Thread by @Rachel_Gutin

So, now that Shabbat is over, and now that I’ve had a few hours to catch up on what everyone is saying about the #HugoAwards, I have some thoughts I want to share.

First, I want to say that there was SO MUCH wrong with the Hugos ceremony this year, and I feel terrible for each and every nominee on that ballot. You deserved so much better than the hugely problematic mess you were treated to.

But while I was signed off for Shabbat, other people covered most of the problematic aspects of the ceremony better than I ever could.

So many people, I’m not even sure which threads to link to here.

But there’s one topic I haven’t seen extensively discussed, and that’s directly related to the fact that I had to wait until after Shabbat to tweet this thread:

In addition to being a hugely problematic mess, the Hugos were scheduled over Shabbat for most timezones in the world.

From sunset on Friday through full dark on Saturday, Jews who observe Shabbat the way I do step away from technology. And that can mean not being able to access events that take place in a virtual space.

Including awards ceremonies like the Hugos.

Up until this year, it didn’t bother me that the Hugo Awards ceremony is often scheduled such that it happens over Shabbat in some part of the world. If I wasn’t at the con, the con had no obligation to ensure I could see the awards. And if I was, I could attend in person.

But this year, I *was* an attendee at the con. It’s just that my attendance involved using my computer.

And watching *with* other people involved using my computer.

Sharing my thoughts and reactions? Computer.

Reading other people’s thoughts and reactions? Yup. Computer.

Now, I do want to acknowledge that there are workarounds. I was able to watch much of the ceremony by starting the livestream before Shabbat, then leaving it running without interacting with it.

But not every Jew would be comfortable with that - or able to.

In my time zone, Shabbat began an hour into the awards ceremony.

For anyone further east than me - including four entire continents of people - Shabbat began before the awards even started.

And I haven’t even gotten to the part that bothered me the most: At least three of the nominees on this year’s ballot observe Shabbat the same way I do.

Two out of those three nominees live further west than me, and their award categories were close enough to the beginning of the ceremony that they got to hear the winner before Shabbat began for them.

The third did not.

One of this year’s Hugo winners did not get to accept her award live because she was observing Shabbat.

I don’t think she even knew she’d won until this evening, after Shabbat ended.

That’s a FULL DAY after she won.

A full day when lots of other people knew - and she didn’t.

I wish that they had considered moving the awards to another night.

I wish they had begun even an hour earlier, and made sure to announce the award for that category before Shabbat began for that nominee.

I wish she could have spent Shabbat celebrating instead of wondering.

And even if this nominee was comfortable watching the way I did, she still would not have been able to accept her Hugo live. She still would not have been able to tweet about her win. She wouldn’t see all of the congratulatory messages from friends.

And I know this is such a small thing compared to EVERYTHING ELSE that was SO WRONG about this year’s ceremony. But it is still a thing that I want to be sure gets acknowledged.

When you run an awards ceremony online, it’s important to be aware of who you are excluding. And part of that is paying attention to Shabbat and Jewish holidays when scheduling them.

An update: Someone who commented on the thread just told me that Hugo category in question was awarded before Shabbat began, then played "live" at the ceremony. So accommodations were made.

It still feels less than ideal to me, but it's definitely better than nothing.