(1) GUILLERMO DEL TORO. The Pacific Rim director admires this fan art:
This piece of art by Quivery encapsulates EXACTLY the reason why I did the film. pic.twitter.com/WizRnzgzox
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) March 30, 2016
(2) SHEIKH DJIBOUTI. I always wondered what he looked like.
(3) WORLDCON STAMPS. And for the next few days “Mars & Lunar Colony Postage Stamp Sheets for 11th Worldcon (Philcon II) 1953” are up for auction on eBay.
Unused collection of Interplanetary Postage Stamps in very good condition. The two different stamps were designed by Russell Swanson for the 1953 11th World Science Fiction Convention (PhilCon II) in Philadelphia, PA. One stamp is marked “Luna Colony Postage; First Moon Rocket – 1965; a $5 blue horizontal. The other stamp is a $10 red vertical, “Mars Postage; First Mars Expedition, 1974, and depicted “Preparing the Atmosphere Rocket”. In 1953, these were sold in sheets of 40 for 50 cents by the PhilCon II Committee for publicity and revenue.
(4) I PITY THE FOOL. Will R. can’t get rid of the haunting feeling that he’s been fooled twice by Gmail’s “mic drop” button. Will says —
Though the laugh may still be on me, just so you know: the retraction followed the announcement, and there are actual comments out there (not just the questionable Twitter grabs) from people who seem to confirm that the button was real for at least a while. I admit, though, that it feels a bit phildickian trying to pin it down now, that it would indeed be a clever metaprank if the button never were real, that I’m certainly never long from playing the fool again, and that I hope whatever joke there ever was here is now wrung out.
Really, only meant to apologise if I had steered someone toward a harmful link. No joke!
(5) SPACE PARTY. Yuri’s Night is the World Space Party, celebrated at events on and around April 12.
Yuri’s Night is a global celebration of humanity’s past, present, and future in space. Yuri’s Night parties and events are held around the world every April in commemoration of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human to venture into space on April 12, 1961, and the inaugural launch of the first Space Shuttle on April 12, 1981.
“Circling the Earth in my orbital spaceship I marveled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance this beauty — not destroy it!” — Yuri Gagarin, 1st human in space….
Since 2001, Yuri’s Night has:
- Featured talks and presentations by Ray Bradbury, Will Wright, George Takei, Richard Garriott, Anousheh Ansari, and many others
- Been celebrated at the South Pole, Hayden Planetarium, and in orbit on the International Space Station
- Planted hundreds of “moon trees” around the world in collaboration with American Forests
- Received the “Best Presentation of Space” award from the Space Frontier Foundation
- Trained the next generation of space leaders for organizations such as the National Space Society, Virgin Galactic, and Space Florida
Anyone can start a Yuri’s Night event, and it’s completely free.
(6) LA EDITION. Find out about Yuri’s Night in LA, April 9 at the California Science Center, on Facebook.
Join with 100+ events around the world in celebrating the 1st human mission to orbit the Earth and all space can make possible for us. Come to the pre-party, make your own space hero trader card, listen to Samantha Cristoforetti talk about her 199 days on ISS last year. Apollo 11 moonwalker, Buzz Aldrin, and Star Trek’s Lt Uhura, Nichelle Nichols will also be there. Your best playa wear or space costume is encourged. DJ Dynamix will be spinning till midnight! Don’t wait, event has sold out every year!
(7) SWIRSKY RECOMMENDS. There was no foolishness in Rachel Swirsky’s April 1 “Friday Fiction Recommendation: ‘One Paper Airplane Graffito Love Note’ by Will McIntosh” —
Will McIntosh is an exceptional writer whose work deserves more recognition than it gets. He won the Hugo Award several years ago for the excellent short story “Bridesicle,” but I wish people had paid more attention to his following novels and short stories. He does aliens really, really well.
However, this story has no aliens. It has dreamy magical realism instead.
The full 2007 McIntosh story is a free read at Strange Horizons.
(8) MORE ACCOLADES FOR BECKY CHAMBERS. While musing about the Hugos (“Hugo nominations for novels: And the final nomination list will be…”) Rachel Neumeier added a paean of praise for The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, which certainly would have been on my ballot if it had been eligible.
This was recommended to me by Linda S, who was right — I loved it. I was trusting her when I didn’t quite have time to finish the book before nominations closed, which worked out fine because I liked the resolution quite a bit. But I notice one File 770 commenter said it might not be eligible. I don’t know why, but if not, too bad! I guess I should have nominated Bryony and Roses instead. Well, at least Ursula Vernon’s story “Wooden Feathers” was on a lot of lists; I was glad to see that.
Anyway, I have not had time to write a review of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, obviously, but I nominated it because it is a really fun SF space opera with a cluttered Star-Trek-Federation type of setting — I haven’t seen anybody tackle a setting like that for a long time. Actually, the closest background I can think of in recent SFF is in Tanya Huff’s Valor series.
I had quibbles here and there with the worldbuilding and story, but OMG did I ever love Kizzy, one of the Best! Characters! Ever! Chambers must have had so much fun writing her, seriously. I have a new ambition: to write a wild impulsive uninhibited extrovert who is as much fun as Kizzy. Wonderful character building through dialogue. I wound up becoming quite attached to all the characters, including the ones who were thoroughly unsympathetic at the beginning. I also liked the rather intimate feel of the story against the very wide-scale background, which Chambers pulled off despite frequently switching the pov. And as I say, I liked the resolution. There are sad things about the ending, but it is not a downer.
(9) INDIE. Today’s Brevity cartoon has a kind word for writers from Middle-Earth.
(10) ANNIHILATION CASTING. Uproxx reports Ex Machina’s Oscar Isaac and Alex Garland are teaming up with Natalie Portman — “’Annihilation’ Becomes A ‘Star Wars’ Party As Oscar Isaac Joins Natalie Portman”.
Based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, the story follows a team of female scientists exploring “Area X,” a supposed environmental disaster zone in a future America. Portman’s character, never identified by name in the book, has the ulterior motive of looking for her husband, who was lost on an expedition. In the grand tradition of environmental disaster areas with creepy pedigrees, things get weird pronto for the expedition as Things Are Not What They Seem, but Portman is unlikely to stumble across a little green dude with a strange grasp of sentence structure.
(11) COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT. Jonathan McCalmont was dubious about being quoted in yesterday’s Pixel Scroll:
https://twitter.com/ApeInWinter/status/716524722742280192
The correct context of yesterday’s tweet may not have been Puppies, but rather McCalmont’s general policy, tweeted today –
https://twitter.com/ApeInWinter/status/716526642064130048
(12) DROP EVERYTHING. AWOL announces “Tasmania Is Currently Looking For A ‘Chief Wombat Cuddler’”
OK I know what you’re thinking, what even is a Chief Wombat Cuddler? Well, you’ll be the chief… of… wombat cuddlng at Tassie’s Flinders Island. Makes perfect sense.
Apparently over the past few weeks, a cheeky wombat from our southernmost state has been getting quite a bit of attention online thanks to a real cute YouTube video. Derek the wombat – great wombat name, by the way – lives out on Flinders Island, and because the Internet is all but obsessed with him, the folk over on the island have decided he needs a little company….
All you have to do is fill out the application form here before 10pm on April 16. Entrants must be over the age of 18 and of course, love cuddling wombats. What are you waiting for!?
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Michael J. Walsh, Will R., and Kyra for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor Cora.]
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2015 Dannisms
All That Outer Space Allows Ian Sales
Artemis Invaded Jane Lindskold
Chaos Unleashed Drew Karpyshyn
Galapagos Regained James Morrow
Harrison Squared Daryl Gregory
Hit Delilah Dawson
The Machine Awakes Adam Christopher
The Rising Ian Tregillis
Something Coming Through Paul McAuley
Those Above Daniel Polansky
Touch Claire North
The Whispering Swarm Michael Moorcock
And my favorite, even though it’s not really a Dannism:
A Few Words for the Dead Guy Adams
I came up with a few recent and soon to be published Jack Dannisms.
The Absconded Ambassador Mike Underwood
The Jewel and Her Lapidary Fran Wilde
The Lady K.V. Johansen
Here are a few more Dannisms:
Lock in John Scalzi
Breakout Ann Aguirre
The Cold Between Elizabeth Bonesteel
Frost Burned Patricia Briggs
Moon Called Patricia Briggs
Blood Bound Patricia Briggs
Iron Kissed Patricia Briggs
River Marked Patricia Briggs
Bone Crossed Patricia Briggs
Some Girls Bite Chloe Neill
Magic Bites Ilona Andrews
Magic Burns Ilona Andrews (actually, you can do the whole Kate Daniels series)
The Devil Inside Jenna Black
The Creative Fire Brenda Cooper
@Greg:
The obvious solution:
Lock In John Scalzi
(helpfully suggested by Cora in the post above)
Downvoting in the Hugos is a terrible idea. Nominating should be about what you love, not what you hate.
@Aaron
If you really believe that, then why do you care if someone else has a slate?
Against the idea of downvoting in the Hugos. Don’t want to see it at nomination time. Don’t want to see longlist at voting time instead of shortlist with downvoting (this sounds vaguely familiar from some EPH thread discussion although the word downvoting wasn’t used).
If EPH doesn’t solve the slate problem well enough I have faith that we can come up with a better solution than downvoting.
I believe all these new resources which popped up this year to help nominators with eligibility questions if they are continued will grow and help with the 5% problem as well as my favorite complaint eligibility is hard. I wonder if the Hugo website could have a page with links to a number of these resources. I don’t mean to make more work for Kevin Standlee but links to the semiprozine list, Campbell list, as well as Locus, Nebula, spreadsheet of doom, Goodreads list, and the 10-20 other lists would help newbies as others out.
I don’t think I’m going to see my databse where publishers, authors, editors, artists, can add their eligible works/information any time soon. It would be nice if it includes all awards they are aware they are eligible for. Then one could search for exactly what one’s looking for.
@Greg If you really believe that, then why do you care if someone else has a slate?
Slates aren’t people voting what they personally love. They are a group of people voting for a thing/things someone else has said nominate these. They privledge a small group of voters over the majority who are voting for what they read and loved. They screw with the system. Its ethically wrong to run a slate and against the spirit of the Hugos. The SP and RP slates/campaigns were designed to be as much about what they hate as what they love, more so really with heads exploding and affirmative action.
Ranked list in my opinion where one says I know better than the average nominator do the same thing IMHO. In a subtle way your saying nominate the top ones because I’m more qualified than you to know what’s best.
ETA: Not Aaron but felt it was ok for me to give my opinion.
The biggest problem with down-voting is that it is an inherently hostile and political act, where as up-voting is not. You vote up something that you liked and want to see on the ballot. Whether anyone else liked it or even read it is meaningless. That you liked it is all you need to know to up-vote something.
But you down-vote things that you want to prevent from showing up on the ballot. You do not cast a down-vote for something that you think was badly written and poorly conceived. That sort of thing is generally assumed to non-competitive as a mater of course. No, you down-vote things that other people have liked and that you are actively trying to prevent from showing up.
Such a thing would be instant poison to any process.
@Darren Garrison:
The “pack of gum” device in question is replacing a slightly larger device that took a microSDXC card. The extra bulk in both cases is necessary to accommodate the wifi router and built-in battery. It’s really damned handy.
@Greg
From a purely…emotional? perspective, down-voting is particularlly ugly – it’s, as other have said, it’s people picking on a particular item from across the field to specifically say, hey, this is crap. I don’t even know how it will be come time to release the full stats.
From a practical perspective, it’s a terrible idea, as in a slate-filled world, it enhances a slate’s poison pill ability. I may not give two hoots as to what is or is not on a slate come nomination time, but I’m not silly enough to think that everyone does the same. All you need is some collossal arse naming an item on a slate, and chances are that it will attract an outsized share of downvotes.
@snowcrash
Everything has a cost. Downvotes are a way to make it impossible for slates to put things on the ballot. If EPH passes, the only route slates will have left to them is to put things like “Space Raptor” on the ballot with the goal of humiliating the people who give the awards, who’ll have to read the names of the nominees. Also, “Space Raptor” will be on the list of Hugo Nominees forever, tarnishing the awards for years to come.
Downvoting would have a cost. No question. But it would forever destroy the ability of slates to pollute the list of nominees. They’d be limited to targeting a handful of works to try to reduce the quality of the list of nominees. That would likely not be enough for very many of them to bother paying the $50. And it would leave no permanent record even if they did.
As I said above, it remains to be seen whether EPH alone will do that. But if EPH is not enough by itself, I don’t see anything besides downvoting that would be powerful enough to make the slates go away. One or two years with things like “Space Raptor” on the list of nominees, and downvoting will start to sound pretty good to people.
I like “Artemis Invaded Jane Lindskold”. Jane was just sitting there quietly and POW her house was full of a pack of hunting dogs and a girl with a bow and arrow.
Whereas “The Machine Awakes Adam Christopher” simply means Adam has an alarm clock and needs to get up at a certain time.
If you really believe that, then why do you care if someone else has a slate?
Because a slate is fundamentally not about voting for what you love.
Greg Hullender: Downvoting would have a cost. No question. But it would forever destroy the ability of slates to pollute the list of nominees. They’d be limited to targeting a handful of works to try to reduce the quality of the list of nominees. That would likely not be enough for very many of them to bother paying the $50. And it would leave no permanent record even if they did.
As I said above, it remains to be seen whether EPH alone will do that. But if EPH is not enough by itself, I don’t see anything besides downvoting that would be powerful enough to make the slates go away. One or two years with things like “Space Raptor” on the list of nominees, and downvoting will start to sound pretty good to people.
No matter what happens, downvoting will never sound good to me.
There are a number of methodologies I would be willing to implement to block bad actors. However, I have an ethical limit on how far I will go with those. If something will destroy the spirit and intent of the Hugos while “saving” them from bad actors, then it is an unethical choice, and I will oppose it with all my might.
What you are suggesting is exactly that: destroying the integrity of the Hugos to make them safe from the Rabid Puppies. Congratulations. You are now a collaborator with Vox Day, helping him to get what he wants.
Five Hundred Years After Steven Brust
Bangkok Haunts John Burdett
Venus Preserved Tanith Lee
The Darkness That Comes Before R. Scott Bakker
Exciting news: Updated information including partial TOC for POC Destroy SFFH. Submission information for POC Destroy horror and POC Destroy Fantasy can be found at above link.
Looks like everything is on schedule for shipping on time.
Somehow I missed this thread, and was wondering why everyone was so quiet today.
It makes me want to run and hide, to see people describing something I enjoyed as much as The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet described as “too fluffy.” I suspect this is me feeling fragile and being over-sensitive today. Hopefully not tomorrow!
These ideas can stand or fall on their own. I think it’s an unfair association, since Vox Day has never advocated downvoting that I know about.
Just a casual link drop to a chart with LOTS of sub-genres in horror!
**whistles casually and saunters off**
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1221623394515294&set=gm.954554914640401&type=3&theater
@Lis: apparently there weren’t enough ‘splosions and death. But that’s what I LIKED about it! People had complicated feelings, and inner lives, and it was fun. I really wish it had been eligible.
To be fair to JJ, you know Teddy would have a full slate of downvotes if that was ever established.
Mike Glyer: I think it’s an unfair association, since Vox Day has never advocated downvoting that I know about.
I don’t think it’s unfair. VD wants to see the Hugos destroyed. Instituting downvoting would certainly accomplish that.
Another no for downvoting. It would change the way the Hugos work and not in a positive, constructive way.
One reason EPH passed last year is because it doesn’t change the way WSFS members nominate, just the way nominations are tallied. The final vote remains unchanged. If truly bad works dominate the final list, “No Award” provides a safety valve.
Downvoting would be too radical a change because it’ll change how Hugos are nominated & there’s no guarantee someone like Vox Day won’t game it to cause more grief. If the Rabid Puppies are disciplined enough, “Space Raptor” will be a Hugo finalist regardless (EPH is not in effect this year) and it’ll join “Opera Vita Aeterna” by Vox Day as a Hugo finalist. What of it? Most people who look at the Hugos pay attention only to the winners anyway. Would I be annoyed if works like “Opera Vita Aeterna” keep getting slated onto the final ballot? Yes. But not enough to destroy the village to save the Hugos.
@Bonnie McDaniel
Finally got home to enough bandwidth to watch the Celine Dion version 🙂 Ugly consequences though. It inspired my girlfriend to play me THIS version. TRIGGER WARNING: If you’re not a country fan (I’m not, she is) there may not be enough brain bleach in the world…
https://youtu.be/UXddMNGXDD4
Another vote against downvoting.
I enjoyed The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet a whole lot as well and Becky Chambers is one of my Campbell nominations. And the picaresque structure, the relative lack of conflict, the character focus and the fact that all crewmembers except for one (and even he grows on you, once you learn his story) are likable is a great part of why I enjoyed the novel so much. Do I want every novel to be like this? No. But for one novel I enjoyed the change of pace.
In many ways, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is the anti-puppy, anto-nutty-nugget science fiction novel. The future it shows us is diverse, pretty much every human being (well, except for Corbin and he’s clearly an exception) is POC of some kind, nobody has a conventional heterosexual relationship, none of the main characters use weapons or even want anything to do with them, the way to solve conflicts is by talking. Oh yes, and there’s little overt action and a lot of character focus. It’s almost as if this book was designed to be the anti-puppy novel.
ETA: I think downvoting is a very bad idea.
@Lis Carey, I also loved The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I generally treat categorical statements like that like the game for fortune cookies, appending everything with in bed.
I think downvoting is a terrible idea generally (peer pressure in action has enormous potential to be ugly) and particularly so as a defensive strategy.
@Stoic Cynic
*runs screaming into the night*
@Greg
First of all I think it’s far from a certainty that the aforementioned “Space Raptor” will make it. Secondly, even if it does, I’m not entirely convinced that it would be the eternal mark of shame – it would involve an ongoing post-script (one that would be very useful whenever someone asks “Why is the nomination systems so complicated?”)
Finally I do think that you are unfairly dismissive of the impact of downvoting. Even if it did ensure that no slates items ever showed up, slates would still be motivated to continue, and now as an enemies list. It’s not just Scalzi – many people, and especially women, would essentially find themselves on this list. People like the Nielsen Haydens, Jemisin, Swirsky, Sarkeesian et al. would specifically find their nominations targeted.
Also, what is your suggestion for when nomination data is released – that the Hugo admins just hide the downvote details? Because I can only see an immense amount of negativity from sharing that data, but not sharing it is gonna be seen as lacking transparency as well.
It’s not just Scalzi – many people, and especially women, would essentially find themselves on this list. People like the Nielsen Haydens, Jemisin, Swirsky, Sarkeesian et al. would specifically find their nominations targeted.
THIS.
Nope on downvoting. The resulting can of worms would be enormous.
No downvoting. It’s ugly in comment threads (the only places to implement it meant it to be a way not to moderate … it doesn’t work for that either) and uglier in a voting process.
I think you need to be aware it’s unnecessary namecalling and makes for toxic reading.
It insults readers’ intelligence that you demand we accept your inference that Hugo downvoting has the seal of approval of VD without evidence he has ever advocated the idea, merely so that you can score a debating point against Hullender.
Mike Glyer: It insults readers’ intelligence that you demand we accept your inference
I haven’t demanded anything. I’ve stated my opinion — that instituting a hugely negative compensatory tactic like downvoting plays exactly into his intent to cause as much damage as possible. And that Worldcon members need to be above resorting to that sort of thing.
JJ: Stop evading the issue. What you did was identify Hullender with VD because he argued something you don’t like. I’m calling you to account for that.
Mike Glyer: What you did was identify Hullender with VD because he argued something you don’t like. I’m calling you to account for that.
Okay, I’ll un-identify him with VD.
I’m still calling him to account for suggesting something that would be horribly destructive to the Hugo Awards, and having no apparent recognition or understanding of that.
Do I think what he suggested is exactly the sort of response VD has been hoping to provoke? Absolutely. And I’m disgusted that someone would respond in that way.
Mike: JJ didn’t say Teddy approves of downvoting. JJ said that downvoting would destroy the Hugos as we knows and loves ’em (which is the majority opinion here). That’s what Teddy also wants.
Two different tools/roads which would lead to the same bad end.
Whether you use dynamite or C4, things still get blown up.
(I am apparently in “Mythbusters” withdrawal, with my references to ‘splosions tonight.)
@Cora: Yes, to all those things! I would like to see more than one good novel a year that does that. I’d like to see a LOT of novels like that. SF doesn’t have nearly as many subgenres as mystery and romance do, and it should.
JJ: I’m not going to accept that my blog’s comment section appears to give anyone unfettered privilege to heap abuse on others. You have now responded to my efforts to make the point by repeating the abuse multiple times.
lurkertype: By the same “logic”, everything which might destroy the Hugos can fill in the blank. I believe people posting lame-ass arguments on File 770 is also something VD would approve.
@Tasha Turner
Check out the sidebar at http://www.thehugoawards.org/ for some links to rec sites. I think they have an issue in how far they go in including such links though.
lurkertype: Everybody was doing just fine, Hullender arguing his idea, others reacting negatively to the idea, but somehow that wasn’t enough.
Worth remembering that Vox doesn’t plan to destroy the Hugos himself. He figures you folks will do it for him.
@Joe H – also The Phoenix Guards Steven Brust.
Mike, I have responded to you privately.
Mike, I hope this comment doesn’t qualify as an attack on Greg Hullender; I tried to keep the bile under control, but, well. If it’s over the top, I apologize in advance, and I hope you’ll cut it.
Greg, fwiw, your suggestion of adding downvoting to the Hugo nomination process, coupled with your comment at 5:23 that implied that anyone who was anti-downloading must be either pro-slate or a hypocrite about slating (because “if you believe [that nominating should be about what you love, not what you hate], then why do you care if someone else has a slate?”), made me so furious that I literally had to go away from the computer for a while. Slating makes me angry. The idea of being responsible for downvoting works makes me sick.
The problem with slating is (at least in part) that it encourages nominating and even voting for works that I haven’t read–works that other people have selected for me. The problem with downvoting is very similar, in my opinion. I’m either going to have to read lots and lots of bad books in order to pick the five worst (yeah, no; life is too short to deliberately seek out bad books) or I’m going to have to use a slate–someone’s slate–as a guideline for what to downvote-nominate. In other words, I’m going to have to assume that someone else’s taste is by definition bad, without or at least before having reading the works in question. And where do I draw the line? Many people at this blog have expressed profound distaste for Connie Willis’s Blackout/All Clear, up to and including wondering how it ever got nominated for a Hugo (I believe; may have been “how it won the Hugo,” but I’m pretty sure some statements were stronger than that). Fair enough. Would they have downvoted it? Maybe. I happen to love the book(s), though I’m not going to argue with those who disagree–but if it gets kept off the ballot by downvoting, then the downvoters are telling me that I’m wrong. Not that there are books out there that more people like more than they liked the Willis, but that anyone who nominated Willis that year was wrong. Or what about the Harry Potter books that made the shortlist? I wouldn’t have nominated them, but not because I think they were inherently bad or worthless; more because I think there were better sff novels published that year. How do I pick books/works to downvote without saying that people who love them are wrong? (And wasn’t that part of the justification for the slates, that Hugo voters were nominating “wrong” works?)
Using No Award at the voting stage of the process might be seen as the equivalent of “downvoting” works, I suppose. I thought of that, and then decided that that’s why EPH (or something like it) is necessary: consistent use of No Award, year after year after year, will eventually make the Hugos meaningless, at best, and participating in the process would cease to be a pleasure for me. In fact, if slating and counterslating (and the long-term punitive use of No Award) took over the Hugo nomination process, I would stop participating. If downvoting became part of the responsibility of nominating for a Hugo, I would do the same–probably faster and more emphatically. They are pretty much equally destructive of the pleasure that I get out of the Hugos.
No downvoting. That will just be another tool with which to target women, people of colour and people with a different sexual persuasion.
No Award is how we handle this.
@Greg Hullender: I’m not @Aaron either, but to me, the answer seems obvious – really, Aaron’s comment almost answers your reply before you write it. Hating slates isn’t hating the people/works being slated, and we care about slating because nominating should be an act of love, if I may be so sappy as to proclaim. 🙂 Maybe we read Aaron’s comment very differently.
Also, I’m baffled that you seem to believe your inability to conceive of anything post-EPH other than downvoting . . . is a good argument for downvoting?! No, “I can’t think of anything else” isn’t a good argument for anything, except perhaps “we may need more/better ideas.”
BTW while I believe and feel that downvoting is a terrible idea, it was (briefly) an interesting one.
BTW I don’t like downvoting for various reasons – practical/implementation ones as well as “it’s antithetical to the Hugo concept” ones.
Coming late to this… and it seems everyone else has pretty much covered all the arguments against downvoting, so I will just add my opinion that it’s a bad idea. (Yes, slates are bad. This proposed solution, though, is worse.)
If we are tallying, then yeah, downvoting encourages really bad social behavior and I am not for it.
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but Amazon has killed visible downvoting for book reviews. Time was, a review would say “22 out of 31 people found this review helpful”. Now while you can still find a review not helpful, it now only lists how many people found a review helpful.
down-voting – no.
dis-enfranchising known bad-actors – maybe.
Formal statement from WSFS that vote manipulation goes against the core values of WSFS, Worldcon and Fandom in general – absolutely.