Locus Awards Change Rules, Foil Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow's short story collection Overclocked was nominated this year for a Locus Award, a science fiction honor voted on by the public and tabulated by Locus magazine. Votes were accepted online, and several links during the balloting on Doctorow's ginormously popular Boing Boing blog helped his book receive the most votes in that category.

But if you check out the award winners, you won't find Doctorow's book on the list. Locus changed the rules after voting was over, deciding to give votes from its subscribers twice as much weight as non-subscribers, as the magazine explained in the print edition of its July issue:

Connie Willis's The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories won with a lead of just over 70 points, followed by Jack Vance's The Jack Vance Treasury in second. Cory Doctorow's Overclocked came in third -- despite having the most votes and the most first-place votes. The doubled subscriber votes made Willis, ever a favourite with Locus subscribers, the winner; without the extra points, she would have come in second behind Doctorow, who has a large online fan base.

So the nominee with the most votes and most first-place votes finished third. This quote from Locus comes from a blogger for Vector magazine, who points out that fixing the results didn't stop the magazine from bragging about how many people voted:

The big selling point of the Locus Awards is, or always has been to me at least, their representativeness, precisely the fact that anyone can vote and that they are thus the best barometer of community-wide opinion that we have. As the notes at the start of this year's result somewhat smugly put it, "We get more votes than the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy nominations combined" ... it seems wrong to imply (as I think it's intended to imply) that this legitimizes the results when you've just changed the scoring system to make some voters more equal than others -- particularly if you only make the change after voting has closed, particularly if you only mention it in the print version of the magazine.

Unexpectedly, I couldn't find any mention of this stolen election on Boing Boing.

Credit: The photo of Doctorow was taken by Ed Schipul and is available under a Creative Commons license.

Science Fiction · Books · 2008/07/09 · 5 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

The internet is a mishmash (Michmash) of picayune autocrats practicing anarachy, and working up to some form of web Armageddon (Tel Megiddo.)

It is so ironic, that this form of despotic arbitrariness takes place, isn't it? And, while the Democratic Party of the United States conducts itself in the exact same tyrannical and elitist fashion?

How does that sit with the Yellow-dogs-of-party-zealotry-over-reason?

How do you like elitists determining that the vote of the majority is feces and their judgement supreme?

As above, so below, and the Democratic Party is quite obviously one of tyrannical elitism and has foresworn democracy and freedom as have many, many petty, poltroonish partisans of the left ... no wonder they hate constitutional conservatism and the rule of law, not men ...

Makes one want to retch ...

#1 · tadowe · 2008/07/10

Changing the rules of how the votes will count after the election is over? Who do they think they are - the American Government? Uncool!

#2 · Nikki · 2008/07/10

Nikki says, "Changing the rules of how the votes will count after the election is over? Who do they think they are - the American Government? Uncool!"

Well, as much as they can to hold party above the good of the nation; Democrats, that is.

It is just and honorable to root out those who use their position in elective government to defraud the people, and literally steal from them. Payoffs by lobbyists, providing information to corporations to allow unfair bidding and vast profits in graft, and other forms of corruption should be discovered and punished so that others will fear to steal from the public's money/power.

However, now we see only more protection of graft and corruption done by Democrats, and along with their propagandistic, years-long effort to subvert the success of a war being conducted by a Republican presidnet - for votes. That surely didn't happen when a Democrat president invaded Bosnia and attacked Serbia for genocide which was only a fraction of what Saddam was doing; continuously for decades.

That's sickening corruption when you hold party above nation during war; and forget the Feinsteins who funnel billions to their own husband's corporations being ignored. It is vile dreck compared to the life of one of our soldiers who dies while being encouraged by the Democrats cry of defeat, "We've lost the war!" spouted out of the mouth of an American senator - for votes!

Now, disengenuous platitudes are issued to misdirect the base anti-patriotism demonstrated by the elitist Democratics and their *special* humans that can overturn the will of the majority, and banish democracy from their collective of ends-justify-the-means fascists!

... and you all, ALL of you, are having to open your eyes to those facts which reveal the partisan zealotry and idiot self-blindness.

I don't think your party will EVER recover from what can be seen between the self-defeat of Vietnam for votes and the efforts being made now to revile and dehumanize our VOLUNTEER soldiers, lose the war, support the goals of human sacrificing terrorists in war and intelligence, revealing government secrets to embarrass and defeat a Republican president during war, lying and scheming politically to use the CIA against fellow Americans, protecting the INVISIBLE AND NON-EXISTENT RIGHTS OF TERRORISTS, assisting criminal immigrants while Doctors, et al, from the world wait their turn in-line ... ad nauseam!

Democrats who voted for these scum should be ashamed, but instead continue their vile propagandistic efforts for party over nation.

#3 · tadowe · 2008/07/11

BTW, as for the copycat internet site picking their favorite over the majority - why act surprised?

As above, so below. People will act out as their icons do. There is absolutely no doubt about the philosophy behind the effort to selectively determine the outcome of such a vote, is there? It is elitism vs. democracy in the abstract. Kings and collectives can overturn democracy in reality, and when they exercise the power to do so. The only exception so far has been our representative democracy (outlasting all other attempts at that system of government) and where we exist under a rule of law, not men - not 'special' men.

Even then, the exercise of illicit power can't be stopped unless the law is enforced. The law can only be enforced by proper authority ... or revolution. Proper authority, in our representative system, is our vote for a person who should be chosen for their adherence to the rule of law and not themselves or some other 'special' collective of men/women. Otherwise, in the face of illegal use of authority, only revolution remains to defend against King or Kollective.

Voting for the elitists ('Super' delegates) is what Democrats are doing in their running-yellow-dogism; whipped into a frenzy over the thought of free-this-or-free-that, hatred for some scapegoat the elitists wave at the mob, or some misguided and blind 'empathy' for the perversity in conduct (the lists is very, very long) being conducted by the collective, even now!

If you all, and you all know who you all are, continue to support Democrats by holding them up as more important than ALL of the people ... well, after revolution comes anarchy. That's what history demonstrates as the human cycle of greed and elitism. The 'inevitability' of this cycle can only be undone by voting for the rule of law and the protection of that law from manipulation by the elitists ... not men ...

#4 · tadowe · 2008/07/11

watch full Movies - The Dark Knight in www.tvokay.com

Synopsis: Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.
so so good!

#5 · debbycruz12 · 2008/07/31