My post supporting Starship Sofa for the Hugo Award in the category of Best Fanzine has been drawing a healthy number of comments, all of which have been both civil and welcome. Some commenters have stated the view that a fanzine is a very specific thing and that podcasts really should not be considered in the fanzine category.
In truth, I don’t have a strong opinion on this and I certainly don’t want to advocate for the inclusion or exclusion of anything from any category. Instead I’d simply direct people to the Hugo rules, which are contained in the WSFS Constitution and to this comment on recent changes to those rules by Hugo Administrator Vince Docherty in File 770.
My own feeling is that if the laws of the WSFS suggest that a podcast can be considered as a fanzine then I’m very happy to nominate StarShip Sofa. I’m also very happy to leave decisions on such matters to the Hugo Administrator, and to suggest that if people feel strongly that the rules are amiss that they should become involved in the WSFS process and work to change the rules.
I’m perhaps happiest that everyone seems to agree that StarShip Sofa is a worthy potential Hugo nominee, even if they can’t quite agree into what round hole its square peg should fit into.
