[HN Gopher] Understanding the world science fiction convention
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       Understanding the world science fiction convention
        
       Author : cstross
       Score  : 78 points
       Date   : 2024-01-26 11:39 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.antipope.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.antipope.org)
        
       | Jiro wrote:
       | The same lack of controls that let social justice stack the
       | awards in most years let the Chinese do it this time. It's just
       | that this time the people who stacked the deck are people you're
       | allowed to oppose.
        
         | bigbillheck wrote:
         | > let social justice stack the awards
         | 
         | Going back the last ten years or so which, say, Best Novel
         | winner do you think was undeserving and was only there because
         | of "social justice"?
        
         | ncallaway wrote:
         | The problem wasn't the voting, the problem was the inexplicable
         | dropping of nominees (literally inexplicable, as they have
         | provided no explanation).
        
       | senkora wrote:
       | I think HN may be interested in another recent instance of the
       | Hugo awards running into difficulties because of its rules:
       | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Puppies
       | 
       | TL;DR: A conservative block of voters swept the nominations for
       | certain categories. At final voting, members voted to not give
       | awards at all in those categories.
        
         | TwentyPosts wrote:
         | Is there any summary of what happened from the side of the
         | proponents? Given Wikipedia's track record when it comes to
         | certain topics, it'd be very nice to have some points of
         | comparison here.
        
           | gred wrote:
           | https://monsterhunternation.com/2015/04/06/a-letter-to-
           | the-s...
        
           | Arn_Thor wrote:
           | You think it's biased because it's using words like "right-
           | wing" and "anti-diversity"? I've usually found such terms to
           | be right on the mark, even if some don't like it pointed out
        
             | TwentyPosts wrote:
             | I assume that "right-wing" and "anti-diversity" are correct
             | labels here, that's not really my problem. It's frankly
             | less about bias, and more about the fact that the Wikipedia
             | article is pretty sparse, and all I could see is the link
             | to Correia's blog.
             | 
             | This is completely disconnected from my own politics,
             | really. I don't need to read articles on how a "right-wing
             | voting campaign got owned at the Hugo awards". That story
             | writes itself. The other side of the story is more
             | interesting.
        
               | Arn_Thor wrote:
               | Thanks for explaining your reasoning. That sounds more
               | reasonable than I'd assumed. I stand corrected
        
         | jtr1 wrote:
         | IIRC they swept because Hugo membership is open and they made a
         | coordinated effort to join and sweep those categories. The idea
         | of a coordinated anti-diversity effort pissed off a lot of
         | people. For a few friends of mine who are lifelong sci-fi
         | nerds, it was motivation to finally join Hugo so they could
         | vote "no award".
        
       | p0w3n3d wrote:
       | Fun fact: antipope is not an anti-catholic name, according to the
       | site (https://www.antipope.org/charlie/old/antipope.html)
       | 
       | "What sitename do you want?" he asked.
       | 
       | I'd been posting on usenet under the alias "AutoPope --
       | pontifications by email". (If you don't know what the long word
       | means, go look it up.) So I said, "How about autopope.uucp?"
       | 
       | "Okay." Hic. Burp.
       | 
       | And the next day, I was the somewhat bemused owner of a site
       | called antipope.uucp
        
         | Boogie_Man wrote:
         | Historically being an antipope didn't mean that you were anti
         | Catholic, it meant you believed yourself to be the true Pope in
         | opposition to the Pope in Rome.
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope
         | 
         | My fun fact: Some antipopes resided in Avignon France, and a
         | (delicious) wine from that region (allegedly, I'm not a wine
         | guy) is called Chateauneuf-du-Pape (House of the New Pope) for
         | this reason.
        
       | WBrentWilliams wrote:
       | I've seen more than a few of these kerfuffle happen now. Other
       | commenters have mentioned other times in other directions that
       | the voting has come out weird.
       | 
       | All I can say is that while yes, these awards do matter, they
       | don't have to matter as much as you think. At best, all the
       | outcome tells you is what someone else thinks is worth reading.
       | Consider it a starting point. It follows that any given list of
       | nominees is way more important, in terms of gathering a list of
       | books with neat ideas and execution, than a list of winners.
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-27 23:00 UTC)