Comments | nwhyte: More Hugo reflections

nwhyte

More Hugo reflections

Aug 27, 2006 17:16

In the fiction categories: One woman out of four (on a par with Hugos in general, 41 of 201 Hugo awards (20%) in total, 9 out of 40 in the last ten years); three first-time winners, same as last year (though the year before, all winners already had at least two Hugos).

Details (thanks to despotliz for pointing me to the full stats):

Spin had a convincing ( Read more... )

hugos 2006

Comments 32

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pickwick August 27 2006, 15:59:21 UTC

No, I didn't see anything on his blog either, and was wondering the same thing.

abigail_n August 27 2006, 21:12:16 UTC

Gaiman comments on refusing the Hugo nom:

And now that the nominees list is up on the web, people are asking me why Anansi Boys was withdrawn from Hugo consideration, and whether it was me that withdrew it. Yes, it was me. And I suppose partly I did it because I have three Hugos already, and I felt it was better to get more names on the ballot that weren't mine, and partly because I think I feel more comfortable when the things of mine that get Hugo nominations are marginally closer to SF than to pure fantasy, but mostly because when they told me Anansi Boys was nominated it just felt right to say no thank you, this time. Obviously I'm grateful to everyone who voted for it, and happy for the other awards that it's won and is nominated for, but on this one, well, it just felt right to say no. So I did.

If only someone could convince Connie Willis to do the same...

despotliz August 27 2006, 23:41:36 UTC

If only someone could convince Connie Willis to do the same...

I think drplotka makes a valid point here about withdrawing from a category, albeit about Dave Langford, who has dominated fan writer more than any fiction author dominates the fiction categories.

abigail_n August 27 2006, 15:53:48 UTC

At the risk of exposing myself to ridicule, I have to admit that I have no idea how the Hugo winners are calculated. I know that everyone rates the nominees (with 'no award' being a possibility at any point), and I assume that those are the numbers in the first column. So, for the best novel category, Spin got 165 first place votes, Accelerando 116 and so on. But what are the columns to the right of that?

As I understand it... despotliz August 27 2006, 16:26:59 UTC

Hugo voting is by single transferable vote. You list your preferences in order, including "No Award". At each stage the nominee with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, and all the votes for that nominee are distributed to whoever the voters put in second place, if they listed one. The winner is whoever has the most votes when all but the second place candidate is eliminated, as long as they have more votes than No Award.

This has the effect of allowing your votes to still count even if you vote for something which gets knocked out early. It meant that it didn't matter that there were 3 Doctor Who episodes nominated - in a straight fight the vote would be split and BSG might win, but in this method of voting you can vote for whichever one you like and it won't cause problems.

I like the system, as it means I can really vote on my preferences and not have to think about tactical voting. There's a fuller explanation of the whole thing here.

Re: As I understand it... secritcrush August 27 2006, 16:28:31 UTC

Damn you with your faster typing skills! :P

Re: As I understand it... coalescent August 27 2006, 17:47:57 UTC

but in this method of voting you can vote for whichever one you like and it won't cause problems.

Assuming that everyone votes their Who episodes in a block, rather than (say) Dalek / Empty Child / Pegasus / Father's Day.

Thread 20

pnh August 28 2006, 04:06:30 UTC

"The most one-sided result was, predictably, the one in which the most votes were cast, Serenity getting 329 out of 660"

I realize you were technically only talking about the Hugos, but in fact Scalzi's Campbell win was by an even greater percentage margin.

nwhyte August 28 2006, 04:53:54 UTC

Scalzi had a bigger margin over the next candidate, yes, but a smaller % share of the votes cast.

pgmcc August 28 2006, 07:29:42 UTC

Ever the psephologist.

nwhyte August 28 2006, 07:40:36 UTC

It says so on my user profile!

Thread 6

alex_wilcock August 28 2006, 07:42:23 UTC

Excellent news - fabulous double-nerdiness points with Doctor Who and STV. I'm jealous, and know I won't have time to nick it for my own blog today ;-)

Is this the first time any Who has won a Hugo, or did any of the books make it?

nwhyte August 28 2006, 07:46:26 UTC

As far as I know, it was the first time any Who made it to nomination stage for the Hugos!

See previos shortlists here and here.

nwhyte August 28 2006, 08:01:40 UTC

Actually I think there is still plenty of scope for number-crunching from the full figures!