First, thank you SO MUCH for laying out your clear (and frequently entertaining) ballot thought process. I've been focusing mostly on non-slate stuff, and of the rest there was some that was meh, some that made me recoil, and some was just too baffling to even touch. So this was a great sifting of the chaff for me, esp the effort you went to in ranking the least worst of the dreck below No Award to at least push the worst worst farther down... just in case. Good strategy, I'm going to use that.
fwiw, I'd like to recommend Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which will be my first place vote for Semiprozine for nakedly personal reasons: they published a great weird adventure story (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-adventure-of-the-pyramid-of-bacconyus/) by a close friend of mine a couple years back. While I don't read magazines either, this is enough for me to admire their ability to recognize imaginative talent and take a risk on some wacky ideas (like intelligent palm tree protagonists).
On another note, I think an exception to the "No Award for any work on a slate" might be called for on the dramatic presentations (esp. long form). I fully support your objection to any work being brigaded onto the ballot, but though they appeared on a slate I doubt Guardians of the Galaxy, Interstellar, etc. got there for that reason (really looking forward to the stats on this one). They are, at least, exactly the sort of movies that half a year ago we would have been expecting to be up for/win a Hugo.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-07-22 03:17 pm (UTC)fwiw, I'd like to recommend Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which will be my first place vote for Semiprozine for nakedly personal reasons: they published a great weird adventure story (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-adventure-of-the-pyramid-of-bacconyus/) by a close friend of mine a couple years back. While I don't read magazines either, this is enough for me to admire their ability to recognize imaginative talent and take a risk on some wacky ideas (like intelligent palm tree protagonists).
On another note, I think an exception to the "No Award for any work on a slate" might be called for on the dramatic presentations (esp. long form). I fully support your objection to any work being brigaded onto the ballot, but though they appeared on a slate I doubt Guardians of the Galaxy, Interstellar, etc. got there for that reason (really looking forward to the stats on this one). They are, at least, exactly the sort of movies that half a year ago we would have been expecting to be up for/win a Hugo.