42 thoughts on “DisCon III Current Membership Totals”

1. China’s supporting members group easily outnumbers every other group except for Americans.

2. I guess those of us going (hi) will find out how many of the attending wind up appearing.

3. Yes, it’ll be interesting to see what the on-site numbers are. It’ll also be interesting to see how the hybrid format works out. I’m on two panels: one in-person, one on-line. It’ll feel odd to go off to my room to be on a panel! But I like that they aren’t trying to combine in-person and online participants in the same discussion.

4. While I have an attending membership, I will not be there.

5. I’m not on the program—even panels that I should be on—but I will be there, mask on and maybe even suitably gloved. Latest news convinces me more than ever that this convention (likely not next year) will be substantially different than any other worldcon—and not, frankly, in a good way.

6. I have to assume that there is a serious effort being made by Chengdu to win the 2023 Worldcon. Unlike last year with Chicago vs. Jeddah in 2022, this looks like it’s not going to be a walkover for Winnipeg in 2023.

7. China’s supporting memberships have increased by over 800 since August.

   U.S. memberships have increased by about the same amount, but spread across attending, supporting, and virtual.

   Although Winnipeg announced their 2023 Worldcon bid in April of this year, the number of Canadian memberships only increased by 38 since August.

8. I live in the DC/Baltimore area and coincidentally I have an attending membership. Make of it what you will. 🙂

9. How many usually vote in site selection?

10. Just watching …

11. @Meredith: With Preference, 576 in 2020, 842 in 2019, 693 in 2018, 1196 in 2017, and 1306 in 2016.

12. I’ll be there, albeit nervously. ::waves at Paul, Rob, et al.::

    I guess I should return to my room to attend virtual-only panels. Carrying around my laptop and headphones would be a pain, then I’d have to find a place to sit (while watching on my laptop). If any of the virtual-only panels catch my eye, I mean. This’ll be an odd experience. 😉

    . . . . .

    800+ late supporting memberships from China will very, very likely carry the day for Chengdu.

13. If China wins, do we expect another Chinese bid for 2025?

14. That’s not bad at all under the circumstances. More than I thought there would be.

15. Rich Lynch: When did you become the inventor of conspiracy theories?

16. Hi Mike. It’s a fair question, actually. If a Chinese bid can win a Worldcon bid in North America, winning another while they’re also hosting would seem easy peasy. If you really think that’s a conspiracy theory then you’re flat out wrong.

17. Rich: Stop making stuff up.

18. Most bids from outside of North America have won in North America, I think. That’s not a shock-horror thing to happen, and it’s a little weird to try to make it one.

    Reminder to everyone that Site Selection voting is, as far as I can tell, still open even if you’re not attending, so if you’re wanting to have your say, there’s still time. You can send in the ballot via email after buying your voting token, which also gives you a supporting membership to the winner at what is usually a discount price.

19. Site selection by email or mail-in ballot closes on December 14. So if you’re not planning to attend DC in person and have an opinion on this race, now would be the time to excercise your franchise.
    https://discon3.org/whats-on/hugo-awards-wsfs/2023-worldcon-site-selection/

20. I have a virtual membership and just voted. I wasn’t able to fill out the ballot on my phone, but switching to my computer made it all work as intended. My PDF reader (Foxit) even let me apply a drawn signature in the appropriate place. I’ve already had an acknowledgement of receipt from the team at DisCon, explaining that they’ll reach out if they have any issues. Very efficient!

21. As others have noted, if you are a member of DisCon III and still want to vote on site selection, you can still do so. Even if you don’t want to/can’t download/print/complete/scan-photo/return your ballot after paying the Advance Supporting Membership (Voting) fee, if you can get your ballot to someone who is attending the convention, that person can deliver your ballot for you. (I’m carrying three ballots from people who filled them out at Loscon/Westercon and gave me their payments to deliver on their behalf.)

    There were 2,107 ballots cast in 1991 (Chicago), a close race between Winnipeg and Louisville. Winnipeg’s margin of victory in the 1991 race was less than the number of No Preference votes (around seventy votes, as I recall). That was the year of the infamous 14-hour ballot count, caused because voter eligibility had not been checked in advance, so we (that included me) had to check them all before we could count them. That’s also why the number of ballots cast is burned into my brain even thirty years later.

22. Actually, I had the same question/thought that Rich expressed. And then there’s the perennial voting dilemma: in this case, if I spend $50 to vote for Winnipeg and Chengdu wins, I’ll have wasted $50, but if I don’t vote, then that outcome is a bit more likely. It would be better if the voting fee went toward a NASFiC membership instead.

23. @Jeffrey Jones – that makes no sense at all. 2025 might see Australia up against Seattle. Many non-Australians will vote for both sites. Why should someone in Germany get a NASFiC membership if Australia wins? Or an American who voted for Australia? Not to mention that at the time of the vote, there is no NASFiC in existence and no knowledge of if there will even be one (None of the Above is an allowable outcome for a NASFiC). And you don’t waste $50 – you get a supporting memership in the Worldcon, which gives you the right to vote on the Hugo Awards and in site selection, wherever the convention may be. If you care where the 2023 Worldcon is, then become a member of the 2023 Worldcon and vote! (That is actually what you are doing when you pay the advance supporting membership fee to vote.)

24. That’s fabulous numbers, and great worldwide engagement, a testiment to the value of virtual components and a good programme and I hope it results in strong democratic engagement.

    If China wins the bid it offers great oppurtunity for the resulting NASFIC, there are so many lively cities, Austin, Boston, Detroit, Portland, that I’d love to see a NASFIC at but also a chance to look to new NASFIC destinations like Mexico City or Acapulco.

    Having just held a Smofcon in Portugal, the welcome, hospitality, support and spirit was amazing and fans seem to have had a great experience, and if that’s anything to go by, looking to Mexico is really an exciting prospect.

25. @Tammy Coxen: You’re missing the point. Some of us don’t care about the Hugos–I think they’re a lost cause at this point. Of course Germans wouldn’t want a NASFiC membership; they’d want something of actual value to them.

26. Chengdu here we come…or at least for those people who want to visit a state conducting an active campaign of genocide.

27. To be honest, even aside from the obvious current human rights issues, part of my concern stems from the fact that transformative works fandom had to put together a major fannish effort to recruit translators not very long ago after the local fanfic etc websites were all banned and we had a mass influx of fannish internet refugees into the AO3, in order to set out the welcome mat and get everyone settled in. That’s not a sign of a fan-friendly atmosphere, even if it’s not quite the same fannish cross-section as attends Worldcon.

    The point of the supporting membership from site selection voting is to support the Worldcon that wins with the money to get started on organising the thing, not… whatever it would be most convenient to spend money on for the voter. Either buy the vote or don’t.

28. @Meredith: Well then that’s a luxury as long as there are homeless people needing help and political candidates to support — on retirement income. So it effectively disenfranchises people from having a voice in site-selection.

29. @Jeffrey Jones

    Yes, everything related to Worldcon – any convention – is inherently a luxury. This is not news.

    Worldcon’s need the set-up money more than the rest of us need to dictate where it goes. You’re getting a voice in exchange for helping them get going, and because it’s a luxury, that’s fine. No-one needs a vote on site selection, however nice it is to have.

30. Okay, so any kind of in-person socializing is a luxury these days.

    —
    “Reform the tenets of your heart” — Nichiren

31. @Jeffrey Jones

    Conventions are not in-person socialising as a whole, last I checked. Who is locking people up and only letting them out when they wave around a convention membership? Most socialising is also substantially cheaper than convention attendance, or even free. Finally, the site selection voting fee has nothing to do with in-person socialising: It gets you a supporting membership, which comes with no attendance rights. So tell me, what relevance does your point have?

    Quite funny that you tried that on one of the few – the only? – File770 regulars who hasn’t been able to socialise, or even go outside, for two years, though. Well done there.

32. Glad I mailed my vote in. I ended up not wanting to go. 1. the person I normally room with cannot go. 2. Washington DC in the winter.

    I voted by mail

33. @Meredith: I thought you might understand that part.

34. Jeffrey Jones: [Site Selection is] a luxury as long as there are homeless people needing help and political candidates to support — on retirement income. So it effectively disenfranchises people from having a voice in site-selection.

    If you normally buy at least a Supporting Membership to Worldcon, then you’re just paying for it a little early to vote in Site Selection — and at the lowest it will ever cost for that year’s Worldcon.

    If you don’t normally buy at least a Supporting Membership to Worldcon, then you’re not being disenfranchised by not getting to have a say in the location of something you aren’t a member of anyway.

    Charitable giving to those in need, and political donations, are also luxuries that not everyone can afford. You’re not being disenfranchised, you’re choosing which luxuries have the highest priority for your disposable income. Which is absolutely fine. Grumbling that something should be free because you have other priorities, not so much.

35. Jeffrey Jones – I am not sure whether I follow what you mean. I understand that when someone prefer certain bid they not alwayds want or can attend the other proposed place(s). Yet why this should mean that the supporting membership is given to completely different convention? And based on what this another con should be selected?
    Voting is anonymous so administrators do not even know for which bid one voted. Assigning the money to another con (which would also be a problem but that is a different story) based on the location of the voter does not make sense. E.g. some years ago when there were two bids for Eurocon – one in country where I live and the other in a different country I chose the latter. The same may be the case with Worldcon. I am sure that some of the North American fans will vote for Chengdu – why should they receive NASFiC supporting membership instead of Chengdu one?

36. @Jeffrey Jones

    Must have missed the part where poor people and medically vulnerable people existing means it’s righteous to starve non-American Worldcons of one of the sources of early funding for the sake of American convenience.

37. So everything’s a luxury. Life is a luxury. Bye.

38. Well, that was quite the tanty. 🙄

39. Aaaanyway…

    Site selection is still open! Vote if you want to and can afford it! Cheapest way to get a supporting membership in advance!

40. Wow. Just wow.

41. That $50 is your membership dues in the World Science Fiction Society. WSFS, by its rules, only wants people who are currently members of WSFS and who are willing to put up their membership dues for the year on which they are voting to be able to vote.

    It’s a club. A voluntary organization. It has membership dues. If you want to vote in the club’s elections, you have to be willing to pay for your membership dues in that organization. Is this really that difficult to understand?

42. Amanda and I have voted.

    It was an easy choice, since Winnipeg is a great site to hold a Worldcon, and it would be close enough for us to drive! It’s a very solid bid from some great fans.

    (Just 12 hours driving to get there …)

    I’m certain that the Chengdu organizing committee can put on a great Worldcon, and I see a lot of the positives that holding a Worldcon in China would bring. But … I have to support Winnipeg.

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