Any hate comments will be deleted. I have no interest in arguing with people. If you have a problem with something I said, pm me and we can handle it privately.

Let's talk.

I'm a host and I judge this contest by myself. When I decided to get into the world of Wattpad contests, I wasn't expecting to suddenly know all the tea and be sksksking with other hosts.

I'll admit, it's kind of fun. But there's something serious we need to talk about.

As grateful as I am for this contest community, there are flaws. That flaw is one major thing: the judges.

Before I get into it, let me say this loudly and CLEARLY:

This PSA is general frustration with some judges. This post is not talking about any awards I am affiliated with. There are hundreds of awards out there and I get tagged in them multiple times every single day. This post is to raise awareness for potential hosts reading this and potential authors interested in judging in other contests. Most importantly, this is to raise awareness for authors who are looking to participate in awards.

This post is mostly for you, person reading this. You're a participant in these awards, which means you're probably enrolled in other awards. I want you to be made aware of these things because you deserve to know.

This post is not meant to call any specific person or persons or contests out. I will not be naming names, so please no hate to anyone or any judges. If you need help with any judges, want to spill tea, or ask me my opinions on feedback a judge gave you, please pm me so we can handle the matter privately.

I'm a Cancer so I love tea, if you got tea about bad judges, pm me-

I mean, anyway.

Okay, enough boring talk. Let's get into the tea.

1. Judges Are Mostly Incompetent

In most contests I have seen, the judges are not just bad: they are incompetent.

They skip chapters, they give vague feedback, they use harsh language in their reviews, etc.

Here's a small list of things I've seen judges do:

- Openly admit they skip chapters

- Use harsh language (words like cringe, ugly, childish, bad, etc.). You criticize authors for not being creative, but you can't even be creative with your criticism and find a way to not insult the author? How hypocritical.

- Have literally 0 criticisms but take points off anyway cause perfect scores are not cool anymore ig (on a serious note: you need to explain your deductions, otherwise you're not a fair judge)

- Copy paste their comments from one review to another

- Have terrible grammar

- On the opposite end, I've seen judges who overly praise the story and give everything a 10/10 and leave maybe one or two word comments about why they gave the story a perfect score

- Judges who don't judge objectively and take points off or add points because the book is their preferred genre

- Judges who don't pick up on obvious things in the stories (I cannot tell you how many times judges have blatantly missed obvious themes and took off 4-6 points because "the story had no theme" even though it CLEARLY did and they just weren't reading with their brain turned on, I guess)

- Judges who deduct points for the story being ongoing

- Judges with no concept of grammar missing blatant grammar errors in stories; this often leads to stories with weak grammar winning, or, at the very least, authors thinking their grammar is perfect when they actually need improvement

- Not a judge problem, but categories that have too many judges (it's unfair because every judge will be of different quality)

That's a small list. Small.

2. Hosts

Hosts, you're just as at fault as the judges are because at the end of the day, you're the one publishing the reviews.

Hosts, please read over the reviews of your judges before publishing them. I understand hiring judges can be a difficult process, but trust me: participants would rather you delay the results to ensure they get good judges than rush the results out in a week or two with judges who do anything I put in the list above.

Stop accepting just anyone to judge.

Here's what I would recommend:

1) Look at their profile and read their writing

2) Have a very specific judge form that asks them how long they have been writing for

3) Do not accept people who are just readers, not writers (readers are super important, but for a contest, it's even more important to have someone with writing experience)

4) Require a writing sample at least 500 words long (make a specific prompt so they can't just copy and paste from their old work)

5) Make them take a grammar test and ss their results to send to you (it's not foolproof, but it's better than nothing)

6) Make them swear an oath to judge objectively and not based on their personal preference of genres; tell them they will be blacklisted if their review is too biased or harsh

Does that sound like too much?

Good.

Not only will this cause people who aren't serious about judging to not sign up, but it also gives you a great idea of which applicants are actually strong writers.

Contests are contests. They are fun, yes, but you have potentially hundreds of participants coming to you. It is your responsibility to make sure they are getting the best experience. As much as the judges might be awful, you are still at fault if you hire bad judges and don't do anything about it.

You are the host. Supervise the content you are putting out.

And don't come at me saying, "Oh, it's hard :(((("

I literally have been running three contests by myself. If anyone understands how hard it is to run contests, I do. Of course it's hard, no one ever said it'd be easy, but if you aren't willing to take the steps to ensure your participants have a good experience, you shouldn't host a contest.

I'm sorry if that's harsh, but it's true.

Again: If you aren't going to put effort into your contest, hire competent judges, and ensure every participant has a fair review, don't host a contest.

3. Participants

I want to make something abundantly clear:

If you get a bad judge who does any of what I listed, you absolutely have a right to complain.

I saw someone call out a judge for their bad judging etiquette, and the participant (who the review was about) said it was okay. It absolutely wasn't okay. I feel so awful for that participant because even someone not in that category stood up for them. That participant had every right to say it was unfair judging and the judge should be blacklisted.

Hosts and judges, these participants are permanently following you and giving you payment in return for a review they expect to be fair. In some cases, these participants are even giving your stories lots of votes and comments.

Participants, you're doing your side of the bargain. Now, it's their turn.

You are within your right to tell a judge their review was awful. I know the hosts and other judges might see it as you being bitter, but there are some reviews that are blatantly awful. They're vague, use harsh language, are littered with terrible grammar, etc. It's not okay.

This is why I'm never going to hire judges. It's too much of a risk for a low reward; judging solo has been working fine for me so far. Do you guys think it's working?

Participants don't sign up to be berated; they sign up to have fun and get some feedback. Judges, if you can't respect that, you shouldn't judge.

It's that simple.

Participants, you are free to come to me at any time and ask me about your story. I will give you my honest (but not harsh) thoughts. 

I'm human and I make mistakes, so if I get something blatantly wrong about your story, call me on that sh*t.

I am not a judge who is going to throw a tantrum if you have criticism for my review.

I mean, that's hypocritical, isn't it?

Sooo I can criticize you, but you can't criticize me? That makes no sense, right?

With that being said, don't argue with me. I'm taking hours upon hours to read your story and make a detailed review. If I make a mistake, I will absolutely correct it, but I am not arguing with you, insulting you, or yelling at you, so why do that to me?

If I ever make a review you feel is unfair, please call me out on that. Everyone deserves fairness. If I make a mistake, I will make it up to you, I promise.

Awareness:

Participants, I don't want you to sit down and bury your head in the sand anymore. If judges are being rude to you and giving you lazy reviews, you have every right to call them on it.

And if you're scared and think you're overreacting, you can always reach out to me, send me the link, and ask me to read the review.

You don't have to reach out to just me, either. Feel free to reach out to other hosts or participants and ask them. Do whatever makes you comfortable.

The thing is, very rarely do people call judges on their crap because they're scared of being seen as bitter or as someone who can't take criticism.

And yes, some people are going to be like that. It's going to happen; however, I believe there are far more people who are rightfully frustrated with a judge.

Most people aren't mad they got a low score, they're mad they got no good explanation for it, or the judge skipped chapters, or the judge was vague.

Even people with high scores are allowed to call judges out. For example, I cannot tell you how many times I've seen judges deduct points from a category with no explanation. Like grammar. A judge will say "the grammar was perfect, I noticed no errors" and the section will still be 9/10. Like??? 💀💀💀 What???? Where did the point go? Did it get lost somewhere? Oh no, did it grow legs and run away?

I honestly think that's extremely disrespectful to praise something so highly, then deduct a point without so much as a tiny explanation.

Participants, don't feel like you have no voice. You deserve to be seen and given a fair chance.

Hosts, don't accept just anyone into your contest as a judge, and please read the reviews before you publish them.

Judges, I know there are some great judges out there. I've read some judge reviews and they were great. I'm not saying every judge is bad, that is not my intention. There are just so many that are that it boggles my mind. It works both ways: there are judges overly harsh and overly nice. If you want to be a judge, make sure you are clear with your feedback, not harsh or overly nice, and you don't skip chapters.

To be more clear, provide examples from the text to reference what you're talking about. Give recommendations on how to improve. Don't just say "I didn't like it." Actually put some thought into why you didn't like it. You're a judge, not a reader. Your simple words do nothing to help the writer.

If your goal isn't to help the writer, do not sign up to be a judge. It's that simple.

I decided to make this because I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten dms telling me about bad judges. Enough is enough. I cannot stay silent when, with the help of a good friend, I realized I have a voice and the ability to raise awareness for this issue.

As a host, it is my responsibility to be transparent. I hope I am accomplishing that goal.

If you believe I am doing anything wrong, please let me know.

I will be making a blacklist of judges (privately) and if any host wants to see my blacklist, feel free to reach out to me. It might take me a few days to make it, though.

TL;DR: Judges are meanie hut juniors no slay. Participants should call them out for no slaying. Hosts should not let meanie hut juniors no slay.

Feel free to message me your experiences or if you have a judge that mistreated you and you want to know if you're overreacting or not.