ANNOUNCEMENT BOOK | Pokémon Watty Awards

11/25/19 - The PWA 2019 Comes to a Close

Good evening (or maybe afternoon or morning depending on your time zone) competitors, readers, writers, and spectators!

First of all, the PWA staff would like the congratulate every single competitor that contributed to PWA 2019. Whether you were an individual that won a Category or Special Award, completed an entry, didn't complete an entry, didn't pass inspection, or competed but didn't place, you largely contributed to the community in an incredibly substantial way. Despite whatever resulted in the process of writing your entry, you should carry pride over the fact you attempted something.

On that same token, if you're a judge that completed their judging sheet, didn't complete their judging sheet, dropped a category, or dropped all of their categories, we appreciate the immense amount of effort and intent you exhibited in the attempt to help the PWA. We greatly appreciate just the attempt to mitigate even a small percentage of the stress the PWA deals with on a daily basis. Sometimes, life gets hectic, and we understand that judges may need to drop the last minute; but regardless, we loved the number of judges that decided to volunteer themselves this year.

If you're a competitor that is interested in receiving feedback, feel free to message any of the judges that read your entry. Most, if not all, are willing to give some degree of criticism regarding your entry. We understand that only a handful are picked to be featured in the live stream for time reasons, but we want to ensure that every entry is exposed to feedback.

A vast majority of you are fantastic to work with and be around. We feel grateful to just have a ton of people willing to support us. However, a small minority of individuals have taken things a step too far. We understand that voluntary feedback surveys attracted people with particularly strong opinions (as we've seen in this annual survey every year). This year, the feedback survey contained more responses than usual with criticism. If that was the only thing, everything would be fine; however, the responses were rather inflammatory in nature. It was at a level the PWA has never experienced before. Because of this rather heinous language, the responses were rendered relatively unconstructive. Most cited very ambiguous reasons (if at all) and made unsavory, hyperbolic comments that were unnecessary.

In short, these responses were anything but feedback and were toxic. We have never felt more disappointed in some of our community members.

As much as we love running this community contest, we don't like the attitudes it promotes. While most of us look back on the past year being 99% happiness with 1% turbulence and hardships, we understand that some people may feel like that 1% is amplified and overshadows the happiness a majority of users on this site have. In no way should this mindset ever lead to sentiments, paraphrased, like "I'm glad Sheare and d_s_t_e are gone" or pointing out how much you dislike someone personally on a feedback survey strictly about their PWA duties. It's a misrepresentation of the positivity everyone seems to be promoting when people act this way towards other fellow human beings.

So, as the PWA, we had to make a hard decision. There were already signs of unsavory attitudes directed towards Iza, our new administrator, on the survey. She hardly demonstrated what she was capable of before being subjected to this negativity. It forced us to decide something very drastic.

We're disbanding the competition for at least six months. We're sad to deliver this news to a vast majority of you that are amazing individuals just because of the actions of a few, but unless we don't hold these individuals accountable, the PWA will not continue to be exposed to this. We understand the internet will always have some degree of negativity, but we far greatly prefer the honest, constructive, and yet abrasive feedback we've seen in years prior compared to the comments we've received this year.

But we're also taking this break for another reason. In approximately 6 months, a survey in late June will be released. This isn't to get feedback—we'll be exploring different outlets for feedback in the future. This is to gauge the number of entries that would be submitted if a PWA 2020 were to happen. If entries were to be less than the amount entered this year, PWA 2020 will be canceled. One of two things will happen from that point forward,

The PWA will be discontinued until further notice

The PWA will take an additional six months to expand into various fanfiction sites like Serebii, ff.net, and Ao3 (with a massive name and profile overhaul)

Whether or not PWA 2020 happens or the expansion takes place, the PWA coming back is contingent on a positive, inclusive atmosphere. That's the least we expect from you.

We understand that some actions we've taken in the past year may be distasteful for some of you. But also, we wish for those of you who are disappointed to reach out and have a conversation with us. If you feel uncomfortable contacting us directly, we will be reaching out to some people near the June survey. We really want to just sit down and have conversations with people to get feedback that way. Maybe if we conduct things in a conversational manner, your concerns and goals may be more likely to be adopted by the PWA, and you'll understand us more as a conglomerate of volunteers. We encourage you to do this not as an appeal to your character but as an appeal to your status as a community member. Both Kat (@Sheare) and Iza (@CoordinatorIza) are willing to speak to you, but most importantly, we're willing to speak to you with respect and careful consideration as long as you return that respect and careful consideration.

If you're remotely interested in this, please consider messaging the PWA account.

For the majority of you: keep writing. Write like PWA 2020 will happen next year if that motivates you more. Write like you usually do. Write like what you aspire to do. The PWA will be disbanding its Discord server and taking a backseat in the community scene. Whether or not the PWA stays on Wattpad is exclusively in your hands.

If and when the community decides to not celebrate community members leaving but react with compassion and resistance to the leave, the PWA will return. If and when the community decides to band together to promote a field of positivity as a backdrop to its writing scene, the PWA will return. If and when the community decides to put past turbulences behind us, the PWA will return. If and when the community decides to treat the competition as only an accessory to its writing endeavors, the PWA will return. If and when the community decides to treat all users, regardless if they're new or old, with respect, the PWA will return.

If and when the community decides to be a community once again, the PWA will return.

Best wishes,

The PWA Staff