmcgath The IP address for both was 47.110.216.168 (which I had the foresight to note down when the online site disappeared).Unfortunately the /etc/hosts hack doesn't work this time - you get HTTPS warnings, and if you force your way past those, you get a server error page.
(DIR) Post #AblI4FbPKxn5DQSm1Y by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2023-11-13T01:12:42Z
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Both EN and ZH sites are back now - they're on a different IP address now than they were ~2 weeks ago, so I guess some sort of migration or admin change occurred?
(DIR) Post #AblJWuhoD3oKl1gktM by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2023-11-13T11:20:45Z
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@gmcgath Seems the same for me?I know when I initially checked it on a machine with a much smaller monitor, it looked different from what I'd seen before on a 4k screen, but I assumed that was just a responsive design thing. If I look at the EN site on that 4k screen now, it seems the same as before.
(DIR) Post #AcM5CppIyMrGkzqNRg by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2023-12-01T01:17:19Z
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#HugoAward #HugoAwards I wonder how long this edit will stay up? I'm not massively familiar with Fancyclopedia, but it feels overly opinionated for an article on a reference wiki...https://fancyclopedia.org/index.php?title=Hugo_Award&curid=14595&diff=196092&oldid=180360
(DIR) Post #AcMiawqERIMlfxlZVQ by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2023-12-01T12:25:55Z
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@gmcgath I vaguely recognized his name, so I didn't think it was some drive-by vandalism.It read a bit strangely to me - most of the text isn't as aggressive as the section heading, as if it was maybe just the opening paragraphs of a longer piece that hadn't yet been finished?
(DIR) Post #AiEGI8KZq7pwT6UjAG by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2024-05-24T19:28:20Z
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Wondering if I've been living in a parallel universe the past ~8 months...https://samrobbwrites.substack.com/p/world-fantasy-convention-nominations
(DIR) Post #AkCbSi4UllSFkG4QmO by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T21:55:59Z
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#Worldcon #GlasgowWorldcon #HugoAwards #HugoAwardPeople might care to note that on this statement, the word "author" does not appear at all.https://glasgow2024.org/hugo-awards/statement-22-july-2024/…There are more Hugo categories than just the fiction ones...
(DIR) Post #AkCbYFZtcXNR6yOqqO by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2024-07-19T19:10:48Z
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#Worldcon #ChengduWorldconNote also that the address of Chengdu SF Society is the same as Chengdu Business Daily:https://cn.kompass.com/c/chengdu-national-business-daily-press-co-ltd/cn221184/Chinese fans reported ages ago (in @File_770 comments IIRC) that the con was being organized from CBD offices, but good to have official confirmation.For a fun game, see if you can count how many of the people on this page are Hugo finalists this year.(Spoiler answer: 四)
(DIR) Post #AkCbrapynpfQY497sO by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T22:20:02Z
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@gmcgath https://www.chinaexpatsociety.com/culture/the-chabuduo-mindset
(DIR) Post #AkckA4ceeUkFsgC8NE by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2024-08-04T12:01:29Z
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The charity bookshop at Bolsover Castle didn't have a particularly big SF selection, but they did have a surprisingly large number of A. E. van Vogt books.Given that he seems to be totally out-of-print these days, I picked up four of what I think are the most well known works, just so that at some point I can say that I've read him. (From everything I've read, I doubt very much I'll care for his writing.)These editions are about the same age as me; they have both pre- & post-decimal prices!
(DIR) Post #Akckm9Tl2nUdwnBrnM by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2024-08-04T13:02:26Z
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@gmcgath I was a bit surprised by the lack of any Null-A book given the size of that collection; I thought they were his most well known works after Slan, Space Beagle and maybe the Weapon stuff. Perhaps a previous customer had already grabbed those?I do recall Dave Langford brutally eviscerating Null-A Three in the book review page of a 1980s issue of White Dwarf magazine, which I think was the first time I encountered van Vogt's name.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null-A_Three#Reviews
(DIR) Post #AkitGLDBx2oXba6jdg by ErsatzCulture@mastodon.social
2024-08-07T12:05:53Z
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@gmcgath Yalow was on the Chengdu Hugo team, and his silence after it emerged that shenanigans had gone on is IMHO damning.
(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 #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.)