Domain Names

[Castano]

I know you guys are, but who comes after? Amend the charter while we are at it. We added the charter requirement that contributors can't demand content submitted be pulled from ALFA modules, this is pretty much in the same vane. e.g. if you do it for here, it gets to be here.

[Zelknolf]

The trouble with a charter ammendment is that we can't really use it to act in the same way-- like if someone gives us content for our modules and then says "No you can't have it any more," we can just say "lol" and leave it in. What are they going to do, sue us? Would a court even hear that? There's no commercial interest; can't be, on account that we're in NWN2.

It's the other way with a domain name, though-- if someone owns a domain name and we say "No you can't have it any more," they can just say "lol" and just keep it.

[Ithildur]

... like if someone gives us content for our modules and then says "No you can't have it any more," we can just say "lol" and leave it in

I just have to say... Zelk, although sometimes the way you express things makes my head explode, other times it's priceless.

[kid]

I've no idea really about what's the legal status of such things in the US but if incorporating a club isn't expensive can't we just do that and have the club own the domain and other ALFA related stuffs?

[FoamBats4All]

That's up to our lawyer DMA/PA to give advice on.

If they decide to do it I'm happy to transfer the PayPal/central server/domain into the club's name.

[Castano]

I've no idea really about what's the legal status of such things in the US but if incorporating a club isn't expensive can't we just do that and have the club own the domain and other ALFA related stuffs?

There's been opposition to such in the past, and some over-lawyering of it too as well as irrational fear of government red tape.

The charter is essentially "good enough" to serve as a set of by-laws so that's done (and that is the most expensive part). you need to do 4 things here:

(1) file with a state for around 50-200 bucks
(2) file with the IRS to get a tax ID
(3) file Form 1024 with the IRS to apply for recognition of exemption from federal income tax.
(4) annually raise less than 50K so we can just file the e-postcard 990-N instead of an actual tax return. http://epostcard.form990.org/

I know how to do items 1,2 and 4. I assume I could learn item 3 if I wished to and the community desired this.

While Zelk's post is funny, absent a desire to do the above steps I think at least putting a statement into the charter gives us some actionable rights to enforce, but yes absent a will to go enforce it, and 300 bucks for the filing fee, a recalcitrant admin can indeed say LOL to our domain name. Of course there are many many statements in the charter people can LOL at if they choose, but we have yet to advocate removing those. And that is the case most anywhere - I've seen fired employees hold the godaddy password hostage among other things so yes people can always be people and go LOL - the difference being they are in the wrong and can be gone after, and fear is always a positive motivator.

Right now the donors of domain names, various FTP and other accounts are the real owners and they are in the right to pull them at any time for any reason. I might add they are also personally responsible for contracted services like Azure.

So yes Kid, there are benefits to making an incorporated social club, both for the club and for its admin.

[Swift]

We have managed to keep a Paypal account that has transferred between admin for years now without much (any?) issue. Is it really that much more of a step to do the same with the domain name? I get the sense that most people who would stand for Admin and then run off with the domain name/not hand it over name have long since left the community.

As for the incorporation idea, again, my opposition is based entirely on the fact that it has the potential to further shrink the pool of people willing to put their hand up to step into Admin roles, especially if they are not a US citizen. Thats a bunch of out of game red tape that, personally, I do not think is fair to ask a non-US citizen to deal with.