The Chengdu Worldcon committee today announced that voting has opened for the 2023 Hugo, Lodestar and Astounding Awards.
Individuals must have a WSFS membership to be eligible to vote (in addition to any other type of available membership).
Eligible members log into the 2023 Hugo Awards page on the official website. Click “Vote” to enter the Qualification Check. After verification, you can access the voting page.
All online ballots must be received by October 1, 2023, 17:59 pm China Standard Time (CST, UTC +8)/September 30, 2023,23:59 pm Hawaiian Time. For the paper ballots, the valid date shall be subject to the postmark and the ballots shall be mailed before October 1, 2023 China Standard Time (CST, UTC +8). If you have any questions about the final ballot, please contact the Hugo Awards Subcommittee of the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon by sending emails to [email protected].
The winners will be announced at the Hugo Award ceremony on October 21, 2023.
For the website also has an instructional graphic.
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I was able to get in, so despite not getting any email from them since early May, I’m apparently still a member.
The website loads VERY slow on my connection, and it appears to be designed so bits of it load as you scroll, which makes it really janky and nasty to try to read. Style over substance. I wish more web designers would test their systems on slow connections.
Still no packet, as far as I could see. At least the log in wasn’t too complicated.
Got as far as step 3 – no email.
I was able to get a login email and submit votes.
It took a few minutes before the login email arrived. In between I had sent an email to the help desk, however, I don’t think that was what resulted in the login arriving, I think it was just slow.
The confirmation email I got had a subject line of “login” and was from hugo_receipt at message.chengduworldcon.com
It went into my spam box, but I’ve been checking that for any mail from them.
I did get the announcement email, but as usual it went to my junk folder. By the way, is there any way to access one’s own membership information to check name, address, etc.? If so, I haven’t found it.
Bob Roehm: On the Chengdu Worldcon homepage there’s an orange “login” (or buy membership) button. Once you press that you go to a page where you’re supposed to be able to get a login link. Or if you were sent a link when you were first notified of your membership, that link (not code number, but link) should be used as a starting point.
Thanks for the update. I did not see any emails from Chengdu on this in my inbox or spam folder. I’m torn about voting now, as I’m still hoping that there will be a voter packet with translations for the works in Chinese at short fiction length. Neil Clarke mentioned (on Facebook) that “‘Resurrection’ by Ren Qing has been published in English in an anthology published by Future Fiction. ‘Zhurong on Mars’ by Regina Kanyu Wang has been translated for an anthology coming out later this year.” He also opined that hopefully translations are in progress for the other such works. I guess I’m hopeful.
“You can click ‘Reset Rank’ to adjust your preference.”
Does that mean “clear the entries for that category and start over”?
For some dumb reason I thought these were due at the end of August. This gives me September also to read and watch. For all of you who are not world travelers, keep the International Date Line in mind. 🙂
DB: That was my experience.
Alternatively, it was possible to pull back to the bottom box something I had initially put in the ranking box.
I have heard that certain email providers (yahoo, hotmail) aren’t allowing emails through … I was given [email protected] as the place to start.
Got my login email immediately. Saved and submitted my initial votes. No confirmation email yet though.
As usual, I haven’t gotten any e-mail from Chengdu, because my e-mail provider hates them or rather hates anything foreign.
Though I was able to submit my nominations via my gmail account.
Anyone receiving comfirmation emails?
I did not get a confirmation email. I don’t know if I didn’t save it correctly, or if it’s just not sending them.
I didn’t receive a confirmation email either. The instructional graphic says they will be sent, but it’s not happening.
I always got them fairly quickly during nominations. I’ll wait until I have some more votes to submit and bug them then if I still don’t get anything.
The finalist list on the Chengdu Worldcon site has been updated to include Blake Stone-Banks as translator of the short story Resurrection, as I mentioned in a comment in an earlier post. It was also noticed and posted on Chinese social media, which I suspect is more likely to have had an impact. As I type this, the ballot page on thehugoawards.org site hasn’t been updated. I assume the ballot has been updated.
One interesting twist that I only found out about late last night, and haven’t had chance to properly research: 2 of the English-language novelettes and 1 short story (the Vibbert, Talabi and the Mills) have been published in translation in China. I don’t know when that was – before the end of 2022? before the end of nominations? – but perhaps there’s a case for those translators to be similarly credited in the ballot?
John S / ErsatzCulture: Just FYI, I added Blake Stone-Banks to my Hugo post last night after seeing your info.
As for the next three — the Chengdu Worldcon’s finalist list credits the English-language publisher and doesn’t name the Chinese-language publisher (even in the Chinese portion — I ran them through Google Translate). So you may be right that a case could be made, and it would be a helpful step if they also recognized where the translated story appeared in China.
Info from CSFDB:
Talabi: published online by ????? on 2023-05-16, translator Mahat
Vibbert: ditto
Mills: published in ??????????by ????? some time in 2023-04, translator ?? EDIT: looks like the characters got mangled, Google translate has it as Little Bird Literature Vol 28; translator Geng Hui
Will try to see if I can find more detail on when exactly the latter was published, but I guess the first two definitely miss out?
After Chengdu had posted that members should have received an announcement of the nominees, I reached out to them at their help address, [email protected], as I had not received such an email. My email bounced after multiple retries. I also attempted to get a login link to the membership page but did not receive it. After several DMs through their Facebook page, I was told that my email provider (Yahoo) is blocking their email and that I needed to change my address. However, this doesn’t address why my emails to them are bouncing. I gave them a gmail address in the DM, but I don’t believe they have changed it yet. I attempted to get the Hugo login link using my Yahoo email and was successful (though it went to spam) which disproves their assertion that Yahoo is the problem. However, I have not received a confirmation of my votes. Clearly something is problematic in communications in both directions and the offered explanation doesn’t fit the symptoms.
Chengdu appears to have created a new account for my gmail address, but it shows 0 in all the membership levels. Fearing that they had created an account for buying memberships, I checked to see if I can use it to login to the Hugo ballot, and I can, but it does not contain my prior recorded votes. So, I logged into the Hugo ballot using my yahoo address and my prior votes are there. It would appear that I’ve now ended up with two Hugo ballots. I’ve let them know the situation. I’m curious if anyone coming in new and setting up a membership account will automatically get Hugo voting rights. This is supposed to be the Hugos, not the Dragons.
This is Joe from Chengdu Worldcon, as some of you could see, we sent out the press release about the open of the voting last night/this morning. Eligible members can visit the site from https://hugo.chengduworldcon.com/hugo-awards/#/index directly and cast the votes after qualification check.
For thoes who have difficulty in loggin into the site or receiving the credential email, please contact us at [email protected], and the receipt email takes some time to arrive, but your votes are there for sure and you can go back to the page to see your votes as well.
About 12 hours since I submitted votes and no confirmation yet.
Isn’t it the case for previous Worldcons that the purchasing for membership open until the end of the event and everyone purchased the memberships get right to cast a voting. For this year the membership including voting right is 320 CNY ?which is 44 USD) FYI.
This time there are also another type of Physical Admission ticket which allows anyone purchase and attend the whole event with same price 320 CNY WITHOUT voting rights.
I suspect this is conflicted with the WSFS Institution 1.5.9 (quoted below) but assume this is consulted and agreed with related parties?
“1.5.9: No convention committee shall sell a membership that is available to persons of the age of majority at the time of the convention (as defined by the laws of the country and other jurisdictions where the convention is being held), that allows attendance and full participation for the entire duration of the convention and that does not include all WSFS voting rights. “
It does not conflict to the 1.5.9 since there is only one type of membership of Chengdu Worldcon, the physical and virtual admission is not membership but a 5-day admission package, you can find the Q&A on the website: https://en.chengduworldcon.com/news2_86_57/39.html
Also, Section 1.5.9 was adopted with the very clear statement that it does not apply to one-day admissions (which are not memberships). Much of the discussion took place when it was first being adopted, at the Business Meeting in 2016 (Kansas City).
The motion was first introduced as Item B.2.9 on pg 40 of the minutes. And note, explicitly, the statement in the second sentence of the commentary, “This still allows for child and day memberships.”
And, at the ratification vote in Helsinki (2017), the second sentence of the first paragraph on pg 46 of the minutes discussing ratification, it explicitly, again, lists one-day admissions as not being affected by 1.5.9.
So, as long as what we’re doing is putting together packages of one-day admissions (which the student admissions are), then we don’t need to worry about 1.5.9
Adaoli: I only have one membership, by virtue of voting in site selection at Discon, where I gave my yahoo email address. I can use that address to access my Hugo ballot but cannot to access the membership area on the main website. Chengdu asked me to use a different email to solve the login issue, and I asked that they do so. It appears that they created a new membership area login, instead of updating my existing membership. Logging in with my gmail address shows that I have 0 WSFS, Attending or Virtual memberships, they also offer to sell me a membership. Since the first step to purchasing a membership is to obtain a login to the membership area, I suspect that Chengdu has not updated my existing membership, but merely created a login. What alarms me, is that if my gmail login has no membership rites (which is what it is telling me), why am I able to get to a second Hugo ballot with that gmail address?
@Ron Maas
Hopefully it’s a glitch unique to your situation. But it is worrisome. Also makes me curious if such a loophole was possible during nominations.
For information: WSFS conventions (Worldcons and NASFiCs) can decide whether or not to even offer single-day admissions, and whether those admissions include membership rights. That is, there is no rule that either excludes or requires that single-day admissions include membership rights; it’s up to the individual convention. This is a consequence of Section 1.6 of the WSFS Constitution, which effectively says that if something is neither required nor prohibited by the Constitution, it’s up to the individual committee.
Chengdu has decided that single-day admissions are not memberships, and is offering a package of five single-day admissions (without membership rights). This is their right, and it does not violate 1.5.9 because it is not something that “that allows attendance and full participation for the entire duration of the convention,” but is five separate single-day admissions.
In contrast, Pemmi-Con, the 2023 NASFiC starting in a few days, which does have two WSFS membership rights (right to vote in the 2024 NASFiC site selection and to attend the 2024 WSFS NASFiC Business Meeting), has decided to follow the practice of Westercon, which requires that anything that costs at least as much as a supporting membership includes that membership. (NASFiC doesn’t have the same membership terminology changes as Worldcon because the legislation that changed it only referred to Worldcon.) Consequently, because the single-day rates are at least as much as a supporting membership, anyone with a single-day admission on the first or second days of Pemmi-Con can vote on the 2024 NASFiC Site Selection (subject to paying the advance supporting membership (voting) fee, as with all WSFS Site Selection elections), and anyone with a single-day admission on the third day of Pemmi-Con can attend the WSFS NASFiC Business Meeting.
For the benefit of those who aren’t serious WSFS rules geeks and are wondering what I’m talking about when I mention a NASFiC Site Selection or a NASFiC Business Meeting, read on. If you don’t care, you can skip the rest of this comment.
If a NASFiC Site Selection is required in a year when there is a NASFiC being held, then the NASFiC runs Site Selection, not the Worldcon that year.
This year is not the first time that a NASFiC has conducted a NASFiC Site Selection. The 2019 NASFiC in Layton selected the 2020 NASFiC in Columbus, and it has happened at least once previously that I recall. It’s complicated to work it out if you weren’t keeping track at the time, because the election lead time has changed, going from two years to three years, then back to two, and then to one year because it’s now defined as “Worldcon minus one year.”
In 2019, it finally dawned on some of us that without a WSFS Business Meeting at the administering convention (in that case, NASFiC), there would be no entity to deal with any irregularities in the election. In 2019, the Westercon Business Meeting (2019 was also Westercon 72) as a courtesy allowed the NASFiC Site Selection administrator to announce the NASFiC results and for the 2020 NASFiC to make a presentation, but there was no mechanism to deal with a deadlocked or otherwise irregular election. (As some of you know, Westercon is no stranger to such things and thus I, as that year’s Westercon Business Meeting chair, was relieved that there was nothing to adjudicate.)
As a result of thinking about what happened in 2019, a change to the WSFS Constitution (currently Section 4.8.5) requires that if a NASFiC selects a NASFiC, there will be a NASFiC Business Meeting whose only purpose is to officially receive the results of Site Selection voting and to deal with any business arising out of it. As the Constitution says, “This meeting shall have no other powers or duties.”
Therefore, this year’s NASFiC will include the first ever WSFS NASFiC Business Meeting, and I’m chairing it. As there is only one filed bid, and the number of outcomes of a NASFiC election is constrained by WSFS rules, I anticipate that, outside of some extremely unlikely events, the WSFS NASFiC Business Meeting will be fairly short.
@Ron Maas
When you login to voting with gmail, do you get a different membership number then when you login with yahoo?
@Laura
Yes, there are different membership numbers for each of my yahoo and grmail Hugo logins. For what it’s worth, my gmail membership login has yet a third “Memberships Number” with a different numbering scheme (starts with “EN”). The numeric portion matches neither of the Hugo numbers.
I also see a “EN” membership number when I log into the main website which is different from the one I get when logging into voting.
eta: same gmail address in both cases. I voted in site selection so I have 1 for membership, virtual, and attending.
Does anyone know if there is going to be a voter’s packet this year?
They have said there will be, but I’m not holding my breath.
Just got the email for the Voter’s Packet (8/17/2023), but my anti-virus won’t even let me bypass to get to the “dangerous” site.
They appear to be using a different certification authority (TrustAsia) for the hugo.chengduworldcon.com pages to the main site (en.chengduworldcon.com, which uses DigiCert).
TrustAsia seems to be a Shanghai based company, and isn’t yet trusted by Firefox, and likely other browsers.
https://groups.google.com/a/ccadb.org/g/public/c/KHaSShYA-eY/m/toe8FHpnAwAJ?pli=1
The ChengduWorldcon Twitter account has been made of this.
For Chrome I have to open an incognito window and tell it I wanted to proceed to the unsafe page anyway. Then it initially blocks the packet downloads until I tell it to keep them.