09/05/2024 - Hi! I finished my weekly sweep of awards the night before last, and I finished updating Archives last night, but Wattpad won't let me post this announcement on my message board. I even tried posting it as a comment to my test post, and it showed up in the comments, but when I checked back later, it was gone. So...not sure if there's something in here that Wattpad doesn't allow? I don't know what, though...

Anyway.

There is now a note at the top of entry pages and shop listings that says requiring votes as payment is against Wattpad's ToS, but I'm not going through to check everybody rules/payment, because that would be a huge waste of my very limited time. I messaged a few awards hosts when I found out, and several changed their rules, but one said, "But it's just for fun." And didn't change the rules.

...

It's still against the rules, dear. *patronizing sigh*

And that's when some long-time users told me they've given up telling people it's against the rules. So...I'll add a note when I post a new listing if the rules/payment are against ToS, and I may stop listing those things in the future, but since this is brand new information for me and a lot of other people, I won't be that strict right now.

Although, fair warning, I probably will be next year.

And I'll probably stop listing awards created by certain users who have a pattern of making and dropping awards. I may even make a list of them, along with shady judges who disappear without notice. There are a lot of individual banned lists floating around, but the serial offenders are pretty obvious when you keep track of stuff like this, and I'm sure many people would appreciate the heads-up. >:)

(No, people with valid reasons don't need to worry. Life happens, and everybody understands that.)

In good news, six listings made it to the Results page, so yay! Follow-through from hosts AND judges! Woo hoo!

...and the Graveyard has six new additions as well. RIP. Let us all bow our heads for a moment of silence.

Addendum: Seven. *sigh*