Forum Rivalry
- Thread starter DRE
- Start date
BGL
Well-known member
That is usually the source of the rivalry. Someone doesn't like the look or feel of the forum and starts their own. The look and feel are the basis for the competition for members.
yavuz
Well-known member
Copied all the css and look and feel, almost identical. Obviously they have some code knowledge. Still, pretty remarkable copying
Russ
Well-known member
Adam Howard
Well-known member
IRC had drama. 100 people in a chat room and suddenly another 100 people would flood in and with everyone talking at the same time... I wonder if anyone even read what others said.The days of mass bots and flood bots, oh bnet...
God I remember those days
dtmcl
Well-known member
We have had a few over the 2 years we have been online, The first was a guy called Zarif Kaiser.. I believe he was a member here. Both of our Admin Forums started at roughly the same time, Mine on vBulletin and his on XenForo. From the get-go he was very competitive and aggressive towards me and my forum, not sure why.
The major problems started when I was having a hard time with vB, the support could not help me so I decided to look for another software to move our community to - That is when I really started to look into XenForo, After a bit of planning and decision making we decided it would be for the best to move over to XF. Pretty much the same day as we migrated Kaiser publicly announced on several forums that I frequent that I was "copying him" due to the fact I was in the same niche and using XenForo. I laughed it off, he then threatened to sue me for "copying him" and I laughed that off too. A whole lot of mess and empty threats later he sold his forum to Brandon Sheley for around $1,000 I believe. We now make more than his final sale price each month in revenue.
Then about 9 or so months later a disgruntled member from the largest forum in our niche joined our site and complained about the stringent rules on that other forum, as we do any member, we made her feel at home. Two staff members from that other forum joined up and started spamming links back to the other forum, trolling people and abusing staff members. We gave them both warnings that if they step out of line again at all that they will be banned. Not sure why I didn't ban them on the spot, but hey, I must have had a reason.
And we also recently had a guy who stole our entire forum structure, forum descriptions, CSS from our theme, EVEN THE SAME DOMAIN NAME MINUS ONE LETTER. He actually did that twice, the first time he did it he was outed and eventually he "sold" his forum but he didn't really sell it. He used that as an excuse to come back under a new identity to try and "start over" without people hating him. He moved some things around and made it look like he was legit but a leopard never changes its spots.. after about a month he went on to copy yet more things from our theme and forum in general, I confronted him and he just blurted out that he was the same guy as the first time and that he was really sorry. He blamed me for the stolen CSS because I wouldn't make him a unique theme for $100.
That's my story
The major problems started when I was having a hard time with vB, the support could not help me so I decided to look for another software to move our community to - That is when I really started to look into XenForo, After a bit of planning and decision making we decided it would be for the best to move over to XF. Pretty much the same day as we migrated Kaiser publicly announced on several forums that I frequent that I was "copying him" due to the fact I was in the same niche and using XenForo. I laughed it off, he then threatened to sue me for "copying him" and I laughed that off too. A whole lot of mess and empty threats later he sold his forum to Brandon Sheley for around $1,000 I believe. We now make more than his final sale price each month in revenue.
Then about 9 or so months later a disgruntled member from the largest forum in our niche joined our site and complained about the stringent rules on that other forum, as we do any member, we made her feel at home. Two staff members from that other forum joined up and started spamming links back to the other forum, trolling people and abusing staff members. We gave them both warnings that if they step out of line again at all that they will be banned. Not sure why I didn't ban them on the spot, but hey, I must have had a reason.
And we also recently had a guy who stole our entire forum structure, forum descriptions, CSS from our theme, EVEN THE SAME DOMAIN NAME MINUS ONE LETTER. He actually did that twice, the first time he did it he was outed and eventually he "sold" his forum but he didn't really sell it. He used that as an excuse to come back under a new identity to try and "start over" without people hating him. He moved some things around and made it look like he was legit but a leopard never changes its spots.. after about a month he went on to copy yet more things from our theme and forum in general, I confronted him and he just blurted out that he was the same guy as the first time and that he was really sorry. He blamed me for the stolen CSS because I wouldn't make him a unique theme for $100.
That's my story
DRE
Well-known member
Wow this makes me want to join your forum. You know your site's good when you have that many people imitating it and trying to start drama.We have had a few over the 2 years we have been online, The first was a guy called Zarif Kaiser.. I believe he was a member here. Both of our Admin Forums started at roughly the same time, Mine on vBulletin and his on XenForo. From the get-go he was very competitive and aggressive towards me and my forum, not sure why.
The major problems started when I was having a hard time with vB, the support could not help me so I decided to look for another software to move our community to - That is when I really started to look into XenForo, After a bit of planning and decision making we decided it would be for the best to move over to XF. Pretty much the same day as we migrated Kaiser publicly announced on several forums that I frequent that I was "copying him" due to the fact I was in the same niche and using XenForo. I laughed it off, he then threatened to sue me for "copying him" and I laughed that off too. A whole lot of mess and empty threats later he sold his forum to Brandon Sheley for around $1,000 I believe. We now make more than his final sale price each month in revenue.
Then about 9 or so months later a disgruntled member from the largest forum in our niche joined our site and complained about the stringent rules on that other forum, as we do any member, we made her feel at home. Two staff members from that other forum joined up and started spamming links back to the other forum, trolling people and abusing staff members. We gave them both warnings that if they step out of line again at all that they will be banned. Not sure why I didn't ban them on the spot, but hey, I must have had a reason.
And we also recently had a guy who stole our entire forum structure, forum descriptions, CSS from our theme, EVEN THE SAME DOMAIN NAME MINUS ONE LETTER. He actually did that twice, the first time he did it he was outed and eventually he "sold" his forum but he didn't really sell it. He used that as an excuse to come back under a new identity to try and "start over" without people hating him. He moved some things around and made it look like he was legit but a leopard never changes its spots.. after about a month he went on to copy yet more things from our theme and forum in general, I confronted him and he just blurted out that he was the same guy as the first time and that he was really sorry. He blamed me for the stolen CSS because I wouldn't make him a unique theme for $100.
That's my story
BlackJacket
Well-known member
Yes, I did and it wasn't pretty. 
I had helped a friend whose website (forum) was hacked. I offered to setup their website again on my server as long as I could setup adsense. He agreed and all was well. However, about 6 months down the road Google stopped the adsense for the website saying we had pornographic images. Of course I objected (it was a car forum, which to me is porn 
) but after investigating the link they sent me I found the images they were talking about. I deleted the pictures and send a request to Google to allow adsense back, but they denied it.
Adsense was my way to pay for keeping their website up. I told my friend I needed to collect that money or else I will have to take the website down. Another few months past and still no monetary donation (I was asking for about $50 for the entire year). So, I decided to register a similar domain name and import the original forum to the new domain. Adsense was working again and no worries about him paying me. I told him I would shut down his site in a couple months if he didn't send something my way. Needless to say he didn't agree.
He purchased hosting somewhere else and changed the nameservers. I kept my website up for a couple of months before taking it down. Looking back now, it was poor taste for me to do something like that.
I had helped a friend whose website (forum) was hacked. I offered to setup their website again on my server as long as I could setup adsense. He agreed and all was well. However, about 6 months down the road Google stopped the adsense for the website saying we had pornographic images. Of course I objected (it was a car forum, which to me is porn ) but after investigating the link they sent me I found the images they were talking about. I deleted the pictures and send a request to Google to allow adsense back, but they denied it. Adsense was my way to pay for keeping their website up. I told my friend I needed to collect that money or else I will have to take the website down. Another few months past and still no monetary donation (I was asking for about $50 for the entire year). So, I decided to register a similar domain name and import the original forum to the new domain. Adsense was working again and no worries about him paying me. I told him I would shut down his site in a couple months if he didn't send something my way. Needless to say he didn't agree.
He purchased hosting somewhere else and changed the nameservers. I kept my website up for a couple of months before taking it down. Looking back now, it was poor taste for me to do something like that.
DRE
Well-known member
He refused to pay $50 after all that stuff you did for him? lmaooo that's not poor taste. Just a bad business investment. Some people aren't reliable.Yes, I did and it wasn't pretty.
Adsense was my way to pay for keeping their website up. I told my friend I needed to collect that money or else I will have to take the website down. Another few months past and still no monetary donation (I was asking for about $50 for the entire year). So, I decided to register a similar domain name and import the original forum to the new domain. Adsense was working again and no worries about him paying me. I told him I would shut down his site in a couple months if he didn't send something my way. Needless to say he didn't agree.
He purchased hosting somewhere else and changed the nameservers. I kept my website up for a couple of months before taking it down. Looking back now, it was poor taste for me to do something like that.
digitalpoint
Well-known member
We probably have at least 1 "rival" pop up every day because one of our existing users thinks they can do better. Fairly certain they have all failed though. It's actually pretty comical that some people will attribute our success to idiotic things like our forum category descriptions/structure. Or others think the key to our success is our (relatively stock) style, so they go out of their way to copy every little CSS color. lol
The funniest thing is when they add forum categories and they don't even have any clue what they are. For example we have a support forum for our keyword tracking tool. And there are many, many sites with the same category and even copy/pasted description. lol
https://encrypted.google.com/search...yammer+about+the+search+engine+ranking+tool."
The funniest thing is when they add forum categories and they don't even have any clue what they are. For example we have a support forum for our keyword tracking tool. And there are many, many sites with the same category and even copy/pasted description. lol
https://encrypted.google.com/search...yammer+about+the+search+engine+ranking+tool."
craigiri
Well-known member
I had a few competitors pop up way back when - they usually, like DP's, got the idea by hanging on our forums and then thinking this must be easy.
It's not.
Success is a long term matter. It is also very dependent on the personalities involved and, on the net, the "firstest with the mostest" factor.
I would really be challenged to start a successful forum these days. The waters are a lot muddier and the dedication it takes is staggering. I spent many an overnight fiddling back in those early days.
It's not.
Success is a long term matter. It is also very dependent on the personalities involved and, on the net, the "firstest with the mostest" factor.
I would really be challenged to start a successful forum these days. The waters are a lot muddier and the dedication it takes is staggering. I spent many an overnight fiddling back in those early days.
digitalpoint
Well-known member
Well yeah... those are just the ones that had such a non-clue, that they copy/pasted stuff they didn't even know what it was.
Carlos
Well-known member
I've talked about this kind of rivalry here at Admin Talk, and here at xenForo. Basically, I inquired about acquring CODForum, but the owner came over to CODForums, registered as CODForum dot com [put the .com at the end there], and spammed the hell out of the forums with the link to the forum. This was when CODForums was on a beautiful vB3 skin, can be seen here.
CODForums has been growing since then:
2,030 Threads
5,827 Posts
2,856 Members
I can't tell you, or him for that matter - how much I appreciate his support and help over the last 5 years hosting my sites. In these economic times, no one in their right mind would give away free server hosting... but you, and this guy did. We need more people like you to catapult our businesses.
CODForums has been growing since then:
2,030 Threads
5,827 Posts
2,856 Members
Don't worry about him. I was the third member to register to his forum. But we've had run-in's with each other so much that one day, he decided to stalk my YouTube channel and mock at least one of my videos. I fought with him for a day or so, and decided to take it on these forums. Because the way you stop a person from doing that, is destroying their reputation on a large scale site before anywhere else. Not to be outdone, he dug himself a new, and bigger hole once he sold AdminBB to Brandon Sheley. Two nails in his coffin was enough to shut him up.
Actually, it's not really bad taste. You just had a case of "bad customer." I'm currently in similar arrangement with one of my friends, whom lives in Florida. I sold an Xbox website that I co-founded with another one of my friends, and got free hosting for it. But that turned into a multi-year free server. So, once in a while he would ask for donations, and I don't have them. But when I do, I pay.Yes, I did and it wasn't pretty.
Adsense was my way to pay for keeping their website up. I told my friend I needed to collect that money or else I will have to take the website down. Another few months past and still no monetary donation (I was asking for about $50 for the entire year). So, I decided to register a similar domain name and import the original forum to the new domain. Adsense was working again and no worries about him paying me. I told him I would shut down his site in a couple months if he didn't send something my way. Needless to say he didn't agree.
He purchased hosting somewhere else and changed the nameservers. I kept my website up for a couple of months before taking it down. Looking back now, it was poor taste for me to do something like that.
I can't tell you, or him for that matter - how much I appreciate his support and help over the last 5 years hosting my sites. In these economic times, no one in their right mind would give away free server hosting... but you, and this guy did. We need more people like you to catapult our businesses.
digitalpoint
Well-known member
You should just make the notice they see when they are banned with a link to your competitors.
Obviously if you banned them, you don't want them as a user, so let others have your crappy users. hah
Carlos
Well-known member
How funny! I have been doing that to my competitors since last November!You should just make the notice they see when they are banned with a link to your competitors.
What I do is: Ban member, and Discourage them. Half of my bad, and banned members have the following: Banned Users group, straight up ban, discourage user, and IP discourage. So, even if they come back to the site if the discourage feature does not really work for the instance, I stopped the member from registering! The discourage feature is awesome.
DBA
Well-known member
Genius lolYou should just make the notice they see when they are banned with a link to your competitors.
Cal
Well-known member
Not especially. From what I see there's not many political forums out there, not speakable ones anyways. We've already offered to buy several of them out but many haven't replied. I can't think of any real site that would be in competition with us, I can think of one or two that makes us look like wannabes though lol.
0xym0r0n
Well-known member
I don't consider myself as anyone's rival since I started my site for personal entertainment among friends. It grew way beyond my expectation and so now I'm kind of happily burdened with carrying this rival flag. I try my best not to wage 'war' but I will stamp out any false statements when I get the chance. Some of my 'competition' started removing links/references to my site on their forums/groups about 2 months ago. One of them even tried to buy me out. A very handsome offer for a the size and current activity but I refused. I kind of take pride in a being a rival that another must attempt to buy out.
It's a weird thing but I want nothing from my forum except for my users to be content and entertained. I feel like a party 'host' of some sort. Gaining a wee bit o' money from sponsors to pay the expenses is helpful but I find myself throwing money into the damned site every month haha. Love/hate relationship.
When I retire from my site. I will be leaving it to a member of my choice. I've got a few in mind who are as passionate about the topics and members as I am.
It's a weird thing but I want nothing from my forum except for my users to be content and entertained. I feel like a party 'host' of some sort. Gaining a wee bit o' money from sponsors to pay the expenses is helpful but I find myself throwing money into the damned site every month haha. Love/hate relationship.
When I retire from my site. I will be leaving it to a member of my choice. I've got a few in mind who are as passionate about the topics and members as I am.
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