I have an idea. It's probably the best course of action. I also know has about no chance of coming about. Seriously, I'm not being snarky. This is my honest advice to what I think is the best course of action.
Stop doing the contest. Just end it and don't do it again.
Pretty much nothing good as come out of it since it was started, not nearly compared to the bad. Too many hard feeling have come about from it. Much of the disgruntledness from it very legitimate. It's screwed over once loyal OCSMs of this messageboard. It's screwed over people that should have done better than they have and didn't, and rewarded people that have gamed and made a mockery of the system. It's way way wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too easy for some contestants to manipulate the contest to their advantage (and they have shamelessly done so) that has made the "contest" a sham,...
...and to be very ******** honest even if i don't want to be because it needs to be said, FreeOnes has never taken it seriously like they should have from the beginning, and even in the very few factors of it they have taken seriously it now appears that FreeOnes has been totally gutless in the face of some OCSMs and ********* to take action when it comes to enforcing their own very few rules for it. That blatantly happened multiple times this year alone with obvious cheating and shady behavior, let alone all the other things that probably also happened we don‘t know about yet. (Am I the only one that doesn't think it's a coincidence that those people that were caught cheating also ended up placing very high?) Basically, when facing these issues FreeOnes needed to grow a pair.
The backlash from some OCSM would sting at first, (the ones we were probably better of without anyhow) but in the long run things would be better if the inmates knew they wouldn't be able to run the asylum. If I was a contestant, even if I somehow didn't care it was a serious contest, even if I somehow didn't care that others gamed the system to get an advantage over me, I still would be upset by the lack of response when others were caught. If I were a contestant and all I cared about was the money and prestige what would be the reason not to cheat? There didn’t’ seem to be any real punishment.
People have offered solutions in years past, and they have never been acted upon. I'd like to give FreeOnes the benefit of the doubt and say it's because fixing things is either not possible or is too impractical and not because you just ignored the board members or didn't care and will do so. That doesn't change the situation.
At the very least just give everybody in the top 20 for each category the same amount of reward money, even if the reward for top places is severely reduced, so nobody gets screwed over that way. Maybe more of it will even go to struggling people in the industry that can use it more, and maybe the incentive for some people to wreck the contest will be diminished. Admit that big mistakes have happened. Better yet, take them as a **** up call. Either fix them or admit that one is incapable or ********* to do so and eliminate it. The increase in marketing FreeOnes gets, baring luck, is going to hit diminishing returns anyhow. So will the advertising dollars, and years from now nobody is going to take the raking as having any meaning. It's a shame because I would have like to see that not be the case, and it being a serious contest would have really made this place have some lasting legacy for the future with some worth. Lets face it AVNs awards have been a joke for a long time and X-biz awards have always been a joke. It would have been nice to see a place in the industry that took things seriously.
But hey, I expect any second now Christy Mack is going to come along and become one of the most legendary OCSMs ever to grace this messageboard, will deeply care about this place, will have until now unprecedented interaction with board members, and make up for the departed Miss Hybrid who, you know, actually was those things…Yup I’m completely sure she going to come along…any…second…now. I’m sure Vicky Vette will also stop being one of the most shameless marketers the industry has ever seen, will start deeply caring about this place, and will stop having the reverse Midas Touch with every adult industry contest she, her associates, her so called “Vette Army” she promotes for, and other people close to her get within a light year of…any…second…now.