Actually, My Little Pony is better than you might give it credit for. (I say this as the father of two little girls that you are familiar with. :) )
I'm not sure which episode is the one that got nominated (and will have to check), but I know that the season opener for the most recent season was dealing with the rather complex concept that equality does not mean that everyone has to be the same. It actually felt remarkably subversive for a show that's written primarily for children. :)
And I just checked. That's the episode that got the nomination...
Well, obviously I'm outside my core competence here, but it did seem like an odd item to be on the final Hugo ballot. Someone emailed me this morning, suggesting that there are more bronies (I had to look that up) than one might think in the SF community. Then again, there are plenty of furries in SF. Maybe MLP is Top Furry.
First, I doubt Midamericon got any new money. All ~500 of VD's voters were eligible to nominate this year without paying money. (Sasquan voters carry over in the nominating phase.) To vote for a Hugo, they'll have to join Midamericon.
Second, I'm not clear how you think VD is going to use No Award. People are not automatons and are already referring to some of the Rabid Puppies' selections as human shields. (Reynolds, for one, asked explicitly to be removed from the list and was ignored.) Between that and the post-announcement withdrawals (Thomas May pulled out today) I expect it will be clear who's a hostage and who's a conspirator. In short, unless VD gets an actual majority, instead of his usual 10% to 20%, he can't force a No Award.
that changing the rules after you get your butt whipped sounds, well, weak-king-ish.) More like changing the rules when a small minority (~200 voters at last year's nominating round) hijack the process from ~800+ voters.
I've said this a number of times: Last year the Puppies got out the vote. Everybody else stayed in bed. I honestly don't see that any hijacking went on, unless your definition of "hijacking" is radically different from mine.
IIRC Bruce Schneier wrote that tinkering with the rules was a bad idea because of unintended consequences, and I agree with him. If EPH cuts down on the number of recs castable by one person, awards will be decided by fewer recs (it's decided by way too few to begin with) which makes all kinds of weirdness possible. If you really want to make logrolling a thing of the past, bring in another 25,000 people to the process. It's that simple.
Finally, don't underestimate Vox. I still find it hard to believe that he's done what he's already done. I'm unwilling to say what he can't do in the future.
Bruce Schneier was involved up to his eyebrows on the Making Light blog developing EPH.
People keep saying that the Puppies brought out the numbers. No they didn't. I did the math. The Puppies locked up last year's ballot with ~250 votes out of ~2100. Using my math or Chaos Horizon's math, they had at most ~1,000 people in the final stage out of ~5900.
Just eyeballing it, VD had ~400 votes out of 4015 this year. That's around 10% of the electorate - in line with prior performance. The only way it can be said that Puppies brought the numbers is in bringing out numbers of people to vote against them.
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I'm not sure which episode is the one that got nominated (and will have to check), but I know that the season opener for the most recent season was dealing with the rather complex concept that equality does not mean that everyone has to be the same. It actually felt remarkably subversive for a show that's written primarily for children. :)
And I just checked. That's the episode that got the nomination...
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Second, I'm not clear how you think VD is going to use No Award. People are not automatons and are already referring to some of the Rabid Puppies' selections as human shields. (Reynolds, for one, asked explicitly to be removed from the list and was ignored.) Between that and the post-announcement withdrawals (Thomas May pulled out today) I expect it will be clear who's a hostage and who's a conspirator. In short, unless VD gets an actual majority, instead of his usual 10% to 20%, he can't force a No Award.
that changing the rules after you get your butt whipped sounds, well, weak-king-ish.) More like changing the rules when a small minority (~200 voters at last year's nominating round) hijack the process from ~800+ voters.
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IIRC Bruce Schneier wrote that tinkering with the rules was a bad idea because of unintended consequences, and I agree with him. If EPH cuts down on the number of recs castable by one person, awards will be decided by fewer recs (it's decided by way too few to begin with) which makes all kinds of weirdness possible. If you really want to make logrolling a thing of the past, bring in another 25,000 people to the process. It's that simple.
Finally, don't underestimate Vox. I still find it hard to believe that he's done what he's already done. I'm unwilling to say what he can't do in the future.
Reply
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People keep saying that the Puppies brought out the numbers. No they didn't. I did the math. The Puppies locked up last year's ballot with ~250 votes out of ~2100. Using my math or Chaos Horizon's math, they had at most ~1,000 people in the final stage out of ~5900.
Just eyeballing it, VD had ~400 votes out of 4015 this year. That's around 10% of the electorate - in line with prior performance. The only way it can be said that Puppies brought the numbers is in bringing out numbers of people to vote against them.
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