Zorro hasn’t “had” to do anything. He was creating all kinds of contests with questionable guidelines and processes… but it didn’t matter because people could either join or not (after the Ironarm I participated in, I decided on “not” going forward). But ultimately, it’s his decision to run them. Nobody made him.
As soon as you have participants, you MUST give up a certain amount of yourself in the contest. It’s no longer just “your” contest, it’s the contest of everyone who put time into practicing and filming a segment. You have invited other people to be “stakeholders”, and you are accepting the responsibilities that go with it.
Take it a step further, now there are outside judges invited to participate (there was even a sign-up). Now it’s REALLY not just “your” contest anymore. I don’t care if you started it and planted the seeds… you have to accept a certain amount of decision-making by consensus. The participants are expecting certain things (for example, judging by a panel of volunteers), the judges are expecting certain things (guidelines, deadlines, videos to judge). To not give these stakeholders consideration is an act of incredible narcissism and self-entitlement.
The good thing is… Zorro will have the chance to learn from all of this, and I hope he takes that opportunity instead of getting all bent out of shape and playing the victim (or sole stakeholder) as we have seen him do before. It shouldn’t be about hurt feelings at this point in time, it’s about seeing something through and then learning from it. If seeing it through means arbitrarily picking a favourite, at least it will be completed. But it’s still weak sauce.
vegabomb really said it best… changing horses midstream is always ill-advised. That’s one of the best lessons to learn from this.