Another black eye for the genre. . .

Here's another interesting nugget of information which was unearthed while I was making my way down the Baltic States. You all know that SFF Awards are not always seen in the most positive of light. Well, this one, this time from the Locus Awards, will not help matters much, at least where SFF fans are concerned.

After all the votes were submitted and the poll closed, Locus announced a rule change that will see a subscriber's votes count for twice the value of the votes submitted by non-subscribers (the majority of voters).

You can find all the pertinent information in Ken's post, as well as various links and discussion in this thread on Westeros.

More and more, I get the feeling that SFF Awards show as much integrity and transparence as international boxing federations. As a huge fan of the sport, let me just say that you do not want to be compared to the WBC (World Boxing Council), or the WBA (World Boxing Association). Come to think of it, the IBF (International Boxing Federation) and the WBO (World Boxing Organization) are not much better. . .

5 commentaires:

Anonymous said...

I first heard about this on Pat Rothfuss' blog where he revealed that the recount and double-counting led to him not winning the Locus in the category he was in.

When he thought he lost fairly, he was quite ok with it as he was a fan of the book that won. When he learned the truth, needless to say, he was horribly disappointed, as am I. As should be anyone interested in the SFF community. This sort of gerrymandering of voting rules after the voting has already been done is incredibly shady. Much more so than the 2000 election, in my mind.

Anonymous said...

Don't you mean a "black" eye for the genre?

Kendall said...

IMHO it's a black eye for LOCUS--not for "the genre" or even for genre awards.

Jebus said...

Does anyone actually pay attention to any SFF awards anyway? I know I never have. If a book wins an award I think "well that's nice" and then decide if I want to read it based on just about any other factor than that.

Anonymous said...

I'm with jebus, I don't make my decisions based on awards. I do find this to be reminiscent of the way we elect a president. Not necessarily a popular vote, but an electoral vote. Ugh... maybe we should change that too! LOL