As much as I bitch about the Miss FreeOnes contest as long as one ignores the Miss FreeOnes category and half of the winners of the OCSM and Best Cam Girl categories over the years it hasn't been too bad. Some of those other winners probably weren't the right choice or somebody I would have went with, like Ariel Rebel or Siri this year, but at least they were mostly people I could live with having the award and could see in some way them getting it on a logical level. In fact this year did better than all previous years in that three categories pretty much got it right. Although, one person ended up having to win two of them for that to happen, and a certain somebody loved on here and in the industry also had to surge in popularity this year to not repeat last years Cam Girl incident.
It's just too bad that the glaring flaws it does have overshadow the good parts. I say this as a person that would like some sanity to the MissFreeOnes contest though, especially the Miss FreeOnes category, and as somebody that thinks the 800 pound gorilla in the room probably should be addressed, and that is the issue with the whole Vicky Vette situation and to a slightly lesser extent her "Vette Nation". I also say this as somebody that doesn't have a problem with Vicky personally, I really don’t, (Well other than her turning into one of biggest shameless marketing people in the industry, but I guess that's pretty much par for the course in the adult industry, [remember the Bobbi Eden twitter fiasco years ago among many other things like the majority of her post here that are used to promote her people] and ruining the FreeOnes contest).
It's that Vicky has had a tendency to skew pretty much every adult industry contest like this she has entered into for years now, and in a way that can't be natural or organic to people just randomly coming in and voting for whom they think is best o their own, and to an extent it also happens with the people that are associated with her. Just look at past winners of various categories and where people placed this year and in previous years that were associated with her. Does everybody think it's just coincidence? Does everybody think those people would be truly considered the best or even where they ended up as high as they were in some random sampling or the people of FreeOnes or the fans of adult stuff in general? Does anybody remember the old infamous Booble competition years ago? So, it's not like it FreeOnes is the only place. If the results were due to somebody that had the statue of Jenna Jameson in her prime I could maybe see it. From Vicky now ...lets just say not so much. I have a feeling I’m far from the only person that thinks so.
In any case I don't know a way to fix it. I don't know how many of my past suggestions have been done either on the messageboard or through PMs, and on a practical level I don't think they will be now either because of lack of will of the people that run FreeOnes or because they would take some work to institute. About the only thing simple thing left would be to make it so nobody can win the Miss FreeOnes category more than once to somewhat limit the damage for a few more years. (Either that or just blatantly state that Vicky and people closely and directly associated with her can't be in it, but that will never happen.)
Really when it comes down to it I not sure I really care anymore. It, the contest, "is what it is" as the saying goes. It's not something that actually determines the best people in the industry, or even the categories it has. It doesn't. It's even worse than other industry contest in that respect which are bad enough and easily manipulated, if in other ways, themselves. It's not something that accurately portrays the industry or it's fans. It doesn't. It's not really a "contest" like one would think a contest to be. It's a neat marketing tool where people can come and have fun, screw around, direct internet traffic, share naked pictures with their fans, and maybe hope hard feeling don't come about because of it.
Once somebody excepts that and not what the "contest" seems to be it's easier to accept it for what it really is. Like I have said before if anything I feel the worse for people that missed out on the money, that don't rake in a bunch of cash normally, and that could have really needed it and used it and don't have it because people came in ahead of them that shouldn't have. Maybe that would also help. Make all Miss FreeOnes contest give out no money to anybody in the future, or make it so something like the best newcomer and best OCSM get any cash at all and only high post count veterans of the board can vote for Best OCSM.