Self-Inflicted Puppy Moratorium

Yesterday there was a lively discussion over on Brad Torgerson’s blog (still on-going) and a direct response from Theodore Beale on his VoxDay site(s) (interesting – .ro, .uk, .etc) responding to my prescription(s) for puppy reconciliation that have featured in several recent posts here.

I’ve finally whittled my suggestions down to two:  1.  leave the current SPIV recommendation list as a pure recommendation list.  (It’s almost not a slate – all that needs doing is to drop the associated political rhetoric and the curation down to a “final list” and it will BE a recommendation list) and 2. disassociate SP from RP in a publicly demonstrable way.

I’ll note in passing that BOTH of these suggestions are things that the Sad Puppies are claiming to want to do – or to have already done.  It would, therefore, seem to be an easy set of requests to comply with.

As quid pro quo, I offered the following:  I would consult and participate in their recommendation list(s) (participate in order to ‘prove’ that I was doing so); I would give serious consideration to any proposal(s) they might make at WSFS business meetings (they’ve called for a Hugo for tie-ins, among other things);  I will honor their votes and nominations as being valid participation in the Hugos (in other words, won’t assume it’s all politics and market grab on their part); will continue to keep Amazing as an open source (that it has always been – the ONLY people I’ve ever received a “never coming here again” are those who complain the site is biased against them, which, if they stuck around instead of running for the hills….)

AND – I promised a unilateral moratorium on puppy-related posts for two weeks (starting yesterday) while I awaited their response.

I do not consider this explanatory post about the moratorium to be in violation of that promise, although the next bit might be taken as such by some.

Please do read the comments on Brad’s site.  Vox reads are optional.  The most interesting thing about the responses I received on Brad’s site were the types of attacks:  one was trying to attack the business (Amazing Stories) – basically someone who thinks I ought to be doing things in a different way than I am and should be concentrating on that as opposed to attacking puppies.  The other was more of the same tired old cabal think:  since I have a platform (such as it is) and am expressing thoughts negatively disposed towards puppy actions, I must be speaking for all of Trufandom (spit spit), am one of the “gatekeepers” and sources of unfans having unfun.

Which is why I continually say that the Sad Puppies just don’t get Fandom.  There are thousands of voices out there, some big, some little, and the fact that the vast majority have taken issue with puppy actions doesn’t mean there is a cabal – all it means is that most Fans all feel the same way about what they’re doing. My voice is no different than any other Fan’s, and carries no special weight.  Ask ten kids if they want to eat their broccoli and you’ll get 9 or 10 “NO”s.  Are children everywhere locked into an anti-broccoli conspiracy, run by former President Bush?  Pity the poor broccoli farmers.  (For the record, I happen to like broccoli, and brussel sprouts too, but usually just the baby brussel sprouts as the adult variety sometimes get bitter.  Yes, put me down as being anti anti-broccoli.)

So there you are.  No puppy posts until (maybe) January 14th.  Don’t be too disappointed.