It's strange that he did not make an announcement here or on Reddit. Maybe smooth was trying to avoid any controversy or avoid having the community dispute the chosen path for the rebase?
I'm confused about what you find strange. I discussed the bounty with the other sponsors (katiecharm and exciter0) and we reached a conclusion. katiecharm (who was really the most active in proposing, organizing, and supporting the bounty) posted the conclusion on reddit and I replied that I was supporting that conclusion.
Perhaps I should have mentioned it here (not just on reddit) but besides that what part is strange?
Sorry smooth, I do not visit Aeon's Reddit that much. I usually read the main post but I rarely read the replies thoroughly because of the non-linear format. It's my fault.
I also thought you were the person to first announce the winner of the bounty, that's all. But there are no worries from me, except for the drama when Dr.Paradoxical started defaming stoffu. I knew something like that was coming.
I was the person to announce the winner in terms of submitted rebase code chosen to use going forward, but that was done first on GitHub, not here or reddit. I understand that makes it more visible to actual developers than community members, so I agree it would be better in future circumstances to do so in more community-visible ways.
The award division of the bounty pool was discussed among the sponsors and katiecharm ended up announcing it but that wasn't something I paid much attention to beyond taking part in the discussion. I was never the driving force behind the bounty, although I did support it with some donation fund AEONs.
I think taking a more community centric approach is the right way to go for sure.