Time to immigrate to another forum?

[chrisw]

Well if the last "elected moderators" got us sold, and we somehow expect the same people to mediate a deal, that's quite messed up indeed.

If by "got us sold" you're referring to the original hijack of the forum to the shop, you're probably referring to the original ten founders as the "elected moderators".

Of these, one, Enrique Irazoqui, was actually a signed up consultant for the shop, unbeknown to the other nine at the time, and who acted on behalf of the shop while pretending to be "one of the community". That was number one subterfuge.
Of the other nine, I was the one who wrote the contract by which the shop was supposed to adhere - I was the only one who was bothered about or imposed any restrictions on what the shop could do. Once it got the forum on-site it multiply breached the contract, but only after Enrique created a huge firestorm with me, such that I was "replaced" by none other than the shop owner, who has been trying to get himself admitted as a Founder since the start, something I had always vetoed. This was subterfuge number two, and with me out of the way, shop just took over, basically. The whole thing was a sort of dirty commercial cheat which enabled the shop to become the principal international business in chess computers, worth a lot of money in those days. Twenty years later, who cares? Money from CC is minimal.

[noobpwnftw]

Look, I put them in quotes for a reason. The way I see it, in such a miserable situation, there is no point for any of the "community" people to consider there is any value to the stuff the shop people got a hand on, essentially just the domain pointer, they can sit on that forever and issue void blackmails and that'd be all that they can do and we'll simply ignore. The "community" people have access to the data anyways, while renting a server and get a new domain also won't cost a fortune. The reason why are we still here "negotiating" should be quite obvious as well as to what my "got us sold" is referring to, isn't it?

[Modern Times]

The whole thing was a sort of dirty commercial cheat which enabled the shop to become the principal international business in chess computers, worth a lot of money in those days. Twenty years later, who cares? Money from CC is minimal.

I'd have thought that it would be costing them money these days rather than making them money from it. But I guess if that were true they would have no hesitation in passing on the domain name and closing this host down. They would have done it already.

[chrisw]

Look, I put them in quotes for a reason. The way I see it, in such a miserable situation, there is no point for any of the "community" people to consider there is any value to the stuff the shop people got a hand on, essentially just the domain pointer, they can sit on that forever and issue void blackmails and that'd be all that they can do and we'll simply ignore. The "community" people have access to the data anyways, while renting a server and get a new domain also won't cost a fortune. The reason why are we still here "negotiating" should be quite obvious as well as to what my "got us sold" is referring to, isn't it?

Entirely agree. All it takes is to move the data and set up a new site. Call it realtalkchess or whatever. If the shop decline to make it easy to get the posting data, then it can simply be scraped. The shop doesn't own it.

[towforce]

As I belong to the group of people for whom the board is absolutely messed up right now, I have no idea where and how my message will show up, so please bear with me.

I'll make an offer: I offer 350$ for the naming rights to talkchess.com. I probably also offer about a week of my own working time to get this thing set up somewhere else. Given the environment here, I assume I won't have to deal with pure technical problems, like making a backup useable for other people ( so I assume to have volunteers to deal with that).

I won't be involved with any future board that may come up from this personally - once it is set up and working.

This is a commendable offer and community spirited. It deserves consideration.

[Halifax]

In case it matters, I have a website / hosting package and can set up phpBB through cPanel fairly easily. Someone would have to pay for the domain name, however.

[hgm]

Entirely agree. All it takes is to move the data and set up a new site. Call it realtalkchess or whatever. If the shop decline to make it easy to get the posting data, then it can simply be scraped. The shop doesn't own it.

I already did set up an exact clone of the forum once, on a VPS I had rented for the purpose.

But it turned out there was no genuine interest in solving the problem; people only grabbed it as an opportunity to quarrel, sabotage my efforts, and launch attacks on each other. So I decided attempts to rescue this forum were just a waste of my time. And since I value my time, I won't make that mistake again.

[noobpwnftw]

Unfortunately, even without going through the history, what you just said made it quite clear that you are a part of the problem.

[Dann Corbit]

I am certainly part of the problem. I felt that the atmosphere had become bitter and condemning. I felt that the charter was not being obeyed by a considerable portion of the forum users. I felt that my pleas for civil interaction were not being obeyed. So I shirked my duties and left.

[hgm]

Unfortunately, even without going through the history, what you just said made it quite clear that you are a part of the problem.

Not at all. I am just not part of the solution anymore. Expect no initiative from me if all you know to do is to discredit me for it. If you are not happy with the current situation, fix it yourself!