WHO Mini Awards || CLOSED & JUDGING

NEW CONTEST & Stop Submitting AI To Contests

Hello, everyone.

I wish this update were intros & results, though those are right around the corner, too, if it's any consolation.

Before I start, I'm doing a small new contest that'll be finished quickly. It's a 100-word contest with no payments, so you don't even have to follow me to join it. All you have to do is write 100 words based on one of the categories (they're very general, including as general as just submitting a 100-word fanfic) and submit, then you're done. 

Poetry is accepted & encouraged. There are no formatting rules outside of the piece cannot go beyond 100 words, so you can submit a journal, poem, diary, prose, script, text fic, etc.

You get prizes just for signing up, and you get additional prizes if you submit at least one piece to all three weeks, so 100 words or less every two weeks and you get an interview along with additional prizes.

If you're interested, I'll leave a link to it in the inline comments here --->

It's also at the top of my profile at the time of posting this update.

And one other thing is about this contest. If you do not know what a category means, please revisit the "JUDGING" chapter to see the list of categories and their meaning. I cannot restate what each category means every single time, and I shouldn't have to, especially when 99% of participants have no issue with this. Not a single person in the Oscars has had an issue with this either, and the categories are just as out-there as these ones are.

I write the contest's chapters so you can look at them whenever you need a refresher. I don't expect you to remember everything about this contest, but that's why those chapters exist: so you can easily see at your own pace what you want to know.

I'm already doing all of this by myself, which is fine and something I signed up for, but I'm spending hours upon hours upon hours on your stories and reviews. It shouldn't be much to ask for participants to go look at what I've already written instead of being condescending about how I need to include category explanations every time.

I know what I am doing, so stop speaking to me like I'm a child. I'm tired of being disrespected all the time.

Of course, if you're confused about a category and ask for clarification, that's absolutely okay! Never be scared to ask a question. I'm talking about speaking down to me and trying to tell me how to host my contest. There's a major difference between asking a question/offering feedback and being a jerk. I'm strictly talking about being a jerk.

Sigh. But, anyway, I wrote this chapter for a reason. Let's get into that.

One of the reasons results have been taking a while is due to the number of works I suspect are AI-generated or at least strongly AI-assisted. It does not help that most of these works I suspect of it also have AI-generated covers and images.

It puts me as a host in a terrible position. The fact of the matter is, calling out AI is incredibly difficult. Even if 5+ detectors are telling me it's AI, it's not easy.

I ask if you have submitted an AI work to this contest, please come forward and tell me. I am not going to blacklist you or anything public, but I will quietly remove your entry for consideration.

Judging AI-generated works takes significantly longer than a normal review. It's a slippery slope on my end, and it's not like I have a co-host or other judges to go to; I'm on my own dealing with this. I chose that path and do not regret it, so I'm not complaining about that fact, but it is a fact nonetheless that I am doing this solo. So when you submit an AI-generated work, you are making it worse for everyone, and I don't have any sympathy for you. You knowingly submitted AI work trying to take awards from small writers. 

That is not okay.

That is why I am posting this to give you the chance to please come forward, as that will at least show strength in character if you have the courage to be honest. Please, tell me. It's unfair to me and participants if you don't let me know.

I host these contests because I want to read the beautiful imaginations of people I otherwise never would have met. I don't want to read a machine's interpretation of a prompt. I want to read art. I've said it once, and I'll say it again: art is humanity in its rawest form. A machine will never be able to replicate that.

Besides, AI writing is not good. AI cannot write well, and it likely won't be able to for a while.

This isn't directed toward any specific category or person. I've judged the majority of this contest by now, so this is just overall frustration I've felt. I actually have not found any entries in the Disco category (which I just judged) that I suspect of AI, so this really isn't targeted.

Also, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has followed the rules and also submitted human work. Posting your work online is scary enough, let alone submitting to a contest, so I hope you know, regardless of your score, you should be proud of yourself for having the courage to put yourself out there. You're doing great, and I'm excited to read & review your work. 

Also also, I do scores out of formality but actually hate them since I think scores are not a good way to judge art. Discussion is a good way to judge art, hence why my reviews are so long. So, seriously, don't take the scores to heart since even I don't believe in them. 

I never know who the lowest-scores in categories are because I don't think your value is a number; your value is the art you gave me the privilege of reading, and I thank you for that. I don't even copy paste my reviews in here in score order because I really don't look at scores except to place the top 5. Otherwise, I just paste the reviews in the order I did them, so if you look, you'll see most times the categories are not in score-order.

And, also also, thank you to the Birthday Bash participants as well. I thanked them, of course, in the Birthday Bash, too, but quite a few people here are in the Birthday Bash, and the Birthday Bash has been the easiest contest ever. Everyone's nice, there have been no issues, and the judging process has been smooth. So thank you for treating me kindly. Honestly, the Birthday Bash has single-handedly restored my faith in contests, and I'm strongly considering actually doing core contests again.

Thank y'all again, and see you soon for results.

~ Raven