Turning lemons into lemonade

[Rob Monster]

From time to time, I feel moved to start a thread that I think might help one person in particular. However, considering the collective wisdom of many independent thinkers, this might also help others. This thread is about turning lemons into lemonade. As a self-described incurable optimist, it is one of my favorite topics. In my experience, the folks who figure this out early are better off than the ones who never learn it.

As context, on NamePros, I have met lots of cool people, some of whom have really amazing life stories. In fact, in 2019 alone, I have gotten to know many people here whom I now consider to be my trusted friends whose advice I keenly observe and in some of whom I now blindly trust. There are some folks here that are now practically family. And, yes, Epik also hired some folks here too.

To illustrate what I mean about lemons and lemonade, I will share a couple of examples that will be familiar to some NP members:

- Back in March 2019, a few people in the domain industry thought it would be a good idea to chastise me for protecting lawful free speech. This happened in blogs and also here on NamePros. I am not sure about their intention, but whoever was condemning me, ended up making me a lot more popular. In short, my response to being condemned was to engage with authenticity, and to let the crowd conclude for themselves if the manufactured consensus actually held any water. Well, many of you know how that worked out. Much to the chagrin of my harshest critics, Epik has gone from strength to strength as we co-create without care for who makes money or who gets credit.

- Earlier this year, Epik began to make significant inroads as a provider of escrow services for domain investors. The topic was introduced in a thread on NamePros, and within weeks, our friends at Escrow.com dispatched at least 6 state regulators to our doorstep. Although that process was time consuming, and even a bit daunting, we navigated those inquiries. One of the state regulators was kind enough to leak us the complaint. It fingered the instigator as one Jackson Elsegood. At one point when Jackson thought to engage in more of his nonsense, I let him have it, exposing Escrow.com once and for all. Matt Barrie got cute and he got a beatdown too! Our escrow business is booming, by the way and we are just getting started.


This is what I call turning lemons into lemonade. It is all about perspective. What are some principles:

- Be authentic: An early boss at P&G told me this: "First figure out the truth. Then explain truth." If you don't know yourself well enough to explain yourself, go fix that. If you know you screwed up, go deal with that. Acknowledge your faults. Everyone makes mistakes. Live and learn.

- Listen to your critics: Some of them are smart. They can teach you stuff, even if they don't really want to help you. The ones that point out your errors, probably never read Machiavelli who famously says to never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake.

- Try to find the upside: Is there some new circumstance that you had not considered before, consider whether you can accomplish something based on your unique situation. Most situations are not nearly as dire as you think they are. And indeed some things happen for a reason! That's providence.

- Find your tribe: Almost everyone loves an underdog. As long as you are not an unrepentant ass, people will come find you and share their wisdom for whatever you are dealing with at the moment. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Humility is a great foundation for personal growth.


Here are a few simple examples that I know apply to some folks here:

- Spouse cheated on you? Be thankful, you are liberated. Learn from your mistakes. Up your game. Grow in grace. Have confidence that providence has a better spouse out there. Or go back, but on your terms.

- Lost a loved one? Consider setting up a charitable foundation in honor of what that person most cherished. In so doing, know that you are celebrating, preserving and extending their legacy.

- Lost your job? Perhaps that job was not right for you anyway. Assess your strengths and passions. Start a business, or find something that is more perfect for you. If you are diligent, it will work out great!

- Perpetually single? Consider becoming a Digital Nomad. Live anywhere for almost nothing and see the world. You will have way more stories to tell. I am trying to convince @franka46 to set up a Domainer Dojo.

- Sick or injured? Become an expert on personal health. Develop a spiritual practice. Make new friends. Let your light shine. Do you still think your life sucks? Listen to this guy:

The list goes on. I am sure everyone here has had their share of lemons. Curious to hear your story. If it involves domaining, even better!

 

[oldtimer]

Look at my very post in this thread, it was reply to this:

"Personal attacks and belittling of others are not tolerated."

And I said that should be for everybody. So you either agree with that or not. If you agree with it, then it goes for Rob as well.

You make a good point and I don't consider that trolling. But the question is whether all those who keep criticizing Rob mean to encourage him to correct some of his past mistakes or do they just want to destroy him as a person and as a Registrar. In all fairness Rob himself has already admitted that perhaps he was wrong in supporting certain speech and actions made by some of the members of certain groups considering that there were no effective measures taken to keep those members inline and that he has now drawn some lines as to what he allows at Epik. As for the part that falls under free speech being exercised lawfully by certain groups that might be considered undesirable by the society at large then that is something for the courts to handle as far as what limits if any should be put on their activities. I personally see some improvements in Rob's judgment and behavior compare to when all this started and if people here like to see even more improvements in that regards then they should engage Rob in a constructive and friendly manner instead of badgering and attacking him all the time. And people should also understand that he is entitled to have his own political, religious, and racial views and beliefs just like everyone else here.

IMO

 

[JB Lions]

You make a good point and I don't consider that trolling. But the question is whether all those who keep criticizing Rob mean to encourage him to correct some of his past mistakes or do they just want to destroy him as a person and as a Registrar. In all fairness Rob himself has already admited that perhaps he was wrong in supporting certain speech and actions made by some of the members of certain groups considering that there were no effective measures taken to keep those members inline and that he has now drawn some lines as to what he allows at Epik. As for the part that falls under free speech being exercised lawfully by certain groups that might be considered undesirable by the society at large then that is something for the courts to handle as far as what limits if any should be put on their activities. I personally see some improvements in Rob's judgment and behavior compare to when all this started and if people here like to see even more improvements in that regards then they should engage Rob in a constructive and friendly manner instead of badgering and attaking him all the time. And people should also understand that he is entitled to have his own political, religious, and racial views and beliefs just like everyone else here.

IMO

Me telling him to stick to business is the opposite of destroying a registrar. It's just good business sense. People telling him not to engage with that hate site or incel site was good advice meant to help him. He just made bad choices.

It's very simple, also goes to the question asked in this thread about those "this thread is stupid votes". Some could be jokes but I think some is:

Keep bringing up Gab on a domaining forum when it's old news. It never ends well, you figure people would have learned this by now.

The overly promotional threads started, many in the General Discussion forum, this thread itself.

The first post is all kinds of contradiction, even the last one is just flat out not true.

As far as good business sense, it just baffles me why he brings it up again, literally linking to the thread. Imagine new domainers not knowing about any of this and reading that thread. There are going to be some that just don't care, just focus on the business, cheap regs, helpful registrar etc. There are some that are going to be turned off by it, that's lost business.

 

[frank-germany]

I think you missed the point and object lesson: I am not a Nazi, and neither are you. We both know this so let's dispense with this silly game, shall we, or if you insist on carrying out your little LARP operation, then do so in a thread that is pertinent to that topic. This thread is is about domainers overcoming adversity. If you have something constructive to contribute to that topic, be my guest.

Rob, I don't think you are nazi at all

And I don't think
you think of me as a nazi

I can't possibly be a leftist
and an atheist
( thats what you called me )
and a nazi at the same time

The one who is missing the point is you.

We are talking about lemons.

Means we are talking how you, Rob
posted questionable stuff
and turned it into a promotion
for yourself and epik

thats what this post is about


Here is the lemon you gave me:

you used private information of my persona
taken from your epik database
that has only been known to you
as I 'm a customer of repik

exposed my real name here at namepros
which wasn't done before

in order to discredit me

now that's what I call a lemon

 

[frank-germany]

JB - Let's be a tiny bit honest with each other, shall we? Everyone here knows that Frank has been a perpetual troll on my threads for months.

what is a troll?

what is free speech?


make up your mind, Rob

I was always on topic
otherwise posts were deleted anyway


no idea how a persoal conversation in this thread can be off-topic
as the OP requested very personal information to be posted

This thread is about turning lemons into lemonade.... There are some folks here that are now practically family....
- Be authentic: ... Make new friends. Let your light shine. Do you still think your life sucks? Listen to this guy:... I am sure everyone here has had their share of lemons. Curious to hear your story...

 

[Rob Monster]

Rob, I don't think you are nazi at all

And I don't think
you think of me as a nazi

I can't possibly be a leftist
and an atheist
( thats what you called me )
and a nazi at the same time

The one who is missing the point is you.

We are talking about lemons.

Means we are talking how you, Rob
posted questionable stuff
and turned it into a promotion
for yourself and epik

thats what this post is about


Here is the lemon you gave me:

you used private information of my persona
taken from your epik database
that has only been known to you
as I 'm a customer of repik

exposed my real name here at namepros
which wasn't done before

in order to discredit me

now that's what I call a lemon

Well, Frank, I apologize if I have caused your grief of some kind. It was not my intention.

You are most definitely not a private person. Your WHOIS is all over the place based on a reverse lookup of any of the domains you have been pitching recently. While free WHOIS privacy does exist, it is apparent that you choose to generally not use it as anyone with a DomainIQ account could discover.

That said, if there is some post of mine that you feel is personally insensitive to you, just PM me the links and we'll see about having a Mod take them down. It is not worth endlessly revisiting even if the intent was to harmless illustrate a logical construct that we both agree on: neither of us are Nazis.

Have a great Wednesday!

 

[frank-germany]

..we both agree on: neither of us are Nazis

definitely we agree on that, Rob

 

[Rob Monster]

definitely we agree on that, Rob

I would sing, but it's not my personal gift. Enlisting help from some folks who are more talented:

Thanks Frank!

 

[oldtimer]

neither of us are Nazis.

We all know that, but even if you were Nazis, White Supremacists, Fascists, Fundamentalists, Atheists, , Rightist, Leftist, Capitalist, Communist, Conspiracy Theorist, or even Terrorists, I would still like to encourage you to Reform your Mindsets and Agendas to become more compatible with what is ahead for Humanity and this Planet as far as everyone ascending to a higher level which is based on the Universal Values and Rights that have been arrived at through Logic and Compassion. As every one here wants to make lemonade from lemons in their personal lives, perhaps a Higher Force wants to make lemonade from the whole World by making sure that we all become a Force For Good despite all our differences.

IMO

 

[Rob Monster]

I have a case going on right now with Facebook. They locked us out of our account back in August. If you were wondering why the Epik FB has been dormant, that's the reason. None of the authorized administrators can login. All efforts to regain admin control have been ignored. I have a plan to turn that Facebook lemon into lemonade but if anyone has first-hand experience navigating the FB bureaucracy, I would love to hear from you because it is byzantine!

@Spencer Iacobelli

 

[spencer21]

Of course we are going to make that lemonade. We are looking for Brand Ambassadors to add local presence and local personality to Epik, in all Countries. We need your help! If you know of the perfect person to represent Epik, we want to talk to them!

 

[Recons.Com]

I have a case going on right now with Facebook. They locked us out of our account back in August. If you were wondering why the Epik FB has been dormant, that's the reason. None of the authorized administrators can login. All efforts to regain admin control have been ignored. I have a plan to turn that Facebook lemon into lemonade but if anyone has first-hand experience navigating the FB bureaucracy, I would love to hear from you because it is byzantine!

@Spencer Iacobelli

The best way to navigate is via your ad account manager )) That is the only way to get the real people that can take care of the issues for you and take it to the relevant staff internally ))

 

[Rob Monster]

The best way to navigate is via your ad account manager )) That is the only way to get the real people that can take care of the issues for you and take it to the relevant staff internally ))

Been there. Done that. I sent that in last week actually -- no reply. Bizarre stuff, but not to worry, @Spencer Iacobelli is working on the Lemonade plan. Details soon.

 

[Recons.Com]

Been there. Done that. I sent that in last week actually -- no reply. Bizarre stuff, but not to worry, @Spencer Iacobelli is working on the Lemonade plan. Details soon.

That is strange, because you can literally chat with your ad manager, provided that you have been advertising with them.

 

[frank-germany]

I have a case going on right now with Facebook. They locked us out of our account back in August. If you were wondering why the Epik FB has been dormant, that's the reason. None of the authorized administrators can login. All efforts to regain admin control have been ignored. I have a plan to turn that Facebook lemon into lemonade but if anyone has first-hand experience navigating the FB bureaucracy, I would love to hear from you because it is byzantine!

@Spencer Iacobelli

Rob, now the Lord is obviously telling you:
its time to create your own facebook

 

[Rob Monster]

That is strange, because you can literally chat with your ad manager, provided that you have been advertising with them.

If you have a FB adm

Rob, now the Lord is obviously telling you:
its time to create your own facebook

Cute idea but I was thinking of something different.

Decentralized Facebook is coming though, just as decentralized YouTube is already here:

https://us.tv/

Anyone can run their own instance of this technology on their own domain, and search across all the instances. The technology is called PeerTube.

The replacement of Facebook is the so-called Fediverse. Gab.com is an example, running the technology called Mastodon and using a protocol called ActivityPub. Pleroma is a lighter alternative:

https://www.pleroma.com/

The new project called Toki.com will allow you to have a Fediverse identity based on a modified version of Pleroma.

However, the idea for Facebook is different. Are you curious about it?

 

[frank-germany]

If you have a FB adm


Cute idea but I was thinking of something different.

Decentralized Facebook is coming though, just as decentralized YouTube is already here:

https://us.tv/

Anyone can run their own instance of this technology on their own domain, and search across all the instances. The technology is called PeerTube.

The replacement of Facebook is the so-called Fediverse. Gab.com is an example, running the technology called Mastodon and using a protocol called ActivityPub. Pleroma is a lighter alternative:

https://www.pleroma.com/

The new project called Toki.com will allow you to have a Fediverse identity based on a modified version of Pleroma.

However, the idea for Facebook is different. Are you curious about it?

I have seen enough

https://us.tv/

holocaust denial videos

 

[Ategy]

Facebook has been dying for a while now .. although still a very important tool.

Sure they're still getting more and more members ... but user intensity (pretty much the same as pageviews before infinite scroll) is WAY down. People used to be on FB 3-4 hours a day .. now they're on it 3-4 hours a week.

Thankfully for Facebook, this this fact was hidden because they were increasing ad presence as the decline was happening, so there was no dramatic revenue drop ... but they are squeezing every possible cent out of that platform.

Surprisingly, YouTube is really squeezing as well .. these days I often get two ads back to back before a video starts. The difference with YouTube is that they have the content people consume .. whereas Facebook is really dying .. the best part of Facebook is that you had a critical mass of friends there all the time .. now, while it's not a ghost-town, it's still literally a small fraction of what it once was in terms of per-user intensity (down as much as 80% and probably more).

More importantly .. their support has always been abhorrent .. like totally non-existent!

I small did a test advertising spend a few years ago on a fictitious dream event .. the results were really bad. Plus now even if you make a good campaign to get more fans ... you then need to pay even more to communicate with them.

All that said .. they are still a monster with colossal volume .. and while user engagement has dropped significantly, people still do and will check in from time to time simply because everyone else does. They are too big to fail any time soon .. but they are not as big as they appear. (Again though .. they don't need to be .. just about every platform out there dreams of peaking at 1% of Facebook .. lol)

 

[Rob Monster]

I have seen enough

https://us.tv/

holocaust denial videos

We already put that matter to rest: you're not a Nazi, and I am not either.

So on the Facebook strategy, we are empowering local brand ambassadors to set up their country-specific FB pages where they share news, tips, and deals with local language, local community and local personality. Some of these "Brand Ambassadors" are country managers, or country managers in training. We pay them a stipend, give them a fast Internet connection, and train them to be salaried country managers.

Example:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/epik.indonesia/

They are: Co-Creating Abundance.

We are looking for a guy for Germany, and pretty much all other countries. It is taking shape rapidly. Details to follow but it is a very fun project.

 

[Recons.Com]

If you have a FB adm


Cute idea but I was thinking of something different.

Decentralized Facebook is coming though, just as decentralized YouTube is already here:

https://us.tv/

Anyone can run their own instance of this technology on their own domain, and search across all the instances. The technology is called PeerTube.

The replacement of Facebook is the so-called Fediverse. Gab.com is an example, running the technology called Mastodon and using a protocol called ActivityPub. Pleroma is a lighter alternative:

https://www.pleroma.com/

The new project called Toki.com will allow you to have a Fediverse identity based on a modified version of Pleroma.

However, the idea for Facebook is different. Are you curious about it?

If only creating a website was enough!

How long has US.TV been around? Few months? A year? And it is still Alexa 2.3MM site, meaning probably around 500 visitors a day.

 

[Rob Monster]

If only creating a website was enough!

How long has US.TV been around? Few months? A year? And it is still Alexa 2.3MM site, meaning probably around 500 visitors a day.

All in due time. This is like a utility. It is running well. We have to find the right manager for it. We are looking.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Us.Tv is a PLATFORM. We can have millions of unique domains running this platform.

You can also buy:

Recons.Us.Tv. See here:

http://marketplace.epik.com/recons.us.tv

ICYMI, we turned Us.Tv into a virtual TLD. Works like a champ. Money back guarantee.

 

[frank-germany]

We already put that matter to rest: you're not a Nazi, and I am not either.

So on the Facebook strategy, we are empowering local brand ambassadors to set up their country-specific FB pages where they share news, tips, and deals with local language, local community and local personality. Some of these "Brand Ambassadors" are country managers, or country managers in training. We pay them a stipend, give them a fast Internet connection, and train them to be salaried country managers.

Example:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/epik.indonesia/

They are: Co-Creating Abundance.

We are looking for a guy for Germany, and pretty much all other countries. It is taking shape rapidly. Details to follow but it is a very fun project.

its not about that I think you are a nazi, Rob

I think you are supporting holocaust deniers

 

[Rob Monster]

its not about that I think you are a nazi, Rob

I think you are supporting holocaust deniers

The challenge is that I am not interested in being an editor or librarian. I am happy to enforce the law. I am also willing to deny service to people who I think are indiscriminately hateful.

Now, consider this Holocaust site:

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-reichstag-fire

They have an article about the Reichstag fire. Some people don't believe that the Nazis would burn their own building, but others do.

Should Web.com de-platform this site that has content that is objectionable to some?

Once you start slicing that truth salami, you quickly find that it is hard to decide where to stop slicing. Next thing you know, there is no salami, and nobody knows what a salami looks like!

 

[frank-germany]

The challenge is that I am not interested in being an editor or librarian. I am happy to enforce the law. I am also willing to deny service to people who I think are indiscriminately hateful.

Now, consider this Holocaust site:

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-reichstag-fire

They have an article about the Reichstag fire. Some people don't believe that the Nazis would burn their own building, but others do.

Should Web.com de-platform this site that has content that is objectionable to some?

Once you start slicing that truth salami, you quickly find that it is hard to decide where to stop slicing. Next thing you know, there is no salami, and nobody knows what a salami looks like!

thats lame, Rob

watch the video
hear the doctor say
that 6 month in a concentration camp was the normal survival period
when the lady was investigating about her sister

and listen to the speaker
who tries to imply that the witnesses are lying
implying that it was some kind of normal health thing

I'm not interested in being trolled into any other website
I 'm talking about a domain registrar (epik) hosting holocaust denial videos

 

[Rob Monster]

thats lame, Rob

watch the video
hear the doctor say
that 6 month in a concentration camp was the normal survival period
when the lady was investigating about her sister

and listen to the speaker
who tries to imply that the witnesses are lying
implying that it was some kind of normal health thing

I'm not interested in being trolled into any other website
I 'm talking about a domain registrar (epik) hosting holocaust denial videos

What video? What minute? I will finally check it and see if I agree to take it down as you seem extremely passionate about this particular video.

 

[Rob Monster]

So, for the folks who said this thread is stupid:

Consider for a moment that @frank-germany is not one of them, so this is notable. Why exactly do you guys think it is stupid to talk about overcoming adversity?