Award nomination pins etiquette

[davidlevine]

As you may know, nominees for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards (probably some others) receive a pin to commemorate the nomination. This pin is generally given to the attending nominees at the beginning of the event at which the award is handed out, and is worn as an honor and as a notice to the other attendees that this person is a nominee. For all of these awards the pin is the same every year (generally speaking).

Check any of the following you feel is in good taste. Don't check those that you feel are in bad or questionable taste.

[Poll #1008574]

Comments

My logic (such as it is) ...

[allanh.livejournal.com]

At the event ... wear the pin until the award winner is announced. If you win the award, you should remove the pin because you've just been given the darned trophy, for gosh sakes.

(In fact, once you've won, I think it's tacky to wear the pin again at all, because you already have the trophy. Just stick the pin next to the trophy on the mantel or shelf and be happy about it.)

The year following ... if you lost, wearing the pin at ANY OTHER event is still fine. Losing doesn't erase the fact that you were nominated that year. If you won ... see paragraph #2.

More than a year later ... unless you're the Susan Lucci of SF&F, I think it's in poor taste to wear nomination pins, even if you won in previous years.

Each event is supposed to be centered around that year's nominees, and I think wearing previous years' pins detracts from the current nominees, and is quietly rude.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I think they're your pins, and you can wear them whenever you damn well like. What would be poor taste would be to wear your old Hugo nominee *ribbons* at future conventions. I am clearly out of touch on this, so.

I cherished my nominee pins for the umpty um years till we won a Hugo.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

I'm absolutely with Allison. I think you shouldn't wear more than one at a time unless you have more than one to wear.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I think it's fine to wear them every day of your life after receiving them -- though not in bed, because they're hard and uncomfortable. I have seen a Hugo pin worn at a funeral and thought it in perfectly good taste. But if you wear them at the same event you should do something to indicate that you're not a current nominee -- like make them into ear-rings, or wear them all in a row. I sometimes do the thing where I wear them with my Order of Lenin pin, which never fails to amuse me. Michael Swanwick wears them all, and that's a lot, on his badge with the losses worn reversed and the wins the right way up. Lois Bujold has a piece of Elise jewellry with them all incorporated.

[kvaadk.livejournal.com]

Mind you, if I won any of these awards, I'd reverse my stand on body piercings and wear the thing as a stud.

[stevenagy.livejournal.com]

I think wearing the pin at later events, later years isn't right. But I did vote for wearing multiple pins for noms and wins because Bujold had a necklace made out of her pins, which I thought was a nice touch. I think it comes down to the wearer's intent and attitude..

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wear my nominee pin at sf events, because they are at the only places I can wear them where people may know what they mean, but only if I remember ... as I am notoriously forgetful about doing this because I keep my pin in a box in my desk the rest of the time (which is also why I never wear my Tiptree badge at Wiscon – I usually remember as I walk into the Concourse).

I have never given any thought about not wearing my nominee pin, etc. because, well, I will never not be a former nominee at any time in the future, and it happens to be something I'm quite proud of.

However, were I to ever be nominated again, I wouldn't wear both (or more!) pins, unless I could think of a cheerfully ironic way of doing it (though not earrings because everyone would expect me to turn them into earrings) rather than looking as though I were parading my trophies.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

You earned it, you got it.

Compare it to a Super Bowl ring, or a World Series ring. Those guys wear them *all the time*. Even if it's the We Lost ring. They still got there.

Okay, it might be a bit gaudy if, say, the Locus folks wore all of them, all at once. But a few, sure.

It's a subtle, acceptable way of saying, "Nyah, nyah, nyah, look what I did!" You get to do that. It's allowed!

And anyone who doesn't think so probably doesn't have one. :-)

[johnnyeponymous.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think of a way to graft the pins to my skin once I get them. I'll never be nominated again, so I gotta make those things count!
Chris

[scalzi.livejournal.com]

I attached my Hugo Pin to the lanyard of my LACon IV badge. The badge and lanyard are now somewhere in my office, and so is the pin. I'm unlikely to wear the badge again; thus wearing the pin is equally unlikely.

For future nominations and Worldcons, I'm likely to do the same thing. I don't see myself wearing multiple pins; the one signifying the then-current nomination is sufficient, I think.

That said, people should do whatever the hell they want.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

I look forward to seeing your top hat pimped out with pins all the way around the hat band, and on top a full-size (but light-weight) replica of each rocket you've won.

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

"Continuing to wear the pin at the same event, after losing the award" -- usually I've seen people do this by turning the pin upside-down, which communicates everything and is, imho, nifty.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

As with any honor, I would think wearing it most anywhen is fine -- I would take one exception -- wearing one's pin to a following year same event in such a way that it makes one look as if one is a "that year" nom would be in poor taste. Taking away from the current noms at the current event is crass and as someone eles said "quietly rude."

That said, I LOVE the idea of making it into something else (Bujold rocks!) and wearing it (or them) as often as one wishes, where ever one wishes.

[zipperbear]

I think that's the key issue: Don't try to look like a current nominee when you aren't one, but feel free to display your honors and awards. The pin is given out as a keepsake, and a badge of honor, intended to be worn and admired.

If you've collected an array of pins, I'm sure they'd make a lovely display, like a row of medals on a military uniform. People would be unlikely to assume that a sextuple nominee, say, had received so many nominations in the current year. Also remember, you're not responsible for other people's inability to think.

Hat-bands and suspenders are a good place for keepsake pins. The linear form lends itself to chronological order, once you've collected enough to establish a pattern.

Next dilemma: How to make a current pin prominently visible in the clutter of old honors, and which old honors to stop wearing when the weight becomes unbearable.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I wear my Hugo nominee pin on the same badge holder I wear to all conventions (at least when I remember to bring it). It is a permanent fixture there, as is my GT pin, my Sisterhood of the Mist pin (I am proud of having that one), a tiny photo sticker of the first game of Hakosot played in Minneapolis, and other reminders of my stfnal past.

K. [I don't know where B.'s is, but he doesn't wear it]

[criada.livejournal.com]

I'd say to wear it at the same event even if you lose, because you're still awesome. I personally always err on the side of humility, so while I might wear such a thing for a year afterwards at other events, they'd probably end up growing dusty in a china cabinet with my shell collection. But I wouldn't fault someone else for wearing their pins as long as they weren't a raging egotistical ass.
However, if I had a hoard of them, I'd take pride in wearing them strung on a string like the ears of my fallen enemies. But I'd have to wear warpaint at the same time.

[jeffsoesbe.livejournal.com]

It's tough to distinguish between what I'd do (wear it once at the event, then put it on a shelf and be overjoyed every time I looked at it) and what I'd think about others' actions (where it totally depends on the intent of the action).

So, in the end, I think ............ think ........

sorry, started daydreaming about having a pin. Wow, that would be incredible.

yeff

[vokzal.livejournal.com]

This isn't anything I've given much thought to up till now, so feel free to ignore me.

I figure that wearing one in some manner points out to other people "hey, this is an author" and then they can look at your nametag and try to figure out if they remember who you are and then get all frantic and get your autograph. Because just what kind of name recognition are you going to have? And maybe you're Bob Smith. Well, if you're /that/ Bob Smith, then they'll be happy to know.

The upside down things makes perfect sense, btw.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I figure that wearing one in some manner points out to other people "hey, this is an author" and then they can look at your nametag and try to figure out if they remember who you are and then get all frantic and get your autograph.

Because this is a frequent misconception, thought I'd point out just for the record that there are Hugo awards besides those for professional writing.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

To me it's absolutely clearcut, no possible question, up until the next class of nominees is nominated (so, basically, up until the event next year).

After that, it seems to me a question of social convention rather than something logic really applies to.

I would seriously consider *not* wearing old pins *at the same event* where I'd be most directly competing with the new class of nominees, but wearing them everywhere else when I felt like it. But mostly I'd observe what was done and said, and try not to transgress the unwritten law.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I make a distinction here between a Hugo pin you have because you're a nominee and one you get ex officio. I've been a Hugo Awards administrator three times, and each time received an ex officio rocket pin, which I wore only for that convention and never again. In addition, I'll be a designated acceptor this year in Japan, and will wear the pins during the convention, but after the con, the pins go to the nominee himself, and he gets to decide how to handle them.

It would possibly be less of an issue if the pins were different each year, but most Worldcons buy them from the same vendor, and sometimes we buy multiple years' worth at at time. (1993 and 1994 did a joint buy, for instance; I was in the middle of the complicated deal by which we traded a bunch of pins for a ConFrancisco membership to a Russian fan who had access to lots of medal-making equipment but not much hard currency.)

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I'm rather a purist about these things. I think that the pin is intended to show that someone is a nominee so people can slap one on the back and wish one good luck/congratulations/commiserations, depending. Therefore my view is that one needs to wear only a single pin at the event that is hosting the award for which one is nominated, and for the whole event, even after the ceremony. (I have had big fights about the multiple-pin question, especially with a much nominated author who shall remain nameless but whose initials are MR.) Because of what I think they're indicating, I don't think staff should wear them and have declined to do so in the years in which I've worked the Hugo ceremony, even though I've been given a few.