That's terribleI almost prefer public contests.
I had a poor experience with a blind contest. The CH had a brief that stated a preference for a logo with an icon. I submitted a text-style logo early on -- no icon -- because it worked. For the entire duration of the contest, I had the top-rated design, and the CH kept saying how much she loved the simplicity. Then, suddenly, she wasn't so sure about the font -- she was afraid it may have been too "common," but she liked the icon-less design. So, the last day, she changed the brief and actually uploaded a jpg of a design where she had basically recreated my work and asked for designers to submit icon-less designs similar to her upload. She had no idea what she wanted when she wrote the brief, but after working with me, she was able to narrow her focus. Since the contest was blind, no one knew that she was asking others to essentially plagiarize my work. If it had been a public contest, that never could have happened.
Public contests keep everyone honest. Sure, sometimes designers get tunnel vision when others' work is in front of you, but I try to submit early on to avoid that problem. Generally, if a contest already has more than 20-30 designs submitted, I usually don't even bother, because in my experience, the first designs seem to influence a CH's mindset. Also, by getting my first design in early, I avoid any claims of plagiarism by another contestant.
it's frustrating when that happens. You should have brought it to the attention of one of the mods or talked to someone via live chat. But this sometimes happens with public contests too, not just blind ones
