In response to a nonny who asked some ten weeks after the entire shitshow got started, another nonny summed it up thusly:
Long story very, very short, two overlapping groups of reactionary assholes calling themselves the Sad and Rabid Puppies, respectively, are angry that the genre awards have been entirely taken over, in their minds, by progressive “message fiction” about Marxist lesbian unicorns goring racists in space. So they got together and decided to all nominate exactly the same things this year.
Since nominations usually run on a few hundred people independently selecting their favorites from the vast array of material published in a given year, the Puppy picks pushed everything else off the ballot. Included are a gazillion nominations for the vanity press of one of the guys running the slates and six nominations for John C Wright of “phallic idol of sodomy” notoriety.
This pissed some people off, and both sides have been yelling at each other since.
In addition, another nonny posted a very short chronology of the Puppies' efforts.
Author Jim C. Hines also provided a somewhat more detailed overview of the situation.
On Apr. 4, 2015, a nonnie started a thread in post #178 to discuss the Hugo nominations that were to be released that day:
Worldcon is going to start releasing the Hugo Ballot in about twenty minutes. Will Mixon's report on Winterfox make the cut? Will the Sad Puppies sweep the ballot? Will wank commence? (Okay, I think we already know the answer to that one).
Meme's original interest was in whether Laura Mixon's report on serial SF/F abuser, blackmailer, and troll Winterfox would garner a nomination (and whether meme would be nominated — we weren't). But when the full list was announced, meme turned its attention to the Sad & Rabid puppies slates, which dominated the nominations:
Logrolling Puppies took over the short and editor categories. White supremacist and general waste of oxygen Vox Day was nominated for best editor TWICE. Foaming homophobe and general waste of oxygen John [C.] Wright was nominated six times, three times in the same category!
Because the Hugo Awards are a pretty big deal in sf/f fandom, and because fail_fandomanon is about, well, fail in fandom, meme has had numerous conversations about the Unhousebroken Puppies (and this list is by no means complete):
After more than 8 months of contention, the results were finally tabulated, and the Puppies crashed and burned. They lost everything except for Best Dramatic Presentation (long form), where their pick “Guardians of the Galaxy” did win a Hugo. All the major Puppies, including Vox Day (2 nominations), John C. Wright (5 nominations), Lou Antonelli (2 nominations), and Tom Kratman (1 nomination) struck out.
Leaders
Other Notable Nominees
This editor suggests that readers wanting broader overviews of the 2015 Hugo Awards mess look outside this wiki. Mike Glyer at File 770 has the largest single collection of links and tweets on the subject, as well as delightful plays on words in the post titles. His stance toward the Puppies is neutral, but his commenters lean anti-Puppy overall.
You may also wish to peruse Crime and the Forces of Evil, John Scalzi, Matthew M. Foster, Fridgepunk at James Nicoll’s blog, Eric Flint, Daily Kos, Salon, Gawker, and NPR. Oh, and also, to the delightful parody blog SadPuppies.org, as well as 'Sad Puppies Review Books' by Alexandra Erin.
In many posts using the “Hugopocalypse” title, a nonny has popped up to declare they read it as “Hugpocalypse,” with various definitions of what that might be. As the wank has continued for over 40 posts, meme has found it less and less funny.