[ETA 1/28: Dave has posted his first response in about a week on Facebook:]
“For those playing along at home, get your bingo cards out because it’s time to mark the hard-to-fill space.
I am apologizing.
Last week, I posted on my page that the Hugo statistics had gone up thinking that I was talking to just the few folks that had popped in before and asked me about them. I didn’t really think at any time that it would be seen by pretty much everyone that wasn’t me as speaking for the convention and the Hugo team.
Clearly, I think we all agree I was wrong.
The responses put me in old habits and I got defensive. Most of my responses there were inappropriate, unprofessional, condescending, and a number were clearly insulting. I made things worse.
I apologize to the Finalists.
I apologize to the Worldcon community.
I apologize to the Hugo Awards community.
My actions there caused pain and damage to people and communities that I love. Worldcon has been a core part of my life for more than 20 years, and I have to live with the knowldge of the damage I caused here by acting that way.
I am going to turn off commenting on both this post and the past post about the stats. The statement that the administration team has previously made about elegibility decisions is the only one I can share. Any further questions or concerns about the 2023 Hugo Awards should be emailed to hugoteam@chengduworldcon.com.
Not really the response anyone was hoping for because:
1) He doesn’t answer many questions and none of the big ones.
2) He makes it clear that he never will (the real stats are gone and we’re never going to see them. My geek heart is crushed).
3) He doesn’t actually apologize for any of the actions that caused the drama to begin with, just for his reaction on FB.
I don’t quite feel bad for Dave and I can’t bring myself to forgive him, not that it matters, but my blood has settled to a gentle bubble over the last week. If nothing else I can give up and move on. I wonder if the people’s passion for change has likewise burned out? Believe it or not, it’s already time to starting voting on Hugos again.
Original post:
Because so much of my previous post (including multiple ETA updates) detailing the history and happenings of the 2023 Hugo/Worldcon trainwreck ended up involving the engineer of said train, Dave McCarty, and the public face he is currently displaying on his personal Facebook page (which as far as I can tell is the only place any information has been offered since the disastrous release of the detailed Hugo statistics on Saturday), I figured it was worth it to synthesize those interactions in a post dedicated to its own specific subgenre of horror. This post includes excerpts from that previous post. Beware that this is not intended to be an objective post and I am not, at this time, giving Dave the benefit of the doubt. One might even label it a hit piece.
As a quick recap, Dave is the self-described “most senior member of … the Hugo admin team [of the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon]. Part of that responsibility is submitting detailed statistics of the Hugo voting including an accounting of the vote which determined the eventual finalists. Typically the detailed statistics, including a “longlist” of books, authors, etc. who almost made the ballot are released within days, if not hours or minutes, after the Hugo Award ceremony. After the 2023 ceremony they were nowhere to be found. When pressed about the delay, Dave posted on his Facebook page “The detailed Hugo stats are delayed entirely because of my poor understanding of how swamped I was gonna be on site … this delay is purely to make sure that everything I put out is verified as correct (and the detailed stats take time to verify, there’s lot of stuff going on there).” At first there were sentiments of patience and understanding. As time went on with no sign of the stats, people began to ask questions. Dave delayed: “These are wonderful questions that I’ll have time to chat about after the stats are out.” And deflected: “Which is worse….delaying the publication or putting out detail information with mistakes that the public catches? I think faulty information is immensely more damaging than late information and as the person that’s actually responsible for protecting the reputation of the event this year to the best of my ability, we’re going to go with my call on how to do it.”
The WSFS constitution allows for 90 days after the end of Worldcon to publish the stats, and when asked point blank by Camestros Felapton to give a timeline, Dave quickly replied that the stats wouldn’t be offered until the last possible day (January 19). These sentiments at least seemed to indicate a sense of accountability on Dave’s part. He even released half of the statistics (results of the final voting, but not the voting of the nomination stage) on December 3 with a statement that the stats “have been reviewed at multiple levels by our team and all the things we could find that needed correction have been resolved,” exclusively citing clerical errors such as typos, translations, and font issues. So far so good.
As the deadline approached he started getting cheeky, even allowing in a post on the day of release: “75 minutes before midnight is *still* today.” Finally the stats were released and it became painfully apparent that rascality had taken place. Myriad posts have now been published detailing the exact types and degrees of rascality. Among the issues were works and people inexplicably designated “not eligible,” and the actual voting numbers being a joke, suggesting they were either made-up whole cloth, tampered with, or otherwise misrepresented.And that’s when the shift in Dave’s demeanor reared its ugly head. The people had questions and Dave only repeatedly offered his now infamous slogan: ““After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.” The people still had (the same) questions and Dave only further offered “asked and answered” with increasing douchebaggery: “Are you slow?” , “You can’t parse a sentence in what I assume is your native language.”
At some point accountable Dave (whether he ever truly existed in the first place) was possessed and taken over by asshole Dave. The now widely circulated suggestions that some sort of government influence or compulsion tipped the voting scales were met with replies of “Conspiracy bullshit,” and further “That I will categorically deny. Nobody has ordered me to do anything. Nobody is changing decisions I have made.” He went on the cryptically suggest “I am certain there are [other conrunners/administrators] that didn’t work on Chengdu that understand the answer [apparently referring to his evasive “the rules we must follow” non-answer] and can attest to the fact that it is true and accurate. That’s where my responsibility ends on this matter.” He did seem to open up, if briefly, when acclaimed author Neil Gaiman joined the conversation as one of the affected parties of the dreaded “not eligible” asterisk. The one affecting Neil was arguably the least egregious offense, but Dave’s conduct lent him the impression of enjoying the attention provided by such a celebrity. When asked to explain his breach in obfuscation he replied “As someone actually impacted by the eligibility decisions, yeah, Neil gets some deference … [Other] folks asking for more are not going to get it from me.” He even ended up revealing during the Gaiman exchange that his slogan “is the statement the Hugo administration team agreed to after long and considered deliberation” , which deliberation implies acknowledgment by the team that their actions were not above board.
Ongoing Facebook discussion seems to reveal a savior complex on Dave’s part indicating a belief that he is protecting something or someone, possibly another committee member(s) from the recompense that would follow admission of improper conduct. The part of martyr suits Dave well. Commenters suggested perhaps he signed an NDA and can’t actually provide anything beyond the “rules we must follow” statement. I even asked him point blank if he signed an NDA, which I realize is a longshot, as NDAs sometimes forbid the signer from even revealing they signed it, and I doubt Dave would be forthcoming even if he were allowed to be, but I thought it was worth a try. No response yet. My thoughts on the possibility of him playing the role of noble protector are as follows: if you’re legitimately trying to shield others from Bad Consequences, do it right. The stats offered by Dave scream “These were tampered with! I’m a whistleblower!” which defeats the purpose. If there’s no actual threat and you just want to expose impropriety, do it right. Say “there has been impropriety, I regret that this occurred.” I can’t imagine a situation in which the arrogance, incompetence, and fragility he has displayed benefits anyone or anything. Maybe he simply can’t help it.
When suggested by Nibedita Sen that “Dave’s behavior in this thread is the purest illustration of the befuddlement, resentment and anger a white man feels when people try to hold him accountable for something.” Dave countered with “None of you are holding me accountable for anything. I’m the one who published the detailed statistics. The person holding me accountable is me … Anyone thinking *they* are holding me accountable or that I am avoiding responsibility is fundamentally mistaken. I have wide ability to avoid responsibility if I were unethical and chose to act that way. I have not. My team has not.” Maybe I’m reading into something that isn’t there but the statement “The person holding me accountable is me” almost seems like the faintest admission of liability. I jumped on that with another direct question to Dave: “What, in your words, are you holding yourself accountable for and why do your actions require accounting? Are you personally proud of the work you’ve done, independent of simply doing what you were required to do?” Again, no answer.
What would make a SMOF self-destruct any and all fandom cred (not to mention personal integrity)? Whatever it is, I can’t imagine self-destruction is an effective solution. This is an ongoing story and until it plays out more, I don’t have any suggestions to offer beyond 1) Apologize, Dave, and 2) Don’t let this guy anywhere near a con for a long, long time.