The opendarwin .com debacle

[Scott Haneda]

Hi Jordan.  Correct, I made a mistake on the subject of the email, one  
I certainly know better.  I addressed this in a previous email, and it  
indeed is something I regret, as it only muddies this situation.   
While I do not want to take the liberty, if everyone sees fit, hijack  
the subject, and correct it.  Do not even bother putting in a [was:  
previous subject], let's just correct it.  My bad.

Comments below...

On Oct 22, 2009, at 10:54 AM, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:

> Ultimately, I don't think anyone is going to be able to "force" the  
> darwinports.com folks from doing what they're doing (and I really  
> wish the original poster had managed to keep the notion of  
> opendarwin / darwinports separate in his head, since they're really  
> not related issues, yet there's opendarwin in the subject on this  
> whole thread).   Those who were around back when macports was chosen  
> as the new name will know that this was, in fact, one of the big  
> reasons for doing so.  This "problem" has been around for as long as  
> MacPorts has been renamed.

I do not think forcing him to give up the domain will happen, but I do  
think that presenting some other data I have found about the  
individual may make him willingly give it up.  I outlines some of my  
ideas on in a thread I was CC'd in on the MP Managers list, but have  
not heard anything more.  I am not on that list, so perhaps I was  
removed from the CC loop and am just unaware of the replies.

At this point, I do not think it is good to be public with some of the  
findings.

> The real problem at this point, however, is not darwinports.com and  
> all this chest-thumping and hand wringing is giving me nothing but  
> feelings of deja-vu since we have done it all before.  It didn't  
> help then and it's utterly unlikely to accomplish anything now.  The  
> real problem here is one of branding.  Why/where are users even  
> hearing the name "darwinports" when it's been essentially dead for  
> over 3 years?  Projects rename themselves all the time and somehow  
> manage to make the name change stick.  What this project needs to  
> ask itself is why the name change has not stuck as successfully here  
> and then fix that problem rather than re-fighting old battles.

I suppose in part because there is a reason companies spend millions  
on branding, and so rigorously defend their brand from confusion, to  
avoid this exact case.  The only thing I do know, is I have first hand  
experience with users I try to get to look into MP's, only to be told  
they did, and it sucked.  I dig deeper, and am right in the middle of  
this very confusion, they run into the wrong domain somehow.

There is a lot that can be done to clean up and better position the MP  
website.  I outlines those things in a previous email because I feel I  
am strong in those areas.  Myself, and one other were willing to put  
forth a donation to deal with the protection of a few rather obvious  
domain names.

The last thing I want is for those that work on the internal of MP to  
be bothered with web development of the site, and sorting out google  
ranking issues.  That is certainly something I am able to do, if I was  
given someone to work with to hash out the details of how to best  
approach it.

Thanks for your comments.
-- 
Scott * If you contact me off list replace talklists@ with scott@ *