Friday, September 01, 2006 | By: Patrick

The 2006 Hugo Awards

I've said it before and I'll say it again: William's blog is terrific! Here is a knowledgeable guy who writes good reviews and interesting articles. Earlier this week he wrote a piece criticizing the Hugo Awards. Whether you agree with him or not, I believe that he nailed it right on the head when he elaborated on what he considered to be the shortcomings of the format and the voting system.

Interestingly enough, his thoughts sparked up a lively debate. And as such, I think that many readers here would find that debate very informative. Hell, even Scott Lynch and George R. R. Martin dropped by to add their own two cents! Don't they know that they can do the same on this blog!?!;-)

You can read William's article here. Feel free to share your thoughts, as there are already something like 50 comments to his post. . .

3 commentaires:

Ran said...

Kevin Standlee does respond well to a number of William's points. For example, as Kevin Standlee notes, 50% of memberships are _not_ bought at the door as Stego suggests -- only about 10% are.

I think one should also be aware that people can buy supporting memberships for no more than about $50 or so. This gives them full rights to vote (and, I believe, to site selection for the Worldcon two years forward). You can convert one of these supporting memberships into a full membership at the door, so I think if voting is important for you, you can easily just spring for the supporting membership without having to make the full investment.

Moreover, I think Kevin, Cheryl, and others point out that some of the things William and others suggest have already been tried (such as engraving plaques after the fact, rather than before), and that some other ideas are not practical given the very tight budget the con runs on (see Kevin's post at 8:04 PM).

Change would be great. Greater participation would be brilliant. I don't think being angry about it is enough to get anything done, however. If we want to make the Hugos more important, its up to those who buy memberships for the convention to take part in the process by which convention committees run their conventions and and the process by which the WSFS governs itself and the Hugos.

2:18 PM
Neth said...

Don't they know that they can do the same on this blog!?!;-)

I know what you mean - I'd love more authors to post at my blog.


Some interesting discussions going on over there, and I landed right in the middle of them. Fun - we'll see how much they die down over the holiday weekend (at least it's a holiday in the States).

I wonder what i could blog about to get over 50 comments.

6:34 PM
Race said...

Kevin does make some good points. But he also shakes off legitimate criticisms by calling them trite, and of course the ad hominem attacks are always fun too.

As for the plaques... why do they even need the winners name on them? Couldnt they just say.... Best Novel 2006 ?

While Stegos. guess of 505 was way off, don't you think that if the mebership could vote at World con, many of those who did in fact pre buy but forgot or didnt get around to voting might do so? even if only 10% buy at the door that still as many members as actually vote for the hugos. I think 10% turnout is pretty poor. they could easlity double or tripleit I'd think by allowing electronic balloting at the con. Just because some things have been tried before doesnt mean they should never be tried again. Today's technology would make it much easier than in the past.

12:28 PM

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