Ah, interesting indeed...
I agree wholeheartedly with Wendy, here:
Now, nominating stories you haven't read just because they're written by a particular author and you like everything else they've written? Sorry... no. I'd never nominate anything I haven't read anyway, and certainly not because it's by an author whose work I like anyway. Speaking personally, and I'm making no assumptions at all about who Anita was referring to, I would rather no-one nominated my stories at all than be nominated 'by reputation', so to speak. That's a popularity vote, not a quality vote, and I bet no writer here would want that either.
I certainly wouldn't want to think that I'd won (hah! right!) because people nominate on the basis of reputation.
What I can't for the life of my work out is why this is so much worse that avoiding fic that is written by someone whose work you have not enjoyed in the past. Are the two things not the two sides of the same coin: I've liked his / her work in the past therefore, although I haven't read, I'll nominate versus I've not liked his / her work in the past therefore I'll not read and not nominate?
The fact remains, I have a gut reaction that says the first is worse than the second. I have, however, tried to read something by everyone this year; I may not have succeeded, but... Anyway, I've missed out stories, but hopefully I've not missed out on too many authors.
And one of these days, I might actually get around to sending some of that mountain of feedback that is backlogged on my computer... But that's another issue entirely.
Chris
