Should I be as annoyed/stressed as I am about this domain issue?

[insomnia]

Hi guys,

Heres the story in short: There are two social networking sites, one german and one english. The english one is mine and is a .com which just launched today. The german one is a .org and has been around for a few months. Today, we got blogged about and we've had some comments and blog replies from german bloggers that we are "copycats" and clones, which really irritates me. My project is older, having being started ever since last year. I also acquired the .com before they registered their .org. However, the audience doesnt want to recognize that. They think that because the German site launched first, they own the brand. My site was under painfully slow development, so all we had was a "Coming soon, under development" page up.

So to be clear: - I acquired the .com before they regged their .org
- My idea was in development before theirs was
- They went public before we did, building a small name in the german web crowd
- Our ideas are pretty similar, but so are a lot of other ideas out there. In no way have I taken ideas or features from their site.
- They serve the german market in a german language site, I serve the north american market in english

So whose right here? I'm really pissed that German blogs are accusing me of being a "thief", copycat, clone, when the idea is original and was intiated way before their project was. Console me if you will. Thanks

Resolution: The german startup site is now renaming their project to avoid conflict with us. Yay!

 

[Bill Roy]

Hi Insomnia,

Don't worry about it, just make your site better than theirs!

Your market is entirely different geographically. You should find that with time you will build up a membership that includes many from the German site, this is natural, and there is nothing wrong with that. How many members here also belong to other domain forums? You are also the winner in the situation as many more Germans speak English than Americans speak German, also Germans are used to looking at English websites whilst the reverse is not true.

If I were you I would make a post (a sticky) on your site acknowledging the .org site and saying that it was a race that they won. Treat them with good humour, the owners should then respond likewise and everything will settle down.

I for one wish you all the best with the site as I wish the .org site all the best as well.

 

[mulligan]

If you look at it from their point of view you did take their idea and build a clone of their site. The fact you had the .com before they had the .org doesn't mean a thing, as far as they are concerned you came across it and thought it was a good idea and cloned it.
How are they to know it was in development for ages?

 

[insomnia]

They don't, which is what your right about. But thats such a misleading opinion. No research was done, I was never contacted about the history of my project. Everyone just assumes, site #2 came after site #1 with the same name, site #2 must be a copycat clone.

 

[tristanperry]

I had the same issue with one of my sites - I agree that it's pretty annoying.

Just try and ignore them, and then beat their site - that's what I did

Actually this is really similar to what happened to me. We had the same site names, although I had never seen their site. Then one day the owner contacted me asking if we wanted to "merge" out sites, 'to becoming the biggest site in the niche' (etc). When I asked for details his actual plan was 'You give us all your content, and then redirect your visitors to our site - y'know, as we were around first'.

Obviously I said no, and then the spamming/flaming started (wasn't too bad, but still annoying). They even linked to my site on one of their pages and with an anchor text said "[Name of site] (Not recommended)"!! Eventually (after ignoring them) it subsided and the owner then quit the site, so it was a happy ending

Overall, just try to annoy these people and start making your site bigger and better - scaring these idiots is the best idea IMHO.

 

[Onward]

Sorry for your trouble here.

I think the advice earlier... to make your site better...using your own ideas is the best advice...obviously your branding, colors and layout must be different.

You may want the guidance of an attorney here though if you are really concerned....and if they are really successful, they will want your name.

Look out for low ball offers on your site... then a reverse hijacking case.

Did they ever make an offer on your name before their launch?

 

[insomnia]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm actually in email contact with the German owners, they seem cool so far, we're exchanging our project history's and how we began, and how we feel about the other guy's domain.

Onward: I'll be sure to look out haha, I'm not interested in selling. The domain is locked up. They never made a contact attempt before their launch.

 

[Theo]

Look out for drunk offers during Oktoberfest.

 

[hugegrowth]

english people won't know what the german language blogs are saying. give it some time and it will all blow over, nobody will care in a year.

 

[Focus]

watch out for german snipers

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Hi Insomnia,

Don't worry about it, just make your site better than theirs!

Your market is entirely different geographically. You should find that with time you will build up a membership that includes many from the German site, this is natural, and there is nothing wrong with that. How many members here also belong to other domain forums? You are also the winner in the situation as many more Germans speak English than Americans speak German, also Germans are used to looking at English websites whilst the reverse is not true.

If I were you I would make a post (a sticky) on your site acknowledging the .org site and saying that it was a race that they won. Treat them with good humour, the owners should then respond likewise and everything will settle down.

I for one wish you all the best with the site as I wish the .org site all the best as well.

There's a reasoned answer. It's six of one and a half-a-dozen of the other. You were beaten to the publishing, but had a prior registration. Best thing is to talk to the guys involved and work together - capitalise together. If the other party is totally unreasonable, you know you have to build your own business and just regard them as a nuisance.

 

[insomnia]

Resolve! The german startup has decided to rename their project as to avoid conflict with us. Hurrah!

 

[domainah]

what are they named now? I am just asking because usually Germans are cheap so they will never buy a name for good money but reg something cheap, like a .org domain as in your case..they still havent understood the meaning of branding..