What do you do when contest creators don't keep up with contests?

I've entered my stories in many contest that were created months ago but the winners were never announced! For example, this one contest said that the judging day was Feb. 29th. Its May now, and the winners were never announced! It's not like I care about the prizes! I just want to know if my story is any good!

So sometimes I pm the people, and ask them when the winners will be announced or I post it on the contest. And sometimes they respond (they don't do anything though...).
So what do you guys do when contest creators don't keep up with their own contests?

Move on. There's nothing anyone can do or say to make them keep up with it. I've done it myself. Life just catches up with you sometimes.

Nothing. Sometimes I frown. Like when Dru simply didn't judge her contest after I wrote a 5000 word entry.

But at the end of the day, sometimes shit happens. I've dissed contests too - but always after commenting on the entries or having valid reasons - it happens. Like, just because someone doesn't say they've been too busy or that there's been an emergency, doesn't mean they've just not wanted to, or something. Life gets in the way of Mibba sometimes. Asking the hosts once is fine, but spending more energy on it just won't do much for you.

I'm horrible at following through on contests. I always intend to and then... bleh. So I finally stopped hosting them. I just post all my ideas in the story prompts thread now.

dru is a wild thing.:

I'm horrible at following through on contests. I always intend to and then... bleh. So I finally stopped hosting them. I just post all my ideas in the story prompts thread now.

It's one of my favorite Shawnee/Bella stories that I've ever written, I genuinely don't mind. I'm just so happy that I wrote it because I love it.

But I'm the same. Or nobody except one or two people join my contest and then I'm like, no.

Oh well I just think that people should try to keep up with their contests. I always keep up with mine and I actually message people when they don't claim there prizes. But maybe that's just me and I'm being too considerate.

^ I always keep up with mine too, and try to get results when contests get abandoned because, like you, I want to know how well I did. It's very annoying when people don't judge or whatever, but there really isn't anything you can do except for message them and hope they'll reply with something positive.

I just don't like when assumptions are made. I was hospitalized forcefully due to me being suicidal when I was hosting one, and had no internet access and really, Mibba and that contest was the last thing on my mind. When I came back, fifteen people had sent me messages, and I was still too depressed to handle it.

Sometimes people have a valid reason. It doesn't have to be a huge deal.

I understand that life happens and sometimes things get in the way, but what really drives me up a wall is when a person doesn't bother to judge their previous contests, but they decide that it's a "smart" idea to make ten more contests and then go on to not judge them either Though I know this will never happen, I do feel like there should be some sort of rule in place that you can't host a contest until you've carried out your previous one. Same goes for group stories.

I'm totally understanding when it comes to life getting in the way, I do have a life outside of Mibba myself, but I feel like that's rarely the case. I feel like more often people just get lazy about it because I'll see people that haven't judged a contest that I've entered still consistently posting all over the boards and being active on the site, so obviously, they must not have anything too critical going on in their life if they're still incredibly active on the site. I was in a contest where I had to write four or five separate oneshots, and the host never commented on any of my entries or judged the contest, but they had the time to read and comment on one of my oneshots that wasn't even entered in the contest. That makes no sense at all.

I was taking 18 credit hours in college last semester, and last summer, I held three part-time jobs, but I was still able to judge my contests and honor my commitments in a timely manner.

^^ I'm definitely not saying that that kind of thing doesn't happen. I'm sure there are legitimate reasons like that that happen. It's the times when those types of things don't happen, when there is no real/serious reason, or if they're just avoiding Mibba to not judge and hand out prizes, or if they're still active but ignoring you. That's not cool.

^ And once again, I'm agreeing with everything i saw sparks says about this topic.

spencer reid.:

I just don't like when assumptions are made. I was hospitalized forcefully due to me being suicidal when I was hosting one, and had no internet access and really, Mibba and that contest was the last thing on my mind. When I came back, fifteen people had sent me messages, and I was still too depressed to handle it.

Sometimes people have a valid reason. It doesn't have to be a huge deal.

I'm not saying that someone should take an axe to your head if you don't keep up with your contests, I'm just venting. I am aware that people have a valid reason, but some people don't and they're just being lazy. Or they just decide to quit because they don't feel like it.

i saw sparks:

I understand that life happens and sometimes things get in the way, but what really drives me up a wall is when a person doesn't bother to judge their previous contests, but they decide that it's a "smart" idea to make ten more contests and then go on to not judge them either Though I know this will never happen, I do feel like there should be some sort of rule in place that you can't host a contest until you've carried out your previous one. Same goes for group stories.

I'm totally understanding when it comes to life getting in the way, I do have a life outside of Mibba myself, but I feel like that's rarely the case. I feel like more often people just get lazy about it because I'll see people that haven't judged a contest that I've entered still consistently posting all over the boards and being active on the site, so obviously, they must not have anything too critical going on in their life if they're still incredibly active on the site. I was in a contest where I had to write four or five separate oneshots, and the host never commented on any of my entries or judged the contest, but they had the time to read and comment on one of my oneshots that wasn't even entered in the contest. That makes no sense at all.

I was taking 18 credit hours in college last semester, and last summer, I held three part-time jobs, but I was still able to judge my contests and honor my commitments in a timely manner.

I totally agree with everything that you just said! A rule should be made!

i saw sparks:

I'll see people that haven't judged a contest that I've entered still consistently posting all over the boards and being active on the site, so obviously, they must not have anything too critical going on in their life if they're still incredibly active on the site.

When i didn't judge my contests i was still active on the site, but I was too mentally drained to sit down and be able to concentrate on reading thousands and thousands of words. When the thought of it makes you want to cry or pull your hair out, you don't do it.

dru is a wild thing.:

When i didn't judge my contests i was still active on the site, but I was too mentally drained to sit down and be able to concentrate on reading thousands and thousands of words. When the thought of it makes you want to cry or pull your hair out, you don't do it.

+1.

I was admitted due to severe depression, and when I was let out after two days I was on Mibba again, but just because I had the energy to write silly posts or talk to my friends, it didn't mean I had the energy to judge any contests. I didn't even have the energy to contact people from the contest. I just don't think it's fair to assume anything about those who host contests. Like, with your contest, I thought "blach, I wanted to know how it went" once and then I didn't reflect over it. I assumed you weren't just being lazy, but that the contest wasn't a priority for you and that was that.

To me it seems pointless to get upset over a cancelled contest.

dru is a wild thing.:

When i didn't judge my contests i was still active on the site, but I was too mentally drained to sit down and be able to concentrate on reading thousands and thousands of words. When the thought of it makes you want to cry or pull your hair out, you don't do it.

Well honestly, did you not know that if you create a contest, you were expected to judge it eventually? I don't get that much enjoyment from reading poorly-written entries with atrocious grammar, but I still do so anyway because I made the contest and people took time out of their lives to write something for me, so I don't think it's too much to ask for to drop them a comment on what I thought about it.

Also, I don't think it's that crazy or silly to get irritated when you spend time planning a piece, writing it, and making the custom layout for it only for it to never even get read when you wrote it tailored to the specifications of someone's contest. I don't think it would be a problem if say, occasionally, someone had to cancel their contest. No big deal. But it seems like the norm in that section of the site. I've entered countless contests over the years, but I can count on one hand the number that actually reached completion. There's something seriously screwed about that.

I mean, if someone wants to share prompts without being expected to read or comment the piece, why not just post in the prompts thread instead of creating multiple contests only to not judge them?

I don't think many people plan on not following through when they create their contest. I've never planned that, and yet I've got several contests that have for one reason or another been cancelled.

I just think it's common courtesy to at least let people know that you have to cancel the contest and won't be able to judge, especially if you have the time to be posting all over the boards or creating ten more contests I don't think taking five seconds to type a simple "I'm sorry but I'm not going to be able to judge this" is really asking for too much.

I don't know, it's more of the principle that frustrates me, because when I say that I'm going to do something, I do it, and if for some reason, I can't, I at least have to courtesy to tell that person that I can't do it instead of just ignoring them. It just seems like a slap in the face when multiple people are posting on a contest thread "hey, is this going to be judged soon?" and the host has the time to update the three other contests they are running but can't be bothered to post on the one they've neglected. It just seems incredibly rude and inconsiderate to me.

I find it to be a slap in the face when I'm barely alive and I get annoyed inbox messages about a contest or someone posts on confessions/in the contest thread and are clearly thinking I'm horrid for not judging the contest. I got chewed out for it once, after I'd just come back from the hospital from a suicide attempt, and the rest of Mibba was keeping me sane (posting in threads, talking to friends, posting journals), but I simply didn't have the time or energy to even pretend I had a contest going, because that was yet another responsibility my depression was robbing me from keeping. I got inboxed and in a polite way was told I was inconsiderate and that I shouldn't post contest ever again, and that I clearly cared nothing for anyone else. That was highly unreasonable, and if it'd been now I'd have reported it (it was when I was new to the scene).

I don't know, I'd just rather assume that instead of people being rude and inconsiderate they have a reason for it.

^ That's very inconsiderate that someone would say that. When I message someone, I ask really politely (and don't mean "politely" imply that that person is "inconsiderate and should never host a contest again") if they're going to judge it. There's no excuse for being rude like that.

However, how are the participants supposed to know what's going on with you? Sure, you were a special case where you weren't being lazy, weren't avoiding Mibba so you didn't have to judge the contest, and countless other silly reasons, but people will assume you're just like the rest of other hosts that don't judge, so will think badly of you. If you never tell them that you've got a legitimate excuse for not judging and that you never will judge (or will judge later, whatever the situation might be) then yeah, some people are going to assume you're "horrid", as you said.

People should let the participants know what's going on, if something is going to prevent them from judging for a while, or if they never will be able to judge. If hosts actually let me know what was going on instead of ignoring me and their contest thread and the other participants, then it wouldn't be such a big deal. I'd understand if they had a good reason. But it just seems like the majority have no excuse, and that's not cool. They should follow through with what they started.

However, people shouldn't feel that if they don't give a "legitimate" reason then it's okay for users to simply assume that they're lazy and inconsiderate. I shouldn't have felt like I had to tell everyone I tried to kill myself in order for people not to assume rude things about me. That to me is a million times worse than someone dissing a contest.