Sorry for the interruption today

[scheides]

Hello all, sorry for the interruption today. I'm just going to go ahead and post what I had posted on the home page while things were down. Again, I did not hack the server and I did not poison DNS as someone suggested. If you would read what I wrote, you'd see that mnmazda.com is in fact still owned by me. AJ is getting back to me about what contact info to change everything to in the domain record now that this is all said and done.

Please re-read through this, and I'm sorry it wasn't 'on your terms' as someone else stated, but after weeks and months of nothing getting done about it, here we are.

MNMazda.com/forums runs on a type of software called vBulletin. That software is (unfortunately) not free, and operates under an annual licensing scheme. When MNMazda was formed, it was setup using the license for MitsuStyle.com. They were on the same server, and AJ(ajd1978@gmail.com) decided to use the license, since he had part ownership in both sites at the time. MitsuStyle.com (formerly DSMStyle.com) has been using this license for several years prior, and when AJ was growing weary of running it, he decided to hand it over to me, the current owner. One would assume that with the extra stickers, t-shirts, graphic designs, domain names, hosting contracts, and other software licenses, would go this vBulletin license. AJ assured me that mnmazda would be getting its own license once the site was up and running.

AJ now claims that this license was 'never part of the negotiations' and that 'I'm lucky I got to use it for as long as I did.' Keep in mind, I myself paid for the renewal of this license a few times, since I assumed I'd be taking it on along with the site.

The rude awakening for me came when, after weeks of AJ talking with vBulletin to figure out why our logon does not work anymore (i.e. avoiding telling me that he intended to keep the license for mnmazda), I finally contacted vBulletin myself. Turns out the valid site under this license is now mnmazda.com/forums, not mitsustyle.com/forums. I specifically asked vBulletin when this change had occurred, and if they had been contacted recently about the logon for this license being inoperable, and they said that NO ONE had contacted them yet. I can only be forced to believe that I'm beling lied to by AJ at this point.

That's the short version. If you want mnmazda.com back up, donate a few bucks to our cause and this will all be history. After I have the license money, I'll change over 100% of the contact info for mnmazda.com to whomever you guys choose. If you want more info, read on.

First off, did I hack mnmazda.com? Not exactly. I am the one that registered and started mnmazda.com in the first place, by request ofAJ. I hosted the site for a while for free, assuming the ads at the top (i.e. $2/month or so) would be set to use my account. If you recall, the site design/skin was changed not too long after it launched, and my ads were never seen again (they went to someone else's account). I continued to host the site out of the goodness of my heart (I used to own a nice MX6, loved it!) until one day the 'site owners' requested it be moved (remember when it was down for a few days? Yea...) and I unhappily but swiftly exported the database and delivered it to those who requested it, and a few days later the site was back online, hosted elsewhere. No thanks for the months of free hosing, initial setup help, etc etc etc.

They then wanted to transfer ownership of mnmazda.com into their name, which I spent hours and hours trying to do. The service they were trying to use (godaddy maybe?) would get stuck in an endless loop of nonsense, and it would not ever finish. Keep in mind I do this kind of stuff for a living, so its not like I didn't know what was going on. I kept AJ in the loop and I'm not sure if he never contacted them or what, happened. I provided the details about what was happening, error codes I was presented with, etc. I'm sure if godaddy had been on the phone with a quick 3-way conversation, we could have resolved this. Regardless, to this day mnmazda is still owned by DSMStyle.com:

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/mnmazda.com

So, I'm not doing anything illegal or anything, consider this a brief wake-up call. AJ claims he originally purchased the license to be used for a side project of his, smytracing.com (no longer exists). Well, after we moved MitsuStyle/DSMStyle to my server, smytracing.com was setup. Not before. Proof? Check the timestamps on the files that I left there, for a day like today (I guess):

-rw-rw-r-- 1 root dsmsty 4895 2006-07-08 18:51 /home/httpd/dsmstyle.com/forums/includes/config.php.bak
-rw-rw-r-- 1 dsmstyle smyt 8723 2006-12-21 07:21 /home/httpd/smytracing.com/forums/includes/config.php

...that's all I'll post here for now. Please donate a few bucks and end this, then feel free to ask AJ why he decided to be a liar and turn his back on his friends.

Again, everything seems even now, and I don't think retaliation, bashing, or hatred is necessary. If you have any comments, please post them here and I will be happy to respond.

 

[dmention7]

First off, I appreciate having an explanation posted in a place where those affected can view and comment on it. I also know there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to keep a place like this up and running, so I want to thank all those involved in making this community possible.

That said, I think the way this disagreement between yourself and AJ was brought to our attention came across as pretty off-putting to those ultimately affected by it. Essentially the way I interpreted it was "Your admin lied to me an owes me money, so I'm shutting you down until you pay up what he owes." Which is where my comment about donating money on our own terms came from. If the site needed to raise some money for whatever reason, I feel pretty strongly that the people soliciting and collecting the donations from members should be the ones who are interacting with said members every day, and not a somewhat anonymous ransom note with a donate button. Obviously, there's a history and a back-story and probably some politics involved that I'm not privy to, so all I can comment on is the impression it left.

Now, even if things hadn't been sorted out this quickly, I'd still agree there's no need for any hatred or retaliation of any sort (as for bashing... come on, we're human)

 

[spek1098]

Well put Jay

 

[mndsm]

I for one, am not about retaliation. As you can see, we're pretty content to keep it the way it is so we can talk to our friends and have fun. I have to echo Jay's comment about keeping things between you and AJ. I don't necessarily think it was fair to punish all of us for something that for all I know, is a complete misunderstanding between two people. One whom I know in a limited fashion, and the other that I don't really know at all.

The way I got it figured, as long as I can keep talking to my friends and avoiding my job, I'm good.

 

[JohnnyT]

Can I get my $3.50 back?

I'll draw a spider with 7 legs which I will value at $3.50 in hopes that it will compensate you for your troubles.

 

[Picklz]

Can I get my $3.50 back?

I'll draw a spider with 7 legs which I will value at $3.50 in hopes that it will compensate you for your troubles.

LOL

I do agree pretty much 100% with what Jay posted. I think a forum post should have been made alerting us to what was up first, before shutting the site down.

 

[AJ]

Moved to the "Site Specific News and Info" section

--

Ok, so this is what I saw happen: please note this is a summary on a lot that went down via e-mails.

I was e-mailed about the use of my vB software license coming up on a forum it shouldn't be on according to my vB account. I had it listed on dsmstyle.com from my ownership of that site in previous years. After dealing with a 3rd party I changed it over to mnmazda.com/forum as that was my intent of use. Soon after Chris asked me about getting the info to my account so he could upgrade mitsustyle (dsmstyle). At this time I no longer had (still don't actually at this point in time) access to a valid vB license to enter and DL current versions. This does not mean I have to remove the software from the one forum, only means I get no support and I get no ability to upgrade from the version I am on without paying a renew fee.

Here lies the problem, Chris assumed that when we made the deal for the dsmstyle site and everything that goes with it, he was getting the vB license. I would of never done this and it was my intent to use this for my needs as I wanted. Our breakdown was that this discussion was never had, and one person felt I flat out swindled him and the other simply thought there was a bad assumption.

I’m not going to defend my e-mails to vB as they are for my account, and while I can attest that I have e-mailed them multiple times to their sales e-mail, I can see where I have only received one reply from them and that was directing me back to the 3rd party. I sent another e-mail today asking about my status and still nothing in return. I feel that’s about as much as I need to state about an account of mine.

We then began talking over e-mail and after the comment was made about mnmazda getting dsmstyle it's own license or mnmazda buying their own I made it clear it was my license and didn't belong to either site, but was now registered for legal use on mnmazda.com. That didn't sit well, he wanted the money he thought was owed, and due to him being the original register of the actual mnmazda.com domain name, he had the obvious ability to do what you saw today. He was right that DSMStyle.com was listed on the register info, but it was made clear several times about our concern for not having it under our name when it was our domain. I felt that was misuse of the domain name, and it proved why I am glad we made the move this past summer to take the forums off his host and move them to GoDaddy.com, exactly what we had tried to do with the domain name ownership for a while as well. And even Chris makes it clear this was taking place and if it would of went though Chris and I would of settled this manner another way.

Even after he put up the info you saw today, I was not going to pay the full amount. I was willing to pay half at first, then I stated I was willing to pay the $60 renewal fee he paid a while back (the one time he was able to provide me proof of), as well as the $60 renewal for now. This would of left him at about $60 to cover to have his own license and we would have been back to his original paid amount offer he made. This wasn’t good enough for him and I only caved in and paid the full $180.xx today cause I saw others had donated to a cause no one else should be a part of, and that pissed me off. So now Chris has the full amount to buy his own vB license and be set for the year. We are going to continue to work on changing the domain name again to either Joe or my contact info, and anyone who donated the $ should see a refund and get that back.

I feel this was an act done by someone who should of paid more attention to the original dealings we had.

I want to only apologize to the MN Mazda community, the admin/mod team, and the sponsors for any downfall this has brought the site today. I will let you make your own judgments and feel free to contact me privately if you have any questions about your account here on MNMazda.com. I don’t care what people think of me, but I do care about this site and that is why I have taken Joe’s advise and we have tried moving all the dealings with the site over to a more business environment, such as GoDaddy.com. I’ve put many years into the local DSM and now Mazda communities, and I did it because I enjoyed it. So again, I’m sorry to all those who had to see this. You have both versions, feel free to make your own judgment call.

I only ask you do no ask to reply to this thread, make a new thread, or bring it to the chatbox. It needs to end here. And by ending here, I will leave it up for all to see as they want.

AJ