Just ten days before the January 31 deadline for people to join and be eligible to nominate for the 2023 Hugo Awards, the Chengdu Worldcon announced it finally had the capability to take credit card payments for memberships. Now that the convention has enjoyed that rush of business, the question is when will the members be able to start voting?
Dave McCarty, co-department head for the Hugo Awards, told the audience at Smofcon 38’s Chengdu Worldcon Presentation that “Regarding Hugo voting… there should be an email blast going out to people with all the information about nominating and your information about logging into the website. That should go out slightly before the website opens up for people to nominate, so that should be sometime in mid-January.”
Of course, that date has come and gone. Indeed, up til now, members have not received any email contact from the committee since they won the site selection vote.
And although there’s no sign this is likely to happen, if online voting opened tomorrow it would already be starting later than it has any time in the past 15 years.
| Year | Worldcon | Online Nominations Available |
| 2022 | Chicon 8 | Jan 16 2022 |
| 2021 | DisCon III | Jan 26 2021 |
| 2020 | CoNZealand | Jan 5 2020 |
| 2019 | Dublin 2019 | Jan 10 2019 |
| 2018 | Worldcon 76 | Feb 3 2018 |
| 2017 | Worldcon 75 | Jan 9 2017 |
| 2016 | MidAmeriCon II | Jan 28 2016 |
| 2015 | Sasquan | Jan 16 2015 |
| 2014 | Loncon 3 | Jan 8 2014 |
| 2013 | LoneStarCon 3 | Jan 28 2013 |
| 2012 | Chicon 7 | Jan 3 2012 |
| 2011 | Renovation | Jan 3 2011 |
| 2010 | Aussiecon 4 | Jan 1 2010 |
| 2009 | Anticipation | Jan 18 2009 |
| 2008 | Denvention 3 | Jan 3 2008 |
I’m sure it will be all covered in PR1. Isn’t that promised for late a November?
Ugh. Maybe they’re doing everything 2 months later now. So, by the end of March? Around the time it usually closes. 🙁
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ARE YOU KIDDING? IT IS FEBRUARY NOW!
OR THEY WILL SEND THE PR1 ON NOVEMBER, THE NOVEMBER IN 2 0 2 3!
What should we expect from what has always obviously been a bogus bid?
(Yes, the Emperor has no clothes, nor has it ever!)
They’re struggling with their most basic responsibilities as a WorldCon.
Nominating process was a trial balloon on their part, which the Air Force shot down…
I got a PR1 from Glasgow which is happening next year!!!! Why not a simple PR with bios of the guests of honor, an explanation for the change of sites etc.
I think it should be decorated with big balloons.
@Andrew I. Porter: I’ll bet the air force said “Halt, Hugo’s there?” first.
2023 will be a year of everything with an apteryx when it comes to Worldcons.
The Chengdu concom has shown that they are not remotely capable of doing the most basic jobs.
We need to create a process with specific milestones and consequences for missing them.
It’s a concern, but I think the biggest issue is the complete non-responsiveness to anyone asking any question. Has anyone gotten any sort of response to any question? I get there’s stuff they wouldn’t respond to for various reasons (GoH issue, for example) but is it weird to expect basic responses to questions?
Now that the venue change has given us a new hypothesis — that the Worldcon is just ornamentation for a real estate development — the international members are superfluous. No need to service them.
If you’re Chengdu co-chair Ben Yalow, vice chair Dave McCarty, vice chair Donald Eastlake III or vice chair Randall Shepherd, don’t you have to communicate with the public about this situation? The responsibilities of your role are not solely to the convention committee, but also to the Worldcon community.
@Christopher John Garcia: I did finally get a response back about my membership not displaying. Apparently they lost some membership data so now they need proof that I voted. My Site Selection receipt wasn’t in the first couple places I looked so I am going to worry about this later given that I can use my Chicon membership to nominate.
(It would have probably been easier to find my receipt in the time immediately after Discon before a year+ of other papers had a chance to bury it.)
Not that this is terribly reassuring, but their official Twitter and Facebook have been somewhat active. And there’s this YouTube video they put up 4 days ago: 2023 The Hugo Awards Nomination: Coming Soon.
Maybe they’ll send a message by balloon…
Laura: Well, I’m fascinated. The English title of the video is “2023 The Hugo Awards Nomination: Coming Soon.” But Google Translate renders the Chinese-language note under the video as “Nominations for the 2023 Hugo Awards are now open”. Of course, they aren’t, so it seems the English title is more accurate.
The video is so fast that even if it had useful information, I would have real difficulty extracting it. Especially when you add in having to locate the English text among the Chinese. On a web page, that would be less of a problem.
I hit pause and scanned through slowly. There are a few glimpses of what appear to be potential nomination or Hugo info webpages. But who knows if anything is close to being functional.
@Andre Lieven
That’s why there are business meetings at every worldcon.
The English website is still saying there is a problem with credit card purchases. Also, is there an update on whether or not the convention has arranged for special hotel rates?
@Andre Lieven
What sort of consequences?
@Michael Pinnick
As of Jan 21, they said hold on they are negotiating.
Update on hotel room rates: I asked them about it on their Facebook page, and this morning I got this reply- “hopefully will announce tomorrow”
Laura & P.J.:
We have now had ample proof that this Worldcon is on track to be a total failure at even it’s most basic functions.
In my view, we need a way for WSFS to void a seated Worldcon if/when it fails to meet (Especially all) basic milestones. Indeed, many businesses have such clauses in their contracts where failure to perform to milestones renders the contract void.
At this point, Chengdu has done attained ZERO milestones of basic Worldcon work. No sent PR1s (And a year late), changes in dates without warning or consultation, and missed deadlines on, well, everything to date.
If they are left without accountability, my present expectation is that 2023 will not see a Worldcon, virtual or in person, at all.
does DisCon retain records of who voted, and so who were passed on to Chengdu?
Andre,
So if they could be unseated, what then? Or how do you imagine holding them accountable? I’m not holding my breath for Hugo nominations to open today, but we did finally get PR1.
As a first step towards accountability, there ought to be milestone dates that all Worldcon bids agree to fulfill when they submit their bid — such as dates to release PR1, PR2, PR3; date to open Hugo nominations; date to open Hugo voting; and dates to finalize the convention site and hotels.
Even if there wasn’t an enforcement mechanism in place to unseat a con, the schedule would put more pressure on cons because of the bad PR of missing a date. They’d know they have to get their bleep together.
@Laura, I never got PR1, but I did get the email a few weeks ago that the Hugo nominations would be opening “soon”. I assume my PR1 is caught in an upstream spam filter somewhere….
They also have a post at their website where you can download PR1. Didn’t have anything we didn’t already know I don’t think.