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Domain Sherpa VS Domain King. About to Fight?

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In a nutshell Domain Sherpa (Michael Cyger) removed all the video interviews of Rick schwartz (domain king) and Michael berkens (Thedomain) from the site.
Rick and Mike are very upset and want answers, but domain Sherpa hasn't responded to them except for a tweet in the middle of Rick's Twitter post leaving a strange comment and an advertisement, crazy.

I feel bad for Rick and Mike since they spent years donating their time, experience, and knowledge to the show.

Rick says he is getting Angry!

Anyways it's all on Rick's Twitter.



Why do you think the videos were removed?
 
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Good old Mr. Cultra doing what he does best: stirring the pot. :xf.grin:
Ha. Good try Addison. Rick would be upset with me, not Cyger. I even said in my post this wasn't meant to knock down what Berkens and Schwartz have done but to say the Drew Rosener is doing things nobody has ever done in our industry and will end up making more than Rick and Berkens when it is all said and done. Using them as markers not saying they haven't accomplished amazing things. I only hope I make 10% of what Michael Berkens made.

I hate seeing what I see on Twitter from Rick. It is not good for our industry. But after what happened today there is no way to mend the relationship. It was ugly today. Not sure where a discussion on Twitter would lead. The way I understand it is that Mike doesn't want to put them up and Rick wants them up and won't stop until they are. Mike's show and he's made the decision. Not sure why it's gone this far. Again, I hate to see it. I think Mike has put up some great content over the years and Rick said he is going to his advertisers to get them to drop him and is trying to hurt his reputation. All over videos he did with Dicker.
 
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I hate seeing what I see on Twitter from Rick. It is not good for our industry. But after what happened today there is no way to mend the relationship. It was ugly today. Not sure where a discussion on Twitter would lead.
On the sunny side, Rick is doing it on an incoherent platform (Twitter) that makes it excruciating to try to follow the discussion. It took me hours to piece it together and I gave a summary of what happened because anyone else with a brain (I lost mine) isn't going to hunt for fragments of a conversation on Twitter.

Twitter has to be the most dull-witted platform a person can use for Rick's agenda.

Sorry, Rick
.
 
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Get the popcorn because it's getting really heated right now on Ricks twitter account. DomainKing
 
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Ha. Good try Addison. Rick would be upset with me, not Cyger. I even said in my post this wasn't meant to knock down what Berkens and Schwartz have done but to say the Drew Rosener is doing things nobody has ever done in our industry and will end up making more than Rick and Berkens when it is all said and done. Using them as markers not saying they haven't accomplished amazing things. I only hope I make 10% of what Michael Berkens made.

I hate seeing what I see on Twitter from Rick. It is not good for our industry. But after what happened today there is no way to mend the relationship. It was ugly today. Not sure where a discussion on Twitter would lead. The way I understand it is that Mike doesn't want to put them up and Rick wants them up and won't stop until they are. Mike's show and he's made the decision. Not sure why it's gone this far. Again, I hate to see it. I think Mike has put up some great content over the years and Rick said he is going to his advertisers to get them to drop him and is trying to hurt his reputation. All over videos he did with Dicker.

There was NO demand to put the videos up until he did not do what he said and then just ignored like we were toe jam. That pissed off Berkens and Berkens wanted the videos back up. It's been bugging him for MONTHS. We simply wanted the answer he had previously promised to get back to us with. SIMPLE! He made a mess where there was none! Then disappeared instead of just being a MAN! Got it??
 
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I've found it takes 6 months to a year and then another controversy hits the industry.

Dicker's Relapse:
This time it's a bit more interesting. It's not the newbies getting screwed by Dicker (Thank God). It's a few of the good ole boys arguing over Dicker's destruction ...Good Stuff!
 
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In a nutty shell:
  1. Rick Schwartz and Michael Berkens volunteered their time on Michael Cyger's DomainSherpa, alongside Adam Dicker.
  2. Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Berkens asked for an explanation from Mr. Cyger.
  3. Mr. Cyger will not respond to them.
  4. Mr. Schwartz is angry that they're being ignored by Mr. Cyger after all of the superb help they bestowed upon him.

Sleep tight. :sleep:

EXACTLY. These are my 4 issues. And all he had to do was send an email or post and say "My attorney advised me not to talk about this right now." or whatever. IGNORING became a disaster. For what?
 
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Are attorneys really involved in this!?!
 
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I'm not Cyger but let's face it...he just wanted his brand as far away from Dicker as possible in my opinion...

BUT, I certainly see the huge frustration of no response when repeatedly asking for answers from someone you supported and donated all that time too...

I hope this gets solved for both sides...
 
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To bear witness to our industries thought leaders attacking & being attacked by one another in this light, is tragic, to say the least.

On one hand, you have some of the most notable investors (Schwartz & Berkens) in our industry, those we’ve all looked up to, volunteering their time, knowledge, and experience over the course of many years to a wonderful show that has helped not only myself but many others along the way. On the other hand, you have Cyger, one the kindest, smartest and most giving people I know who had to make an impossible lose/lose decision to take down content that he himself spent countless hours curating, editing, and producing.

No one wins here. At all. Not the guests of the show who’s content were poisoned by a con-artist, not the viewers of the show (those who fell for the con and those who’ll miss out on the knowledge of the other guests) and surely not Michael Cyger himself.

No matter how valuable the information both Berkens, Schwartz, and other notable guests provided in those episodes… there was a con-artist that poisoned the episodes and that alone would have caused far more damage long term to our industry, disclaimers or not.

This is about more than the people who gave their time - this about ensuring the thousands upon thousands of viewers and future viewers will not be harmed by the poison that infected the content and industry, this is about cleaning up, however we can. Tough decisions had to and will continue to have to be made throughout the course of our industries existence. No matter where and by whom.

Life is too short to let the fallout of one bad seed destroy and come between the good ones. Let it go - move on, create new and better things from all that the experience has taught. Not the other way around.
 
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I'm not Cyger but let's face it...he just wanted his brand as far away from Dicker as possible in my opinion...

Has anyone considered the legal implications of hosting content that is known to be a pitch for a scammer?

And then the implications if you benefit financially from that in any way?
 
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Apparently Cyger deleted content on his site that contained interviews with Rick. I didnt know you could do that in journalism? Just delete content?
Actually, you can delete old content off your own website. It is done all the time on news websites.
 
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Actually, you can delete old content off your own website. It is done all the time on news websites.
what happened to retractions? why didnt Cycer just edit out the person he didnt want to promote?
 
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Its difficult to figure out by reading one side of the tweets the true reasons. I read the other thread here on NP of the speculation, but no comments by MC, only Rick. I like the Sherpa videos, todays was really exceptional. I have no real perspective of the Dicker guy but have heard his infamous name mentioned over and over in domaining. I am new to this industry, however not new to witnessing business scammers, deadbeats, etc.

Maybe someone could post the best Dicker thread(s) to read about this past historical event.
 
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Why not just re-edit the videos remove all the Dicker footage and put them back up? end the bs and the lawyer fees
 
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No one should reply to that, except idiots...
Rick's tweet turns from a wise and wisdom to a hell of nonsense threat...
I lost respect towards him tbh. Did he experiences a thing that called post-power syndrom?
Rick has been a loose cannon for almost as long as I have known him, and I used to chat with him well over a decade ago. But I don't think anyone can claim sainthood here. I thought Adam was great at one time too, but that turned out to be a mixed bag.
 
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Its difficult to figure out by reading one side of the tweets the true reasons. I read the other thread here on NP of the speculation, but no comments by MC, only Rick. I like the Sherpa videos, todays was really exceptional. I have no real perspective of the Dicker guy but have heard his infamous name mentioned over and over in domaining. I am new to this industry, however not new to witnessing business scammers, deadbeats, etc.

Maybe someone could post the best Dicker thread(s) to read about this past historical event.
I have known Adam for a long time. I have had mixed experiences with him, so I am not taking a side on that. But as I said, you can remove content, though I would say put them up with a disclaimer if you like.
 
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Allegedly Adam Dicker charged people to make them mini websites for their domains but never followed through .. I really don't have any first hand facts to say either way though.

What I can say is that those old interviews actually have been removed for months if not since last year.

Mainly because Dicker's services were not just sponsor ads in the show .. but also referred to here and there throughout the various shows .. making it rather hard to edit out in some cases and it would take discussions out of context.

Either choice seems like it would be a bad one .. I think it was a question of choosing between the lesser of 2 evils .. while at the same time legally covering his butt.

In all fairness you can't just post a disclaimer and then present knowingly fraudulent information .. it totally sucks the info is no longer available .. but it's been gone forever already and nobody seemed to notice until now .. a lot of the actual domaining information is kinda obsolete anyways .. much has changed in the industry.


*Goes back to trolling expiration lists .. lol*
 
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Why not just re-edit the videos remove all the Dicker footage and put them back up? end the bs and the lawyer fees
Have you done any video editing? Editing video like that is tedious and super time consuming, especially in this circumstance where you try to keep intact a show's flow and have to spend mega hours to qc what you edit out. And, they are older shows, I wish I could have watched. I dont blame him for just deleting the mess.

I am sure this will all get figured out, they are all smart guys.

Thanks Ali and Rick for taking time out and commenting here on namepros.
 
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He could post them in a special section with a warning on top of the videos about what Dicker did.
 
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I guess the question is why would you accept sponsorship for new advertisers that do not have a proven track record in the industry?

quis custodiet ipsos custodes
 
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Just a thought...
Rick and berkins should put a show together talking about domains.
Even if you only put a couple videos up at least you'd control the content and presentation to be preserved forever.
 
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If Rick wants them back up so bad, give them to him to edit Dicker and any mention of him out of them.

Seriously though, how is it even conceivable that they can go back up? As much of a maverick Rick is, he's a smart guy and knows himself that it's just unfortunate that he was caught up in something that no-one can control or change. He's gone totally the wrong way about it, letting his angry head rule, airing it in public.

I assume it's not about videos going up or not, it's the lack of respect with the perceived shunning of Rick when he wants simple clarification either way. If that is true, it does seem that Rick is being unfairly treated by being ignored. It's none of my business, of course, but if it's in public, it's fair game to comment. I do think there's more to it though, a perception of a power shift with the "old guard" being moved aside to accommodate the newer, slicker breed of "top domainer".
 
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Just want to say that everyone's opinion on what Michael Cyger should do are completely pointless (including my own .. lol). There are likely very strong legal reasons why you can't just put up a disclaimer .. then proceed to share knowingly deceptive fraudulent information and services.

That being said I can certainly understand being frustrated at not being informed as to the reasons why (even if just to say "the reasons are legal reasons .. period" type of thing). That being said .. after the attacks and threats on Twitter today I'm thinking apologies might be due on all sides.

Twitter really is a horrible platform when you want to communicate important issues ... things just get lost in the brevity and hash-tag madness. After reading though I don't think Rick initially intended it to go that far .. just that the frustration got enhanced by lack of being able to truly communicate the full information.

For the record .. those shows have been down for several months if not actually last year. I actually download all AVAILABLE (at the time) episodes to listen while walking my dog .. once I get to the latest episode I then go back to the start (of what I actually have) and listen to them all over again. I'm not sure how far back I have, but I know for sure that even late last year when I started listening, that the oldest ones were not there. (Don't bother asking me for any .. lol .. out of respect to everyone involved I'm not even going to check which ones I have until this is resolved .. I definitely do recommend going to @DomainSherpa and listening to the old episodes that are available)


Re-editing the old shows isn't quite that simple as it's not just the ads .. but sometimes Dicker and even the others refer to building out sites .. etc .. information that really would be inappropriate to share.


That being said I am personally very grateful to ALL past and present Sherpas .. I've learned a lot from those shows .. all while being super entertaining as a great added bonus.

If it came down to it, I'd actually gladly volunteer some of my time over the next few weeks to take notes on where potentially problematic segments/conversations on a few of those old episodes took place to help Michael Cyger edit them more efficiently (I coincidentally emailed him about this right before reading this thread).

That being said it certainly could be a difficult task in some cases as it would leave things out of context which can also be unrepresentative and bad/confusing for new domainers. Plus much of that information is simply out of date as much has changed in the industry since 2014. The shows have been gone for many months and nobody really seemed to even want it ... the shows were listened to and consumed when they were needed back at and around that time .. most of total listens to those shows are already done .. and it's not like there's been any demand for these old shows.

Michael Cyger successfully grew his brand AND the various sherpas also had their reputation/brand grow as a result of those shows .. but at this point there really isn't much benefit to anyone for bringing them back as only a tiny fraction of new domainers would truly go all the way back and listen to all of them.


Like @Ali constructively mentioned above .. I'm just hoping this gets resolved .. seems like it's a misunderstanding / miscommunication on all sides to some degree .. but this kind of distraction is just bad for the industry as a whole and makes us all look unprofessional when the leaders of the industry are in conflict .. we need to get back to arguing about ngTLD's!
 
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EXACTLY. These are my 4 issues. And all he had to do was send an email or post and say "My attorney advised me not to talk about this right now." or whatever. IGNORING became a disaster. For what?

Rick you threatened Michael on Twitter!

With his Sponsors!

Can`t you see why he is not responding?

If you came up with a decent conversation you would have your response IMO.

But probably you threatened him offline as well since you have no shame to do it publicly!

Why do You take it Personal? He did what he did just to protect the domain investors who are not aware of Dicker.

Do you need an extra publication to be known, No!

Michael has spent more time than any of you for the videos that he deleted. - Including Berkens!

He has prepared for the shows!

He has edited the shows!

He made voice records available for the shows!

He published written texts of the whole conversation of the shows!

Now, tell me, please!

Why are you trying to take him down while you claim that you are retired or will retire again soon? Don`t tell me you are not trying to take him down cause you threaten him with his Sponsors.

I don`t know whatever you have in your mind, but I would like to let you know that you don`t harm Michael Cyger with your comments but your reputation and prestige.

Besides if any of these Sponsors stop working with Domain Sherpa they will lose their reputation as well.

and you know, their potential customers...
 
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