At some point in the future, I will be launching a new site called CommunityPromotion.com. It will be a database of Internet community promotion tips for community administrators from community administrators. I am not sure when it will launch.

But, I have decided to open it up to submissions today in order to start filling the database up with tips. So, I would appreciate any tips that anyone would like to submit. The idea does not have to originally be yours (that is pretty rare), but the write up must be. You will receive a link at the bottom of every tip approved (as well as credit for submiting it).

For more information, please visit the submit tips page.

If you know anyone who is a community administrator, please feel free to tell them about it.

I look forward to seeing some submissions and I appreciate any contributions.

Following up on bias, I just got the funniest e-mail from a banned user. He’s basically complaining that I allow people to say things about his art, but not other arts. Crazy, of course. Posts are removed because they violate our User Guidelines, regardless of what art they are talking about. Anyway, here is half of the e-mail:

LOL. Too much.

Unbelievable. It was a Biggie song from his first album, Ready to Die. (It also appeared on the “Nothin’ But The Hotness in ’98” compilation released by Bad Boy but sold exclusively at Foot Locker (if I recall) that I put some money together and bought in my younger years). But, the word unbelievable has taken on a new meaning today as I received a threatening letter from Fross, Zelnick, Lehrman and Zissu, P.C. in New York, New York, who represent themselves as “trademark and unfair counsel for Sean John Combs, also known as P. Diddy.” When it rains, it pours, as they say.

In this letter, they personally attack me for owning the domain seanjohncombs.com, which I had registered a few years ago and have always planned to place a fan site on. This is a bit different from Canon Camera Shop because there is no site, it is not a shop and I never planned for it to be a shop (possibly a small AWS store as a small section of the site, but nothing more). I have always planned for it to be a fan site. Even if you visit the domain, you will see that I have spelled this out. They tell me this is unacceptable. That I have no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name and that I registered it in and am using it in BAD FAITH. Also, my attempts to profit from the goodwill associated with his name violate this, this and this and on top of that, I am cybersquatting which provides for an award of $100,000 plus attorney’s fees. I am such an evil person.

What?!

I have no legitimate interest in the domain name? I am acting in bad faith? I am profiting (where?!)? This has to be a joke. No one is profiting from anything. I am operating in the best of faith and I have legitimate interest in the domain name. Let me explain.

I have been a fan of P. Diddy and Bad Boy Entertainment for 8 years. I am 20 years old – I have been a fan since I was 12. 12 years old with virtually no money, scraping together what I had to buy No Way Out (P. Diddy’s first album) and Harlem World (Mase’s first album), which were the first two albums I recall buying with my own money. I own 74 CDs released by Bad Boy Entertainment. SEVENTY FOUR. I am not kidding. Stop laughing, man. I own EVERY album they have EVER released, except for Bad Boy’s R&B Hits, the newest Carl Thomas album and the Mario Winans album (and the Ready to Die Remaster, if you want to count that). All of which I plan to eventually buy. I own 49 additional CDs released by other labels that feature Bad Boy artists – I bought most of these albums because they feature Bad Boy artists, no other reason. Again, no joke. I also have purchased music from online music sites, such as MSN Music. You will be hard pressed to find someone who has a bigger, legally obtained P. Diddy/Bad Boy Entertainment music collection than I do.

I also wear Sean John clothing. Sean John is P. Diddy’s clothing line. I have 2 pairs of jeans, 9 shirts and 2 jackets. That may not seem like a ton, but this is not cheap stuff.

I would have to say that all of those goods combined safely total more than $1,000 spent. Beyond that, I have been a true fan of him. How true? There are Bad Boy fan sites out there that distribute music freely and illegally. I refuse to download music from these sites (and condemn them) for two reasons. First, it is ethically wrong. Second, people that download from these sites do not truly support the artists. I have spent my hard earned money to pay for the actual releases of every single piece of music in my collection. But, no… they go after me. A real fan and supporter. Without fans like me, he wouldn’t be where he is today. My support of him isn’t going to change (much, anyway) because of this (I’m actually listening to “I’m No Killa” by Mase featuring P. Diddy at this very second) because I believe that if he actually knew about this and knew about me, this wouldn’t have happened at all or it would have happened much differently. I believe that more or less, these attorney’s got bored, did a domain search and sent a letter. I mean, I’ve had the domain for 3 years and nearly 2 months (haven’t had a chance to build a site, yet, either) and now they contact me?

My plan for seanjohncombs.com was to be the largest and most active fan site dedicated to Mr. Combs on the Internet. Like him – I think big. This would be a community for fans by fans. There would be no illegal distribution of music such as what exists at other fan sites, either. This would have been a fan site that completely and totally supports the artist. Not one that says “well, we like him – but we shouldn’t have to spend money to listen to his music.”

I don’t plan to put up a fight because it just isn’t feasible for me at this point in time. I have sent them a letter explaining much of what I have expressed here and I hope it can be worked out so that I can keep the domain, but I am doubtful.

I still plan to start a fan site of some sort, but should I bother? With individuals such as these sending out groundless threat letters to true fans, why should anyone bother?

I love it when people accuse me of bias in administration at KarateForums.com. Well, maybe I don’t love it. But, it’s laughable and they end up banned. Why is it laughable?

I don’t participate in any martial arts. I have never participated in any martial arts. I probably will never participate in any martial arts. It’s not that I don’t like the martial arts, it’s just not my “thing”. There are no martial arts that I “like”. There are no martial arts that I “dislike”. There are no martial arts that I even really know about (save what I may have read on KarateForums.com, of course), now that I think about it. To have bias, you have to have knowledge. I have none. To have bias, you have to know something or like something or dislike something. I don’t. I don’t know Karate from Tai Chi. By definition, I can’t be biased.

Not that it would matter if I did know something more. At SportsForums.net, I have to moderate threads where people say something about various sports teams that violate our User Guidelines. Teams includes my teams – the Yankees and the Dolphins. Some people (especially new people, but sometimes more veteran users) will imply that I am operating in a biased way when I deal with violations that mention the Yankees or Dolphins. There is one word I have for that. Disingenuous. Those users, depending on their wording and history, may be or may soon be on their way off of SportsForums.net. When people talk about things that they lack a clue on, they put themselves in danger. They don’t have access to the behind the scenes areas. They don’t see how many posts I’ve removed that said something about the Red Sox or the Patriots or any other team. The staff knows what I’m about, of course and that’s all that matters. But, I will simply not tolerate users saying that the staff, including me, is operating in a biased manner. Comments like that result in an immediate ban or being close to being banned.

I really like Nucleus CMS. I’m running it on YanksBlog.com and here, of course. Another site utilizing it is currently in development and I can see myself using it more and more as time goes by. As phpBB is to my forums, Nucleus could very well develop into for my content sites.

I have found it to be more flexible than I thought it was and I’m enjoying working with it (partly thanks to Chris).

There is just one thing I’d like for it that would make me go nuts about it. Some basic phpBB integration. Every time you create a new item in Nucleus, I want a thread to be automatically started in your phpBB with a link to that entry. I want that new thread to have a link to the entry and I want the item in Nucleus to have a comment link to the thread. I want you to be able to select which forum it is posted in (even if its just typing in the forum ID number by hand) and be able to have a specific user (enter a phpBB username and password in Nucleus?) post the automatic threads. And that’s all. I don’t want phpBB users to be able to login to Nucleus. I don’t want phpBB users to have their profiles inside of Nucleus. I don’t want Nucleus users to be able to login to phpBB. I want them separate, yet together in this small way.

That would make me extremely happy. It would also bring loads of phpBB users to Nucleus because people do want something like this and there is just nothing like it in my experience.

It would be great.

Edit: I’ve also posted this at phpBBHacks.com.

The book got here today.

I have to say that I am really pleased with how it turned out. I gave a lot of feedback. After reviewing the final product, I feel a sense of pride in how I impacted the book – how I personally improved it. It is a great product – I’m happy to have been a part of it.