Ohayocon Leadership Still Split
Back in October, a split between Ohayocon president Melissa Phelps and much of the rest of Ohayocon’s senior leadership burst into public view. COVEN, an informal organization of Ohayocon staffers originally formed to demand changes in how Ohayocon was run, declared itself to be on strike after multiple members of the senior leadership believed that they had been fired from the organization. Fans were urged not to attend.
The strike is still in effect, but Ohayocon managed to happen this past weekend. Attempting to shed more light on the dispute is this new article from Anime News Network, mostly detailing the struggle for Ohayocon’s online assets.
Phelps and former con chair Cody Marcum agree that around the time the dispute kicked into high gear, Phelps requested the current passwords to some of those assets, and Marcum refused the request as “a security risk”. Phelps contents that she had the right to those passwords as the tools were registered in her name.
Around the same time, though Phelps and Marcum disagree which happened first, members of the senior leadership team noticed they had lost access to those tools. Phelps says she was performing maintenance on email accounts, but Marcum believes she was actively seizing control and locking everyone else out.
At present, Phelps and the currently active staff of CESI, the organization behind Ohayocon, retain control of Ohayocon’s Facebook, Instagram, X, and web presences (though the protest “maintenance page” is still visible if you know the URL). Ohayocon’s former official Discord server is under the control of COVEN.
CESI appears to have chosen to move forward without making peace with COVEN.
Hugo Nomination Statistics Are Inconsistent
The long-awaited full nomination and voting statistics for the 2023 Hugo Awards, given at the Chengdu Worldcon in October, have been published (PDF). Normally made public shortly after the award ceremony, they were released just within the window permitted by World Science Fiction Convention rules.
The nomination statistics, beginning on page 20 of the document, include several works marked “Not eligible” with no explanation. In addition, allegations have been made that works may have been missing from the nomination data, due to an odd distribution of initial nomination numbers and points apparently not being fully reallocated from eliminated nominees.
Suggestions as to the reasons range from garden-variety incompetence, to corruption, to the Chinese Communist Party having dictated the list of finalists to the convention with the threat of the committee being “disappeared” if they did not comply.
Pressed for further information about the nominees which were ruled ineligible on his personal Facebook page, administrator Dave McCarty provided the official statement from the administration team:
After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.
McCarty also asked that further questions be sent to the official contact address for Chengdu’s Hugo Awards team, hugoteam@chengduworldcon.com. SMOF News has attempted this route, and will report further if an answer comes back.
Editorial Thoughts: Past Hugo Scandals and Their Possible Influence Now
There are two notable past Hugo voting scandals, both involving bloc voting. The 1989 Worldcon, Noreascon 3, noticed a group of memberships paid for with sequential money orders which submitted similar or identical Hugo ballots. Most of the works voted for would have been finalists anyway, but two would make the final ballot entirely on the strength of the bloc vote: The Guardsman by P. J. Beese and Todd Cameron Hamilton in Best Novel, and Hamilton for Best Professional Artist.
Noreascon 3 chose to include both the bloc-voted nominees and the nominees that would have been in fifth place otherwise as finalists, but Beese and Hamilton chose to withdraw after the con published a detailed statement about what it had found. Hamilton is recorded as having felt that making the bloc vote public knowledge had tarnished his reputation, event though the con’s investigation showed he had nothing to do with it.
Noreascon 3’s statements about the matter are no longer available in full anywhere online, but some fragments survive in a scan of File 770 #80, in an article beginning on page 2.
One quote alleges that voting irregularities and subsequent disqualifications were an ongoing feature of the Hugos:
There are many stories about how past WorldCon committees have thrown out ballots or rejected nominations without telling anyone about it (though the facts usually leak out eventually). We rejected these precedents, feeling that the science fiction community had a right to know what we were doing. Unfortunately, the consequences of this decision thus far are not likely to encourage such openness in the future.
The next time bloc voting would hit the Hugos was in the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies campaigns of 2013-2016. At their crescendo in 2015, the combined blocs were able to fill some entire categories with their nominations. The Hugo administrator chose to leave the bloc votes in effect, leading to howls of outrage about the failure to disqualify them. The full Hugo voting membership enacted its own revenge by voting most of the bloc choices below No Award, and the current Hugo nomination points system was constructed to dilute the strength of bloc votes.
Again, creators who were included in the bloc vote campaign without their knowledge felt they had been tarnished by association with it. Marko Kloos and Annie Bellet withdrew their nominated works, with Bellet memorably describing the experience:
I find my story, and by extension myself, stuck in a game of political dodge ball, where I’m both a conscripted player and also a ball. … All joy that might have come from this nomination has been co-opted, ruined, or sapped away. This is not about celebrating good writing anymore, and I don’t want to be a part of what it has become.
If works or creators are missing from the nomination data due to voting shenanigans, these past scandals may have influenced a decision to not name them.
In Brief
The trial of Andrew Giaume and Thomas Dunbar for the theft of a pallet of Magic: the Gathering cards from Gen Con has been delayed again. The trial is now scheduled for April 3, with the pretrial hearing on March 21.
The Worldcon in Memoriam social media feed, which chronicles deaths of notable science fiction and fantasy fans and creators, has moved from X/Twitter to BlueSky.
ATL Comic Convention (Atlanta, Georgia, February 24-26) has added Andy Serkis, Norman Reedus, John Rhys-Davies, Jon Berthnal, Alanna Masterson, Ross Marquand, IronE Singleton, Henry Thomas, Randy Quaid, Jyomti Amge, J. Michael Tatum, Skip Stellrecht, Nolan North, and Steve Burton as guests.
Indiana Comic Convention (Indianapolis, Indiana, March 22-24) has added John Rhys-Davies, Randy Quaid, Danielle Panabaker, Tom Cavanagh, Jodi Benson, Alejendra Reynoso, Ken Page, and Chris Sarandon as guests.
Anime Festival Orlando (Orlando, Florida, June 28-30) has added Sungwon Cho and Kira Buckland as guests.
Event Calendar
Weekend of January 26-28
GenghisCon 2024, Wembley, Australia
Conflikt (music), online
Game-iToba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
TantrumCon (gaming), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Cancon 2024 (gaming), Canberra, Australia
VerminCon 2024 (gaming), Vermillion, South Dakota, USA
Whose Turn Is It Anyway? (boardgames), Durham, North Carolina, USA
Lantern Rite (Genshin Impact), Grapevine, Texas, USA
SSA+S Toracon (anime), Sarasota, Florida, USA
Anime Washington, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Isshocon (anime), Novi, Michigan, USA
UChi-Con 2024 (anime), Chicago, Illinois, USA
San Angelo Comic Con, San Angelo, Texas, USA
Vampire Fan Weekend (media), Allen, Texas, USA
Mouse-Con Bakersfield (Disneyana), Bakersfield, California, USA
Weekend of February 2-4
AggieCon 53: A Midsummer Night’s Con, College Station, Texas, USA
Capricon 44: The Endurance of Stars, Wheeling, Illinois, USA
Contabile 34 - Triple Time! (music), Buxton, UK
ScotiaCon: Prehistoric Panic! (anthropomorphic), Glasgow, UK
AnthroExpo: 8-Bit Heroes (anthropomorphic), Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Winter War 50 (gaming), Champaign, Illinois, USA
CaptainCon (gaming), Warwick, Rhode Island, USA
Rocket City Gamefest, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
PopiCon! 2024 (gaming), South Bend, Indiana, USA
Anime Lubbock, Lubbock, Texas, USA
Setsucon (anime), Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA
AnimeCon London, London, UK
My Hero Convention: Texas (My Hero Academia), Irving, Texas, USA
East Bay Comic Con, Concord, California, USA
Creation Dallas (media), Plano, Texas, USA
Alaska ComiCon, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
Megacon Orlando (media), Orlando, Florida, USA
Weekend of February 9-11
Boskone 61, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Winter Fantasy 48 (gaming), Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
Running GAGG XXVIII: How to Train Your Squirrel to Train Your Dragon (gaming), Geneseo, New York, USA
DualCon (gaming), Charleston, West Virginia, USA
Paradice (gaming), Worthing, UK
Game On! 2024, Bellevue, Washington, USA
AmberConNI 2024 (diceless RPGs), Belfast, UK
Kami-Con Season 15: Villainy (anime), Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Animangapop (anime), Plymouth, UK
Isekai Anime Con, Sandy, Utah, USA
ExpOtaku Logroño (anime), San Millán, Spain
Animeverse Fest (anime), Houston, Texas, USA
Zipcon 2024 (anime), Akron, Ohio, USA
Farpoint 31 (media), Hunt Valley, Maryland, USA
UMW Eagle Con (media), Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA
ATL Comic Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Big Lick Comic-Con, Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Middle East Film & Comic Con, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Weekend of February 16-18
Radcon 9: Witches, Warlocks, and Wizards, Pasco, Washington, USA
CONpossible: The Jungles of Venus (alternate history), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Life, the Universe, and Everything #42 (symposium), Provo, Utah, USA
DunDraCon 47 (gaming), Santa Clara, California, USA
Itzacon XVII: Return From the Grave (gaming), Galway, Ireland
Polar Vortex 8 (gaming), Lisle, Illinois, USA
Con of the North (gaming), Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
Orccon 2024 (gaming), Los Angeles, California, USA
Escape Winter Con 2024 (gaming), Orlando, Florida, USA
Williamsburg Muster (wargaming), Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Decepta Con IX (social deception gaming), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
J-Popcon (anime), Copenhagen, Denmark
Katsucon 2024 (anime), National Harbor, Maryland, USA
Fan Expo Vancouver (media), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Geek Days Rennes (media), Rennes, France
Philip K. Dick Film Festival, New York City, New York, USA
StingrayCon (media), Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Boston Sci Fi Film Festival 49, Somerville, Massachusetts, USA
Gallifrey One's Miracle on 34th Street (Doctor Who), Los Angeles, California, USA
Weekend of February 23-25
ConCave 43, Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA
FenCon XIX, Irving, Texas, USA
Cosplay Up! 2024 (costuming), Manila, Philippines
FurSquared 2024 (anthropomorphic), Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
NordicFuzzCon 2024 (anthropomorphic), Malmö, Sweden
Atlanta Game Fest 42, Peachtree Corners, Georgia, USA
Total Confusion 38 (gaming), Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA
Plattecon XXXVII: Year of the Glitch (gaming), Platteville, Wisconsin, USA
CalCon (gaming), Kalmar, Sweden
Gamicon Arsenic (gaming), Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
LootFest (gaming), Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Festival International des Jeux (gaming), Cannes, France
Fire and Ice Convention (gaming), Manitowoc, Wisconsin, USA
Prolog 2024 (gaming), Trollhättan, Sweden
SoRCon 15 (boardgames), Basildon, UK
PrezCon 2024 (boardgames), Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Anime STX, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Nerd Fest (media), Swedesboro, New Jersey, USA
Shawicon (media), Shawinigan, Québec, Canada
StocktonCon (media), Stockton, California, USA
Con Nooga (media), Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Pensacon (media), Pensacola, Florida, USA
Coda
Speaking at the CIA’s creative writing group (The Paris Review, hat tip: Schneier on Security)
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