Originally posted by Namethink Hi Dave, Thank you for your apology. I nevertheless hope that, very soon, you and Dan both provide an honest and full explanation as to where things stand here at DNF--who is the owner, what is the deal.
As domain and internet veteran DnPowerful advised, enough time has been taken to work things out between closed doors, and the reputation of this site, its owner, and its "rumored buyer" very much depend on a full and timely disclosure to undo the damage of the past three days.
I would strongly recommend that this full disclosure be given absolutely no later than the end of this weekend. Starting next week in this same state of confusion and uncertainty would be tremendously harmful for this site and those who run it. I wish all involved success in their ventures. Miles
Thanks Miles, you are one great forgiving guy and have excellent credentials and integrity. Yes, the facts should be addressed by me. I would also like to get an invite to join domainstate.com and post this there too since many of the old dnforum experts are now there and may not visit here. This is the Gospel on exactly what happened:
After recent dnforum downtime due to server 'problems' (and some posts from the server owner re credit issues) I figured maybe Dan is short on money so I emailed him, offering $4,000 for the site, an arbitrary figure.
A while goes by and no reply, so I send him another email regarding no reply and accidently say in this one (due to a typo I made) that I offered $5,000 earlier, (it was actually $4,000) and will he consider it?
No reply for a while but then I get an email saying Dan is (surprisingly) 'very close' to selling the site to Snoopy for $5,250. I assume because Snoopy was told I had just offered $5,000. This was the first time I even knew Snoopy was involved or there was another bidder.
Next, I figure with so many great posters and 3 excellent Moderators plus 1,200 members it is worth somewhat arbitrarily $2,000 more than Snoopy's offer. So I offer Dan $7,250.
I asked Dan to keep my offer and identity confidential. That was not done due to a 16-yr old's error in judgement. I also learn Snoopy asked that his deal be confidential too, also not done. Accusations are made the deal with Snoopy was announced by Dan on another forum. Dan also sends Snoopy mail regarding my offer and my identity, though it was suppose to be confidential. This gets me unwillingly involved now with the forum members who are hostile to me as they feel I stole the sale from Snoopy and Matty (not really correct).
At this point I had no idea Matty was also involved as a 50% partner of Snoopy. I also was not aware Snoopy and Dan had been going back and forth with offers and negotiating for a while.
In addition, had no idea Snoopy and Matt would get upset over the various prices and having to increase their bids, etc. I thought it was simply a friendly bidding process and I just wanted to be the high bidder, honestly never even thinking Snoopy and Matt (and Safesys too) woud get upset if they were outbid, as I did not know the ins and outs or about any negotiations happening on the price at the time. Again I thought it was a simple and cordial bidding process going on.
Next, Dan accepts my $7,250 offer and says he would like me to send him a Bid FORM. Days later (today Dan clarified it) I learn that was a typo by Dan as he meant Bid FROM (me). During those days I ask Dan several times where is my Bid FORM he talked about, thinking he was emailing me some special Bid Form he prepared, no replies received. That's because Dan did not know about the typo on the words Form and From at the time, and he was expecting a formal Bid FROM Me, not a Bid FORM sent to me, which I was waiting to get. Due to the typo we never did do a formal bid FROM me. Isn't that odd!
While all this was going on Snoopy and Safesys announce their resignations as Mods as Snoopy feels like he was being manipulated to increase his bids and Dan broke a promise to sell, etc., and he got involved in a bidding war with me, though there was no bidding war happening at all, at least what I was aware of.
Snoopy also say's Dan promised to sell it for $5,250 but Dan say's not really, that was a tentative price at that point in time and not formally accepted since my higher offer of $7,250 was made at that point in time.
Next, I email Snoopy and Matt zillions of times offering to make them 50% partners with me to satisfy everyone and stop the war. Unfortunately, they said no to my suggestions, and did not mention they are now Mod's at domainstate.com which I was not aware of.
All 3 Mods walked and approx' 75 of the most astute, smartest and best posters went to domainstate.com. That left dnforum with 1,231 members but no Mods and most of the best well respected posting membrs gone, most planning to mainly post at the new domainstate in the future, from what I gathered.
Then it is revealed for the very first time by Dan that he is only 16-yrs old, a High School Sophomore! Up until that point I thought he was in College, in his 20's, based on someones old post (which was in error).
Then a big flame war starts as some of those best 75 misunderstand me when I said the Mods were great and very important but the Members were most important. They thought I was underestimating the value of the Mods. Perhaps I did not word things right.
Next, some migrating members say dnforum will likely fail and is worth a lot less than $7,250 and also Dan is underage and can't legally sell it to me anyway. I get PM's warning me of that and saying Dan can renege on the deal when he turns 18 as he is not of legal age now. Much of this is also posted on the forum by members so it's not a secret.
I then get cold feet and become somewhat negative (can you blame me?),and tell Dan about all of this negativity and dnforum is now worth less, and we will need an attorney re the new legal age issue (not an issue before) and/or his parents must sign also.
Therefore, I must reduce my offer amount and more stringent terms too (which new offer details I can't discuss). I also offer to host the site totally free while we work things out. Dan say's he does not need the free hosting, and seems to not really like this new proposal too much.
Lastly (tonight), Dan sends me mail thanking me and saying sorry it did not go thru, and indicating he now has a deal with Gregr (undisclosed amount and terms). End of story.
