Of course, members of “marginalized communities.” You throw that term in there and you’re REALLY sorry. It took me awhile to figure out what the heck they were doing which was so outrageous to such marginalized peoples, but I found out after some research.
Apparently, when a short story magazine or whatnot gets an award they have a max of 4 contributors listed on the ballot and/or receiving the actual phallic object they give out as a trophy.
In 2021 participation trophy era, now ALL people who worked on it in any capacity must get a trophy. That means the person in the office who got coffee for the person who packed the magazine to ship must get their award. I mean you can’t get much more marginalized than that, can you?
The spiral continues toward making this even more culturally irrelevant. That said, last I heard, Baen Books is really pushing to make a presence at this convention if it actually happens (remember, these are mostly geriatrics deathly afraid of the sniffles). It seems they put up a white flag and want to be accepted by the establishment more than fight them. Sounds a lot like Mitch McConnell.
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They should do that for Oscars too.
Science fiction groups talk about the “brain-rot” that get to science fiction writers as they age.
The way that works is that the great SF writers often start with a great new book, and the greatest ones can follow it with several more great books.
But, almost without exception, the later works are mediocre and in some cases just awful.
It seems to work that way for any organization.
Creative and idealistic people work really hard and set up the organization.
For some years it has a high standard of excellence and accomplishment.
Then the brain rot sets in and it gets worse and worse every year...
I consider it a warning label.