If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here Well, it's over guys. The Sad Puppies are dead. Put a fork in them, they're done. Thanks to the complete and utter incompetent mismanagement by certain members of the Mad Genius Club, namely Sarah Hoyt from what I can gather, it's time to retire the business entirely. Relevant context here. In that link, you'll find discussion on a fair amount of nonsense, little of it relevant. It's an excuse-filled, poor-me rant combined with a pungently desperate grab for power and relevance. Much like the other post Hoyt made in January, it strikes me as being very close to Leigh Alexander's "I AM GAMES JOURNALISM, SILLY CHILDREN" claims during Gamergate. And we all remember how she ended up. What Hoyt essentially admits to in that post is that she brought back the Sad Puppies this year specifically to crush Declan Finn and his hopes of contributing to a slate. They took his suggestion as assertion of dominance, refused to talk with him, and then Hoyt wrote a tear-stained rant about how the Sad Puppies were THEIRS, DAMN IT! Okay, so the Sad Puppies are yours, damn it. It's really not worth fighting over at that stage. So I do have one question... What did you do with them? Oh? You...wow, nothing? Really? So you had six full months, even factoring in work and medical problems, after effectively pissing all over this brand to mark your territory, and you did nothing with it in all that time? Didn't even put together a tentative Sad Puppies list for the Hugos and Dragons? What about for smaller awards? Really? Nothing? And now you're going to come back next year with a big shiny website to promote your "aesthetic" in fiction using the brand recognition of the Sad Puppies to attract people who think you're still doing this for altruistic reasons after engaging in the exact tactics that created the atmosphere the Sad Puppies were created to expose and combat? Well polish my knob and call me Bob, that's one helluva plan there, my proto-Games Journos Pros. And then when people in the comments section get all uppity (Translation: Try to help with advice nicely put), you're gonna act like a total shitheel to them? You should write a book on how to keep friends. Or maybe read a book about SJW tactics and then try not employing them. One thing I will say on this is #NotAllMadGeniuses. I'm not sure all of them were in on this corrosive behavior, and don't approve of this absolute nonsense. I don't know them, so I can't say for sure, but knowing of some of them and their behavior in the past, I don't think that all of them would go for this kind of thing. I'll also say that if anyone who associates with me wants to continue to associate with the MGC, that's perfectly fine, and I won't jump up your ass about it. I understand not wanting to make waves, and not wanting to punch right. For myself, however, I don't know these people, and am forced to judge them by their actions and how they present themselves. In my view they're duplicitous snakes who were worried that someone might take away their main claim to fame, and as such began punching right themselves in a desperate bid for self preservation. Associate with them all you like, but I'm not going to now and in the future. This, in my opinion, is quite evidently mask-slippage. True colors have been shown, and this is how I do something about it. I don't care if they disagree with my political opinions, or my opinions on literature, or my opinions on any topic you care to name. I was perfectly fine with letting shit lie because a motto of mine since Men In Black came out has been, "Don't start nothing, won't be nothing." But every once in a while, someone else starts it. Hoyt started it when she brought the Puppies back specifically to shit on a friend and ally of mine, and before she had her little freakout in January an ally of hers as well. I value loyalty very, very highly. We can disagree on anything and everyth