Braden Pollock Steps Down from Epik BoD

[EJS]

In a tweet this evening, Braden Pollock announced that he resigned from the Epik board because he and Rob Monster “don’t share the same ideology“. Braden invested in Epik in 2011 and has been on the company's Board of Directors since then:

https://domaininvesting.com/braden-pollock-resigns-from-epik-board/

 

[JB Lions]

No idea, but saw this posted, founder of DAN:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1270611867598311425

 

[carob]

At one time Epik was going to take over Undeveloped, but they went separate ways:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/undeveloped-com-and-epik-parting-ways.1039674/

 

[Peak.Domains]

Some people are being blatantly racist or defending it, other people are calling it out, there's always the cowardly third group who feels the need to chime in with

"We should all just be more respectful to one another..."

lmao

 

[Silentptnr]

Sure, here is the video I commented on for context. Braden spent 6 hours going through 7000 of my Tweets to find a joke a I posted in response to an absurd video that claimed victims of crimes should not be armed because the perpetrators are black (in this particular case) and should not fear being shot.

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1104042339314659328

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104042339314659328

I replied to a comment, in an crude and satirical way that is not repeated anywhere else in my tweets. But watch for yourselves and make up your own minds.

Notice the message above mine is exempt from the screenshots being shared. It is done purposefully to blur the line and issue a conviction, instead of a question that needs to be rebutted. But it is the VERY argument this Arkansas senator used to excuse disarming people. I am against that completely, and would argue without deviation that gun control harms the black community in the US the most. See Chicago, for an example.

But I'm curious, did you read ANY of my other tweets? It's a really good view of who I am as a whole. Your comment about "expecting this from me" when you have never addressed me in any way. We have never actually spoken, ever. How can you honestly say that you expected this? You have no idea who I am and blatantly ignored how I represent myself.

I invite everyone to take a minute and read my other tweets. Yes it's a huge waste of time and you might disagree with me on some other fronts, but racism is a very specific emotion that does not apply to me personally.

It is evidenced by the fact that I don't discriminate in my domain business, i help anyone that needs it, and I've gone above and beyond for some of the poorest domainers on this forum from all over the world.

On Braden Pollock, he might be one of the greatest domainers of all time. But he is not exempt from error here. He took my mistake on DNAcademy as an opportunity to advance his own personal political gains that have affected him since WAY before I was in the picture. All while masquerading as a social justice warrior for the black community. When in fact he is just another elite .001% opportunist with zero self awareness of his own lack of morality. Literally profiteering from the harm done by police to black protesters in LA as I type this.

He was calling me a "sacrificial lamb" to my face, on video chat, as if it were some sort of honor badge to be sacrificed in his name. The man has zero nuance, and it seems you are on board with the myopic approach to discussing a politically charged issue.

Honestly speaking, I had not looked into Braden at all. One peek under the hood shows you these people are massive hypocrites in a scale that I would not have imagined. I won't drag third parties into this, but people like Braden are in power vacuum echo chamber in LA.

I lived in the US for 20+ years, and people like Braden Pollock have desecrated America with ideologies that don't belong in a civilized society. They want equality of outcome while they remain on their pedestal of oppression.

Truthfully, I hate to get political because it can be divisive.

My aim has always been responsible enterprise, voluntary association, peaceful non-aggression, mutual respect, and an undying pursuit to live in a just world by virtue of the free market.

For anyone wanting to continue this conversation, you are invited to PM me and ask me ANYTHING at all.

This video by Dr. Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite perspectives on the main issue at hand: Discrimination and Disparities. EDIT: to those who liked this talk, highly encourage to study T. Sowell in depth. He is a well of wisdom and perspective.

But specifically, how do you reconcile your personal lack of "that emotion" with your association and indirect support of those that clearly possess "that emotion"?

 

[Silentptnr]

Sometimes it's hard to see that as one person, we can't save the world. Hard pill to swallow, especially for a person with relatively high intelligence, determination, and strong belief in something.

I still hope the rational, bright side of Rob will see that while his intentions may have been good, it is his own ego that perhaps led him to believe he could somehow fix such a huge and divisive issue like racism.

In the end, the decisions based on ego, were shortsighted. Mistakes happen. It's how we fix them that counts.

If you read this @Rob Monster , you know that I mean it with respect and sincere care.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Epik’s dot com renewals are not the lowest by any means anyway. I’ve offered Rob Monster my prices at DynaDot and Rob Monster has admitted he cannot match them. DD domain privacy is free. I have about 1500 domains.

I had to revisit this post of yours just for clarification:

Dynadot pre-funding of accounts provides 8.75 rate for .COMs in all stages ( Registration, Renewal, and Transfer ). This they call BULK.
"Prepayments of $500.00 or more instantly qualifies you for our discounted bulk pricing."

Now there is something they call Super Bulk which is "Prepayments of $5000.00 or more instantly qualifies you for our further discounted super bulk pricing."

The Super Bulk provides 8.50 rate for .COMs in all stages ( Registration, Renewal, and Transfer ).

Namepros members get 8.49 for all pricing regardless of pre-funding or not at Epik.

With that said, I am not sure if @Dynadot gives you better deal than what @Rob Monster Epik is providing to all members of Namepros which is 8.49 which if they do means they are giving you pricing that is outside the 3 layers they announce on their site , Regular, Bulk, and Super Bulk.

Of course there is the following too which some big portfolio owners might find interesting although the credit is not that much:

"
Prepayments from $10000.00 to $49999.99 paid by bank wire or check get a 1% credit bonus.
Prepayments for $50000.00 or more paid by bank wire or check get a 2% credit bonus. "

To get the prices for Bulk and Super Bulk of Dynadot, you would need to pre-fund the account,while at Epik to get 8.49 all you need is to be a Namepros member.
Source: https://www.dynadot.com/domain/com.html

I have many names in both places so these are the prices I see. I believe if Super Bulk gives you 8.50 then Epik gives 8.49 with no funding required from Namepros members. So I am not sure how Epik could not match such rates for COMs if you are getting Super Bulk prices.

 

[Silentptnr]

For those who missed it, I stated my position here this morning:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1270740471590072322

As I have been doing from time to time lately, this video comment was one take, straight from the heart.

As for the Board change, I do wish @Braden Pollock all the best. He and I have had different views on the free speech issue for a long time now. However, we did seek common ground and compromise.

In part due to the ongoing dialog with Braden, my own position on free speech has evolved. I do think there is a line for acceptable use. It is one that we do actively enforce with a dedicated abuse manager.

Braden and I remain friends. In fact, we spoke at length today. Braden is still both an Epik client and Epik shareholder. He has some great domains. We are happy to be a part of his domaining success story.

Specific to the triggering event for this decision by @Braden Pollock , I do stand by the decision to retain @DanSanchez.

For those who know Dan, it should be apparent that he continues to mature and that he is a positive force for the industry bringing great value through the NameLiquidate project.

It is regrettable that Dan dropped an ill-timed F-bomb as his smartphone smashed to the ground during a hot mic moment.

As for the sensationalist followup from Mike Cyger, I was disappointed by that, particularly as he has acknowledged to me that he believed Dan's story.

As some here know, Epik does have many ardent fans and supporters. Some of them have come to our public defense, all entirely of their own initiative. I will continue to advocate for civility and positivity.

Stay classy folks.

As long as you/Epik, support/host/associate with organizations that are known to be racist in nature, organizations that other major industry companies, as well as the general public have taken a public stand against for what should be obvious reasons, you should not be disappointed or surprised by any reaction or erosion of business relationships. You should actually expect it.

I know you understand others, that believe equally as firmly, that there is absolutely no place for racism and hate on this planet, and that any support of such an organization is by association controversial at a minimum. Most businesses avoid controversy, directly or by association. But I know you know this.

I'm sure aside from all the other issues you mentioned, you also realize that the single major issue I read about most, is your/Epik supporting/hosting/associating with a known racist organization.

I genuinely like the person (Rob) I speak directly with, one on one. It's hard to think of you on the phone with an organization clearly used as a hub for racists. How do you talk about helping them grow?

You know I say these things in the spirit of respect and with a sincere hope for you/Epik to have all the support of both the industry and the general public. I think you know that support is valuable and important.

Let's catch up some time soon.

 

[frank-germany]

so what Not being able to change NS?

they have a build-in Nameserver
that gives you a lot of freedom of choice

I 'm able to set it to do anything I' d like

the only disadvantage is:
no fast transfer

but the question was
cheap renewals, right?

 

[xynames]

Cloudflare doesnt allow you to change NS.

Once you switch to cloudflare their DNS panel controls everything. From that point only certain records such as the MX must be matched with the MX at the host server, for email.

When you first engage cloudflare it will pull automatically all of your DNS records from your host although you might need to make some minor modifications to some of the TXT records such as removing “ or ; You also might want to add a second MX record for redundancy.

Once you switch to cloudflare, most everything flows through cloudflare’s proxies. The cloudflare advantages include complete anonymity from reverse IP hosting searches because so many unrelated sites are assigned the same IP, and protection from certain forms of hacker attacks that traditional servers are vulnerable to when their actual hosting IP address is exposed.

To leave cloudflare you just switch your nameservers back to those for your host, wherever the domain is registered.

I didn’t used to like the idea of cloudflare but after switching some sites to it I’ve noticed no change in speed (some say cloudflare increases site load speed) and an increase in anonymity and security.

Cloudflare is for hosted sites with content. Not worth the set up effort for parked, for sale sites.

 

[wwwweb]

Despite differences, Braden is one of the best.

Can buy ur epik stake Good luck both.

Sorry came to this Respect the hell out of both.

Samer

Most likely advisory shares.

 

[carob]

What Braden Pollock's tweet says is:

"Since @robmonster and I don't share the same ideology it's time he and I part company. I don't agree with the direction of @EpikDotCom so I've decided to resign my Board seat, effective immediately"

To me it is not clear from that if he means to say he does not like the direction the company is going, or he does not want to work with someone whose ideology he does not share, or both. Last time share ownership was discussed here Rob Monster owned 80% of Epik shares, basically giving him control of Epik.

Rob Monster has certainly discussed vaccine-scepticism and conspiracy theories very publicly, and those issues have been under the spotlight lately.

 

[Samer]

No idea, but saw this posted, founder of DAN:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1270611867598311425

@Rob Monster you must reply to this

Why, @DAN.COM

Samer

 

[jideofor]

wow... i hope is done amicably

 

[FlipperC]

You dont need to dig far to see Epik support for hate. Here Gab.com post by Epik engineer proud of hosting Gab and building tools to help hate speech.

Dont take some liberal wikipedia description of Gab as your definition. GO READ what people post on there. The news is full of far right conspiracy theorists, racists, bigots.

Here's rob talking about how they working to make sure all the "free speech" can go on at all times. Who he talking to? Haters and racists. Hes not going onto Black forums, onto Muslim forums, onto Jewish forums. Just a forum mostly full of people who hate.

Dont believe me? Here a typical response from the hate-ful people on Gab in response to one of the many posts Rob has made there while socializing and doing businiess

That makes my skin crawl. These people say things that are deplorable,.

Oh wait....it not just those people, its the people who work at Epik too

8chan is a hot bed for white supremacism, neo-Nazism, the alt-right, racism and anti-Semitism, hate crimes, and multiple mass shootings.

gab is a hot bed for white supremacism, neo-Nazism, the alt-right, racism and anti-Semitism.

Choose the company you keep. clearly Braden doesn't wnat to keep company with Rob Monster any longer.

 

[FlipperC]

As long as Epik is headed by Rob and they keep the lowest domain pricing for investors and they keep on not charging for privacy the vast majority of my names will remain there.

if that all you care about, good f-ing luck to you in life. i hope you and monster are happy together.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Apparently not behind closed doors, somebody informed me during Cygers show a epik person shouted "fuck em" in relation to something

this was probably the straw that broke the camels back for Braden. That's me reading between the lines

Well, now that I've thought about it, it would be interesting to hear all sides of this event.

 

[BrandPlease]

I would go with decency, respect for others, dignity, & self respect. What the world & apparently this thread is missing. The more disrespect one shows to others is a reflection on what they feel about themselves. Might be time for some self-reflection.

Although I do not support censorship - it's still unacceptable to yell fire - and even more so with the awful statements and clear hate and racism appearing in an account above. Why has NP not addressed?

 

[Silentptnr]

100% disagree with this part, the tweets back with "standing up for what you believe in." The context could not be clearer IMO

I meant...because of personal differences (or ideology)...it was strictly a business decision. Not because the company is failing or something. I think we mean the same thing.

 

[bmugford]

Looks like that was about Intelliname

Looks like this was almost as successful as his Wikipedia campaign when it came to fixing Epik's reputation...

Brad

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Sure, here is the video I commented on for context. Braden spent 6 hours going through 7000 of my Tweets to find a joke a I posted in response to an absurd video that claimed victims of crimes should not be armed because the perpetrators are black (in this particular case) and should not fear being shot.

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1104042339314659328

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104042339314659328

I replied to a comment, in an crude and satirical way that is not repeated anywhere else in my tweets. But watch for yourselves and make up your own minds.

Notice the message above mine is exempt from the screenshots being shared. It is done purposefully to blur the line and issue a conviction, instead of a question that needs to be rebutted. But it is the VERY argument this Arkansas senator used to excuse disarming people. I am against that completely, and would argue without deviation that gun control harms the black community in the US the most. See Chicago, for an example.

But I'm curious, did you read ANY of my other tweets? It's a really good view of who I am as a whole. Your comment about "expecting this from me" when you have never addressed me in any way. We have never actually spoken, ever. How can you honestly say that you expected this? You have no idea who I am and blatantly ignored how I represent myself.

I invite everyone to take a minute and read my other tweets. Yes it's a huge waste of time and you might disagree with me on some other fronts, but racism is a very specific emotion that does not apply to me personally.

It is evidenced by the fact that I don't discriminate in my domain business, i help anyone that needs it, and I've gone above and beyond for some of the poorest domainers on this forum from all over the world.

On Braden Pollock, he might be one of the greatest domainers of all time. But he is not exempt from error here. He took my mistake on DNAcademy as an opportunity to advance his own personal political gains that have affected him since WAY before I was in the picture. All while masquerading as a social justice warrior for the black community. When in fact he is just another elite .001% opportunist with zero self awareness of his own lack of morality. Literally profiteering from the harm done by police to black protesters in LA as I type this.

He was calling me a "sacrificial lamb" to my face, on video chat, as if it were some sort of honor badge to be sacrificed in his name. The man has zero nuance, and it seems you are on board with the myopic approach to discussing a politically charged issue.

Honestly speaking, I had not looked into Braden at all. One peek under the hood shows you these people are massive hypocrites in a scale that I would not have imagined. I won't drag third parties into this, but people like Braden are in power vacuum echo chamber in LA.

I lived in the US for 20+ years, and people like Braden Pollock have desecrated America with ideologies that don't belong in a civilized society. They want equality of outcome while they remain on their pedestal of oppression.

Truthfully, I hate to get political because it can be divisive.

My aim has always been responsible enterprise, voluntary association, peaceful non-aggression, mutual respect, and an undying pursuit to live in a just world by virtue of the free market.

For anyone wanting to continue this conversation, you are invited to PM me and ask me ANYTHING at all.

This video by Dr. Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite perspectives on the main issue at hand: Discrimination and Disparities. EDIT: to those who liked this talk, highly encourage to study T. Sowell in depth. He is a well of wisdom and perspective.

I will address the rest of your post but let me make one thing clear... I just saw what I missed with my comment, I typed on mobile and I was typing WASN'T , so apologies if that offended you . I did not mean to write that at all, in fact I was surprised when I saw it now. Sorry

 

[Keith]

I mean, @Rob Monster and @DanSanchez are always eager to contribute here. Crickets now...

 

[Samer]

Proud to have known Rob through, post-Gab

Proud all his awesome innovations industry!

 

[Silentptnr]

Those are the prices I see when logged in and when not, and it is explained in their pricing page that they have those three tiers. You cannot get 8.75 I think without pre-funding the account with $500. I am seeing 8.99 since my account is not pre-funded.

I have never pre-funded ever at Dynadot. I have about 600 domains there, but I never pre-fund. I am certain the price I have is $8.75.

I think it's something to do with annual spend.

 

[johnn]

This thread is going to be a long thread.

 

[Silentptnr]

I don't support racist. But I support free speech and I think people need free speech to evolve.

Perhaps the wording 'racist' was created to manipulate people's minds. They use fear to lock most of the people to think inside a box, it just make the situation worst and it become a never ending story.

IMHO, the people whom created the word racist is the most racist people. In history, during cold-war, we have capitalism vs communism, everybody was forced to pick a side. Where is our freedom? why we can't pick a Ideology in between? Sadly not many people have a critical thinking to understand this.

That's what I mean. Sometimes our egos, thinking we alone have the answer, cloud the basic truth. Supremacy, racism, any form of hate just doesnt work. No excusing it. No rationalizing it. It's okay to let it be just plain wrong.