The High Road Powerstruggle

[nitrogen]

http://olegvolk.livejournal.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently there's a power struggle over at THR
I read the following on Oleg's blog:

Thu, Sep. 25th, 2008, 07:41 pm
Going to court.
In December 2002, I founded The High Road forum dedicated to the advancement of responsible gun ownership. Recently, it was discovered that in 2006, the volunteer forum systems administrator, Derek Zeanah of Statesboro, Georgia, changed domain registration to himself. After he was confronted, Derek locked out all other staff from accessing the Web server administration and would not share even backup copies of its content. After failed attempts to peacefully resolve the dispute, it has become necessary for me to initiate a lawsuit against Derek Zeanah for the return of thehighroad.org domain name and the forum database.

I am seeking and would greatly appreciate donations to help with the cost of litigation. You can use Paypal (olegvolk@gmail.com) or send a check to:
Oleg Volk 3112 Chambley Ct Hermitage, TN 37076

All donations shall be returned if the lawsuit is ultimately avoided. You can also aid me by re-posting this appeal on your blog, forum or web site. My legal position is already endorsed by almost all of The High Road staff as well as Rich Lucibella, the founder of The Firing Line forum.

UPDATE: Derek's reaction was to disable The High Road forum alltogether.

[KBCraig]

I'm registered at THR, but I never visit unless someone posts a link.

This is a shame, but it's the kind of thing that happens when you give out the keys to the safe. My wife trusted a blogroll buddy to create a new template for her blog, so she gave her the master FTP login and password. The work was never finished, which was no big deal, because the "buddy" never asked for the agreed-upon payment. But apparently she thought she should be paid anyway, because some months later, out of the blue, she trashed the site files.

Took me quite a while to get that fixed, and to lock out that FTP login.

[BigBlueDodge]

Seems to me that this would be a pretty easy case. The admin basically "stole" the founders site, and held it hostage from everyone. I can't see how an administrator could feel that the site was his and just take it and register everything to him.

[KaiserB]

Items like this are why I recommend going with a higher cost, reputable domain registration service. Some of the $20 per year services do not have the procedures in place to prevent "joe user" from taking over the domain account. I have used Network Solution in the past and it is near impossible, without a court order, to transfer a domain without the current owners consent.

The one domain I have had to claim back, through Network Solutions, took 72 hrs and involved faxing of a Trade Mark document to prove ownership of the domain. When I sold a company a few year ago, I the owner of the website, had to notify Network Solutions in writing of my wishes to transfer the domain when the new owners took over.

I have heard of some other domain services requiring only an email request to change ownership, this is where the door is open to the hackers.

[Mike1951]

So I really don't know who was responsible for the error message last night that THR was down and would be back up today along with an explanation for the outage.

I just logged on and it appears to be operating normally now.

[casingpoint]

Dear Oleg,

Don't hold your breath waiting for my contribution to your legal fund. Why would I help bail you out when I was banned from the high road? The moderators are predominately a bunch of young kids with chips on their shoulders for anybody who does not follow the party line. They have so driven down the level of discussion that posters frequently beg forgiveness in their opening paragraphs for doing something wrong. By and large over the past year or so, the content of the high road has become almost a complete void of useful information.You place some mature individuals in position as mods, maybe I'll consider a contribution. In the meantime, stew in your own juice for all I care. You're the chief cook.