Hi all, I have opened a new game development discussion forum at gamedev.org. If you are working on a game project, please visit the board and introduce your project at the games in development-forum! Hey, it''s free visibility for your project! Gamedev.org is meant to be a nice, easy-to-use discussion board for all game developers. Despise ofthe domain name, I''m not trying to confuse people to visit my site instead of gamedev.net. In fact I was thinking about naming my other site, madmonkey.net as gamedev.net some years ago but decided otherwise. (if you don''t believe, please see the registeration date for madmonkey.net and gamedev.net). http://www.gamedev.org Hope to meet you all soon ;-) _mikkom

"I''m not trying to confuse people to visit my site instead of gamedev.net"

So what you''re trying to tell us is that since you came up with the name years ago and didn''t use it, that makes it okay to make a copycat of the domain now?

I have a simple question...why not host your forums at madmonkey.net? Or get a completely different domain name that doesn''t give people the impression that you''re leeching off of GameDev''s success.

And also, what motivation do I have to go to GameDev.ORG to post questions or hawk my project versus the already well established, more informative GameDev.NET?

What would probably help you out more is tying in your forums directly to MadMonkey.net. Why do people go to MadMonkey? Tie the forums into that and work off the same domain name. I have a forum at IcarusIndie.com but it''s called "The Tea Party" because I have an Alice theme going at my site and it''s geared towards the content on my site.

You may say "I''m not trying to confuse people" but the first thing I thought when I saw "Gamedev.org" was "squatter. evil domain name squatter." The fact that it''s only a forum makes it even worse. If it was a real fleshed out web-site with real content then I might cut it some slack if I accidently typed in .org instead of .net and check it out to see what it has to offer. All it has now is an alternative to .net''s forum and you need a pitch that convinces me it''s got something to offer that .net doesn''t.

Ben


IcarusIndie.com [ The Rabbit Hole | The Labyrinth | DevZone | Gang Wars | The Wall | Hosting | Dot Com | Rate My Screenshot ]

quote: Original post by KalvinB
You may say "I'm not trying to confuse people" but the first thing I thought when I saw "Gamedev.org" was "squatter. evil domain name squatter." The fact that it's only a forum makes it even worse. If it was a real fleshed out web-site with real content then I might cut it some slack if I accidently typed in .org instead of .net and check it out to see what it has to offer. All it has now is an alternative to .net's forum and you need a pitch that convinces me it's got something to offer that .net doesn't.

I'm sorry that you feel this way but as I said, I'm not trying to confuse people. .net is .net and .org is .org. If the webmaster does not want that his site will be confused to other sites with similar names, he should pick the site's name with that in mind. That is exactly what I wanted to do with madmonkey.
If gamedev.net would be called something else than a short version of generic, widely used term "game development" dot net, I would surely not use the name then.

This could be compared to an example that someone has registered the domain name "news.net" which is a very powerful domain name that surely gets you hits without advertising.

What you are saying is that it would be "evil" to register news.com or news.org and create a site for that domain name. This is something that I disagree completely.

cheers,
_mikkom

[edited by - mikkom on August 5, 2002 4:04:18 AM]

Regardless of whether you agree with it or not, it''s going to hurt the potential success of your site.

By taking the name at .ORG you''re requiring that you live up to the standards people have come to know at .NET or your site will be viewed by the majority of people as a cheap knock off and you won''t get the respect needed to have a successful web-site. You would have a significantly higher chance of success if you didn''t give the impression you were trying to steal .net''s thunder by using their name. Whether you are trying to or not doesn''t change the majority of people''s opinions that sites with copycat names are simply offering an inferior product and using slimy tactics to get visitors.

There have already been at least a couple discussions concerning the person who owns GameDev.com

You''re not the first person to try to peddle their site they decided to call "GameDev" and none of those sites were met with any sort of warm reception. It''s to your benefit to come up with something original.

Whether you feel you''re right or not (legally you are and GameDev.net isn''t going to fight you as they havn''t fought .com) doesn''t change the fact that you''re hurting yourself by using the name.

Nobody is going to be confused because .net is such a well known name but it makes you look really really bad.

Don''t be sorry for how I feel. Be concerned about how your potential visitors are going to feel. History on these boards has shown that they aren''t going to take to your site and it''s mostly because of your name. No apology is going to correct the stigma you''ve placed on yourself.

Ben


IcarusIndie.com [ The Rabbit Hole | The Labyrinth | DevZone | Gang Wars | The Wall | Hosting | Dot Com | Rate My Screenshot ]

quote: Original post by KalvinB
Don''t be sorry for how I feel. Be concerned about how your potential visitors are going to feel. History on these boards has shown that they aren''t going to take to your site and it''s mostly because of your name. No apology is going to correct the stigma you''ve placed on yourself.

I really didn''t realise that I would insult anyone when I registered the name. If this is really the case, I''ll propably have to rethink the name or move the forum back to madmonkey site.

The main reason why I decided to start another site is that it is unbeliavable hard to integrate existing user account management to external bulleting board and multiple accounts would confuse people if the site would be the same. I just picked the best available domain name there was.

Any other comments from anyone else?