The most recent 20 comments posted to Electrolite by Julia Jones finds comment spam:

John: "Errr... SFWA has someone in it whose politics you find icky, therefore it would turn its back on you?"

No, SFWA has seen fit to appoint to a jury panel for a supposedly prestigious award someone who has explicitly stated his contempt for people like me, people like some of my friends, and people like some of the writers I admire.

I'm sure SFWA will be only too pleased to take my money, but the impression it gives me is not a good one. I have no problem with SFWA containing people whose politics I find icky; it would be very surprising if any organisation with that many members did not contain some, and I'm sure many members would find my politics icky, and take the same view. I do have a problem with SFWA apparently being unconcerned that one of the people involved with the Nebulas feels that someone like me by definition is not worthy of being considered for the Nebulas.

Something like this *does* matter, even if the novel ultimately selected is of worthy calibre, even if the novel selected is of worthy calibre and is written by someone who's a member of one of the groups declared incapable of writing quality material. Because it makes me wonder if SFWA would actually care if the final selection was unduly influenced by someone's prejudices.

Patrick: I repeat my contention that the really dim bulb in this story isn't the cannily opportunistic "Vox Day", it's SFWA.

Agreed. On a more serious note than my previous comment--I shouldn't really comment until I've done some more background reading on the guy, but on the facts as presented in the original post, this doesn't really incline me to take SFWA or the Nebulas seriously. Now, since I'm not qualified to be a member of SFWA, maybe I should sit down and shut up--but I'm one of those people busy working on becoming qualified for SFWA, and this is not leading me to think that SFWA will welcome me with open arms should I actually achieve the requisite publication record.

I don't fit the gentleman's pattern. *I* write romance novels in space about strong, beautiful, independent and intelligent but lonely men who finally fall in love with rugged men who love them just as they are. :-)

Sadly, I have merely a B.Sc. (Hons) Maths & Physics, Dunelm and more years' experience as an industrial scientist than I wish to think about right now, not 3 Ph.D.s, so clearly am not qualified to think of myself as a Real Scientist.

First thing I thought when I wandered in this evening and found spam all over the place was "DOS attack pretending to be comment spam". There was just too much of it, on too many threads - and on very recent threads, when the spammers usually do their best to hide it on old threads where they hope it won't be noticed.

More spam, this time on a recent thread.

Here we go again with the spam...

Spam, spam, glorious spam...

Oh look, the pedo spammer strikes again...

Have we got *two* spammers this morning? The style's different on this one.

four of them on this thread, and I bet if I go digging through Recent Comments there will be even more vandalised threads.

oh look, yet another spam

two spams...

looks like the same one that's hit Making Light - and I think there are more threads on Electrolite

Just in case nobody else has mentioned it - the porn comment spammer has hit lots of threads here as well as Making Light.

Is the centre pivot system discussed a few posts up responsible for the big green circles in the middle of the desert that I saw from the plane on the way home to Silicon Valley yesterday?

I looked at this and was baffled by the enthusiasm for growing water-heavy crops (which was what it appeared to be) in the middle of the desert. Makes the EU's agricultural policy look almost sane by comparison. Or even the local enthusiasm for growing lush green front lawns in a semi-desert region by way of conspicuous consumption...

I vaguely remember seeing a concert review in a British newspaper that referred to Mr Loaf, but it was fairly obvious from context that the reviewer was being arch. I imagine that it's a joke that's just too good to resist.

Nice to see that modern spool-chucking technology hasn't changed the Grauniad. :-)

Boggling gently here...

What boggles me even more is that I'd intended to go to several of those *before* knowing who was going to be on them. Including having a "decisions, decisions" problem over 3pm on Saturday. So that deals with the tracking someone down to say "Hi, this is what I look like" for *two* of the people I know online. :-)

Being known to a con's programming committee has its drawbacks. Worst I've ever been hit with is "I know you'll have just got off a twenty four hour flight from Australia, but I also know you can wibble entertainingly about this subject even when jet-lagged, and even *you* can't get into a fight about this subject."

I certainly wasn't aware of the term MILF, but then the sleazy circles I travel in tend to be rather more interested in reading about two (or more) blokes slapping their bits together.

It occurs to me that my lack of interest in the gogglebox means that I don't actually know whether Edwards is a DILF, because I haven't the faintest idea what he actually looks like. I assume he's good-looking - he's an American politician...

Thanks for the recommendation on the Augustine biography, Patrick - I think I have some new material for the book-buying list. :-)

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