Created by US Sci Fi Channel (now Syfy) and hosted at SCIFI.COM, Sci Fiction was an online magazine which ran from 2000 to 2005 and at its peak was considered the science fiction genre's leading digital publication. Under editor Ellen Datlow, Sci Fiction won several prestigious awards, including Linda Nagata's 'Goddesses' which won the 2000 Nebula Award for Best Novella (the first time that a piece of fiction originally published on a website had won a Nebula). In 2002, Datlow won her first Hugo Award for Best Editor, and the following year three Sci Fiction stories won awards - Nebulas for Best Short Story (Karen Joy Fowler's 'What I Didn't See') and Best Novelette (Jeffrey Ford's 'The Empire of Ice Cream'). The Theodore Sturgeon Award was also won by Lucius Shepard for his novella 'Over Yonder.'
Although Datlow won another Hugo Award for Best Editor (2005), as well as her first Locus Award for Best Editor (2005), and Sci Fiction won a Hugo for Best Website, the SciFi Channel announced that it would be shutting down the magazine that year. It has been suggested that the decision was made because the magazine did not raise sufficient revenue to justify its continuation.
Although SiFy announed in 2007 that Sci Fiction content would no longer be available on its website, some material can still be accessed. See for example, http://lexal.net/scifi/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/sussex/index.html (sighted 4/01/2013).
Further Reference:
