Who is guilty? No one forced them to create competitions. They had a contest for 10+ messages, after which he said that they will pay only after 100+ messages. But the 10+ contest also stayed. They changed everything on the go. Do you think that everything was done specifically not to pay?
I'm glad for those who were paid, but we were not paid.
How many posts did you made on the forum? since they started paying members which had at least 50 posts during the activity period/campaign. And they're trying to wrap up the due payments before they make another announcement on what will happen to the site.
Its good if they are going to pay or have paid those who deserves payment. They really need to close this one and wrap up everything and hire good moderators and bounty participants so that forum wouldn't just ran by a lot of spammers. Its a lessons learn, maybe the owners has good intentions because he/she has a lot of bankroll to begin with and willing to take that risk so that the forum can generate a lot of traffic. However, inexperienced caught up with him/her and its a complete messed right now. I will also advise if ever his/her reading that he really needs to surround himself of trusted people not just fake friends who's intentions is to scam or steal money.