This post by Erin Underwood on File770, about what's involved in a #Worldcon program, is fantastic: https://file770.com/op-ed-about-choosing-convention-program-participants/

#WorldCon scifi convention organizers use of #AI to vet panelists prompts backlash

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/worldcon_uses_ai/

Chengdu rigging the Hugo Awards has recalibrated my sense of what is a big deal at Worldcon to the extent that I am controversially a bit "Whatevs" about the Seattle generative AI flap. And I write as someone who is a committed enemy of generative AI.

The #HugoAward administrators have resigned from the Seattle #WorldCon over the convention committee's use of LLM's to vet program participants.

https://bsky.app/profile/nwhyte.bsky.social/post/3loh4ukgm7s2u

Hugo Awards Team Members Resign Over Use of AI by Worldcon #hugoawards #worldcon

https://graphicpolicy.com/2025/05/05/hugo-awards-team-members-resign-over-use-of-ai-by-worldcon/

If anyone would like a moment of _non_-drama #Worldcon related stuff, #MichaelMoorcock has just left a comment on @CoraBuhlert’s Elric post, replying to her and artist @MichaelWhelan, solving the mystery of whether or not #Elric has pointed ears: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/25/fantastic-fiction-elric-of-melnibone-tortured-elf-emperor-with-a-cursed-sword/#comment-690

To further reduce the workload on volunteers, next year all #worldcon panellists will be AIs.

I didn't plan on going to this year's Worldcon because, you know, fascist state and all that. Still, I was going to attend virtually. No more. With this, it could be held in my back yard and be free to attend and my response would be "get off my lawn." https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/30/statement-from-worldcon-chair-2/

Seriously. Last year the Hugos were messed up. This year, an incomprehensible use of plagiarism engines for vetting panellists, many of whom are likely the victims of that plagiarism.

WorldCon 2026 is also in the US[LN]A. Failing a regime change that's really sucking the "world" out of the event. Organizers are going to have to knock that one out of the park or I think the whole Con is in trouble.

Oh my neighbor nerds of the PNW, you should have asked me or @emilymbender whether this was a good idea, and then you would have only been yelled at in private

#Seattle #Worldcon science fiction convention vets panelists with ChatGPT – Pivot to AI
https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/05/01/seattle-worldcon-science-fiction-convention-vets-panelists-with-chatgpt/

thanks @davidgerard , this is some high-grade disturbance-of-rocks-to-expose-the-crawlies

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?

Here Are the Finalists for the 2025 Hugo Awards https://reactormag.com/2025-hugo-finalists/

Hugo finalists announced - https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/hugo-awards/2025-hugo-award-finalists/

"...the last several years of discourse about the World Science Fiction Convention's host bidding processes have revealed what I would argue is a dangerous series of assumptions about the conditions under which many people would value any given convention location. Safety is obviously one of those conditions, but among those assumptions—the one presently being shaken by present political events—is the notion that North America is a uniquely safe place to travel to, unrisky in a manner with which many developing nations allegedly cannot compete.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. I do not say this disparagingly; after all, I love coming to the US for conventions and I hope to continue doing so. I just consider this a neutral fact: even arguably safer places in the world are not somehow safe in some essentialist sense, and even the safest among them can be tragically too challenging for some."

https://brandonobrien.xyz/us-convention-travel-safety-and-what-we-can-do-together/

Really glad I am not trying to run a World Science Fiction Convention in the United States right now. I think you would be insane to be planning a trip to the USA in the current climate, so I suspect the in-person part of this year's Worldcon will be more US-centric than usual.

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/03/20/statement-from-worldcon-chair/

Statement from current Worldcon chair, Kathy Bond (no relation), which will be of interest to anyone planning to attend -- especially if it involves travel from outside the US.

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/03/20/statement-from-worldcon-chair/

I'm curious as to what effect the steady drip of stories like this will have on international attendance at this year's Worldcon in Seattle. I had already decided that I wouldn't be going near the USA once Trump was reelected but this kind of thing must make people reconsider their travel plans.

https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/never-seen-anything-so-inhumane-canadian-woman-put-in-chains-detained-by-ice-after-entering-san-diego-border

Thanks to @offby1 for leading the work on the Hugo, Lodestar, & Astounding Awards nominations and ballot voting system in use this year, NomNom. I used it yesterday and it worked so smoothly, with lots of little touches to reassure & inform me, and help me help celebrate the best of sf/f.

Chris started it in December 2023, for the 2024 Worldcon to use. Grateful for his efforts & for everyone who's contributed!

https://github.com/WorldconVotingSystems/nomnom

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

So when #worldcon happens out side the USA that year they hold a North America con. So why not have a large SFF convention in Europe or else where when Worldcon is in the USA?

A fair point fellow nerds...

America is not safe.