interviews DomainSherpa Review – July 31: NameJet Safe to Buy/Sell? Getting Uncomfortable w Shane…

[Chris Hydrick]

**Typically these headlines are posted by @DomainSherpa himself, but since I couldn't find anything about this DomainSherpa interview on NamePros, I'm posting it so we can have an upon unfiltered discussion about the interview**

Link HERE

Earlier this month, I tried to comment on the interview. It's been about 2-3 weeks or so, and the comment still hasn't been approved. I had asked a simple question to Mr. Cyger. I don't know remember the exact wording of the unapproved comment, but it was something like

"How can you call the NamePros thread about NameJet shill bidding a witch hunt if you don't know which accounts were actually blocked?"

My question derived from Michael's below transcript. If Michael doesn't know which accounts were blocked, how can he protect himself from those accounts if they rise again in a different form?

Michael: That was a witch-hunt that went down. You know, I give NamePros a lot of credit for being the place where somebody can bring up something like this, because if we didn’t have NamePros I’m not sure people could’ve discussed it and we could’ve found that there was an issue. Because clearly there was shill bidding going on, and NameJet has blocked those people — NameJet said that there was shill bidding. I don’t know what accounts were actually blocked. Shane, regardless of whether accounts are blocked or not, one of the reasons I love to have your perspective is that I don’t wanna put words in your mouth, but tell me if you agree with this.

I don’t care if people are shill bidding or not, I understand the value of a domain name at wholesale value, and if I can get it at a good price, I’m willing to buy it. Would you agree with that or not? Clearly, shill bidding is wrong, but you get my point that you’re only bidding based on the value of the domain name, regardless of

In Michaels defense, I don't think he approved my comment because he wanted to keep attention drawn to the last comment which benefits a charity...

 

[Domain Shane]

TLDR - can someone fill me in?

Pretty sure Andrew got mad at someone. He only has an on or off button and means he's either on your team or he goes off on you. He just gets a little excited and the bear gets poked. I consider him a good friend and will be on his team any day. But he does get a little excited some days. 95% passion for what he does gets a little mixed with anger. Hope things get talked out. And again, not sure it's him but if you look through the panel it's not very hard to figure this one out.

 

[creataweb]

And the plot thickens.

 

[briguy]

Pretty sure Andrew got mad at someone. He only has an on or off button and means he's either on your team or he goes off on you. He just gets a little excited and the bear gets poked. I consider him a good friend and will be on his team any day. But he does get a little excited some days. 95% passion for what he does gets a little mixed with anger. Hope things get talked out. And again, not sure it's him but if you look through the panel it's not very hard to figure this one out.

If I am reading this correctly..sounds like a bully/passive aggressive..if I am right, sure not a recommended way to do business especially at that level

Just my thoughts.

 

[Keith]

Pretty sure Andrew got mad at someone. He only has an on or off button and means he's either on your team or he goes off on you. He just gets a little excited and the bear gets poked. I consider him a good friend and will be on his team any day. But he does get a little excited some days. 95% passion for what he does gets a little mixed with anger. Hope things get talked out. And again, not sure it's him but if you look through the panel it's not very hard to figure this one out.

He's a good dude that feels the need to fiercely defend his rep in a sketchy space. I've bought/sold, and co-owned domains with him. Only positives here...

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I know others users also got threatened via PM after the NameJet thread.

I assume the threat others received may have been a variant of the below quote taken from the direct messages he sent me.

Your posts mentioning my name must be removed by close of business today. If not, this is what I'm posting tomorrow:

I have warned all of you folks who think it is ok to make unfounded accusations or even insinuations against ANYONE, not just me. I will find out who you are and I will make you pay, even if those accusations are not against me. YOU are the downfall of the domain industry. YOU are a cancer on not only this industry but society. You are NOT judge, jury or executioner. In fact you are nobody. You have no power and no right to make these irresponsible accusations and comments and they cause irreparable harm to people's reputations and businesses. My only assumption is that if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. Well I'm going to test that theory on each and every one of you until you cry mercy.

The above direct quote is followed by much more severe and insulting comments personally directed at me, and my personal information.

Hope things get talked out.

With fear of further harassment that not only affects my mental well being but other aspects of my personal and professional life, I have no interest in speaking to Sherpa A.R. in private. Anything that he wants to say to me can be made publicly, either here on NamePros, or a platform of his choosing. When you are fearful of another individual who has been personally attacking you, you don't meet them in private, you meet them in a public setting for safety.

 

[creataweb]

"My only assumption is that if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. Well I'm going to test that theory on each and every one of you until you cry mercy."

There are a few unstable people on this forum I wouldn't wanna test that theory on.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

He's a good dude that feels the need to fiercely defend his rep in a sketchy space. I've bought/sold, and co-owned domains with him. Only positives here...

I don't think anyone is questioning his trade record.

You have also bought a domain from me without issues.

 

[Keith]

I don't think anyone is questioning his trade record.

You have also bought a domain from me without issues.

Yup. And interactions surrounding domains is what we're talking about. Just stating my experience. You were a pleasure to deal with, for the record

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I love this comment "I make Rick Schwartz look like a school girl." I do love how Rick goes off on people who try to strong arm him on his names. there is only one http://www.hallofshame.com/

To me, that was a very ill founded school boy thing for A.R. to have said. Because, to my knowledge, nobody makes @Rick Schwartz look like a little school girl. He is the domain king!!!

And while I'm on the subject of heavy hitters, can anybody tell me why A.R. would question why I wasn't looking into the activity of the below individuals? Below is another direct quote from our DMs.

Why aren't you asking those questions about Frank Schilling? Or Michael Berkens?

To answer his question, I replied because nobody has sent me leads on Schilling or Berkens. I was under the impression these two conducted themselves in a professional manner, and there was no reason to look into either of the two. I don't know if A.R. was insinuating anything, or...? Because to me, this too seems like an ill founded thing to say.

 

[frank-germany]

I assume the threat others received may have been a variant of the below quote taken from the direct messages he sent me.



The above direct quote is followed by much more severe and insulting comments personally directed at me, and my personal information.



With fear of further harassment that not only affects my mental well being but other aspects of my personal and professional life, I have no interest in speaking to Sherpa A.R. in private. Anything that he wants to say to me can be made publicly, either here on NamePros, or a platform of his choosing. When you are fearful of another individual who has been personally attacking you, you don't meet them in private, you meet them in a public setting for safety.

Oh Lord have mercy.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Oh Lord have mercy.

Bro - I know. This is beyond ridiculous! Let's break down another A.R. attack on me through direct messages on NamePros.

He begins his next threat with another reference to God.

So help me God, you will all regret the day you decided to call yourselves Domainers. You give "Domainer" a bad name.

Then he decides to post my WHOIS registrant info including a residentially zoned address that he found on the WHOIS from one of my domains. This intimidated me, because per his previous message he says, "I will find out who you are and I will make you pay, even if those accusations are not against me." He doesn't specify if he's going to make me pay with money, my reputation, or worse case - blood. Hence my concern of him stating a United States residential address in the midst of these attacks.

The below quote is the next thing A.R. said, except I added asterisks on my personal information prior to posting in this thread.

Lets start with @Grilled (C*r*st*ph*r H*d*i*k)

Registrant Organization: *h*is*o*her H*d***k
Registrant Street: 1**5 L***e C*a***es Dr
Registrant City: ***e**
Registrant State/Province: GA
Registrant Postal Code: 3****
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.4049266610
chrish******@gmail.com
cheap*********@gmail.com
chrishy*****@gmail.com
sports******@gmail.com

This ignorant excuse for a human being is so stupid that he doesn't even understand how two companies can share a registered agent address. He even calls a Sovereign nation (Gibraltar) a "Fantasy Island". Go back to 5th grade Geography maggot. Well maybe we should be questioning him about why he needs to use 4 different emails and multiple different addresses on his domains? Whats he hiding?

Obviously I didn't respond to his coercing message, because like I said previously, when somebody is attacking you, you find a public space for safety. I will respond here.

With regards to me calling Gibraltar a Fantasy Island, here is the full context of what I said.

In response to the "four" different emails he stated I'm using, and what I'm trying to hide: If A.R. had any attention to detail, he would notice I use different emails for different registrars. You know, in case one email gets hacked, all your information isn't exposed. Also relating to attention to detail, of the "four" emails he posted, two of them were the same, thus he should have said THREE emails. One - Two - Four? He either needs to go back to 5th grade math class himself to learn how to count, or learn to exercise better attention to detail.

The below quote is a direct quote from the DMs A.R. sent me. I did not edit, he bolded the sentence containing the words witch hunt. Hence, why I felt it necessary to ask Mr. Cyger, why he felt it was a witch hunt, because the last time I saw somebody call that thread a witch hunt was in the threatening messages A.R. sent me.

This so called "domainer" has NEVER owned a single domain of value! He is the definition of Pigeon sh*t! He hand registers 5 letter .com domains and occasionally buys crap domains like "jailfood.com". He does not even understand bidding procedures and common industry practices. He is one of the least qualified people on the forum to be investigating ANYTHING. But you folks have praised him as your leader in your witch hunt. Says a lot about your decision making and intelligence! Make a decision NOW which side of this war you are on, because I am waging a war against fake news, internet trolls & unfounded accusations & insinuations in the domain industry. If you are not with me, you are against me. God help you.

Then, he does some SHADY

and sends me the below threat. Mind you, he is threatening to post all of this if I don't comply to his blackmail like request to remove comments I have no ability to remove. I am astrisking my name and link, and removing keywords from his below message (replacing it with blanks ______), because I don't want that information published. Obviously, I can't stop him from posting what he wants, just as he can't stop me, but he should know, if he does, I will vigorously defend myself.

Back to C********r H*****k (@Grilled), this piece of internet excrete is a _____! Oh the irony! It is always the folks who preach the loudest who have the most to ____. This piece of excrement is running around telling everyone that he is a super hero of domain justice, but actually he is a _________ ___________..

Here is a link to his _______ after he was _______ for _______ _______ by ___________:

https://******newspaper.com/***********************************************

In response to his claims that I am running around telling everyone I am a super hero of domain justice, I have never said that. For the most part, I am a humble man. I don't know where he got this view that I was a super hero of domain justice, but I do thank him for the compliment. We should all strive to be super hero's, especially for justice. I'm not sure if A.R. has seen spider man, but if he did, he would know with great power, comes great responsibility.

 

[Addison]

@Grilled, are you about done? You being threatened has little to do with this DomainSherpa review, but you're taking out the actions of one Sherpa on the DomainSherpa brand, which is irresponsible of you at a minimum.

You've entered taunting territory yourself. You made your point on the first page and three pages later, you're still poking and prodding him. If he comes after you, IMO, it's your own fault for instigating it all week, and you just might deserve it after ferociously provoking him in this thread. Being a jerk isn't a crime, but it appears you're both guilty of being people I wouldn't want to interact with.

Who wants to support you harassing someone, even if they're a jerk? You're both doing the same thing to each other in your own way: bullying. You earned a lot of goodwill in that NameJet thread, but you're gambling it with your taunting and provocative posts.

Quit while you're ahead, or less people are going to empathize with you if he comes after you. Laconically: take the high road, or expect little support.

IMO.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

You earned a lot of goodwill in that NameJet thread, but you're gambling it with your taunting and provocative posts.

Goodwill? Is that what this is? You apparently have no idea what I,and allegedly others, have been through since participating in the namejet thread.

I didn't appreciate Mr. Cyger making light of the thread by referring to it as a witch hunt - an obvious buzzword to me. I TRIED to bring this up through the comments of DomainSherpa. I waited 2+ weeks prior to bringing this issue upon NamePros, as I waited for Mr. Cyger to approve my comment that has yet to happen.

I appreciate your words of caution, I really do. But to answer your question, No - I'm not done.

 

[Internet.Domains]

Before this gets ugly, may I suggest that all parties discuss this privately with an independent moderator. I do believe, at this time, this situation can be discussed and fixed......Hoping the best for all parties involved!

 

[JayT]

From first post, where you quote Michael:

"I don’t care if people are shill bidding or not, I understand the value of a domain name at wholesale value, and if I can get it at a good price, I’m willing to buy it. Would you agree with that or not? Clearly, shill bidding is wrong, but you get my point that you’re only bidding based on the value of the domain name, regardless of"

He takes a position: I don’t care if people are shill bidding or not
Admits he's a snake: Clearly, shill bidding is wrong...

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Before this gets ugly, may I suggest that all parties discuss this privately with an independent moderator. I do believe, at this time, this situation can be discussed and fixed......Hoping the best for all parties involved!

I was about to agree to this, and was in the process of drafting a bury the hatchet email per a voicemail I received from this individual that he wants to talk about this, and will stay calm.

Then, I received a cease and desist email that may suggest this is not the route he wants to take.

I don't know what to do now.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

This will be my final post in this thread. I have reached out to NamePros mods about the policy of removing my posts per a legal request. Everyone, understand, the site Admin is incurring a horrible hardship, and a timeline for my request to be addressed is undetermined.

For the record, this is was my response.

Andrew,

I'm sorry I missed your call. Before this goes any further, let me first state my issue.

Per your words, "YOU are a cancer on not only this industry but society."

Now look, it's obvious that you don't know (or didn't at the time) who I am by the fact you threatened to post an arrest report of a kid who is under 18 for a strangulation charge should I not abide by your request. see below

"Back to Christopher Hydrick (@Grilled), this piece of internet excrete is a felon! Oh the irony! It is always the folks who preach the loudest who have the most to hide. This piece of excrement is running around telling everyone that he is a super hero of domain justice, but actually he is a criminal himself.

Here is a link to his mugshot after he was arrested for felony assault by strangulation:

https://bustednewspaper.com/duncan-christopher-hydrick-2016-10-20/"

I bring up those two quotes, because while the person in that arrest report may be a cancer to society, I am most certainly not.

I have served this country honorably being a military veteran. I take great offense to outrageous claims of me being a cancer to society. I did not put my life on hold at 18 to swear an oath to defend this country to be called a cancer to society. As a veteran, I take great pride in my past and in my country.

Now that you know my past, you must know war means something different to a civilian as it does to a soldier. You literally said this is a war. An obvious trigger word for any current or former military veteran.

"Make a decision NOW which side of this war you are on, because I am waging a war against fake news, internet trolls & unfounded accusations & insinuations in the domain industry."

I consider this matter closed. I will update the forum to reflect such, unless you still want to get our lawyers involved. I see no reason for either of us to waste money on legal fee's, when we both appeared ready to put this behind us.


Thank you for your understanding,
Chris

 

[deez007]

@Grilled - Much respect bro!

 

[ben pedri]

Wow, what a terrible take.

"I don’t care if people are shill bidding or not"

No wonder people think this industry is a scammy joke.

EDIT: he's probably had to develop this mindset personally to justify to himself not taking all his videos down.

He sure cared about the Dicker thing but suddenly this one is all "meh, don't care." Pyramidsherpa.

Sorry if I'm coming off as combative but not letting anyone punch down on my fellow domainers.

I actually kind of agree with you shill bidding means nothing it actually just raises the reserve price,if you think its too high than just don't buy it. What prevents someones brother on the other side of the country bidding up his siblings dot. As long as he is willing to pay the closing costs and commissions,then they should have the same right. What if in the middle of an auction this person gets a million dollar offer for a domain ,should he just sell it to Drew R for 3 grand. In a way shill bidding goes on all around the world in every business in a lot on hometown auctions too. In the end if the buyer gets his merch back he has to take a hit for keeping hit domain. 15 years ago my brothers corvette key fob was on ebay best bid was 8 dollars ,I knew he had it listed and there was only 10 min left ,the value was 250 dollars new, in the end my brother after winning it for 58 dollars called me
and said.I heard your in the market for a sports car. in the end it cost him about 10 bucks in fee ,no paypal but because the deal of course never happened ,BUT IT DID ,a transaction occurred and a fee was paid. Due to an lack of a liquid market nobody scored a windfall. The same with domaining ,you have guys selling domains for a few hundred bucks and then the buyers go on air bragging about a 200k sale. There nothing wrong with bidding if your gonna pay the piper in the end.

 

[james haw]

"I make rick Schwartz look like a schoolgirl"
Yeah? Well what you do on a weekend is irrelevant to this discussion...

 

[Bean]

First time reading about this and I must say I kinda agree with Michael here (except for the witch hunt bit which may be a little out of order).
The fact is that you can never be 100% certain that there is shill bidding going on. Maybe it's happening, maybe it's not but there's no sense, at least to me to, in assuming that it is. Whenever I'm interested in buying a domain, I always have a max amount I'm willing to spend on it even before I start bidding. That amount of course might not necessarily reflect the actual worth (if there is such a thing) of the name. If I'm outbid, I just move on.
As a disclaimer of sorts, I also have to say that domaining is more of a hobby for me. It could well be that the competitiveness/pressure at higher professional levels make it hard to ignore the possibility that there may be shill bidding going on.

 

[pchip]

First time reading about this and I must say I kinda agree with Michael here (except for the witch hunt bit which may be a little out of order).
The fact is that you can never be 100% certain that there is shill bidding going on. Maybe it's happening, maybe it's not but there's no sense, at least to me to, in assuming that it is. Whenever I'm interested in buying a domain, I always have a max amount I'm willing to spend on it even before I start bidding. That amount of course might not necessarily reflect the actual worth (if there is such a thing) of the name. If I'm outbid, I just move on.

I think it's difficult for many of us to understand the thinking that in some way Shill Bidding is okay and is acceptable. I'm starting to think it's like having a good work ethic. You either have it or you don't.

 

[richface]

Wow I guess is acceptable to send threats to fellow Domainers because your company makes millions and no backbone Domainers seeking daily soup will backup Andrew no matter what . If what Grilled has posted is correct that message was wrong to send "FULL STOP" No nonsense about how he does business or he is really a nice guy BS that can be said of anyone. True friends Tell it like it is not maneuver in the loyalty corner like puppies on bended knee. A great businessman once told me my reputation matters more than the Billions in my Bank Account , I always thought that was a weird statement but if you really think about it money comes and goes especially in Business but when you lose your reputation and respect it is extremely difficult to get it back and in any Industry impulsive reactions like that can destroy a company's rep how many CEO's have you seen apologizing on various occasions for stupid statements are they all fools? or they understand that a business does not survive on money alone but Humility in leadership, reputation and respect? Those who see themselves as lesser Domainers will always remain so you might have less money but you are not a subordinate to anyone. Consider the message if True Childish at best @Grilled and Move on. That legal threat is Laughable.

 

[Dnbolt]

This threat/bulling would have made domain news headlines if it wasn't coming from Andrew.

Let's make this world transparent by calling a spade a spade regardless of who's holding the spade. Be like Stephen who stands for the truth regardless of friends etc..

My view on learning from domain experts on domainsherpa has slightly changed.

This why you can't easily tust people even the so called experts/Gurus.

 

[Bram C.]

Whenever I'm interested in buying a domain, I always have a max amount I'm willing to spend on it even before I start bidding. That amount of course might not necessarily reflect the actual worth (if there is such a thing) of the name. If I'm outbid, I just move on.

Just because you move on when you get outbid doesn't mean everyone does. I'm sure that a lot of people have a fixed maximum price in their head prior to an auction but when they see they get outbid they may increase their maximum bid. They start to believe the domain has more value than their initial assessment. But in case of shill bidding this "value" is artificially increased. So basically shill bidding makes those kind of bidders pay more for a domain compared to what they normally would have paid if there wasn't any shill bidding going on. Now, you can blame those bidders for not sticking to their maximum bid but in the end the shill bidder is the culprit here and the people who are bidding on those auctions the victims.