Vanished Partner

How would you handle a situation where your partner (who you created a website with) has vanished but has not given you access to some control areas of the website (e.g. the domain control panel w/GoDaddy)? The person is still active on the internet but is totally ignoring your messages and inquiries to obtain the control panel information. You desperately need these login credentials to make a vital change to the website.
You've e-mailed, PMed, created a MySpace and sent a message (and witnessed the spontaneous log-on and reading of the message without a response), and are at a loss as to what to do.

Advice?

Thanks.

 

I'm not sure the court-document route is a viable one. How would I legally be entitled to this information? It's really an issue of morality.

 

Maybe found out what he's phone number are and try to call him and talk to him and if that is not working then maybe find his adress and visit him in person if he doesn't live to far away.
Don't really know anything else you can do exept maybe try to talk to friends of him and see if they can help you.

Are you sure he is ignoring you? If so maybe create an new profile/msn or whatever you use to talk with him and see if hes ignoring you when he don't know its you.

 

Go start your own behind his back and then when it is ready to launch, close the one you had together and post a link to your new site.

 

Is it only the domain you can't access or can't you even access the database and ftp?

 

- I have what used to be his telephone number; but it isn't anymore.
- He lives nowhere near me, so a physical visit is not a viable option.
- The site we started together is already up-and-running and is flourishing with activity. Starting another one isn't really within the realm of viability.

I have access to the hosting panel, FTP, etc. but just not the domain panel. It's such a minute detail yet so important.

 

I don't believe that any sort of legal action can be taken against him - as this domain is under his name and under his financial obligation, he is entitled to its ownership. Working this out with him (on a personal level) is the only viable option at this point in time.

 

You can always put it on your own server/hosting and then changes name and put an script on the old hosting/server wich directs user to the new domain then you will have all your post and users left.

 

Changing domain names is an option, however I'd like to leave it as a last-resort alternative.

Another option is to backorder the domain and wait for it to expire. Does anybody know if it would become mine the minute it expires? Or is there a waiting period?

I'm looking for a personal-level and fairly quick resolution.

 

Believe me, you can too. That's basically how my site got started. The owner of another similar site was flaky, refused to give me any power to really do anything on the site even though I was an admin, and finally he forgot *again* to pay the server bills so all of us Mods said So Long and started our own site. He had no one left to run the site and he had no clue how to do it himself.

However, if all you are missing is a domain, go buy a new one, get your own server, and move the database and files over to the new server with the new domain. It sounds like you have as much right to the database as he does.

 

I've got another server and moving the site to it is exactly what my intentions are. I just need the domain account info so I can change the nameservers and then I'll be set.

I'd like to do it as hassle-free as possible, so if I could just get the domain information, I will be golden.

I'm baffled because he lost interest in our project a long time ago... but he gladly gave me the hosting information in March. I e-mailed him a little while ago asking for the domain information and that's when all of this ignoring begun.

 

What site is it your talking about? Is it AdminAddict? If you don't wanna say then thats fine.

 

I would like to add to that,,,, if you have access to the database, export it, create another site from it, and if you can - edit the htaccess file and put in a 301 redirect.

The 301 redirect will tell google that the site has permanently moved to the new location. Within a couple of weeks, the old site should be delisted from googles index.

 

Before I would even let anyone become my partner, I would have to become personal with them

 

Now there's a wide open door if I ever saw one......

 

Well now, just how "personal" would you like to become?