Blacklisted domain - ugh

[pompeiisneaks]

So I've gotten a few admin emails of late of people not getting their email anymore. I just looked on a blacklist check, and the domain is on a blacklist that's newer, that seems to focus on hosting companies that don't stop spammers, and it looks like the domain this site is hosted under is now blacklisted.

This means some, not all, sites will outright block email. I think gmail is one of them.

Sadly there's nothing I can do, as Allyn has been pretty clear fixing the email isn't a priority for him and he won't delegate dns to me so I can manage it.

So basically unless the hosting company (That sucks badly) decides to stop allowing spammers in, email will likely remain down for the foreseeable future to many domains.

~Phil

[ChopSauce]

Thanks again for your commitment, Phil.
I'm sorry I read this. I've been aware of other examples of forums whose creators seem to prefer that their baby don't survive without them but what can we users do to manage with that?

[pompeiisneaks]

Thanks again for your commitment, Phil.
I'm sorry I read this. I've been aware of other examples of forums whose creators seem to prefer that their baby don't survive without them but what can we users do to manage with that?

There are options, but most aren't very good.

1. start a new domain/new forum and let users decide if they want to move over but this is the more tedious version, it means someone has to take the time to create new posts and upload content that covers what's been covered already in the existing forum.
2. start a new domain/new forum and migrate the data over and see if users want to move over (this is somewhat frowned upon, because you're taking the content from the forum away from the original forum owner, but is done in some cases of abandoned forums)
3. convince the forum owner to pass the domain and forums over to a new owner (I've tried this repeatedly but gotten no response from Allyn)

I think basically that 1 and 3 are the best options, but I think 3 is not possible. 2 is more of a 'since we don't have control, we'll steal it' type scenario that's not that nice.

~Phil

[Colossal]

The way I see it....you either lead, follow, or get out of the way. People on this forum have a vested interest in the content and history of this site.

I vote hostile takeover. Choosing not to decide is still making a choice.

[gktamps]

There is so much valuable information and content on this forum it would be a huge tragedy to let it fail bit by bit.
Is anyone in communication with Allyn anymore? Is he healthy and able to interact with anyone about this?

[Littlewyan]

I was wondering recently about Allyn as I haven't seen a post from him for quite a while. Do we know if he's ok?

Edit: Looking at his profile he hasn't logged on since 30th May 2021 and hasn't posted since 19th November 2017.

[pompeiisneaks]

Yeah I probably last spoke to him by phone several years ago, maybe 2018 or 2019, but I don't 'know' him personally we've only had a few calls about the site, and the like. On several of these calls I asked if he was either okay with giving me the domain OR at least letting me take over more of the control of the DNS for the email etc, and he just ignored them or said no. I did have to work with him recently as well when the site had some problems where the really crappy hosting company broke things worse when I asked them to fix something. Took them a long time to fix it finally.

Either way, I have no ill will towards him, but have often wished I could do more to take things in hand fully. He seems to want to keep the domain his own as a kind of badge of honor or something similar. I know he pays some level of money to host the site on the hosting companies services. Just not sure what else he gains from it?

If something doesn't change sooner than later, I'm likely myself to stop spending time supporting the forum as it's a lot of my time daily approving new accounts, and keeping up on the forums so that nobody gets too crazy

The administration duties are annoying but worth it for me to help this community, as it's one I value as a great resource for myself and many others.

I too hope it doesn't end up going away.

~Phil