Meanwhile someone tried to throw votes in Hugo

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

I totally missed the news, but on July 22, the Glasgow 2024 Hugo Administration Subcommittee disqualified over 350 ballots!

Many of these votes favoured one finalist in particular, who we will call Finalist A. This pattern of data is startlingly and obviously different from the votes for any other finalist in 2024, and indeed for any finalist in any of the previous years where any member of the current Hugo Subcommittee has been involved with administering the Hugo final ballot.

For whom the votes were cast I don't know but my guess is for one of the novels because this is a category we hear about the most if we speak about Hugo awards (just check the group's name)

there were the following nominees
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager, Harper Voyager UK)
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK)
Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Tor, Tor UK)
Translation State by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK)
Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

I guess we can disregard previous winners, so I guess that Finalist A. is either Shannon Chakraborty or Vajra Chandrasekera.

The full article https://www.thehugoawards.org/2024/07...

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

From the comments in File770, it appears that the voting fraud was most likely pushed from China and therefore concerned one of Chinese nominees, so my assumption about best novel is probably wrong

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Oleksandr wrote: "I totally missed the news, but on July 22, the Glasgow 2024 Hugo Administration Subcommittee disqualified over 350 ballots!

Many of these votes favoured one finalist in particular, who we will cal..."

Thanks for letting us all know about this. Voter fraud! As an American, I will say no more ;-) :-0

[Allan]

Scalzi's take:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2024/07/2...

[Kalin]

Back when this was first announced I didn't see any commentary at file770 that it was an attempt based in China. Can you link to that?

The administrators did a good job of not divulging details so everything is speculative, but my money is on The Wandering Earth 2 as the target of bought votes. It's the only one I can think of that would have $20k to throw at this.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Kalin wrote: "Back when this was first announced I didn't see any commentary at file770 that it was an attempt based in China. Can you link to that?

The administrators did a good job of not divulging details s..."

here are lists of members https://registration.glasgow2024.org/...

On basis of it ErsatzCulture in comments in File770 made some comments here https://mastodon.social/@ErsatzCultur...

ErsatzCulture has several very good data research on Hugo

and there is talk about Chinese in file770 comments

[Stephen]

I find this all confusing. I don’t know much about the Chinese stuff and I hadn’t been aware of the movie Kalin references. My interest is pretty narrowly(?) focused on prose fiction and related nonfiction. I hope somebody writes up a clear and accurate summary of what happened, perhaps after the Worldcon.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

The movie is the sole Chinese product in the category, it formal description from Hugo site:
流浪地球2 / The Wandering Earth II, based on the novel by 刘慈欣 Liu Cixin, screenplay by 杨治学 Yang Zhixue, 郭帆 / Frant Gwo, 龚格尔 Gong Geer, and 叶濡畅 Ye Ruchang, script consultant 王红卫 Wang Hongwei, directed by 郭帆 / Frant Gwo (中影创意（北京）电影有限公司 / CFC Pictures Ltd, 郭帆（北京）影业有限公司 / G!Film (Beijing) Studio Co. Ltd, 北京登峰国际文化传播有限公司 / Beijing Dengfeng International Culture Communication Co, Ltd, 中国电影股份有限公司 / China Film Co. Ltd)

I haven't watched it but Li Cixin's book it is based on follows an idea of a French SF I cannot recall about the whole Earth deliberately leaving its orbit.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

French book is by Francis Carsac titled Terre en fuite

[Kristenelle]

One of the Discords I’m in said that internet sleuths found reason to believe the targeted categories were fancast and/or related work. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I appreciate Glasgows transparency in letting us know.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Kristenelle wrote: "One of the Discords I’m in said that internet sleuths found reason to believe the targeted categories were fancast and/or related work. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I appreciate Glasgows transparency in letting us know."

I guess that possibly that is a misunderstanding from 'diagonal reading' of File770 comments - they discussed this nomination
雨果X访谈 (Discover X), presented by 王雅婷 (Tina Wong)

because [1] the author (it is a set of interviews AFAIK) was part of the last year's Hugo committee and that from what we know [2] in related works one nominee gets surprisingly many nominees - see charts
https://alpennia.com/blog/it-too-soon...

However, unless it is something like 'filthy rich fan in love' spending $20k to please Tina Wong, I guess a version with the movie has more behind it - for movie's budget $20k are just a spare change while saying 'we are the first Chinese Hugo winning film' is priceless

[Bonnie]

Was it last year? with the Hugos? when it turned out a valid entry book was disqualified and pulled from contention, for no good reason other than that Chinese government (or something) didn't approve of it.?

[Kalin]

yes that was last year (2023) hosted in Chengdu, but primary responsibility seems to rest with American Hugo administrator Dave McCarty

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Bonnie wrote: "Was it last year? with the Hugos? when it turned out a valid entry book was disqualified and pulled from contention, for no good reason other than that Chinese government (or something) didn't appr..."

It was worse - American Hugo administrators disqualified several nominees (in the best novel it was Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution) because they were afraid that Chinese gov't wouldn't like it - there has been no direct involvement of Chinese powers, moreover, the Chinese translation of Babel is available in China.

[Cinnabelle listens]

That is so disturbing on so many levels. Why were they so afraid?

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Cinnabelle wrote: "That is so disturbing on so many levels. Why were they so afraid?"

Because this was the first WorldCon in an authoritarian state I guess. Plus note that the main western culprit - Dave McCarty - is now a persona non-grata in WorldCons. You can read more here: https://file770.com/glasgow-2024-will...

[Cinnabelle listens]

Thank you for the link, kind sir!

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Cinnabelle wrote: "Thank you for the link, kind sir!"

You're welcome!