SFWA and SFF Net part ways

[james_davis_nicoll]

Steven Gould, President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and Jeffry Dwight, President of Greyware Automation Products, Inc. announced that they are severing the formal ties between the writer’s organization and the legacy SFWA discussion discussion boards still hosted at SFF Net (a Greyware service).

Comments

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Is there something nefarious going on, or did everyone involve just want to make it sound like there was?

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

This is weirdly vague; anybody know the backstory?

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the SFWA decided to burn the existing boards to the ground and sow the fields with salt. A bit drastic, but....

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Would I be correct in supposing that "legacy" would not have applied prior to the announcement?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

The other "official" SFWA boards have existed for several years.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Ah, OK, that makes the announcement sound much less harsh.

Thank you!

[yendi]

The linked article says that the decision belongs to SFF.net.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Or that the SFF Net people decided to take their ball elsewhere.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

Quite a few of the regulars on sff.net are publicly stating that they'll probably quit SFWA now, so even though this was apparently Jeffrey's idea, it doesn't seem like many people on sff.net are happy with it.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

So what happened to that whole "engagement" thing?

[(Anonymous)]

"the writer’s organization"

Suddenly I want to know which writer it is that SFWA belongs to.

-- Paul Clarke

[dsrtao]

One without editors', perhaps?

[nelc.livejournal.com]

The Editors' Perhaps, is that a dance? ;)

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Perhap's.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

This has been a long time in the planning, apparently, because previous SFWA officials wanted to host their private discussions in the SFWA message boards rather than on the newsgroups. It's just taken a very long time to discontinue the old area after creating the new.

And I'm sure the folks at sff.net weren't happy with the SFWA kerfuffle that popped up recently. It makes sense for sff.net to use their own professional criteria for their professional areas rather than use SFWA's.

Caveat: I've been reading sff.net newsgroups for a long time and I have one myself. There's not a lot going on over there anymore.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

"the SFWA kerfuffle"? There's only been one?

[nelc.livejournal.com]

It's like the Wars of the Roses, lots of kerfuffles about the same damn thing.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Let's feed a few more conspiracy theories . . .

[tandw.livejournal.com]

They're nuking the SFF.net boards because someone there blabbed about the pre-Gagarin cosmonauts and how their fate actually proved that the Keplerian Platonists were right about the Solar System.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

I heard that a bunch of disgruntled old Blockbuster employees are blaming the demise on Jerry Pournelle. Because he's a doctor.

DOCTOR OF DOOM!