Want to take over a site, advice?

[catshem]

Basically, a few years ago I was really involved in a RPG forum. Mizuki, Gabriel, and Blade were actually pretty much "born" there, so I feel a pretty deep connection with the website. Problem is, the owners-who I was friends with at one time- have let it completely die off.They had trouble with keeping up with it because their own lives were so demanding, which I totally understood. So, I had petitioned for an Admin position to help them out. I actually had to fight for it, which was depressing. There had been a big group of other people they made into Admin's who did absolutly nothing (which did piss me off a bit), and they were unrecptive to some of my idea's. I tried hard not to force it, but I had ended up arguing that the site was practically dead and we should overhaul it from the ground up. Something they did not want to do. I thought we came back with no hard feelings, but I guess not because one has seemed to refuse to talk to me or even rekindle our friendship after butting heads, and the other barely talks to me.

Right now I'm pretty fed up with them, for completely unrelated reasons that I'm not gonna bother you guys with. But I want to make it clear that I don't hate them, I'm just frustrated with their behavior. Blah, moving on to my real question...

Because I had such a connection with the site, I hate seeing it so dead and would love to bring it out of it's grave. I feel like it's a waste of money to whoever's paying for the website, since they aren't doing anything with it. I would never kick them out, I just want to take it over. Problem is I have no power, they gave me a joke Admin position where I couldn't even do anything. I don't have access to the actual controls of the website and I want them, to be blunt.

I want to send them a civil and polite message explaining my stance and asking if they could transfer ownership to me, but I definitely get the feeling that no matter how nice I am, it's going to be met with hostility. I actually don't even know how transfering site ownership is done, or if it even could be done.

So, I'm basically asking other people who own and run forum websites how they feel about this. I mean, I don't want to offend them in anyway, but god knows it'll happen no matter how hard I try. :/ I just really loved that site and would really invest the time into reviving it and actually doing some advertising.

[Greyhaunt]

To be honest, based on what you are saying here I think your odds of succeeding aren't going to be very good. Yes, transfer of ownership is possible, and not really difficult (depending on who was used to register the site name etc...) but I dont' think the other folks sound like anyone likely to give it up - even if it means killing it.

Your best bet will probably be to do what we did here and simply resurrect it under a new name and "new management". The advantage is that you will never be accountable to anyone else and can do what you want fresh and without anyone being snide about it. When you are ready, invite those people who would be receptive to come join your new site. Sure, the name may not be the same, but that doesn't mean you can't recreate the place you enjoyed and it will be a more comfortable place for you if you don't have to worry about any lingering issues with other people hovering around

Dollieh Sanctuary is the third or fourth (I lose count) incarnation of a forum that used to be called Dollfie Dreamland and was run by Emory of Junkyspot. Even though the name has changed and he no longer runs the place, trust me that it is the same group of people at it's core and the same welcome feeling we had back then

[catshem]

Yeah, you're more than likely right on that. =_= I just have such a connection with the original site, it's almost painfull to see it so dead. The only things that post are spam, and I dn't even care to clean that up anymore cause it's like, whose gonna care?

Not to mention that my characters Mizuki, Gabriel, and Blade have changed to a point where they aren't even compatible anymore to who they interacted with. Like, Mizuki was involved with another character and not Gabriel at all. Gabriel was actually an enemy that I ended up attached to and secretly made-up an alternate version of them.

The alternate version I ended up sharing with the others, just for fun... and she didn't like it very much.

I don't know web design though, and I have a hard time coordinating my husband to help me out lol. Are there any good places I can go to obtain a forum site that I can build upon?

[Geektopian]

Ditto what Grey said.... Better to let it go and if you feel the need, start an entirely new forum from the ground up. Reviving an old board will likely bring a lot of the past problems back as well. Not wanting to hurt feelings or get confrontational with the people who you feel dragged the forum down will likely end up with YOU being treated like a punching bag. It's the proverbial "mud wrestling with a pig" scenario where you both get muddy and the pig enjoys it.

Starting and running your own board allows you potentially greater autonomy to set the standards right from the start. There are no established power structures and no "this is how we used to do it" although you can guarantee that there will eventually be struggles and challenges to your authority. It always helps to be able to say "This isn't *Board X*; I founded it, I set it up and I (and whoever else) pay the bills. That means I set the tone and make the rules, not you." Sure it's imperious as all hell and should only be used as a last resort but works pretty well until "anon" launches a DDoS attack or Russian spammers find a security exploit and take control!

As for where to go to find a forum template, this board runs on phpBB so there's always http://www.phpbb.com to consider. I know a few folks here have used Simple Machines but those boards seems to be spam magnets, so exercise caution if you go that route. It might also be possible to create a community on Live Journal or Blogger, although I feel those systems lack the dynamic of bulletin board systems. I'm personally extremely unhappy with Yuku (formerly EZBoard) which has been in "beta" longer than outfits like Facebook have even existed (or so it seems). Big complaints also include the ability for members to undermine paying board owners, the failed attempt to integrate a MySpace style social networking system (told you it had been in beta way too long!) and the "Hotel California" style membership system. It's easy to create a membership and impossible to delete it, meaning "you can check any time you like but you can never leave".

[catshem]

I just looked at phpbb but I know my husband's gonna be like, "Just let me do it." And that's fine and dandy, but whenever I have him do it it ends up on hold and I have to go through him a lot to do anything. Blah, I'm gonna bug him to just give me the bulletin board base that I can control fully. If I don't have full control over it, I don't know.. I feel like I'm back in that joke of an Admin position where none of my ideas are taken seriously and all I'm doing is moderating the posting.

I actually just went all passive aggressive and deleted my characters and the ideas I pitched from their website. I had this nagging thought that if they ever did revive it, my ideas and character will get stolen for their own use and I'm like "NO WAY, IT'S MINE." I don't know, it was passive aggressive on my part, but it's done. I highly doubt they'll even notice. *sigh*

I jut tried to pick up my sewing project again and this idea has fully taken over my thoughts to where I couldn't even focus. I'm nagging my husband when he gets home. lol

EDIT: I just talked to him about it and he totally blocked me and complained about he has no time and it'd be a lot of work for him. *headdesk* This is why I dropped the last time I was trying to do this because he never has time. I really perfer the bulletin type forums, but I may have to do like Livejournal or something. Blah.

[Greyhaunt]

Honey, take my word on this - just get a PHPBB set up. Advantages are there is that HUGE forum to give you help - not to mention you can always ask me if I've run into something and can help you with it - I'll be happy to share experiences and such The nice thing about PHP (in my opinion) is that there are sooooooo many pre-made themes that you can install so that if a person doesn't like the one they are looking at they can change - so you aren't stuck with a bland theme. I mean, the default here is one called DirtyBoard - but for those who have taken the time to really check out their personal settings, there are something like 5 other themes to chose from - including a nausea inducing HelloKitty theme that I picked for the sheer hell of it hahahahahaha

[catshem]

I'm glad he relented and gave me something to work with. Phew! Really wasn't interested in Livejournal.lol

I will always be bugging someone for help if I need it. Expect messages from me along the lines of "What is going onnn?! D:" Haha.

Not gonna lie, it's taking a lot for me to not completely spam this thread with the full story of why I'm so frustrated with the two of them. Majority of the problems have nothing to do with the forum. Gonna move past it for today and focus on creating my RPG board. It's gonna be Original, not any fandom AU stuff, so maybe anyone whose interested could come over when I release it and RP your dolls! lol

[OkamiKodomo]

Have you considered a ProBoards account? It's free and all that, and you can customize the hell out of it. My own is somewhat gaudy at the moment, since I need to overhaul the design.

[catshem]

Have you considered a ProBoards account? It's free and all that, and you can customize the hell out of it. My own is somewhat gaudy at the moment, since I need to overhaul the design.

My husband put together a phpbb board, like this. I think he worked with it to be secure and simple too. I think i remember dabbling in a ProBoards website with a friend of mine when we thought about making our own together.

...Yeah, high schools students being devoted to a website. Didn't happen. lol