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I cannot believe what I just read. The top search result was shortlisted for a Hugo award (for Best Short Story). Pasting from Wikipedia with some light censori

I cannot believe what I just read. The top search result was shortlisted for a Hugo award (for Best Short Story). Pasting from Wikipedia with some light censoring: > In April 2016, Space Raptor B??? Invasion was shortlisted for a Hugo Award for Best Short Story in the prestigious Hugo Awards for science fiction. This stemmed from a campaign by the alt-right "Rabid Puppies" group, a faction of the Sad Puppies movement that laments the perceived politicization of science fiction. However, Tingle disavowed the campaign, saying via his Twitter account that it was the work of "devils", and that if his book were to win, video game designer and anti-harassment activist Zoë Quinn would accept the award on his behalf. His story did not win. Tingle subsequently published Pounded in the B??? by My Hugo Award Loss.

chipotle_coyote 7y ago
That was a sort of glorious fiasco in the annals of science fiction. The Rabid Puppies basically decided to troll the Hugos (anyone who purchases at least a supporting membership to the World Science Fiction Convention that year can make a nomination). It apparently never occurred to them that someone who wrote books with titles like "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" just might be better at trolling than they were.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- cperciva 7y ago
  In a similar vein of authors trolling the trolls, after receiving complaints about his decision to use female sysadmins as examples in his tech books (IIRC he usually alternates genders in examples), Michael Lucas published a "Manly McManface" edition of Ed Mastery which has an all-male cast of sysadmins... at a much higher price.
  - JustSomeNobody 7y ago
    This is pathetic. But good on the author for not taking that crap.
  - astura 7y ago
    This is pretty funny >Every so often, men contact the author complaining that his books use both male and female pronouns. This special edition, using only male third-person pronouns, is for those special people. As the market is so much smaller, it’s u̶n̶f̶o̶r̶t̶u̶n̶a̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ priced higher. >For each copy of the Manly McManface edition sold, the author will donate one dollar to his local chapter of Soroptomists International. This is what Soroptomists International is >A global volunteer organization that improves the lives of women and girls through programs leading to social and economic empowerment.
skrebbel 7y ago
For the not extremely prudish: The story is called "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" and the section quoted above is the second paragraph from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Tingle#Career https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Tingle#Career
- ethbro 7y ago
  HN is so respectful with its warnings. I'd rather assumed the title makes the work's nature and themes abundantly clear?
Blackthorn 7y ago
Chuck Tingle is an absolute gem of a human. The silly titles of his stories hide an extremely sharp wit and fabulous from-the-first-minute takes on current events.
- dmix 7y ago
  Yeah he’s basically satirizing this stuff with a cult style following looking for a laugh. There’s tons of serious tacky romance stuff published on there which is where he got the idea.
  - Blackthorn 7y ago
    I wouldn't call it satire. Chuck is still what a lot of people could call profoundly weird, but we're all here with him not laughing at him.
puranjay 7y ago
I can't really tell which parts are satire, which parts serious
- ethbro 7y ago
  As one does with the best satire. A sprinkle of kayfabe on top of a sharp wit is delicious.
makomk 7y ago
The series of events that lead to that was really bizarre. To cut a long story short, a bunch of more right-leaning authors who thought the Hugos had turned into soapboxes for left-wing politics decided to push back by putting together a "Sad Puppies" slate of eligible works they considered good (so called for the photo of its' creators dogs looking sad they used to encourage people to support it). It met with... unexpected massive success in 2015, with quite a few of the works becoming finalists. Folks responded with a fairly effective campaign to vote every work on the slate below "no award" by signing up people en masse as Worldcon supporting members so they got votes, including paying the fees for them in some cases. They also handed out wooden asterisks to every nominee on the slate at the official ceremony to imply their nominations were all illegitimate . The thing that made this really interesting is that in the major categories, there was quite a bit of overlap with what would've likely got nominated anyway. Apparently the only reason the Best Novel winner didn't make the slate and then get pushed below no award in the finals as a result is because the people who came up with the list hadn't got around to reading it yet! (Some of the less hotly contested categories did end up with right-wing schlock being nominated though.)

chipotle_coyote 7y ago

That was a sort of glorious fiasco in the annals of science fiction. The Rabid Puppies basically decided to troll the Hugos (anyone who purchases at least a supporting membership to the World Science Fiction Convention that year can make a nomination). It apparently never occurred to them that someone who wrote books with titles like "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" just might be better at trolling than they were.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
cperciva 7y ago
In a similar vein of authors trolling the trolls, after receiving complaints about his decision to use female sysadmins as examples in his tech books (IIRC he usually alternates genders in examples), Michael Lucas published a "Manly McManface" edition of Ed Mastery which has an all-male cast of sysadmins... at a much higher price.
- JustSomeNobody 7y ago
  This is pathetic. But good on the author for not taking that crap.
- astura 7y ago
  This is pretty funny >Every so often, men contact the author complaining that his books use both male and female pronouns. This special edition, using only male third-person pronouns, is for those special people. As the market is so much smaller, it’s u̶n̶f̶o̶r̶t̶u̶n̶a̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ priced higher. >For each copy of the Manly McManface edition sold, the author will donate one dollar to his local chapter of Soroptomists International. This is what Soroptomists International is >A global volunteer organization that improves the lives of women and girls through programs leading to social and economic empowerment.

skrebbel 7y ago

For the not extremely prudish: The story is called "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" and the section quoted above is the second paragraph from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Tingle#Career https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Tingle#Career

ethbro 7y ago
HN is so respectful with its warnings. I'd rather assumed the title makes the work's nature and themes abundantly clear?

Blackthorn 7y ago

Chuck Tingle is an absolute gem of a human. The silly titles of his stories hide an extremely sharp wit and fabulous from-the-first-minute takes on current events.

dmix 7y ago
Yeah he’s basically satirizing this stuff with a cult style following looking for a laugh. There’s tons of serious tacky romance stuff published on there which is where he got the idea.
- Blackthorn 7y ago
  I wouldn't call it satire. Chuck is still what a lot of people could call profoundly weird, but we're all here with him not laughing at him.

puranjay 7y ago

I can't really tell which parts are satire, which parts serious

ethbro 7y ago
As one does with the best satire. A sprinkle of kayfabe on top of a sharp wit is delicious.

makomk 7y ago

The series of events that lead to that was really bizarre. To cut a long story short, a bunch of more right-leaning authors who thought the Hugos had turned into soapboxes for left-wing politics decided to push back by putting together a "Sad Puppies" slate of eligible works they considered good (so called for the photo of its' creators dogs looking sad they used to encourage people to support it). It met with... unexpected massive success in 2015, with quite a few of the works becoming finalists. Folks responded with a fairly effective campaign to vote every work on the slate below "no award" by signing up people en masse as Worldcon supporting members so they got votes, including paying the fees for them in some cases. They also handed out wooden asterisks to every nominee on the slate at the official ceremony to imply their nominations were all illegitimate . The thing that made this really interesting is that in the major categories, there was quite a bit of overlap with what would've likely got nominated anyway. Apparently the only reason the Best Novel winner didn't make the slate and then get pushed below no award in the finals as a result is because the people who came up with the list hadn't got around to reading it yet! (Some of the less hotly contested categories did end up with right-wing schlock being nominated though.)