ladybusiness | (Reply)

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I've often wondered if the Supporting membership was a little lower, if they'd see more of those memberships overall, evening out the drop in price. But there's no way to know without data! I also think that the Hugo has bit of a marketing problem in communicating that anyone can join each Worldcon as they like and nominate and vote. Advertising this is a little complicated, because right now you get to vote on the Hugo and that's largely it which would probably make people scratch their heads.

Small steps toward giving more influence to those memberships would be a step in the right direction. I do see the time limit as more of a feature than a bug -- things shouldn't be easy to change when there are unknowns in play. Starting off with a long term change to give the Supporting memberships more influence would eventually yield the data that shows it's a positive change, and lead to another group pressing for less time, perhaps. But from my (extremely limited!) perspective, the Business Meeting doesn't like to step off the ledge into the abyss! They like known quantities, and data, and risk management, which is good for a guiding body. Which is a little frustrating, but I'm pleased by the fact there are long time participants in the Business Meetings who are willing to go to bat for to argue that Supporting fans are important, period.

(I tried to watch those videos and it just hit my embarrassment squick too hard. I wonder if some of these people know how awful/cruel they sound sometimes.)