wow, what a waste. absolutely not acceptable. scammers is what you are.
Because the contest got upgraded from $130 at the time of your submission to $500 + protected from price volatility (double-edged sword).
Too bad, I genuinely liked your designs.
You're did a really shitty thing, and instead of apologizing (like, at all) you just shrug and pretend you did nothing wrong.
You have ZERO right dealing out holier-than-thou sass like this people who are upset at your disgraceful behaviour.
You are right. Moving it to a different venue and asking for artists to resubmit is more of a move than a cancellation so the terms should be kept constant. In light of that, if a previous submission from this forum wins, you have the option to take 300 MRO instead -- fluffypony clarified this in the main thread. This would have to be privately arranged because I'm pretty sure the site just automatically pays out.
Sorry for the clusterfuck. The logic is simple: a forum contest should be cheap because only those who happen to be on this forum are in it, making it relatively noncompetitive. The MRO price went up so it's fair to move to a more competitive venue. When we're talking about something like 99designs.com, you have to beat out a lot more artists and naturally you deserve more, and we're willing to pay that.