The 2015 Hugo finalists

The ballot is here. It's not pretty. Other folks will have detailed comments and analysis, including lists of which finalists come from the "Sad Puppy" slate.

Here and elsewhere, we've seen a bunch of people try to make the "Sad Puppy" campaign seem reasonable and unexceptionable. That's one face of their initiative.

Here's the other face:

Two observations here:

(1) Clearly, the Sad Puppy campaign is all about healthy fannish enthusiasm for particular people and books, not at all about vengeance, score-settling, or a desire to "hurt" "social justice warriors" and "hunt down" the "disease". They're all just nice folks who make jokes about puppies.

(2) Reaching out to #GamerGate, inviting them to join Worldcon: special.

To repeat something I said in the lengthy Making Light comment-section discussion of all this, here's my own take what's not a big deal, and what really is a big deal.

(1) To the best of my knowledge, the campaign to get a slate of specific people and works onto the Hugo ballot hasn't done anything that violates the rules.

(2) As anyone over the age of ten knows, it's generally possible to do things that are dubious, or scummy, or even downright evil, without violating any laws or rules.

(3) Merely running a campaign to get a slate of specific people and works onto the Hugo ballot doesn't really rise to the level of "evil", but it's definitely "dubious" at the very least. Which is to say, it violates a lot of people's sense of how one ought to behave, and if you do it you'll incur widespread disapproval. Prepare to deal.

(4) However, running a campaign to get a slate of specific people and works onto the Hugo ballot and reaching out to #Gamergate for support in this...in effect, inviting a bunch of people who traffic in violent threats, intimidation, and "SWATting" to join our community...well, that rises all the way to "downright evil".

For complicity with this, the Sad Puppy campaign deserves our comprehensive rejection.