My Hugo Rant

The Hugos are awards voted on by the members of the Worldcon for that particular year. They are not a broad-based popular-vote people’s choice award and never have been. If people want to see the Hugos reflect a broader range of nominees, they should join the Worldcon and nominate and vote for them. Most of the time, seems to me that the people who are complaining about what other people nominate or vote for have not actually joined the Worldcon and nominated and voted. Frankly, it’s like the tag line of the old Pope joke: “You no playa da game, you no make-a da rules.”

On the flip side, I have a real problem with people who join the Worldcon just to vote for the Hugos (or to get the Hugo packet). The intention of a Supporting membership is to support the Worldcon and get the related publications such as the souvenir book and progress report because you can't attend that year. Nominating and voting for the Hugo awards is a perk of being a member of the Worldcon. I don't think it should be the sole reason for buying a membership, and I don't think the Worldcon should, as some have suggested, price and advertise cheaper memberships to make it easier for people to vote for the Hugos. I really really *really* wish someone would invent an alternate set of "People's Choice Awards" for the genre that would be based on a free popular vote (monitored to prevent vote stuffing, of course).