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):

1. Hugopocalypse Now (April 4, original thread)
2. Hugopocalypse 2: FULL OF BEES Edition (Apr. 6)
3. Hugocalypse III (Apr. 7)
4. Hugopocalypse IV: The Wrath of GRRM (Apr. 10)
5. The Hugopocalypse continues (Apr. 10)
6. Hugopocalypse: Revenge of the Flying Purple Puppy Eaters (Apr. 14)
7. From 1977: Michael Moorcock on Politics & SF (Apr. 14)
8. Hugopocalypse -- more deets courtesy of James Nicoll (Apr. 14)
9. Hugopocalypse Ongoing (Apr. 15)
10. Hugopocalypse: They Shoot Hugos, Don't They? (Apr. 17)
11. Hugopocalypse: Breaking Brad (Apr. 20)
12. Hugopocalypse - Wright and Beale's Fantasy Island (Apr. 21)
13. Hugopocalypse: Better call Paul(k) (Apr. 23)
14. Hugopocalypse: Over 9000 Puppies (Apr. 25)
15. Hugopocalypse: Clear Eyes, Full Heart, No Puppies (Apr. 26)
16. Hugopocalypse: Blame it on the Puppynova (Apr. 29)
17. Hugopocalypse: Werepuppies of London (May 2)
18. Hugopocalypse Thread (May 3)
19. Hugopocalypse - The Housebreaking (May 4)
20. Hugopocalypse - The Ride Never Ends (May 6)
21. Hugopocalypse: I Have No Hugos and I Must Bark (May 8)
22. Hugopocalypse: Voxty is Five (May 9)
23. Hugopocalypse: Repent, SJWs! said the Puppy Man (May 12)
24. Hugopocalypse: The Meme that Circumvented Puppyland (May 15)
25. Hugopocalypse: The Good, the Bad, and the Barking (May 19)
26. Hugopocalypse: The Bark is Rising (May 24)
27. Hugopocalypse: Don't Know What You've Got Til It Barks (May 26)
28. Hugopocalypse: Bark, Bark, Bark (Here Comes the Boogie Dog) (May 28)
29. Hugopocalypse: The Pups Who Scamper Away from Omongrelas (May 29)
30. Hugopocalypse: The Big Lebowwowski (June 2)
31. Hugopocalypse: Puppy-Kings of Gor (June 3)
32. Hugopocalypse: Gallo's Hill (June 9)
33. Hugopocalypse: The Kennel on the Edge of Forever (June 10)
34. Hugopocalypse: The last fan on Earth read alone in a room. There was a bark at the door. (June 10)
35. Hugopocalypse - The puppy gets a newspaper to the nose (June 15)
36. Hugopocalypse: I've been through the worldcon on a dog with no shame (June 19)
37. Hugopocalypse - Too angry for a punny title (June 20)
38. Hugopocalypse: What if they held a boycott and nobody came? (June 22)
39. Hugopocalypse: A Kibble in Time (June 24)
40. Hugopocalypse: Christ-hating crusaders for Sodom edition (June 28)
41. Hugopocalypse: I'll Make a Mutt Out of You (June 30)
42. Hugopocalypse: Vote No Award, say Puppies (July 19)
43. Hugopocalypse: One Night in Sasquan Makes the Small Dogs Tumble (July 31)
44. Hugopocalypse: The wonderful thing about puppies, is puppies are blunder-ful things (August 2)
45. Hugopocalypse: When You Wish Upon a Spaniel (August 3)
46. Hugopocalypse: Every bark you take (August 8)
47. Hugopocalypse: Give a moment or 2 to the angry young mutt/With a paw in the air & his head in a butt (August 10)
48. Hugopocalypse: Houndsfire (August 12)
49. Hugopocalypse: Ta dum dum-dum-dum ta dumb--Puppy Power! (August 13)
50. Hugopocalypse: Hell and Dalmatian (August 15)
51. Hugopocalypse: Fifty Nifty United Slates (August 17)
52. Hugopocalypse: IT BEGINS (August 21)
53. Hugopocalypse: Who let the dogs out? (Whine, whine, whine-whine) (August 21)
54. Hugopocalypse: Award 451º (August 22. Liveblog of the Hugo Awards)

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

• Larry Correia : Led the Puppy efforts in 2013 (which failed) and 2014 (which got a few works on the ballot, including one of Correia's, which finished in 5th place in its category). Had one novel on the 2015 Sad Puppies slate, Monster Hunter Nemesis. It made the ballot, but he voluntarily withdrew it to convince people that the Puppies were more than just a movement to get him personally a Hugo Award (as some, such as John Scalzi, had claimed).
• Brad Torgersen: Led the Puppy efforts in 2015, mostly by compiling the slate (in consultation with a few other Puppies). He was not himself on either the Sad or Rabid Puppy ballots in 2015, but was on the Sad Puppy ballot in 2014.
• Vox Day: In charge of the Rabid Puppy efforts of 2015, and compiled their slate. He was on the Rabid Puppy ballot twice, for both short-form and long-form editor. Additionally, 4 of the novella nominations, 1 of the novelette nominations, and 2 of the related work nominations were from his publishing imprint Castalia House. In 2014, he got a novelette onto the ballot, but it finished in 6th place (behind No Award).
• Kate Paulk: Currently slated to be in charge of Sad Puppies 4 in 2016.

Other Notable Nominees

• John C. Wright: The most prestigious of the non-leader Puppies. The Sad Puppies 2015 slate had 2 of his works, a novella and a related work. The Rabid Puppies slate had 6 works by him: 3 novellas total, a novelette, a short story, and a related work. All of them initially made the Hugo ballot, which set a new record for total listings on the Hugo ballot by one author in one year. However, his novelette “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus” was ruled ineligible because it was posted just before the 2014 eligibility period, and was removed from the ballot. He still had 5 works on the list, which tied for the record with Seanen McGuire.
• Tom Kratman: One nomination (for Best Novella) on both the Sad and Rabid Puppies ballots in 2015.
• Michael Z. Williamson: One nomination (Best Related Work) on both Sad and Rabid Puppy slates in 2015. His 'work', 'Wisdom from my Internet', was a collection of tweets with nothing whatsoever to do with genre fiction. Williamson later revealed that it got on the slate because Torgerson called him one day and asked what he had written that year (and was thus eligible for a Hugo) and 'Wisdom' was the work that Williamson happened to remember.
• Lou Antonelli. Two nominations on both slates in 2015. One was for Best Short Story, and the other was for Best Related Work. Antonelli talked a lot about how he went to conventions and bumped into many people who were pro Puppy, and therefore the Puppies had more support than their minimal presence in online fandom showed. He later became infamous for writing the Spokane police and warning that the Hugo Guest of Honor David Gerrold might incite anti-Puppy violence.

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.