Assuming the people suggesting we vote as normalāthat we run the race of doped semifinalist, that we play the set cardsāare doing so just to get on with it and hope for better times (with the exception of Brad, who has plenty of reasons to say it), I have to assume it has to do with having no good options and trying to be civil and not break things while they get fixed. Wellāskipping over my view that this is the way to really break itāit only makes any sense at all if things will get better. How can they get better? One is rules changes, and I am for that. The current rules assumed people would behave, be civilized, understand this was a questionnaire not a contest to strategize to win, but now, they have not behaved, so rules have to deal with that. Martin says that will be a huge pain, and he’s right, but the djinni isn’t going back in the bottle. Martin also says changing the rules will have the pups claim victory or prove their point. Honestly, if I stood up and simply handed every award to Brad, the Sad Puppies would still claim I’d kept them out somehow, and if I melted down the awards and made a Frisbee they’d still claim victory. Rules changes are a true annoyance, but that’s the only way to stop the bloc voting.
I think Martin’s posts have been great. He’s done an excellent job of showing how the Pups were never discriminated against, that there was no point to doing what they did, and what they did was just wrong. But in the end his math fails. He thinks that we should just get through this year of set cards (and he mentions it is overall a bad hand) and then next year we get out the vote and with enough voters that will stop the Puppy mess. It won’t. A bloc-slate will win out against greater voters unless the other voters are also voting in a bloc. The only way to beat the Pups, is to become the Pups (this is what you can read over and over on the Pups’ blogsāhow they built their slate for war and the reason “we” lost was we didn’t get enough soldiers together to push a slate against them). Ā No thanks. I do not become what I abhor. I do not act poorly because others do. And forgetting my morality, that would turn the Hugos into a two party system, with the only possible winners being chosen from one of the two slates. Anyone notice how well that’s worked for Congress? Anyone thinking the best and brightest are in Washington right now?
The Pups will be back. Sad Puppies have announced it. And even if they do adjust so as not to swamp the system, it just means that they will be gaming the system a bit less. “Hey, I doped fewer runners, and used less drugs on some, so it’s all OK now.” And do you doubt Vox Day will return? So, change the rules, and Sps may accuse some vague leftist doing so to keep them out, but then not changing the rules and creating a counter slate will have them just accusing leftists of conspiring against them; and it will finally be true.
Whatever happens, things will change. So better to change the rules.
The trick is what to do for this year, and next, before new rules go into play. I’m still waiting to answer what to do, but what you do not do, is play those cards.