Deadline passes for OS X virus contest that never started

The deadline has passed for Wil Shipley's $500 OS X Virus contest – which never began in the first place. Wil never actually hit the green light on the contest, and cites this fact – along with a heap of initial responses from over-eager contestants – in a post on Sunday (happy birthday Wil!) detailing the predicament he's now in: to reward,or not to? That is the question. Barring proper verification, of course.

He has three possible candidates, which all have various stretches and shady stipulations that require investigation, but they were all submitted by people who didn't read the entire post and jumped the gun on other potential contest participants. Since Wil's original post asked for feedback on whether or not the contest was a "bone-headed idea" before he actually went through with anything, his latest post sounds like he's on the fence as to paying out a reward. I guess we'll all have to stay tuned as to whether a bona-fied OS X virus has ever been in the wild, as well as whether anyone snags the $500 bounty.

In a way I can't blame the early starters though. Looking back at Wil's original post that started all this, the paragraph that mentions anything about a date is towards the end of the post and finishes with "The challenge ends at 23:59:00, October 16, 2005." Granted the previous paragraph stated he isn't giving the go-ahead just yet, but the wording on that last sentence is a bit misleading. I'm not saying anyone deserves that $500, but to a certain extent I can understand the misfires.