User blog comment:Shadowswimmer77/Apologies and, I hope, an Explanation/@comment-25941663-20161108131711/@comment-25226524-20161108133431

I think the problem with this lies in our lack of making this an outright rule from the time of the contest. For this to apply we would've had to say Jeff stories will no longer be accepted, even through spinoff appeal. I don't think other people should be considered when we're talking about his story being appealed. Sure, other people might appeal, and we may well have to accept theirs too, but that's our fault for not handling things properly. And to be clear, none of this is really about his story being on the site; it's about whether what we're doing is ethical or not. That's personally the only reason I've needed for being involved. I loathe all things Jeff, but it's not about that for me (I realize it's not about that for you either).