Peter Sullivan ([info]ceemage) wrote in [info]anonymousclaire,
2009-11-15 15:43:00
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The Future of the Novas

The Future of the Novas panel was a dark and stormy one, but, in complete defiance of fannish traditions, did actually manage to agree a way forward. Rog Peyton, on behalf of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group (who are, after all, the 'custodians' of the Novas in the same way that the WSFS Business Meeting is the 'custodian' of the Hugos), announced the setting up of a small group to spend the next year looking at the options for change. Based on feedback from the panellists, the audience, and anyone else who cares to give any.

Possible options already suggested range from minor tweaks (adding a new electronic fanac award) through more major surgery (replace existing categories with a "Best Fan Activity" Award) to the nuclear option (scrapping the awards altogether after 2010, which would be their 40th year and a nice round number). It also looks as if there was pretty strong support for (a) extending the electorate beyond Novacon attendees in some way, and/or (b) reducing the number of fanzines a voter needs to see in order to be eligible to vote (currently 6).

What was interesting, for a set of awards that are meant to be 'dying on their feet' was the size of the audience for this panel - I counted over 30, which is not bad for what was, essentially, a fanzine fandom panel on a Saturday evening. Maybe there's life in the old girl yet...

In the meantime, the 2010 Nova Awards will continue under the existing rules, and Martin Tudor will take over from Steve Green as the Awards Administrator, on behalf of the Novacon committee. Best wishes to Martin in his new role, and a happy 'retirement' to Steve Green after (mumble, mumble) years in the role.

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  • 17 comments

[info]fringefaan

November 15 2009, 16:44:03 UTC 2 years ago

So who's going to be in the group studying the options, or is that still to be determined?

[info]ceemage

November 16 2009, 10:52:00 UTC 2 years ago

Not sure - I know Rog Peyton was trying to encourage Greg Pickersgill to get involved. Presumably on the ancient principal of having him on the inside of the tent hissing out rather than on the outside of the tent hissing in. (Yes, I know the original version of that quote is a slightly different word to 'hissing.')

[info]fringefaan

November 16 2009, 15:59:01 UTC 2 years ago

Kissing?

[info]stevegreen

November 17 2009, 02:57:52 UTC 2 years ago

Myself, Martin, Rog and Greg, IIRC.

[info]jamesb

November 15 2009, 22:06:34 UTC 2 years ago

How does one input to this group, I wonder did the suggestions I made online, when the panel was first suggeste, arise.

J

[info]ceemage

November 16 2009, 10:47:42 UTC 2 years ago

Expanding the pool of voters to include fanzine fans who are not members of Novacon was mentioned, and I don't recall any opposition to this at all. Reducing the current "read six different fanzines to be eligible" rule down to something more sensible also seemed to be a consensus. (I actually had to work my way through the Nova long list to work out if I was eligible, and only just managed by counting myself as 'reading' my own fanzine, even though I obviously wasn't going to vote for it.) Electronic voting has been tried before, with a response rate of exactly nil, but (to be fair) with a wider electorate probably becomes a no-brainer.

[info]cdave

November 16 2009, 11:27:47 UTC 2 years ago

I think [info]drplokta had a good point that wasn't quite grasped by the panel.

The usability of the electronic voting that's been tried is not great. If it's something you can do right there on the page without having to do anything else (like open a PDF, or open an email program) people are more likely to use it.

[info]stevegreen

November 17 2009, 03:02:01 UTC 2 years ago

During the period we tried it, all people had to do was list their nominations in order (up to three per category) and e-mail it to me. I honestly can't see how a form would make a significant difference. It's hardly a massive effort we're requiring.

[info]cdave

November 17 2009, 09:44:54 UTC 2 years ago

It really think it does make a difference though. If you ask someone to leave your website and open up an email programme, they're quite likely to start checking any new messages, and responding to them, and "ooh yes, I just needed to drop Gran a quick message", by which point they've lost some of the impulse to respond to the webpage.

[info]stevegreen

November 17 2009, 09:54:00 UTC 2 years ago

I guess I have more faith in people's attention spans.

[info]cpt_buggernuts

November 17 2009, 18:49:46 UTC 2 years ago Edited:  November 17 2009, 18:50:55 UTC

I suspect you're being snarky there, but I really do think that is the problem.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that for most people who are aware of them, the Novas come under the general category of 'a good thing, but a low personal priority'.
So people will *want* to vote, and *intend* to vote. But if they can't do it while it's fresh in their mind it suffers the exact same problem as filling in a RL voting form, of vanishing down their personal priority list until it drops off the edge.

(edited to clarify that I was talking about Novacon voting)

[info]surliminal

November 16 2009, 00:07:14 UTC 2 years ago

replace existing categories with a "Best Fan Activity" Award)

That sounds quite a good idea to me, though it still begs if there should be a text/art division.

[info]stevegreen

November 17 2009, 03:04:25 UTC 2 years ago

Rather in the manner of the FAAN Awards, but specifically UK / Irish.

I have to confess that if the Novas do carry on, I'd quite like to retain the existing categories.

[info]the_maenad

November 16 2009, 10:16:05 UTC 2 years ago

scrapping the awards altogether after 2010, which would be their 40th year

Someone can't count; the first Nova award was presented in 1973.

[info]ceemage

November 16 2009, 10:49:33 UTC 2 years ago

Probably yr humble reporter. Someone on the panel made the point about next year being Novacon 40, and thus (given human's propensity to round numbers) a good point for change. I elided "40 years of Novacon" into "40 years of Nova Awards."

Wicked thought - maybe we should go back and do "Retro Novas" for the missing years?

[info]stevegreen

November 17 2009, 03:07:08 UTC 2 years ago

I was just about to mention that slight confusion (Rog's phrasing could have been a little less ambiguous at that moment).

I'd like to see something in the first N40 progress report asking for feedback.

[info]stevegreen

November 17 2009, 03:14:57 UTC 2 years ago

Best wishes to Martin in his new role, and a happy 'retirement' to Steve Green after (mumble, mumble) years in the role.

Cheers. It's seven, although I took over from Tony Berry immediately after Novacon 32.
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