The Dawn of a New Era...

[SilentGuns]

I know some of you guys are trying to give legal advice as far as all this goes...I sat down with an actual lawyer and got a lot of information from her about what we can't do. This move we are doing is fine.

 

 

Also, this is the first response I got back from Ryan in days...so you guys can all see how he does not care about SG whatsoever:

 

 

 

Once we are gone then all this site is going to get is a few clueless old members and random people who just happen on it. All he is going to get is pennies. We will just buy the domain back when he is forced to sell it for a fraction of the price.

[SpikedRocker]

A lot of people have contacted myself and I'm sure Revenga and Caution over wanting to try to help. Honestly this was the last resort scenario that we wanted to use. It helps neither party and causes a lot of angst and stress to both sides. This whole process has been months in the making and once communications broke down we knew we needed to start making alternate plans.

 

The price he threw at us was derived from what the auditing sale site imagined we made off ads per day, translated over the course of the length the domain has been registered, nearly 8 years. As you all know, we've never had ads on this site, so to use that as a reasonable value is not even possible. Basically if we were to run ads and stuff we would have a value, but we don't.

 

Years ago when the initial sale of SteamGamers was being proposed and made, I tried to stop it. I knew it wasn't going to be good for the community and it wasn't going to be good for the buyer either. Here we are a few years later with this type of result.

 

It isn't pretty for us and yes its not what we wanted. But for us to own everything associated with this community again will only make us stronger and better equipped to do more fantastic things in the future. Like the very eloquent title states, this is a dawn of a new era for us.

[SL4DE]

I'm glad those who need to are taking action towards a positive outcome. A situation this simple should not have taken months. It is completely unprofessional. You have my support.

[Z3r0 M4ni4c]

too bad that this had to be done... But like you guys said a dawn of a new era... Let's make it a great one

[Caution]

I have been getting a lot of PM's, questions, threads, etc in regards to all of this and the 'new' name. If I didn't clarify it enough, I apologize. Here is the deal:

 

I talked to a legitimate trade mark / copyright attorney. I gave the whole spiel, let her look at the community, told her what I own, what Ryan owns, etc etc. It came down to the fact that both Ryan and myself have viable arguments for "ownership" of the name 'SteamGamers'. Ryan because he purchased the domain, and me because I own every other aspect of this community. In a court room, if it ever went there, she straight up said she has no idea how it would play out, and that it would be much better off if we settled with the guy.

 

Even if I trademarked the name this very second, Ryan could still argue for ownership...even if my trademark was approved. At any point in time he could take it to a court level and fight it. Would he win? I have no idea. I don't want to take it to that level though...there is no need for us to create that big of a deal out of a video game community. I understand this place is a second-home for many (including myself), but I do not want to see the inside of a courtroom because of it. The name 'Steam-Gamers' is, in the eyes of the law, a completely separate name. Changing to steamgamers.org...the lawyer advised against. We could still face potential claims from Ryan because the name is the exact same, albeit a different domain.

 

Could I post a donation goal and try to raise thousands of dollars from you guys? Sure, I could. In my honest opinion, it seems really shady to do that to you guys. The website is not worth that much (Spiked laid it out very well), and it's ridiculous he'd ask for that much, just because it's what he spent. I appreciate your guy's help and opinions, but this has been in the process for months upon months. We have slowly and methodically planned out the best route to go (and legal), and have decided this is it. Is it possible we could change the domain name later on? Sure, it is. However we need to immediately break away from where we are at.

[Wawa]

I have been getting a lot of PM's, questions, threads, etc in regards to all of this and the 'new' name. If I didn't clarify it enough, I apologize. Here is the deal:

 

I talked to a legitimate trade mark / copyright attorney. I gave the whole spiel, let her look at the community, told her what I own, what Ryan owns, etc etc. It came down to the fact that both Ryan and myself have viable arguments for "ownership" of the name 'SteamGamers'. Ryan because he purchased the domain, and me because I own every other aspect of this community. In a court room, if it ever went there, she straight up said she has no idea how it would play out, and that it would be much better off if we settled with the guy.

 

Even if I trademarked the name this very second, Ryan could still argue for ownership...even if my trademark was approved. At any point in time he could take it to a court level and fight it. Would he win? I have no idea. I don't want to take it to that level though...there is no need for us to create that big of a deal out of a video game community. I understand this place is a second-home for many (including myself), but I do not want to see the inside of a courtroom because of it. The name 'Steam-Gamers' is, in the eyes of the law, a completely separate name. Changing to steamgamers.org...the lawyer advised against. We could still face potential claims from Ryan because the name is the exact same, albeit a different domain.

 

Could I post a donation goal and try to raise thousands of dollars from you guys? Sure, I could. In my honest opinion, it seems really shady to do that to you guys. The website is not worth that much (Spiked laid it out very well), and it's ridiculous he'd ask for that much, just because it's what he spent. I appreciate your guy's help and opinions, but this has been in the process for months upon months. We have slowly and methodically planned out the best route to go (and legal), and have decided this is it. Is it possible we could change the domain name later on? Sure, it is. However we need to immediately break away from where we are at.

 

IMO, you laid everything out crystal clear, and this is most definitely the best direction to go in because it makes the most sense. This community will embrace the change and move on.

[SoulKeeper]

 

What was her input on steamgame.rs? I imagine it's not the most popular idea for obvious reasons but I'm really curious how something like that would be affected by copyright.

[WickedZealot]

The change has to happen now, no other way. Glad there is room to do something with the domain later (even .community.. SteamGamers Community is also different as is Steam-Gamers).

 

I'v been up and down the walls with everyone today and knowing hosting / domains, thanks to Spike for taking alot of time with me, Caution and others. We resettle and fight another day.

[Goku]

@Caution to be honest id actually prefer we not raise the money and try to buy the domain from him. He's approaching this whole ordeal from a purely business standpoint. From what I have seen from this community we've never been about business or making money. Otherwise there would be ads and other means of making profit. Sure we have donations setup but thats for the servers. It's not lining your pockets. He's practically holding our name hostage in hopes of making money. I could understand him wanting his money back from a business standpoint, but that's his fault for investing in a domain of a community he had no part of and no intentions of being a part of.

 

Again I thank him for allowing yall to do with the domain what you wished, but I do think just switching domains and slightly altering the name is the best route. Honestly in the long haul that is a relatively minor change in an otherwise huge step. A url is very small in the grand scheme of things. The key factor here is that the group has full control over itself now. The person that owns the name is now actually someone that give two shits about the community. I find that to be wonderful.

 

In the end changing of domains is just a small nuisance compared to how great it is that a third party will no longer be involved.

[Zaraki]

@Caution : With us changing name.. Ryan loses any right and we get the community back? Or is it way more complicated? If he's smart, he should settle for something instead of staying behind with nothing but a domain, with the option to sell it to somebody who would actually pay for it