(1) #1, MASSIVE pet peeve:

Do NOT abandon your contest without a quick update.

-This is especially true if you insisted on follows or hashtags on entries. Taking up space on someone's account for no reason is really inconsiderate.

(2) Major blunders:

(a) Don't retract things you've said/change your mind, unless you provide a decent reason.

(b) Don't ask anyone, judges or entrants, to click an outside link for any reason.

(c) Stick to any dates you set. If you decide to change them for some reason, don't do it frequently. Make sure you edit every single mention of the date concerned, throughout your entire awards book, to reflect the new, accurate date.

(d) Don't delete/unpublish your contest once it's been completed. That's rude to the winners, and erases any evidence of their achievement aside from their say-so.

-I know I have a reading list of awards I've placed in. I take pride in it, it makes me feel good. I prefer to have all the awards I've won easily accessible there.

-I just had a Wattpader erase her awards book, the reading lists that included the winners, and the book in which she had promised to interview the winners.  As it's one of the times my work has gotten 1st Place, I am NOT happy about it.  The user didn't care when I asked her about it.

(e) Don't get extremely pissed at your participants as a whole and have a cruddy attitude. It's understandable to get frustrated by individuals, but telling your entrants you hate them as a group, or what have you, is totally uncalled for. That kind of negativity is pointless and won't get you anything.

(f) Don't completely fly off the handle when people ask you questions. If they're not listening or being rude, that's one thing, but often people don't intend any harm.

-Not everyone has the same literary skill and grasp of instructions.

-Your contest is not the only one out there. It's highly likely that entrants had to skim parts of your awards book for practical reasons. You can't expect them to grasp every detail as well as you do.

(g) Don't majorly change the rules after people have entered without good reason.

-Example: If your contest was a judged contest, and you change it to a voting contest, most entrants will not be happy. The groups of authors interested in the two kinds of contests are very different.

(h) Be consistent and have what you say make sense.

-This sounds funny, but I've been surprised at how many contests I investigate, only to find that they are essentially incoherent.

-No one attributes much value to a writing award given out by someone who cannot write decently.

(3) Pointless stuff people do:

(a) Don't allow less than 10 entries per category, whatever the category might be. If you do, you'll make the people that won feel like they didn't achieve a whole lot, and the people that didn't win feel pretty cruddy.

(b) Don't expect your contest to fill up and be finished in a week or two. The odds of every category filling up that fast are very low.

(c) Don't get cranky if entries don't come as quickly as you'd like. Either stick to your specified date of closure and combine categories, or be patient.

(d) Don't constantly update. It's irritating and people will stop paying attention. Several a day is just too many.

(e) Don't just delete categories that don't fill up. That's penalizing entrants for being part of a less popular category. I once won a prize in a category that was poetry/fanfiction, and I was totally happy with that and still felt a sense of achievement.

(f) Do not post chapters that have nothing at all to do with your contest. When people dedicate whole chapters to promoting their new book, club, or even a band or something else they like, it's incredibly irritating.

(g) Don't make inappropriate jokes that could make participants feel excluded or condescended to.

-For example, 'the fanfiction category. of course, yaoi comes to the front! j/k lol! but it's my fave!'

(h) Don't bother whining at length that you've been too busy to update/judge/whatever your contest.

-Firstly, that's implied.

-Secondly, the entrants may be a lot busier than you, and don't want to hear it.

-Third, you made the commitment to follow through by starting the contest. If you have to bow out, do so gracefully.

-Fourth, really don't do that if you're not actually that busy, and you've been updating your personal works like crazy and chatting on the forums. Keep in mind entrants are probably following you, and will see you doing all that.