I should note that while I am interested in what is going on with the Hugos and would like for the Final Ballot to represent the best of SF for the previous year, I do not participate in the nominating process myself. My backlog of reading material is several decades long and I actually use the final ballot, or short list, to provide me some guidance for reading material for the current year. If I am able to get to a number of items on the list then I will participate in the voting in the appropriate categories.

Looking at the Hugo winners and runners-up over the years will give you good guidance to selecting a reading list. (My problem is not getting to them until the voting is well over.) It will also give you an idea of which authors were consistently honored by the community. (I am really surprised to see that Iain M. Banks only had one nomination in his career. Be sure to put Iain M. Banks on your reading list. To be confused with Iain Banks.)

There is also discussion in the community about who can nominate for the Hugos. Currently, members of the past, current and future Worldcon can nominate for final Hugo ballot, although only members of the current Worldcon can vote on the Hugos. I understand that the inclusion of the non-current Worldcons was intended to make the nominations more inclusive. As it stands now, the voters who joined Sasquan (current Worldcon) to nominate their slate will also be able to nominate a slate in 2016 (Kansas City), at no extra cost.

Some have suggested that nominating be limited to current members and attending members of previous  Worldcons or fans who have at least attended a recent Worldcon. This is wrong on so many levels. Traditionally, fans interested in the Hugos supported a Worldcon even if they didn’t have the wherewithal to attend. And sometimes it may be a number of years before a fan can attend in person. One of the nice features of site selection is that if you vote to select the site of the next Worldcon you are a supporting member of the winning bid, whether your site won or not.

I don’t know if the expansion of the nominator pool to include past and future Worldcon members has increased the number of Hugo nominations or the number of attending Worldcon members. If it hasn’t I would recommend limiting nominations to members of the current Worldcon.

Making Light has been discussing ways to resolve the DoS attack on the Hugos by the Rabid Puppies. This discussion is focused on the nominating process.

I am leaning towards allowing the nominator to nominate up to 4 works in a category, throw away the nominating ballot once 2 of the 4 have made the Final Ballot and putting the top 5 works on the voting ballot.  In Schneier’s formula, x=4, y=2, z=5.

There are a number of weighting methods described in Option 3 and discussed in detail in the comments.  I am still open to which method is best but I am starting with Option 3d.  I don’t think there actually is a “best”, but there may be a preferred method for administration and management.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/016206.html