A Cantankerous Curmudgeon Ponders ...

[Robert Woodward]

Several weeks from now, I will be filling out a nomination ballot for
the 2025 Worldcon. I will be doing this with the knowledge that there
will be a very good chance that none of my entries in the 4 fiction
categories will make the final ballot (and, of course, there is a very
good chance that I will have not read any of the 24 titles in the four
fiction categories on the final ballot).

[Tony Nance]

Post by Robert Woodward
Several weeks from now, I will be filling out a nomination ballot for
the 2025 Worldcon. I will be doing this with the knowledge that there
will be a very good chance that none of my entries in the 4 fiction
categories will make the final ballot (and, of course, there is a very
good chance that I will have not read any of the 24 titles in the four
fiction categories on the final ballot).

Just curious... which parts are you pondering? What to nominate? Whether
to nominate? Other?

Tony

[Scott Dorsey]

Post by Tony Nance

Post by Robert Woodward
Several weeks from now, I will be filling out a nomination ballot for
the 2025 Worldcon. I will be doing this with the knowledge that there
will be a very good chance that none of my entries in the 4 fiction
categories will make the final ballot (and, of course, there is a very
good chance that I will have not read any of the 24 titles in the four
fiction categories on the final ballot).

Just curious... which parts are you pondering? What to nominate? Whether
to nominate? Other?

My problem is that I am still catching up on SF from many decades ago and
the main way I get introduced to new SF is by seeing what is nominated for
Hugos and Nebulas.

I'd love to be able to nominate books for Hugos but how would I find out
about new books that are eligible other than... by their already being
nominated?
--scott

[Robert Woodward]

Post by Tony Nance

Post by Robert Woodward
Several weeks from now, I will be filling out a nomination ballot for
the 2025 Worldcon. I will be doing this with the knowledge that there
will be a very good chance that none of my entries in the 4 fiction
categories will make the final ballot (and, of course, there is a very
good chance that I will have not read any of the 24 titles in the four
fiction categories on the final ballot).

Just curious... which parts are you pondering? What to nominate? Whether
to nominate? Other?

Both what and whether (I will most likely skip the drama and fan
categories entirely). I am also pondering on what to do with the final
ballot. Do I rank "No Award" over every fiction title that was both not
complete in the voting package or was not readily available to me (I
have already read it, have it but had not read yet, or was available at
no cost somewhere)?

[Scott Dorsey]

Do what you feel most comfortable with of course. For me (only!), I
would only feel comfortable ranking "No Award" over stuff I'd actually
read, because to me (only!), putting "No Award" above something says
that the stuff below it was unworthy of winning.

I feel the same way, which is why I go out of my way to read as many of
the literary entries as possible. That was problematic the last time
around as some of them were in Chinese and either were not translated
openly or had what seemed to be an extremely poor translation... and
one of them was out of print.

I am willing to put "No Award" in front of an unavailable book, however,
because I don't think any unavailable book should get an award.

I've never voted - do you have to rank everything that is nominated?

No. I never vote in any of the media categories myself since I have
seldom seen more than one or two of the nominees.
--scott