Dave's Blog

There’s a controversy in this year’s Hugo award nominations that seems unprecedented. Because a small number of people generally nominate, and anyone who purchases a $40 Worldcon membership can nominate, that leads to the ease with which the system can be overthrown. In other words, a group of people working together can get books they want nominated onto the ballot. Here’s an article from New Republic that gives you an overview of what’s happened.

Science Fiction White Boys’ Club Strikes Back

Here are a couple of more in-depth articles with differing opinions. Here’s Edward Willett:

Thoughts on the Hugo awards

And here’s Arthur Chu on Salon.com:

Sci-fi’s right-wing backlash: Never doubt that a small group of deranged trolls can ruin anything (even the Hugo Awards)

What the groups that instigated the controversy did was technically allowed but it seems like most people are frowning on it. If that’s the case, perhaps a change to the rules is in order. Here are some suggestions on how to fix things:

Back To The Future – Of The Hugos