Reminder: Vote for the Hugos
Posted on July 27, 2016 Posted by John Scalzi 16 Comments
MidAmeriCon II members, this is your timely reminder that voting for the Hugo Awards this year ends on Sunday, July 31, 2016, 11:59 PM PDT, so you have just a few days left to vote in all the categories. There is a lot of excellent work on the ballot, and also some mischief from a few bad actors, and all of it deserves your attention and what votes you decide to offer, up or down. My tip to you: Vote for what you think deserves awarding, and you’ll be groovy.
Here’s the link to the online Hugo Award ballot. And here’s the one for the Retro Hugo Awards (this year covering the year 1941). If you vote, you can change/add to/update your vote right up until the deadline. Happy voting!
Also you can vote on the site selection for 2018, which (if you are not attending) must be done via mail. You need to print off the ballot from the 3rd progress report. Voting for site selection gives you a supporting membership (and thus voting rights) for that WorldCon.
There is, indeed, some really good stuff on the ballot (including some works recommended by people that shall not be named). The Novella category was particularly fun to read. There is also some really questionable stuff on there. I have placed those below No Award, where they belong.
Remember, vote early and often. *G*
Joking aside, participating in the democratic process (i.e., voting) is better than refusing to participate because of perceived flaws in the process and then complaining about the results. Plus, it’s a good dry run for the upcoming election: once you see how easy voting is, it might just become a habit.
It’s worth noting that some of the slates included some quality work by authors with no connection to the slate’s agenda, especially in the novel and novella categories. Allowing a slate to determine what you vote for No Award is almost as bad as letting them dictate what gets the award, especially as at least one of the slates refused to remove works even when the author protested. Instead, read at least a little bit of each work. If something is not worthy of Hugo due to its own lack of merit, that will be quickly apparent.
Sam Lubell:
Yup. As I noted earlier in the year, some of the slate choices this year were picked either to try to take credit for work likely to get nominated anyway, or work whose authors the slaters wanted to antagonize/sully through their association. Most people, I suspect, can recognize the difference between people who are being used unwillingly by trolls, and the people who are the actual trolls, and will vote accordingly (and if the work by the trolls is actually worth award consideration, they’ll factor that in as well).
Formed my own group called the Flush Puppies, just because I’m a nut. Have no idea where my choice for Best Novel fits in the political brouhaha, because that stuff is pointless and imminently ignorable. It’s a late-comer: The Medusa Chronicles” by Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds. I’m not qualified to vote, so maybe one of you could throw that in the hat just for the hella.
Hey, and if anyone is interested we have some open discussion on all of the categories (including retro) focusing on their merits over at the Hugo Recommendation Season blog. Feel free to share your opinion or read some of the other thoughts on the works! Thanks!
Thank you muchly for the timely reminder. I was about to slouch in leisurely on the first, to find the chairs already turned over on the tables, and someone telling me not to walk on his nice clean floor.
Who is this Hugos guy, and what’s he running for? I thought Hugos was a car built in Hugosslavia.
@Geoff Hart: Since the electronic Hugo Award ballot can be changed any time up to the deadline, it’s a good idea to vote early and vote often. If you change your mind, it’s not too late!
Thank you for the reminder — I was never notified that voting was open. That’s very distressing.
Yup, it’s on the to-do list – finalizing my Hugo ballot is my Saturday project this weekend.
Can I write in Jill Stein?
*runs like hell*
Please vote for “Mad Max: Fury Road” for Best Dramatic Presentation–Long Form. Not only was it an amazing action film, it had Charlize Theron’s fantastic kickass performance as Imperator Furiosa. The wailing of the girl cooties-allergic types provided an extra kick.
I’m hoping next year’s Dramatic Presentation–Short Form ballot will have one of the episodes of “The Expanse” making the final cut.
Can I write in Jill Stein?
*runs like hell*
@Mysteron
If you’d been doing your civics the way President O and VP Grandpa Joe have said you should, you’d already know the answer to that question.
#STILLNOTREADY
#OBAMA2016
All that said, I think the REAL question I think you have to ask yourself is “IF I do this, what will it accomplish as far as the actual governing of the country and policy questions that affect me personally is concerned?” – because LBH, nobody (even progressives) does anything if it doesn’t affect his/her own self-interest – and also “What positive outcome do I expect should I do that? And, moreover, what is the worst NEGATIVE outcome I can expect should I do that?”
And *whooooooooooooooooooooooosssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh* it goes . . .