Not related to previous post

[james_davis_nicoll]

Who's been saying the Hugo process is corrupt?

Comments

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Elgibility to vote in US elections is a red herring. Brits, Iraqis, etc. get to complain about the results because the US has an outsize international influence on the world economy, geopolitics, etc. (That said, a middle-class UK academic can probably emigrate with fair ease and become an eligible voter if the stakes in US elections are really so high.

So too do the Hugos have an outsize influence on the field, given what it actually is—a fan's choice award influenced by, yes, taste, but also by Twitter campaigns, famous bloggers, old coots fighting for the rights of the mimeographed, Dr. Who fanatics, the Heinlein faction, etc.

My complaints aren't designed to "fix" the awards—like I said, they appear to me to be designed to reward people who are nice to fandom, and they do that—but to have a discussion about what influences voting behavior, including, but also beyond taste. And I'd appreciate doing that without my comments being mischaracterized or used as fuel for some personal problems with Hugo insiders, or Lavie, or the Internet in general.