OK. So I just got a Google alert that royally pissed me off – for my old domain AllFreelancing.com.
As you may remember, that domain used to house the writing forums attached to this blog. As you may also remember, when I decided to let the forum go due to not having time to maintain it, I posted an offer to give the forum files, database, and domain name to someone for free…. on one condition:
They had to agree to keep the forum going.
So why am I pissed off? Because the alert took me to a domain sales thread. Not only did the guy I gave it to shut the forum down earlier (which I assumed at the time was to make improvements or something), but the piece of something I’m not going to mention here violated the terms of the transfer as they were publicly laid out here by selling the f*ing domain name off.
I thought about contacting the new owner’s registrar to show them the terms of the previous owner, but frankly I just don’t think I have the patience or inclination to get into a pissing match over it – at least not today.
Needless to say though, that’s the last time I do something like that – it absolutely disgusts me that not only can you simply not trust people these days but that someone would violate an agreement to make a quick buck. Pathetic. If they couldn’t maintain the condition of the transfer (which again, was laid out publicly before anyone could even express interest in it) they shouldn’t have taken it to begin with, or they should have transferred it back if they later found they couldn’t maintain that term. You can’t even begin to imagine how pissed off I am right now.
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Cathy Miller
Amandah
Andrew Kardon
Amelia Ramstead
Lori
The real shame is that I had another writing-related site I was considering giving away to a writer who could turn it into an income source, but frankly, now I’m thinking I’d be better off just selling the thing – if I don’t, rather than someone using as intended if I gave it to them, I’m worried they’d just sell it off themselves which defeats the purpose of giving it away to give someone someone to invest in with their writing career. And there was another domain I wanted to give away in a few months to try to get a content writer to take the initiative to setup a professional site, and now I’m not so sure I’ll bother with that either.
People seriously rub me the wrong way – especially when they take something for granted.
Jennifer,
I can’t believe he would sell the domain name instead of coming back to you and telling you he couldn’t keep the forums going. Either he was embarrassed that he failed or he deliberately set out to take advantage of you. Wrong, wrong, wrong in either case!
That’s terrible. He probably thought you’d never know. Little did he know you had a Google Alert set up! Sorry someone would do that to you.
I know you’re upset. I’ve visited the site a few times since you’ve transferred it (because it always comes up when I type http://www.allf.. to try to get here). For awhile there was a messagse about the forum being transferred, then it was taken to this search/sponsored links page that you see now. (I never could figure out what those are called). Had I remembered you had those terms set out, I would have told a little while ago.
Well, hopefully this bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch for you. I mean, hopefully you’ll still consider helping out those writers in the future. I’ve always admired you for going out of your way to help out aspiring freelance writers. :)
Oh my, Jenn – that’s so ridiculous. I hadn’t visited the forums much since you had transferred them but it was always nice to know they were there when I had some down time. I can’t believe he would violate your agreement like that. I’m virtually slapping him right now!
Sorry this happened to you. I once sold a set of thriving author promotion sites for $1 to someone I thought would take care of my authors and keep things going for them. She completely flaked out on them and let the businesses I had spent 10 years building die in a matter of months. It was very disheartening. However, I knew I had to move on and focus on my own writing more, so I’ve tried to make it right with those it needed to be made right with and just moved on. She’ll have to answer for her broken promises and bad business moves.
My advice would be to only sell or give the sites to a trusted friend or someone with a lot of references. While I knew this person in passing, I did not know her well and had I did just a bit more digging, I would have learned that she had flaked out on other people recently. Just because someone was dependable at one time, doesn’t mean they are forever ;). Life changes and things happen.
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