I still have so many pictures from #Seattle to post. Here is one cozy evening where many folks got to soak up lots of #Locksport knowledge thanks to @alice
@SillyLily is doing the thinker pose to the right side of the frame. And the book is one written by @deviantollam at Red Team Tools.
While I'm doing shout-outs, the "retro" rainbow socks I'm wearing are from The Sock Monster and they are still intact despite being a lightweight material.
Ready for the Hugo Awards ceremony to start!
This is still not my circus…
But I’ve been watching this year’s Worldcon drama unfold. Seattle used ChatGPT to vet program participants, based on three widely excoriated updates/apologies. Three folks on the WSFS/Hugo side of the convention (i.e. not the division that used ChatGPT) resigned. A number of program participants withdrew; so did a Lodestar nominee. Given the nature of convention drama, I expect we haven’t heard the end of Seattle shenanigans.
I think it’s interesting that Seattle seems shocked by the backlash it’s struggling to handle.1 There has been a lot of discussion about so-called AI within the writing community over the past couple years; it started even sooner among artists. While some of this discussion happens behind closed doors (e.g. members-only online spaces), it’s also been news in the genre and non-genre press. This is, in short, a big issue for many of the convention’s prospective participants and members.
This is not the only instance of a disconnect between convention runners and a segment of fandom (broadly defined). Codes of conduct may help, but there’s a long history of conventions being unwelcoming or dangerous; problems including sexual harassment and racist exclusion persist. The main difference with this particular misstep is that Seattle acted against the interests of a subset of fandom that the convention cannot easily afford to abandon. While conrunners may not feel the lack of potential Black members who never register (a far more fundamental and troubling issue, IMHO, than Seattle’s ChatGPT use), they will feel the lack of industry professionals. Marketing a convention involves participant names. Convention programming relies upon the donated time and effort of panelists and moderators. Seattle has unwittingly illustrated the need for conventions to decide who they are for, and to understand the priorities of those constituencies.
Seattle Worldcon 2025 Tells How ChatGPT Was Used in Panelist Selection Process - https://file770.com/seattle-worldcon-2025-tells-how-chatgpt-was-used/
#WorldCon #Seattle2025 #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #Hugos #ChatGPT
Seattle Worldcon 2025 Hugo Administrators and WSFS Division Head Resign - https://file770.com/seattle-worldcon-2025-hugo-administrators-and-wsfs-division-head-resign/
In his OpEd, Gary Westfahl asks for the next two WorldCon's (in Seattle and LA) to be cancelled because of the actions of the COTUS administration - https://file770.com/no-more-worldcons-in-the-united-states/
Should the WorldCon be removed from the US?
Hugo finalists announced - https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/hugo-awards/2025-hugo-award-finalists/
It looks like I'm not attending Worldcon in person this year after all. I'm interested in transferring my adult attending membership to someone in exchange for a $125+ donation to a trans rights charity or similar.
Message me if you're interested, and so I can confirm the charity isn't secretly bad or something
Episode 129 is here, in which we discuss the Belfast Eastercon, Alison shakes her cane at John and Liz, and we talk a little about WSFS things before getting into picks. Listen here: https://octothorpe.podbean.com/e/129-deep-in-annex-a/
#ScienceFiction #Podcast #Eastercon #Eastercon2025 #Eastercon2026 #BSFA #Worldcon #Seattle2025 #Worldcon2025
John thought of something, Alison is educational, and Liz reads contracts. An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media. Content warnings this episode: Money (chapter 3) Please remember that we have recused from consideration for the 2025 Hugo Awards Letters of comment Chris Garcia DC On Blind Chance (skeet, requires sign-in) On picking books (skeet, requires sign-in) Doug Faunt Farah Mendlesohn (Facebook) Eastercon 2025: Reconnect in Belfast Cancelling non-refundable hotel rooms does not net one a refund We get ourselves into knots trying to work out what’s happened here and we’re not sure Alison taught John and Liz about complaining about cancellations Cancelling goods or services Make a court claim for money Worldcon 2025: Seattle Virtual Business Meeting details Lumi Global The meetings are all at 09:00–12:30 (PDT/UTC-7) on 4, 13, 19, 25 July Hugo nominations are open How to nominate Picks John: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Marc Sumerak Alison: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley Liz: Nova by Samuel Delany Credits Cover art: “Thailand Positioning Service” by Alison Scott Alt text: Words read “Octothorpe 129: Can you pin Thailand on the map?” above a black-and-white world map. The backs of John, Alison and Liz’s heads are shown. John is thinking “Yup!”, Liz is thinking “100%”, and Alison is holding Thailand and thinking “???”. Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
Episode 126 is here! We read out your letters of comment, and then we discuss all the things from 2024 that we think are worth a look as we go into award nomination season (and a couple of things we would probably avoid). Then we do picks, in case there weren't enough opinions.
Listen here! https://octothorpe.podbean.com/e/126-i-ve-read-some-novels/
John is a thief, Alison plays games, and Liz is bullied. An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media. Content warnings this episode: None Letters of comment Andreas Davour Bella Garcia Constanze Hoffman Farah Mendlesohn Jonathan Cowie June Young Mike Scott Neil Ottenstein Raj Tammy Coxen Zoe O’Connell We also heard from Bridget Bradshaw, Colin Harris, Meg MacDonald, and Shi Lala Fan funds The 2025 TAFF race has begun Zi Graves, Mikołaj Kowalewski, Jan Vaněk jr. CUFF comes to an end Fowler Award Hugo Awards 2025 spreadsheet of doom Novels T**he Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett The Sentence by Gautam Bhatia The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley The Life Impossible by Matt Haig Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky Absolution by Jeff Vandermeer We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson Novellas A Mourning Coat by Alex Jeffers North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher Short Stories Grottmata by Thomas Ha Five Views of the Planet Tartarus by Rachael K Jones Related Works Track Changes: Selected Reviews **by Abigail Nussbaum Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the A**lt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll Series The Horus Heresy The Southern Reach The Tyrant Philosophers Graphic Stories Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio Abigail Nussbaum’s review at Strange Horizons Dramatic Presentations All of Us Strangers Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga I Saw the TV Glow Late Night with the Devil My Old Ass A Quiet Place: Day One The Substance Timestalker Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl The Wild Robot Games Tabletop Arcs City of Six Moons Mothership Undaunted 2200: Callisto Video Animal Well Caves of Qud Dragon Age: The Veilguard The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdo**m Slice and Dice 3.0 Star Wars: Outlaws Tale of the Golden Idol UFO50 [Alison did just write, verbatim, “a bunch of stuff” and I was sorely tempted not to go through and write them all down for her but I did it for you, listener. I did it for you—John] Other Bridge Command Poems Sandra Bond Fan categories Artists Alison Scott España Sheriff Podcasts Fanac Fan History Zooms Going Rogue Hugo, Girl! A Meal of Thorns Writers Camestros Felapton Ersatz Culture Roseanna Pendlebury Fanzines Ancillary Review of Books Banana Wings Ornithopter Unofficial Hugo Book Club Debut authors Moniquill Blackgoose Picks [isn’t this a whole episode of picks?—Liz] John: Earthborne Rangers Alison: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Liz: Horizon Zero Dawn Sorry Mark Credits Cover art: “Waffle of comment” by Bella Garcia Alt text: A picture of a Belgian waffle that looks like an octothorpe, on a white background, with the words “Octothorpe 126” above and “now with added waffle” below. Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
BewilderedKat 
Cheryl
A. P. Howell
skribe 🇺🇦 
Holly Becker
Octothorpe