The Final Countdown

[kevin_standlee]

I was online as the Hugo Voting Deadline ticked over last night so I could un-stick the posts on TheHugoAwards.org (they actually turned "un-sticky" about 23:45) and compose the entry announcing that Voting was closed and giving more details about the Hugo Awards ceremony on August 22.

From a few comments I saw on social media, there were people who may have assumed that the results would be announced last night at 12:01 AM. These are people who have heard about the Hugo Awards but have no idea of their connection to Worldcon. Of course, there are also people who think that the Hugo Awards need to cut their long ties with Worldcon and be run completely independently, with no poll tax and making sure that every consumer of pop-culture SF/F entertainment anywhere in the world speaking any language is consulted before a decision is made to give it to the Right Works (defined as whatever the individual who is demanding Change Right Now wants to win, of course). These people, if they are thinking at all, seem to think that the Hugo Awards are something that was created somewhere else and is hosted by this Worldcon thingy, instead of understanding that the Hugos are a creature of the Worldcon itself. They don't like that when you point it out to them.

Anyway, today I've been dealing with a number of WSFS cleanup jobs, not the least of which personally is toting up all of the money I've been out-of-pocket in the past eight months to WSFS jobs and submitting my expense report. It's only a low-three-figure sum, but it's still something that needed doing. I also helped someone compose potential WSFS constitutional amendments, and addressed further why I hope people will stop trying to use Objection to Consideration against things that are merely unpopular and unlikely to pass muster at the Main Meeting, while being scolded for not letting members do anything they want to do whenever they want to do it. Sometimes I feel like I'm beset from all sides, and that WSFS's worst enemies are their putative friends.

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

What I've been seeing is people saying that "because it's WORLDcon, you should never hold it in the USA ever again, and instead hold it in China and the Middle East and places like that, and certainly not places like the EU or US or Canada or Australia. And definitely not a place where English is the primary language!" I reckon they'd be happy with the Japan bid, but it's tainted by having been held there before. Besides, aren't there huge governments willing to spend millions of dollars to bribe the Board of Directors of WSFS to hold the event in the country, like Real Conventions? We're a High Profile World Event, and they'll spend lots of money on us and tens of thousands of people will show up when your Big Entertainment Company holds your Pop Culture Entertainment Event there. Sigh. And when you tell them, "Tell you what: you bid for it and see what happens." they get huffy and storm off. A bunch of keyboard warriors, the lot of them.

I expect a proposal, maybe next year, to require Worldcon to not be held in the same country two years in a row. I've pointed out that the last time WSFS did that, the European members immediately voted to reverse it the following year.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

A saner variation might forbid three, four, or N years in the same country, but somehow I doubt such a low impact proposal would be popular.