Domainersphere War – A Possible Resolution

November 8, 2008 · Print This Article


An ugly war has broken out in the domainersphere between Mark Fulton and Owen Frager.  Mark states that Owen’s GrandNames is a “Grand Waste“;  Owen gives a “thumbs down” to Mark’s blog and his AQDN marketplace.  I can’t begin to express how disturbed and sad I am that this war has erupted in our domainer family.  Others agree with me.

I’d really like to see this war ended rather than escalated.  Here’s what I think the parties should do:

1.  Call an immediate ceasefire.  Both Owen and Mark are probably very upset about the situation.  To resolve matters, things need to calm down a bit.  There needs to be some time and distance from the conflict so that both parties can attempt to resolve matter in an objective manner.

2.  Realize that both of them are on the same team.  Ultimately, the interests of Mark and Owen are the same.  While they have different ideas about how to go about doing things, both of them care about domainers and both of them want to help domainers sell their domains.  Both of them want to educate domainers through their blogs.

3.  Look at things from a different perspective.  After some time of quiet, there should be a dialog between Owen and Mark.  In this dialog, the emphasis should be on finding common ground.  If the approach is – “is Mark right or is Owen right” then things will never be resolved. 

As an example, both of their blog posts make clear that they are concerned about ensuring that people don’t purchase “crap” domains.  They could have a dialog about what the best ways to achieve this are. 

Ultimately, I hope that Owen and Mark can work this out.  I urge them both to take positive steps in that direction and end this very ugly war.

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