Mybb Project has run under Mybboard.net for many years. It was a less than optimal domain name but as many know all the good domains are taken. The owners of MyBB.com was Buy Domains. When I began using the MyBB software for my forums I wondered about the premium domain MyBB.com and contacted BD. They responded with a very high $x,xxx price. Even at the time about 4 years ago that was very high for this domain and certainly beyond the means of the MyBB Project. But I felt obtaining this domain was vital for them.
Over the years I had kept my enthusiasm for getting MyBB.com and on occassion would contact BD about the domain. Yet every time they raised their price until it hit $20k last year. Of course that’s when I began to feel it would never be bought by the project.
Years ago I had contact Chris Boulton,the project owner, and asked if I had his permission to negotiate. He had expressed that I could and he was himself very interested in the domain. We had discussed possibly splitting the price.
Well the years did pass and during those years I continued not only to use MyBB software but also run the #1 third party MyBB support and plugin forum MyBBCentral.com. I’ve always been happy to give my gratitude to MyBB. I also run the #1 most active MyBB forum which is Alexa 6k now and recieves 20k posts per day.
Then in April 2010 I sent another contact to BD. Oddly they would send me these emails telling me 20% off for a limited time only but most I ignored. $16,000 was still way too high. However this time I shot an email back and gave a brief argument about why BD should sell to me. I recieved a call shortly after. It was a BD sales rep and we spoke for about 5 minutes and I laid down my offer and the situation.
Realistically this domain is good for no one except the MyBB Project. Any Google search for MyBB returns all mybb related pages. Their parked page was about travel and junk that I am sure made for low CTR. I just didn’t see how they could produce income. Their #1 end-user buyer was going to be the MyBB Project and it’s a free open-source project. And anyone else buying the domain could not use it commercially for forum software without MyBB sending a UDRP. So it was a stale-mate for them.
After presenting this logic and doing some name dropping (I know a few people) they began to discuss a reasonable mid $x,xxx price. Now that was a possiblity. I was willing to make a substantial donation and I know Chris was willing to fork over some cash too. My idea was the difference could be made up with donations from members.
So I created this thread: http://community.mybb.com/thread-68353.html
And so it began. All over the MyBB world donation links were setup and within a week we had over $2k in donations. The member goal was $3k and Chris and I would make up the difference.
After we had secured a certain amount of funds I had again contacted the sales rep to make a firm offer. It was lower than his initial range but nothing offensive. He accepted. I contacted Chris who held all the Paypal donations. We were given a purchase link and 48 hours till the discount would expire. Chris immediately made the payment. Within days the domain was transferred and as of today Mybboard.net now redirect to MyBB.com.
This is amazing news for the project. No longer is MyBB on a second rate domain. Even MyBB.net or MyBB.org would be better than MyBBoard.net. It was a confusing and lower than acceptable domain. In comparison how many go to SMF.com only to find after a Google search they are simplemachines.org. To compare other projects like VB and IPB do not have their short .com domains. Only phpbb.com does but now so does MyBB.com and it’s even shorter.
The purchase of MyBB.com imho shows the seriousness of the project and the long term goal of being #1.
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