Personally and I can only speak for myself. There have been two contests here that have resulted in people not being paid. The first by BAS which ended up being covered by Defying who hasn't been made whole by BAS.
Let's say Defying didn't cover it, then BAS would still be on the hook to dozens of players instead of one. That being said he's a Moderator here and has remained one. What kind of example does that show the rest of the community? If you can't trust a moderator of long stature, who are you going to trust?
Now we have the Spider incident and whether he ultimately makes good with everyone isn't of consequence. He took in people's money, had people pay for a contest that didn't go off and they asked for a refund before all the other contests he was running went off and didn't give them a refund. Did his wife steal the money then? Did she steal the boatload after the contest?
Either way it doesn't matter if she stole it, because in the end, he's on the hook and he's the thief. We don't know if his story is true, it sounds more plausible than I had the money in a safe and nobody could get in it or whatever the bs story was from BAS.
So yes, this should remain in the main and not go unnoticed and act like it didn't happen. That comes across shady as hell. Could you imagine if the Westgate announced winners and then said sorry guys our accountants stole the money so you'll have to wait until we can pay you? This isn't to say the RX compares to the Westgate because as it stands the RX is bush-league at best.
Everyone should know what's going on and if management even cared or was running the show here the way they should, they would've put a stop to contests long ago whether ran exclusively by the RX or a member(s) of the RX. It gives the site even more of a black eye to try to hide it and keep it out of view. I respect you Hache Man, always have but this is one area I and others are going totally disagree with you on. It's not personal with you at all, it's the principal of the matter. If wrong doing was done, it should be known.
If a sportsbook was stiffing you would you hide it or would you tell people about it, this way they didn't have the same fate as you. It's called buyer beware and this situation should NEVER be hidden no matter what the consequences end up being. Doing the right thing is always the way to go.
The way this is being handled is not the right way.
Thanks for your feedback.
To be clear, BAS is no longer an RX staff member. We are in touch with Defying privately concerning that situation.
Contests are fun. That is why the community contests forum continued to hop along with activity even after the situation you referenced. But as the site grows and changes, contests will have to transition toward being RX sponsored initiatives to avoid more of the same issue.
Community contests are run on the honor system with other members. Originally this post was relocated as it involved a promotion that originated from that section, which displays a clear disclaimer that the contests are not officially supported by The RX in any way, and members are playing at their own risk. This is a risk that most sign off on and say they're comfortable with, until it happens to them. Human nature and completely understandable, which is one of the reasons why a change is needed. And anybody who is associated with a running promotion or an expired one who violated that basic trust placed in them by other users may have limited or no access to the posting forum on a case by case basis. It could be some of the users recently mentioned have every intention to pay, but the jury is still out.
That doesn't mean contests are going away. A rollout was made earlier today tracking pick records from the special picks forum. Another update is in the oven to give more visibility of handicapper records by sport. With this, we'll have necessary building blocks to launch fun and exciting promotions enabling us to give you a better and more reliable way of competing with one another.
To end the hijacking of this thread, I'll just emphasize that we need to do a better job hearing your feedback and making sure loyal long time users understand the site's goals and features coming your way, and that includes contests and a lot more.