Here's a posting purportedly by Shaun only couple days ago, not mentioning anything about not paying up. http://proudleduck.seraphim.free.fr/index.php?2005/01/01/60-i-have-to-get-it-off-my-chest

Interestingly, it's written the site of supposed contestant,
username:ClairDeLune
UserID: 0043

Here's the text of posting in case page disappears:

Saturday 1 January 2005
I have to get it off my chest!

By Seraphim Proudleduck in SEO Contest
Previous Seraphim Proudleduck ::

seraphim proudleduck logo Seraphim Proudleduck wishes you a happy new year, full of SEO tricks such as cloaking, satellite pages, spam, wiki defiguring, useless posts on forums, etc.

Read this contest's organizers afterthoughts after having banged on the googlesphere such a killer, and don't forget to link to seraphim proudleduck if you still consider it worth a backlink...

Mistakes have been made with this contest.

Had I been less naive, the contest would be entirely different in design. Unfortunately, I cannot change rules while a contest is in full flow, so unfortunately this will have to wait until the next, assuming a demand for one still exists, and the questions I have can be answered to my satisfaction.

A good place to start would be google – should this be the platform used? I don't think so. At least not for the main prize. Other search engines have merits also, and google in my opinion is too easily manipulated, and not in a good way.

The google image sub contest – Well, at this moment in time, no entries exist. I know it is not for the want of trying, so yes, this would remain. I honestly believe the only industry to benefit from google image would be of an adult nature, but it is interesting that no one has yet been able to offer me advice why this seems harder then first expected.

Rules. They would be less relaxed. I see spam when I search for seraphim proudleduck – I don't like it. I don't like the fact that I caused it, and I like it less that spam seems to be producing good results. Wiki's and guestbook's are two methods that should be banned from future contests, I know some people have created Wiki's specifically for this contest, but others have abused the system. This brings around another question, how could we stop a contestant submitting a rival website to a banned wiki? If they are clever, nothing at all. This is yet another question I cannot answer, how to promote morals within the contest.

The search term. I chose an obscure term, I think that was a mistake. It takes little skill to insert a non used search term into google and get half decent results. What if the search term was 'porn' or 'mp3' for example. I honestly believe this mistake has rendered the results and data I have virtually useless in my efforts to learn what makes the search engines tick.

I would welcome any other questions, or indeed answers. I can (and have) also take criticism. Just Mail me

shaunsalmonbones.co.uk

Thanks for reading!

I can guarantee you that was a real contestant, nothing to do, with the "organisator"....

But it says "Read this contest's organizers afterthoughts after having banged on the googlesphere such a killer" and it is signed by the organisator, "shaun".

Hi guys,
this seems to be a copy paste of an old page of salmonbones website :
http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=706629055016&lang=en-US&FORM=CVRE
(we're lucky, MSN's cache is lazy ;-))
This page shows that the "organizer" was looking for a good reason to quit this contest a long time ago. That's to bad for those who were about to win some of the prizes, including me : I finished second with www.hautetfort.com/seraphim-proudleduck/ according to Stephane from http://www.promo-web.org...
In France, we are now waiting for the next "real and serious but weird" contest wich will be for sure what we already called "mangeur de cigogne 2" (it means "eater of stork 2"). The first edition launched last year by the same Stephane was dead crazy and gathered 170 competitors!
Philipp, I hope you'll be there caus you were a great competitor this time ;-)

it was, as kimberlyclarko says, a copy paste of an old page of salmonbone's, I seem to remember it was online by mid october

meant as a cheering from a not so skilled amateur contestant lost in the south of france and page 6 of google's results, nothing to do with shaun