A general discussion about Worldcons

Anticipation Announces Updated Membership Rates

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:12:31 GMT

Anticipation will change its membership rates starting August 1st, 2008.

More info can be found here: http://www.anticipationsf.ca/English/Membership

Hugo Deadline Approaches

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:52:59 GMT

A reminder from the Hugo administrators: If you are a
member of Denvention 3, and wish to cast a final Hugo
ballot, it must be received before midnight (2400 hours)
Pacific Daylight Time, at the end of Monday, July 7, 2008.
The deadline will be strictly enforced.

You may vote on-line at
https://www.denvention3.org/wcdb/08hugostart.php
using your membership number and PIN. Or by physical
mail at
Hugo Awards Administrator
1463 East Republican #173
Seattle WA 98112-4517
Or by fax at 206-323-0795

Do not wait until the last minute because systems fail.
Mail delivery can be delayed. E-mail servers fail. The
tubes of the internet clog up. Don't let this happen to
you.

Anticipation Announces Competition to Design the 2009 Hugo Award Base

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:55:47 GMT

Anticipation is soliciting proposals for Hugo Award Base designs. For the past 55 years, The World Science Fiction Convention has been giving out the Hugo Awards for achievement in science fiction. It is science fiction’s most prestigious award and consists of the Hugo rocket and base. The initial trophies used a rocket hood ornament from a 1950s Oldsmobile, but for the past several decades the rocket design, the focal point of the award, has been standardized, while the base design changes yearly, often reflecting the country, state or province in which the World Science Fiction Convention takes place.

More information on the Competition can be found here: http://www.anticipationsf.ca/English/Hugos

Anticipation announces Artist Guest of Honour.

Wed, 28 May 2008 03:32:44 GMT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Anticipation, The 67th World Science Fiction Convention, is pleased to announce that Ralph Bakshi has accepted an invitation to be our Artist Guest of Honour.

Mr. Bakshi’s career spans five decades, during which he has created memorable and groundbreaking films including Wizards, Fire and Ice and the first film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. In addition, he has worked on and directed a variety of television shows including Rocket Robin Hood, Spiderman, The Mighty Heroes and The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse.

Our newest Guest of Honor joins those we announced in September 2007: Neil Gaiman, Elisabeth Vonarburg, Tom Doherty, David Hartwell and Taral Wayne. Author Julie Czerneda will be Master of Ceremonies.

The 67th World Science Fiction Convention, known as Anticipation, will take place in Montréal, Québec, Canada from Thursday, August 6th through Monday, August 10th, 2009. More information about Anticipation, including current membership rates, is available on our web site (http://www.anticipationsf.ca); you can also write to us at info@anticipationsf.ca for more information.

A Worldcon in Reno? You Bet!

Fri, 23 May 2008 23:51:45 GMT

_For Immediate Release_

The intergalactic travel agents of Reno Convention Fandom, Inc. are delighted to announce a bid to host the 69th World Science Fiction Convention in 2011 (August 17-21) in the "Biggest Little City in the World," Reno, Nevada.

A 2011 Worldcon in Reno would use a combination of the Reno Convention Center, the Atlantis Resort, and the Peppermill Hotel -- one convention center, one directly connected hotel, and a second hotel a short walk (or even shorter shuttle ride) away.

Reno is situated just east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, on the edge of the Great Basin at an elevation of about 1300 meters above sea level.
Its temperate climate and low humidity make Reno a delightful location for a summer Worldcon, with average high temperatures in the 80s Fahrenheit and lows in the 50s.

Just who is Reno Convention Fandom, Inc., you ask? We are a group of fans with a desire to host fandom's annual family reunion: a desire that requires just the right facilities. RCFI, an Oregon-based non-profit corporation, considered several cities before hitting the jackpot with Reno. Our group includes experienced convention runners from nine states and two countries.

Our goal is to work with our fannish friends and colleagues around the U.S. and the world to build a 2011 Worldcon that would be inclusive, exciting, fun, and with a healthy dose of "gosh!wow!"

The Reno in 2011 bid opens this weekend from Atlantic to Pacific: at Balticon in Maryland, at Marcon in Ohio, at Wiscon in Wisconsin, at ConQuesT in Missouri, and at Baycon in California. Come chat with us -- see what we and Reno have to offer.

You will find us online at http://www.rcfi.org, or you can write us at info@rcfi.org. We'd be pleased to add you to our list of pre-supporters and friends. Online options are available to join our happy band.

Oh, and don't worry about getting to Reno. Come by planes, trains, and automobiles -- the Donner Pass is safe, now.

Denvention Advertising

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:56:53 GMT

Just a reminder to get your ad reservations for Denvention in today or tomorrow.

http://www.denvention.org/publications/adrates.php

(despite the e-mail address on the page, reservations should go to Advertising (at) denvention (dot) org.

The Mark Of NASFIC?

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:32:38 GMT

[NOTE: This is being crossposted to purpleranger, so there is a slim chance that some of you may be reading this in stereo.]

If I were to hazard a guess, I would suspect that this has been rolling around in my subconscious for some time now. I'm guessing that it was the recent Progress Reports from both Denvention and Anticipation that finally dragged it forth from the subconscious to the conscious.

It all has to do with WSFS's marks, and that obligatory notice that appears in all Worldcon publications, as mandated by Section 2.2 of the WSFS Constitution:

Marks. Every Worldcon and NASFIC committee shall include the following notice in each of its publications: "World Science Fiction Society," "WSFS," "World Science Fiction Convention," "Worldcon," "NASFIC," and "Hugo Award" are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.

I realized something, and I'm a little surprised that it hasn't occurred to anyone else before this. Or at the very least, if it has occurred to someone before now, I'm surprised that no one has apparently mentioned it until now.

There should be one more mark on the list.

Section 1.2 refers to NASFIC as "the occasional North American Science Fiction Convention," and that is the only place the phrase is mentioned in the Constitution. My point is this: "World Science Fiction Convention" and "Worldcon" both refer to the same annual event. The former term is the formal name, while the latter is the commonly-used (and equally acceptable) short form. By the same token, shouldn't WSFS hold both "North American Science Fiction Convention" and "NASFIC" as service marks?

Yes, I know that there are some SMOFs who are violently opposed to the very existence of the concept of the NASFIC. At the moment, though, it is a valid service mark of WSFS. Still, until and unless WSFS decides to either abandon the mark altogether, or relinquish the mark to another organization, would it not be in the Society's best interests to add "North American Science Fiction Convention" to its list of service marks?

I'm posting this in this manner because I know that it will appear on the radar of at least one member of the Mark Protection Committee (Hi, Kevin!), and I figure that it is the quickest way to bring this to the attention of the entire MPC. And, I suppose, to ask if this is indeed something that should be added as an item to the agenda of Denvention's business meeting.

-30-

Denvention Advertising

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:36:26 GMT

Please feel free to repost this in appropriate locations.

Greetings from Denvention 3: The 66th World Science Fiction Convention!

Denvention 3, to be held in Denver, Colorado from August 6-10, 2008, is now offering the opportunity to advertise in our souvenir program book. This program book is given to all attendees, and mailed to all non-attending members. This means that thousands of science fiction fans from around the globe will see your ad!

This year’s guests of honor are Lois McMaster Bujold, Rick Sternbach, Tom Whitmore, Kathy Mar, and Wil McCarthy.

Advertising reservations are due by April 30, 2008, with copy and payment to be received by May 25, 2008.

Reservations can be made by emailing Steven H Silver, the Advertising Coordinator, at Advertising@denvention.org and the electronic files should be sent there as well or they may be ftp’ed.

Our rates and technical specifications are located at the Denvention Web Site (http://www.denvention.org/publications/DenverSouvenirAdSpecs.indd.pdf).

Advertisements may be received in the following formats: Illustrator EPS, PDF, Tiff, JPEG, PSD. We suggest that you should make about 350 DPI for your gray and color bitmap, 600 ~ 2400 DPI for your B/W bitmap.

Please note that if you are reserving a color advertisement, we strongly encourage you to mail us a color proof of the advertisement. Color proofs should be mailed to: Denvention 3, 3403 High Vista Drive, Dallas, TX 75234-7923.

Payment options: Payment should be made in US$, payable to “Denvention 3”. Checks / Money Orders can be mailed to: Denvention 3, Attn: Brian Mormon, PO Box 1349, Denver, CO 80201

Thank you for your interest in advertising with Denvention 3!

Sincerely,
Steven H Silver
Advertising Coordinator
Advertising@denvention.org

Hugo Eligibility & Voting

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:51:34 GMT

Most of you know this. Those who don't should. This is just a summary, and should not be considered the authoritative version; for that see the Hugo Awards section of the WSFS Constitution.

Voter eligibility:

The Hugo Awards are given by a club that almost nobody (well, except for the well-educated folks here) knows about: The World Science Fiction Society. To be eligible to vote, you must be a member of the club.

How do you become a member? You register for this year's Worldcon, Denvention 3. A membership in Denvention 3 is also a 1-year membership in the World Science Fiction Society. If you're planning to be in Denver, an attending membership is required. If you just want to vote (for the Hugo awards or the location of Worldcon 2010) and get the publications, a supporting membership is sufficient to maintain your WSFS membership.

Voting:

Hugo voting is balloted and counted using the instant-runoff voting method.

What does this mean? Well, instead of having to select only one nominee you would like to win, you rank all the nominees you like in order of preference. once the ballots are cast:

The ballots are divided up based on the #1 preference and counted.
If no nominee gets over 50% of the vote in the first count, the nominee that gets the least votes is discarded. That nominee's ballots are redistributed based on the #2 selection among the remaining nominees.
This process may repeat until a nominee gets over 50% of the ballots.

That's the really simplified explanation. It gets a bit more complicated on redistributions after the first one.

If you rank your selections in order, rather than just "bullet-voting" a single nominee in a category, vote-splitting can't happen. Unless you don't care about any nominee but one, or you dislike all nominees but one, there is no benefit to bullet-voting. Bullet-voting just takes away your voice if your first choice fails.

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:03:01 GMT

Hi folks,

I just joined the group! My name is Sonya, seen at Worldcon as the girl with yarn hair. I've been going to worldcon for the past three(since Interaction). I am currently looking for a discounted worldcon badge for Denver. In exchange for it, I will be volunteering the con for whatever is needed, and if you wanted to sell a Montreal badge, I would be interested in negotiating for that one too. I have volunteered at every one of them I have gone to so far, so I'm sure someone would be willing to vouch for me if need be. Last worldcon I even got to be a translator! If you're willing to negotiate, email to Rakka_Kokoro@yahoo.com, and title "Worldcon membership" (as it is a junkmail account).

2008 Hugo Nominations Are Up

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:01:18 GMT

2008 Nominations

2008 Nominations - PDF

The online ballot isn't quite ready yet but will be online in the next few days. A PDF will also be put up shortly. I've started to add online works to the nomination list; if you can provide links to any, let me know.

Anticipation Progress Report 1 Published

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:36:07 GMT

According to a recent announcement, Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal, will be mailing its first Progress Report in the coming weeks. In the meantime, it is also available in PDF from the Anticipation web site. The report is available in three formats: low resolution for screen viewing, high resolution for printing, and a large print version.

User pics

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:12:36 GMT

I'm going to wind up writing in absolutes even when I'm trying not to.

The problem is that the someone has posted with a user picture promoting a presidential candidate. Whether I agree with the position or not is immaterial. What is is that it absolutely shouldn't be done.

I'm asking you to please delete that post to take it down. The post was important in the short run, saying that you've caught up with something, but even today it's no longer important. We can see the result and there's no indication of when it's done, just that it's done.. If it were important in the long run, of course, there'd be different ways of handling it but in this case it's straightforward. And the reason I'm writing this as a separate post so that you can delete yours without having to deal with it having an answer, and so that I can delete this one as well. It's obviously only of short term importance.

OK? then I'll go back up to the top: please delete that post.

As to why I'm asking -

Absolutely nothing political should be associated with a Worldcon. It's perhaps worse that something political being posted to a group or some such by a moderator because someone in that position can easily be seen as an authority. I'm very surprised indeed that Kevin (Hi Kevin!) hasn't said anything about it.

I'm guessing that upon reflection you'll see why it shouldn't be done. But since there's another SF blog/LJ where opinion is stated as fact by an authority I can see why it might slide by. So rather than the subject being seeing people as authorities or convention neepery I'm going to use something vaguely akin -

Imagine how you'd feel if someone posted to this LJ with an image promoting something obviously conservative, if not for a candidate for something conservative or against something that isn't. And remember that people would see it even if they didn't read the post. I'm certain we could come up with more personal examples but that's the point: if this is going to be a general discussion of Worldcons I, at least, feel that they'd be inappropriate.

I'll add that I've seen far too many problems resulting from things wandering off in political directions, from a good friend leaving a club to a while to an entire wonderful and useful newsgroup pretty much deserted by people who wanted to actually talk about SF. Another reason I'm not giving examples.

I don't know how strongly you feel about this candidate. Probably very strongly if this didn't occur to you. Trust me; however strongly you feel I, and I know there are many others without even bothering to ask, feel even more so about Worldcons. Worldcons came well before any of the current politicians and, hopefully, will be around long after them. (If there are a couple who were around when Worldcons started send it to me rather than posting it here. See above about politics and LJs. And see my later post about this LJ)

Would have been the last line of this is a good first line of the next one. For now, though, I'm suddenly aware that this could easily turn into a political thread itself. If you do want to talk about it let's take anything like that offline -- can we include Kevin because he speaks so much more clearly than I do?

Elspeth

The MPC In The WSFS Constitution

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:12:41 GMT

I was looking through the WSFS constitution last night. Okay, I was looking through Nippon 2007's program book, and I paused to pay particular attention to the constitution. But as I was looking through it, I had the thought that it would make more sense to have Sections 1.7 and 1.8 -- the sections dealing with the Mark Protection Committee -- as an article all to themselves, rather than being tossed in the mix of Article 1.

To me at least, those two sections seem just a little out of place in Article 1. Does anyone know why they were put where they are?

bad moderator, no biscuit

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:12:17 GMT

I finally added the Denvention 3 graphic to the icon list and while I was at it, grabbed the Anticipation one, too.

Worldcon Growth: the Chicago Model

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:10:32 GMT

Looking at the last 3 Chicago based worldcons you see:

40 - Chicon IV
2-6 Sep 1982 Chicago Hyatt Regency 4,275

49 - Chicon V
29 Aug-2 Sep 1991 Chicago Hyatt Regency Chicago 5,661
Swissôtel

58 - Chicon 2000
31 Aug-4 Sep 2000 Chicago Hyatt Regency Chicago 5,794
Fairmont Hotel
Swissôtel

I can see that going from 4,275 to 5,661 attendees would need another hotel but was a third hotel really need for another 133 at con attendees?

Can't go to WorldCon '08

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:35:51 GMT

Hi All:

I have a membership to WorldCon '08 but I just found out that my finals for that semester will be occurring at the same time so I need to sale my ticket. I paid $175 and that is what I'd like for it. If anyone knows someone who needs a ticket, please respond.

Thanks,

Paul *Sad he can't go to the second WorldCon in a row*

For your stfnal pleasure

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:33:14 GMT

There's now an LJ-repost account for Science Fiction Awards Watch at sfawardswatch.

If you care about the Hugo Awards, or the World Fantasy Awards, or the Nebula Awards, or any other SF/Fantasy-related literature, media and arts awards, friend it.

Worldcon and the city around for non-fen

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:09:41 GMT

I have a family member interested in going to Denver with me. She isn't much into fandom. I would be into the Worldcon and maybe seeing Coors Field, but when I am at a con I don't get a chance to sightseeing. I usually am helping out at a con in some way (Staffing, Panels or helping to run a fan table). How can I get her to at least see some of Worldcon? Should I be prepared to see nearly none of Worldcon to keep her interested? She is in her early 70's with not the best eye sight, so that influences the answers (I guess). Thanks for your help.

Wheeeeeeeee! (photos)

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 01:59:29 GMT

jaylake and I are back from our weekend trip to Yokohama and Nippon 2007!

We left for Japan on Thursday and were back Sunday night:
Door-to-door from home in Portland, OR to the Nippon 2007 hotel in Yokohama: 24 hours
Time on the ground in Yokohama: 41 hours (Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday morning)
Door-to-door from the Nippon 2007 hotel in Yokohama to home back in Portland, OR: 25 hours

And I still managed to take over 700 pictures! Most notable are the Hugo pics. If you were presenting or accepting, your picture is in there.

Here is a link to my Hugo Awards photos. Feel free to explore from there and check out the other sets.

We really had a wonderful time! Thank you Nippon 2007 organizers!!!

2009 Site Selection Results: Montreal Wins

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 07:51:53 GMT

The detailed results of the 2009 Site Selection Voting are now available at nippon2007.

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 14:48:15 GMT

Montreal wins the right to host the worldcon for 2009!

www.anticipationsf.ca

Blogs metioning Worldcon

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:50:08 GMT

Not being in Japan or on my way I've been doing Technorati blog searches for ' Worldcon'. Two specifically caught my attention: one in Russian and one in Arabic.

Renewed paid account for the community

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:13:06 GMT

The community is paid up for another year. Enjoy!

Its not too late!

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:37:27 GMT

If you are going to Nippon2007 its not too late to vote to determine where Worldcon will be in 2009. Kansas City and Montreal are on the ballot and both are wonderful locations, but I urge you to write-in Monster Island as your first choice!