An old GM is threatening to take down our shivtr site - help

[Peppered]

Basically the guy used to be the GM 3.5 years ago back in Cata, was a really nasty dude. Eventually he left the game and passed GM, and since he was so uniersally disliked, he was eventually removed and now in-game wise, he has no power over the guild. he hasn't been active in over 3 yrs and the guild has come a long, long way since.

however this is where the trouble is, he is still the shivtr site owner technically. he logged the site earlier to say something threatening on site "shame to see how you guys forgot your original GM considering i'm nice enough to let you continue using my cite", something along those lines. we deactivated him on site but still saw him on, and we're inferring a very strong threat on his part to delete the site.

we looked it up and it seems if he does so, we'll at least get a 14 day's notice. now, the contents of the site are really valuable to use and there's a huge element of sentimental attachment to some of the threads we have. there are almost 4 years worth of people's effort and fun memories and pics/screenshots in there we don't want to lose.

Is there anyone shivtr savvy enough here to know if there's some way to backup the entire database of all the site's threads/received applications/everything and simply move to a completely different site with them that is under our ownership?

[Deleted]

Sounds to me like you drew the short one here.

The question arising; If he was such a bunghole, why on earth would you continue using his page, which he grants you access to out of his good will?

[Deleted]

Sounds to me like you drew the short one here.

The question arising; If he was such a bunghole, why on earth would you continue using his page, which he grants you access to out of his good will?

Not really the point of this thread, he's asking for help, not judgment for a situation he can't change.

[Deleted]

Sounds to me like you drew the short one here.

The question arising; If he was such a bunghole, why on earth would you continue using his page, which he grants you access to out of his good will?

Technically it's not his site but the guilds since he hosts nothing. He is just the one who created it and someone failed to get him to transfer it.

[Deleted]

You'd probably be best of contacting shivtr support directly. If there is way to export/import data they will know and if there is none they are the only ones that could help you in anyway.

[Deleted]

Is there anyone shivtr savvy enough here to know if there's some way to backup the entire database of all the site's threads/received applications/everything and simply move to a completely different site with them that is under our ownership?

You might want to start here:
http://shivtr.com/help/
You might also want to start exploring if ownership transfer is possible:
http://shivtr.com/help/articles/9-transfer-site

You could also post your question here:
https://getsatisfaction.com/shivtr

You can't do a DB backup manually though - see this:
https://getsatisfaction.com/shivtr/t...s_of_your_site

But you can "scrape/clone" the site into a static copy quite easily (using tools like wget/curl etc - there are plenty more available). Note that this kind of backup will be fairly useless for site migration purposes - it just dumps copies of the static pages. Sites like shivtr are "captive" on purpose, migrating away is not as easy as "dumping db lolz". They've paid the dev costs - they want you to stay.

My advice would be to look into owenership transfer.
If your old GM has been paying for the site all this time.. then you probably want to look into apologizing and compensating him for all the years you've been leeching it for free. If it's a "free site" - then your support options are probably very limited.

[Soulwell]

Technically it's not his site but the guilds since he hosts nothing. He is just the one who created it and someone failed to get him to transfer it.

If he rents/owns the url it's his website owned by him. And if you take anything from it there could actually be consequences using them on another webpage without his permission.

[callipygoustp]

Did you try contacting the admins at shivtr?

[tratra]

Hah had a similar story in the past where I was the douchebag.

During BC I was holding the website + dkps page for my guild. I quit playing due to rl things and the GM asked if he could use my char since it was overgeared etc as an alt. I said ok and went on my way. Then 2-3 months later I came back. He was trying to force me to play for the guild and raid, I was saying to him, am pvping atm only since I dont have time to commit on raiding. He then proceeded on disconnecting me and logging in deleting everything on the char and getting all the gold over to his main. Bare in mind the gold was from the raid boosting I've done through vanilla and it was quite a hefty pile of gold.
Then I took the site off no questions asked and was holding the DKP data private so noone can see. I asked him to return my gold back and I'll give them the DKP data and stop hosting the site. It took 3 days of him trying to play smart but at the end I think he had to make a decision cause a lot of his members were about to leave etc (also being top guild on the server and one of the top world guilds).
After all that I put him on ignore etc, members from his guild were contacting me saying am the douchebag and I explained to them what has happened etc.


Well meh, while I can understand your point of view, I can't be biased and think of the guy you are mentioning thinking that this guild is his baby. But again respect is something you win over, not demand.

I would consider contacting that shivr site and asking the customer support etc if they could back up the data and spin off a new site for you guys at a cost.

- - - Updated - - -

If he rents/owns the url it's his website owned by him. And if you take anything from it there could actually be consequences using them on another webpage without his permission.

no because the only thing he owns is the URL. The data is stored on this services website and unless he is paying for it then its up for that shivtr whatever to do whatever with the data.

Also laws from country to country differ and the internet is not on set rules atm.

[Vaelorian]

I always thought that respect starts at a certain level and then through experience with a person it can go up or down.
I know this is sidetracked from the discussion. Just the statement that respect is earned... it irks me to no end.

Had an issue with a new member who refused to listen to my comments and so I told him he lacked respect. And he came back at me with the same line that it had to be earned.
Really? I invited him had a nice chat discussed everything on how things are. All the way very friendly to him. then a raid comes and he refuses to listen to advice or tactical calls? Really? I was the GM and raidleader at that time. I did not yell just required him to do stuff.

[Deleted]

If he rents/owns the url it's his website owned by him. And if you take anything from it there could actually be consequences using them on another webpage without his permission.

Since he does neither since its a "free" site this is just speculation without knowing the ToS of shivtr . You also need to read up on how copyright law works because you are only a tiny bit right.