Top 10 Stories for February 2024

Were there stories in February’s Top 10 that didn’t have anything to do with the Hugo Awards? If you said yes – YOU WON! Somehow the “2024 Saturn Award Winners” made the list. That was the only one.

Chris M. Barkley and Jason Sanford’s “The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion” went viral, of course, linked by the mainstream media outlets including NBC News and the New York Times, and generated hundreds of comments of discussion here. The report holds the record as the second most-read post on File 770 and is on pace to overtake number one — “Greg Bear (1951-2022)” – within a couple weeks.

The story about Adrian Tchaikovsky saying he will no longer cite himself as a 2023 Hugo winner gained its large number of readers in a bit different way. Google started returning that at the top of the list for certain searches, even above the author’s own announcement. This doesn’t usually happen with File 770 stories — our SEO skills are still stuck in the Neolithic.

One final bit of trivia. Last month was the first time ever that not a single Pixel Scroll made the Top 10. Ordinarily the daily roundups fill a majority of the slots, and I often run a “Scroll-Free” supplementary list. Didn’t need to do that this month.

Here are the ten most-read stories for February 2024 according to dread Jetpack.

  1. The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion  
  2. Adrian Tchaikovsky Will No Longer Cite His 2023 Hugo
  3. Barkley — So Glad You (Didn’t) Ask #81
  4. Worldcon Intellectual Property Announces Censure of McCarty, Chen Shi and Yalow; McCarty Resigns; Eastlake Succeeds Standlee as Chair of B.O.D.
  5. Diane Lacey’s Letter About the 2023 Hugos
  6. Cheryl Morgan, Dave McCarty Resign from WSFS’ Hugo Award Marketing Committee
  7. Glasgow 2024 Announces Kat Jones Resignation as Hugo Administrator
  8. 2024 Saturn Awards Winners
  9. Charting the Cliff: An Investigation Into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics by Camestros Felapton and Heather Rose Jones
  10. 2023 Hugo Awards-related Statement by Kat Jones

Top 10 Stories for January 2024

There weren’t many Top 10 stories in January that didn’t have something to do with the Chengdu Worldcon Hugo controversy. In fact, there were so many of those a big Chuck Tingle story that started off the month almost got pushed off the list. But not quite.

The 2023 Hugo nomination voting statistics were finally released on January 20 revealing four people’s work had been ruled ineligible without an explanation. Hugo Administrator Dave McCarty, who had worked with a team that included several Chinese members, insisted he could only provide the limited (and unilluminating) official statement they had agreed upon, and his manner of saying so inflamed those asking for more. The controversy expanded as people who analyzed the report’s statistics found they were problematic because the EPH calculations often could not be reconciled. Statements by Kevin Standlee, then chair of Worldcon Intellectual Property, Inc., that the Hugo service mark-holder had no recourse against the 2023 Worldcon committee fueled discussion by social media lawyers about the continuing validity of the marks. Those worries are believed behind the disciplinary measures announced by W.I.P. two days ago.  

Here are the ten most-read stories for January 2024 according to dread Jetpack.

  1. 2023 Hugo Nomination Report Has Unexplained Ineligibility Rulings; Also Reveals Who Declined
  2. Chengdu Hugo Administrator Dave McCarty Fields Questions on Facebook
  3. Chengdu Worldcon Releases 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics
  4. Worldcon Intellectual Property Announces Censure of McCarty, Chen Shi and Yalow; McCarty Resigns; Eastlake Succeeds Standlee as Chair of B.O.D.
  5. Barkley — So Glad You (Didn’t) Ask #80
  6. Hugo Controversy Hits Mainstream News; A Chengdu Vice-Chair Comments in Social Media
  7. Court Exhibit Names Artists Midjourney Scraped To Train Its AI; Includes Many Hugo Winners
  8. Zimozi Natsuco Guest Post: The Hugo Awards’ Evil Fall is a Watered-Down Affair, and Certain Issues To Watch Out For
  9. Pixel Scroll 1/22/24 Encounter at Fargo
  10. Texas Library Association Cancels Chuck Tingle

2024 Recommended SF/F List

Baldura. Photo by Bruce D. Arthurs.

This thread is for posts about 2024-published works, which people have read and recommend to other Filers.

There will be no tallying of recommendations done in this thread; its purpose is to provide a source of recommendations for people who want to find something to read which will be eligible for the Hugos or other awards (Nebula, Locus, Asimov’s, etc.) next year.

If you’re recommending for an award other than / in addition to the Hugo Awards which has different categories than the Hugos (such as Locus Awards’ First Novel), then be sure to specify the award and category.

You don’t have to stop recommending works in Pixel Scrolls, please don’t! But it would be nice if you also post here, to capture the information for other readers.

The Suggested Format for posts is:

  • Title, Author, Published by / Published in (Anthology, Collection, Website, or Magazine + Issue)
  • Hugo or other Award Category: (Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Related Work, Graphic Novel, Lodestar, Astounding, etc)
  • link (if available to read/view online)
  • optional “Brief, spoiler-free description of story premise:”
  • “What I liked / didn’t like about it:”
  • (Please rot-13 any spoilers.)

There is a permalink to this thread in the blog header.

[Based on a post by JJ.]

Top 10 Posts for December 2023

Naturally the news about the Hugo finalist voting stats – one of File 770’s most-read posts of the year – was December’s number one post. Many wanted to see how the winners made it to the top.

On the other hand, sad news about the stabbing of Diana Paxson and her son was also a leading story. The assailant was arrested the next day and she told a local reporter they were “recovering well”.

Two Pixel Scrolls that featured updates about Cait Corrain, a debut author who was on Goodreads dropping one-star reviews on several others’ debut novels, also made the Top 10.

Here is what Jetpack tells us are the top 10 posts of December 2023. (And if you can’t trust Jetpack – eh, don’t answer that.)

  1. 2023 Hugo Finalist Voting Statistics Posted
  2. Author Diana Paxson Attacked At Home
  3. Pixel Scroll 12/11/23 Pixelmancer
  4. Inside the 2023 Hugo Finalist Voting Statistics
  5. Marilyn “Fuzzy Pink” Niven (1940-2023)
  6. Pixel Scroll 12/13/23 Pixeltar: The Fifth Scrollbender
  7. Pixel Scroll 12/24/23 I’ve Got 99 Pixels But The Scroll Ain’t Fifth
  8. Sinatra: All The Way
  9. Pixel Scroll 12/12/23 Dancing With Pixels In Our Scrolls
  10. Pixel Scroll 12/7/23 Warm Smell Of Scrollitas Rising Up Through The Air

File 770’s Most-Read News Stories of 2023

What stories fired readers’ interest this year? At the top of the charts was File 770’s brief roundup about the court’s decision to reject the Internet Archive’s argument that “lending” digital copies of books was fair use rather than a violation of copyright.  Posts here rarely go viral, but that one did.

In addition to breaking news stories, like the Hugo and Nebula news which always draw a lot of eyeballs, three widely appreciated articles also made this list: Steve Vertlieb’s tribute to Twilight Zone, Tammy Coxen’s ideas about the future of the North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC), and Danny Sichel’s analysis of Ton Godwin’s perennially-controversial short story “The Cold Equations.”

THE TOP 15 POSTS OF 2023

1. Judge Decides Against Internet Archive

2. 2023 Hugo Finalists

3. 2023 Hugo Award Winners

4. Thomas Monteleone Ousted By Horror Writers Association

5. Royal Mail To Issue “Terry Pratchett’s Discworld” Stamps

6. 2023 Hugo Finalists [Redacted]

Note: The Chengdu Worldcon committee released a list of Hugo finalists then a few hours later pulled it back because some items were incorrect. The File 770 post got an initial surge of hits when it was assumed to be the regular announcement. Then, oddly, after the post was redacted it continued to get a lot more hits. Maybe living up to that Stephen King analogy about when people see an orange cone at the roadside they start looking for a body. People came to look at the dead post.

7. SFWA Announces the 58th Nebula Awards Winners

8. 2023 Hugo Finalist Voting Statistics Posted

9. The Twilight Zone: An Element Of Time by Steve Vertlieb

10. Pixel Scroll 7/6/23 The Felix Felis Flattus Sat On The Mat

11. If You Love The Nasfic, Set It Free by Tammy Coxen

12. Chinese Fan Response to Chengdu Worldcon Changes

13. Michele Lundgren Charged as a Michigan Fake Trump Elector

14. Essay: A Fresh Look at “Cold Equations” by Danny Sichel

15. Gregory Benford Had a Major Stroke on December 22

Top 10 Stories for November 2023

When Dann asked, “Omitting collected works, who are the top 5 authors in your library by number of books on your shelves?” a lot of Filers wanted to play along, which made the November 12 Scroll the most popular post of the month.  

And the leading non-Scroll post was Steve Vertlieb’s short report on attending The JFK Assassination at 60 symposium, which stirred many memories.

Here are the ten most widely-read posts of November 2023 according to dreaded Jetpack.

  1. Pixel Scroll 11/12/23 Baby Pixels Are Ever So Adorable Wrapped In Their Scrolls While Being Loved By Filers One And All
  2. Pixel Scroll 11/15/23 File The Pixels You Scroll With Your Scrolls
  3. Pixel Scroll 11/7/23 Pixel Scrollightly Seems Like A Good Character Name
  4. Pixel Scroll 11/14/23 Give Me Forty Pixels And I’ll Scroll This Rig Around
  5. Pixel Scroll 11/26/23 Three Little Muah’Dib’s From Dune Are We
  6. Pixel Scroll 11/27/23 What’s In The Daily Scroll? I’ll Tell You What’s In The Daily Scroll — An Item About A Credential Who Didn’t Pay Their Air-And-Gravity Dues And Now Has Got Those Vacuum Blues
  7. Pixel Scroll 11/4/23 Pixels Of The Night, From Pixelated Pixelvania
  8. Pixel Scroll 11/21/23 I Spent A Year Pixeled For Scroll Purposes
  9. Pixel Scroll 11/9/23 If You Tape Bacon To A Pixel Scroll Does It Always Fall Bacon Side Down?
  10. Pixel Scroll 11/2/23 Three Files, Three Scrolls, Three Thousand Pixels

SCROLL-FREE TOP 10

  1. The JFK Assassination At 60: New Frontiers In Scientific, Medical, Legal And Historical Research
  2. James Bacon on Dublin Riot
  3. My Most Memorable Moment at the Chengdu Worldcon
  4. Sergey Lukyanenko Says He Will Visit Chengdu in December
  5. British Library Exhibition: Fantasy: Realms of Imagination
  6. Goodreads Choice Awards 2023 Opening Round Nominees
  7. Remembering Fans Who Were Activists in Real World Politics and the Counter Culture
  8. The Last Dangerous Visions Progress Report
  9. 2023 Hugo Award Winners
  10. A File 770 Chengdu Worldcon Special: Jody Lynn Nye and Chris M. Barkley In Conversation – The “Ask A US Fan” Panel

Top 10 Stories for October 2023

The announcement of the 2023 Hugo Award winners naturally attracted the most eyes last month, it always does.

Tammy Coxen’s post “If You Love The NASFiC, Set It Free” vaulted into second place because of the discussion it ignited about a sensitive topic – drawing over a hundred comments.

Here are the ten most widely-read posts of October 2023 according to dreaded Jetpack.

  1. 2023 Hugo Award Winners
  2. If You Love The NASFiC, Set It Free
  3. 2023 World Fantasy Awards
  4. Chengdu Worldcon Site Selection Business Meeting Results
  5. A WSFS-Sponsored Asian Science Fiction Convention (ASFiC) — Discussing Item Nine from the Chengdu Worldcon Business Meeting Agenda
  6. “Any Language” – Discussing Items Seven and Eight from the Chengdu Worldcon Business Meeting Agenda
  7. Pixel Scroll 10/16/23 Not A Title
  8. Pixel Scroll 10/29/23 Swamp Thing! You Make My Scroll Sing
  9. Pixel Scroll 10/24/23 They Say It’s Only A Rebel Moon
  10. Pixel Scroll 10/21/23 Seven Pixels You Can’t Scroll On Television

SCROLL-FREE TOP 10

  1. 2023 Hugo Award Winners
  2. If You Love The Nasfic, Set It Free
  3. 2023 World Fantasy Awards
  4. Chengdu Worldcon Site Selection Business Meeting Results
  5. A WSFS-Sponsored Asian Science Fiction Convention (ASFiC) — Discussing Item Nine from the Chengdu Worldcon Business Meeting Agenda
  6. “Any Language” – Discussing Items Seven and Eight from the Chengdu Worldcon Business Meeting Agenda
  7. “Best Fancast Not Paying Compensation” — Discussing Item Five from the Chengdu Worldcon Business Meeting Agenda
  8. Uganda 2028 Worldcon Bid Q &A Update01
  9. Chris M. Barkley’s 2023 Best Fan Writer Acceptance Speech
  10. Seattle Wins 2025 Worldcon Site Selection Vote

Top 10 Stories for September 2023

The Dragon Award winners post was the only news story to hold its head above the flood of Pixel Scrolls in September. However, Harlan Ellison news and the Big Book of Cyberpunk table of contents still drew many readers. And congratulations to Steve Vertlieb who wrote three articles that ranked in the “Scroll-Free Top 10”.

Here are the ten most widely-read posts of Septembert 2023 according to dreaded Jetpack.

  1. 2023 Dragon Award Winners
  2. Pixel Scroll 9/7/23 Like Pixels Through The Hourglass, So Are The Scrolls Of Our Lives
  3. Pixel Scroll 9/16/23 Hush Little Pixel, Mama’s Going To Buy You A Scroll
  4. Pixel Scroll 9/18/23 Take A Pixel, Leave A Pixel
  5. Pixel Scroll 9/10/23 The Scroll Goes Ever On And On, Far From The File Where It Began
  6. Pixel Scroll 9/25/23 It Was The Filer In The Scroll With The Candlestick
  7. Pixel Scroll 9/8/23 Pixel? I Don’t Need A Pixel, My File Is On The Bandstand, My Scroll Is On The Floor
  8. Pixel Scroll 9/14/23 There Are Some Things Money Can’t Buy; For Everything Else, There’s Pixel Scroll
  9. Pixel Scroll 9/11/23 Pixels Are A Scroll’s Best Friend
  10. Pixel Scroll 9/23/23 I Can’t Scroll, Don’t Ask Me, My Heart Won’t Let My Pixel Do Things It Shouldn’t Do

SCROLL-FREE TOP 10

  1. 2023 Dragon Award Winners
  2. Straczynski Gives Harlan Ellison Book Updates
  3. Big Book of Cyberpunk TOC Released
  4. Remembering Allan Asherman
  5. 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
  6. Fables Fly Free
  7. First Chengdu Worldcon Business Meeting Reports and Motions Available
  8. Robert Bloch: The Psychology of Horror
  9. Worldcon Wayback Machine: Thursday at ConFrancisco (1993) Day 1
  10. “Nosferatu” on Stage and Screen: New Chords for a Classic “Symphony of Horror”

Top 10 Stories for August 2023

In a month with so many compelling stories – from the release of the Hugo Voter Packet to criminal charges against a fake Trump elector familiar in sff art circles – the Terry Pratchett stamp issue news was by far August’s most-viewed post.

Next after that came our coverage of F&SF’s official decision to rescind acceptance of a David A. Riley story, which had become the focus of a social media controversy.  

Here are the ten most widely-read posts of August 2023 according to Google Analytics.

  1. Royal Mail To Issue “Terry Pratchett’s Discworld” Stamps
  2. F&SF Will Not Publish Riley Story
  3. Pixel Scroll 8/22/23 The File Exploded With A Mighty Crash As We Fell Into The Scroll
  4. Pixel Scroll 8/13/23 Make Your Scroll Kind Of Pixel Even If Nobody Else Scrolls Along
  5. Pixel Scroll 8/14/23 Nine Hundred Granfalloons
  6. Pixel Scroll 8/28/23 It Was Scrolling Hard In Pixel, I Needed One More File To Make My Night
  7. Chengdu Worldcon Releases First Block of Hugo Voter Packet
  8. Pixel Scroll 8/10/23 Pick A Peck Of Pixels
  9. Pixel Scroll 8/11/23 The Secret Diary Of Pixel Scroll, Aged Four And Five Fifths
  10. Pixel Scroll 8/26/23 It Was An Early Evening Pixel And The Scroll Had Just Opened Up

SCROLL-FREE TOP 10

  1. Royal Mail To Issue “Terry Pratchett’s Discworld” Stamps
  2. F&SF Will Not Publish Riley Story
  3. Chengdu Worldcon Releases First Block of Hugo Voter Packet
  4. Michele Lundgren Charged as a Michigan Fake Trump Elector
  5. Scoring the 2023 Dragon Award Nominees
  6. 2023 Dragon Awards Ballot
  7. The Greatest Motion Picture Scores Of All Time
  8. John R. Douglas Dies
  9. Are These Awards Dead or Just Pining for the Fjords?
  10. Essential Judge Dredd: The Apocalypse War Review

Top 10 Stories of July 2023

Last month’s two top stories involved the Chengdu Worldcon’s announcement of this year’s Hugo finalists. The first list, posted prematurely and with some inaccuracies, was withdrawn and news outlets were asked to redact it. File 770’s post got almost 5,000 hits even though the list was gone — possibly another demonstration of Stephen King’s claim that when people see an orange cone by the side of the road they start looking for a body. The correct list was released a few days later and attracted twice as many hits, as it should have.

Absolutely deserving of mention as well is Steve Vertlieb’s article “The Twilight Zone: An Element of Time”, another top-rated post that discussed the beloved series.  

Here are the ten most widely-read posts of July 2023 according to Google Analytics.

  1. 2023 Hugo Finalists
  2. 2023 Hugo Finalists [Redacted]
  3. The Twilight Zone: An Element of Time
  4. Pixel Scroll 7/6/23 The Felix Felis Flattus Sat On The Mat  
  5. Why S. B. Divya Declined Two Hugo Nominations
  6. Michele Lundgren Charged as a Michigan Fake Trump Elector  
  7. How Many Names?  
  8. Announcing the Westfahl Award (And Other Insignificant Science Fiction Awards)
  9. 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards
  10. Pixel Scroll 7/11/23 Practically Perfect Pixels Never Permit Scrolls To Muddle Their Thinking