I’ll bet even infrequent readers of this blog can guess the top stories of 2012 – those stories were the reasons they visited.

What does it mean to be safe at an sf convention, how do working writers define their participation and set boundaries there, and how harassment policies are devised and enforced, were issues demanding attention after Genevieve Valentine protested her treatment at this year’s Readercon.

Exchanges about Readercon also set up a conflict over different generation’s attitudes (or at least the men of different generations) about harassment as revealed in an online exhibit from the 1962 Worldcon which included a letter proposing that Isaac Asimov talk about “The Positive Power of Posterior Pinching” – see “Monsters of the Idway” below.  

Then, the day after Ray Bradbury died a surge of interest online yielded huge numbers of hits – from Japan! — on File 770’s features about two birthday parties he attended at Mystery & Imagination.

Before any of these stories broke, we were marveling over the comic potential of Robert and Leslyn Heinlein’s entry from the newly-released 1940 Census records. It bears no resemblance at all to the Heinleins we know – was this Leslyn’s idea of a joke?

Here are the Top 10 posts for calendar 2012 according to Google Analytics:

1. Readercon Bans René Walling for 2 Years
2. What the Heinleins Told the 1940 Census
3. Baen Announces Amazon Relationship
4. Jim Young (1951-2012)
5. Ray Bradbury’s 90^th Birthday Party  
6. Monsters of the Idway
7. Ray Bradbury’s 89^th Birthday Party
8. Readercon Updates
9. Harlan Ellison [tag]
10. SCA Will Pay $1.3M To Settle Abuse Case