Other bass forums...

[Steve_M]

And back on topic:

I had a very friendly post this week from Paul, owner of Talkbass, asking me how permanent Basstalk was going to be because he was concerned about "smearing" (his quotes) our business interests.

Our exchange was very civil and amicable but the following points occurred to me:

1) We bought the .co.uk domain name legitimately, in the UK through a UK registration site with a UK credit card. If he wanted to legally bully us, would he have to do so using UK law?

2) How much money must he make from all the subscriptions and advertising that goes on his site? It must be close to half a million dollars or more - any thoughts people? I noticed he's just introduced non-subscription only ads displayed on the first post in every page too.

3) Would anyone who isn't literate enough to tell the difference between talkbass.com (blue) and basstalk.co.uk (brown) be making much of a contribution to either forum? Some how I think not.

4) The membership of Bassworld/Basstalk.co.uk is tiny (4000 members) compared to the leviathan of Talkbass (51,000 members) but it might be worth something to him, if he's concerned enough about its impact on his business interests enough to enquire. I did suggest we could work something out about the domain name when Bassworld is back up but no response.