{"id":8005,"date":"2012-03-07T09:47:48","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T17:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/?p=8005"},"modified":"2012-03-16T09:04:38","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T17:04:38","slug":"an-aside-on-bloggers-and-the-hugo-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/news\/an-aside-on-bloggers-and-the-hugo-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"An Aside | On Bloggers and the Hugo Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hugo<\/a>One of my favourite bloggers, Stefan Raets dropped by Staffer’s Musings to talk about an important issues that’s near-and-dear to my heart. I’ll let his words speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

How many authors on the ballot have done blog tours? How many have websites that quote reviews from bloggers? How many have done interviews on blogs? How many, for the love of Tehlu, have only achieved the prominence and popularity they currently enjoy because of the enthusiastic, dedicated and unpaid work done by bloggers? AND YOU\u2019RE TELLING ME YOU MAY NOT WANT TO INCLUDE BLOGS IN THIS CATEGORY IN THE FUTURE? For shame.<\/p>\n

Seriously, the only justification I could see for this is to make sure the traditional fanzines don\u2019t get overrun by blogs. So, let\u2019s create a brand new category called \u201cBest Blog\u201d. Somehow they have seen fit to create a new category called \u201cBest FanCast\u201d this year, so it\u2019s possible. The person with the gavel needs to consider this. Maybe he or she wants to go down in history as the person who brought the Hugos in line with the progress of history. We need a Best Blog category, or we need blogs to be included under \u201cBest FanZine\u201d. It\u2019s one or the other. You can\u2019t reasonably exclude the place where 90% of fan writing happens right now. Not if you want to be taken seriously as an award in this day and age. Hands up how many of you have read a fanzine this year? And now how many have read a blog? I rest my case.<\/p>\n

So! Enough with the speechifying. I\u2019m hoping that enough fans and bloggers and authors will include their favorite blogs in the Best Fanzine category. Personally, I\u2019m putting only blogs on my ballot. I\u2019m hoping that at least a few of the best ones will make it to the final ballot. And I hope that one of them will win the award.<\/p>\n

Aside from the Fanzine\/blog category, you can also nominate individual Fan Writers. Things are a bit more straightforward and less exclusive there: you can nominate anyone who writes about SF&F in any format. Including bloggers. You don\u2019t have to use a Xerox machine to be eligible for Best Fan Writer. So, if you have a favorite blog, you can nominate \u201cAidan Moher\u201d or \u201cAdam Whitehead\u201d under Best Fan Writer as well as \u201cSF Signal\u201d or \u201cStaffer\u2019s Musings\u201d under Best Fanzine. Even if blogs don\u2019t count anymore in future years, you can continue to nominate the people behind the blogs in the Best Fan Writer.<\/p>\n

It looks like a few people have put my name on their ballots in this category. I am very flattered, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart, but I want to make it clear that I\u2019m not asking you to nominate me here. I\u2019m asking you to support your favorite bloggers. If that\u2019s me, great. If not, also great. Just support your favorite bloggers, whoever they are. Buy a membership and nominate them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a subject that I’ve written about on a few occasions (like this<\/a>, or this<\/a>, or this<\/a>). I think it’s integral to keeping the Hugo Awards relevant in the industry and among fans. You can read Raets full article, Love a Blog? Nominate It<\/em>, on Staffer’s Musings<\/a> or Far Beyond Reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favourite bloggers, Stefan Raets dropped by Staffer’s Musings to talk about an important issues that’s near-and-dear to my heart. I’ll let his words speak for themselves. How many authors on the ballot have done blog tours? How many have websites that quote reviews from bloggers? How many have done interviews on blogs?… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[61,38,57,59],"class_list":["post-8005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blogosphere","tag-fantasy","tag-hugo-awards","tag-science-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n