• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

JeffB apparently doesn't like me having KINGSNAKES.COM...

Well, I just had to see this for myself.

This was cut and pasted from kingsnake.com concerning the lawsuit:

kingsnake.com files lawsuit
OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc., owner and operator of the popular Austin-based kingsnake.com online community, has filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Austin Texas, citing trademark infringement, dilution, and cyberpiracy, regarding the use of the domain name kingsnakes.com.

The directors, staff, and volunteers of the PetHobbyist community thank our many friends, supporters, and sponsors for their many emails of support. We understand that many of our users and sponsors cannot publicly announce their support without opening themselves and their businesses to potential liability.

We have tried to resolve this issue without resorting to legal action, unfortunately Mr. Zuchowski left us no other option but to seek a resolution in the federal court system. As a trademark owner, under current trademark law we have a legal obligation to protect our marks from any unauthorized use that could confuse the public or dilute the distinctiveness of those marks. If we fail to take action to protect our trademark when we are made aware of it's use without our consent then legally we would have no protection of the mark in the future under the law, and it would be open to unauthorized use to anyone for any purpose. Had Mr. Zuchowski not pointed the domain name at his competing web site, and then attempted to auction that domain name off to the highest bidder, we would not be in court. Had Mr. Zuchowski simply transferred the domain name to us when he was made aware of the trademark infringement, we would not be in court. Instead Mr. Zuchowski has chosen, and through his own counsel requested, that the issue be decided in the court system. Unfortunately we find ourselves in the position where we have to oblige him.

To review the complaint as filed please go to:

http://www.kingsnake.com/lawsuit.pdf
this requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader

OnlineHobbyist has issued a press release and you may read it at http://petpress.net/view.php?id=15


While we appreciate and welcome input from our users, sponsors, and advertisers, we ask that if you want to discuss this issue publicly, you do so on the public USENET group rec.pets.herp. This is a message system that is not owned, operated, or moderated by any commercial entity, and is free of owner/operator-induced bias, moderation, or editing. We ask that you do not discuss this issue on private boards such as kingsnake.com or others, so that other web community owners and operators do not incur a legal liability from messages posted by users.

We hope that the public will withold their judgement until all the issues and facts are presented by both sides to the court.

Court documents are a matter of public record and will be available as they are accepted by the court.

rec.pets.herp may be accessed using Google's Groups interface at http://groups.google.com/groups?q=rec.pets.herp

Thank You
The Management
OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc.
--

Thank you for your patronage!
Click to expand...

Interesting......
 
my understanding of rec.pets.herp is that its an unmoderated group that really does not welcome this....
 
As a trademark owner, under current trademark law we have a legal obligation to protect our marks from any unauthorized use that could confuse the public or dilute the distinctiveness of those marks.
Click to expand...
Wow....that is some pretty steep lying there Jeffy boy. Unless of course something has changed and you do own the trade mark. But as of December 29, 2003 your application for the trademark was DENIED.

Maybe if you do end up with the trademark of kingsnake......maybe I will aply for the trade mark of Website and internet. That way You will have to give up your website to me..........make sense? yeah, it makes as much sense as you applying for the kingsnake trademark.

1. The arbitration. YOU LOST. You all probably signed something that stated you will abide by the arbitration decision. ppssst YOU LOST

2. The civil lawsuit. YOU WILL LOSE... so what happens after that? Will you then just have Rich "taken out"?
 
I forgot..

Here is the link to that cut and paste mentioned above: Lawsuit statement on kingsnake.com

Would a few of you be so kind as to compare the text I have cut and pasted to what is actually on the site and witness here that it is the same? Also, please make a copy on your own hard drive in case there is any question in the future about this.

Thank you.
 
I liked this part I found on the press release.

"We attempted to resolve this issue through the arbitration process,
but throughout that process Mr.Zuchowski's counsel
insisted that Federal Court was a more proper forum to
resolve the issue, and we have asceeded to Mr. Zuchowski's request to move this issue into the Federal Court system."
Click to expand...

I would have swore that through the arbitration process they denied your request, Jeff!!! You can read the posted copy of it right here in this thread in case you did not receive your own copy.
 
Rich your cut / paste seems all accurate

and i have also made the copy paste of the post they made and saved it
along with a screenshot
 
screenshot taken 3/4/04

album_pic.php

album_pic.php
 
Probably redundant, but I saved to my harddrive several screenshots of the aforementioned page.... complete with time and date stamp.

They are the same at the latest reading. I'm sure as there are more legal revelations Jeff will post those.

Hope this ends up being short and sweet, Rich, for YOU.
 
...

If Jeff were a software professional his threats and bragging of support would be called "vaporware".

You would think that out of the tremendous amount of support he's receiving that at least 1 or 2 people would say something positive about his actions, but no, not one that I know of has support him. Even on the website where he urged people to discuss this has anyone come out in favor of what he is doing.
 
I have a question

"We attempted to resolve this issue through the arbitration process, but throughout that process Mr.Zuchowski's counsel insisted that Federal Court was a more proper forum to resolve the issue, and we have acceded to Mr. Zuchowski's request to move this issue into the Federal Court system."
Click to expand...
Aside from the obvious ommission of the fact the arbitration denied the request, I was wondering about the facts of this statement.
Rich, did your counsel "insist that Federal Court was a more proper forum to resolve the issue" and did you "request to move the issue into the Federal Court system"?

Considering that the arbitration committee returned the outcome you had expected I found it odd that you would actually request that he sue you. I have a hard time believing the statement to be true unless Rich validates it.
Seems to be more than a little retoric and propoganda at work in several areas.
Sounds a lot like damage control to me.
 
actually if he did argue to go to court.....

I believe it is good.

It will show people not to be so STUPID as to apply for a trademark on a COMMON name.


think about it.

How about I trademark the name GOD.
That way whenever you all have sex and scream it out I can get paid.
 
Hey everyone ... Just a thought here,

I am all in favor of us posting in favor of Rich and in support of what he does here at Fauna and his other sites. We need to keep that up, and, if we can help with a little financial support from time to time too, so the site can continue int he way we have all come to appreciate.

However, though I am not a lawyer, I did work for one for a while that specialized in civil law, and I have to point out that we may not be helping Rich by asking him too many specific questions concerning this case. Anything posted here is public information, and Rich may not be able to rightly answer everything set before him. So, it may be in everyone's best interest to allow the process to work itself out in court, without putting Rich in a bad position here.

I know everyone means well, and I do to. But we have to realize that the way things work in the world of common sense often have no standing in a court of law whatsoever.

Just something for everyone to consider. You'll all have to do as you see fit, of course.
 
, I did work for one for a while that specialized in civil law, and I have to point out that we may not be helping Rich by asking him too many specific questions concerning this case. Anything posted here is public information, and Rich may not be able to rightly answer everything set before him.
Click to expand...

Kinda like Geraldo Rivera during the Iraq war................


it was geraldo right?
 
Well I have nothing for sale and will probably have nothing in the next 6-8 months.

But I do have a banner. I am sure it helps a little.

One thing that puzzles me.
In the arbitration (The one where Jeff got DENIED). He did not ask for any monetary benefits.
I was wondering what happened between then and now.

Why all of a sudden he is asking for over $300,000 in damages.
Did he charge too many Christmas gifts on his visa?
Did he all of a sudden decide he wanted Rich to pay for his new house?
Did he get into debt which he can't get out of?
There is NO WAY he has lost $300,000 in just a couple of months.
And if he does prove that he has..................The IRS might just want to get interested and examine his yearly taxes very very carefully. ..................sniff sniff........smells like an audit is due for Mr. Barringer.
 
just a theroy here

I would imagine in jeffs attempt through ICANN he wanted nothing more then the website name to be his .Then after loosing the dispute through them he then decided that since he lost that that he would sue for damages ( lost revenue) most likely he will show the #'s of accounts that have been lost through sales and ( deletion of accounts) and has based his $ value on them. I think it will be hard to show a loss of revenue on a internet based website due to the economy , and that the time of year etc .. but who knows will be something to behold ..
 
More likely then not, Kingsnake's loss of revenue could probably be attributed, to some degree, to Kingsnake's own policy of censorship in the forums and lack of responsibility with fraudulent sellers in the classifieds.

I am sure there are people/companies who have opted to not support such antics and taken their business to other sites/markets.

This combined with competing products has had to have had an effect on their bottom line. For example, the hosting service ofered by Fauna is far superior to the package offered by Kingsnake.

Food for thought.
 
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