Opening a can of worms...
 

I received the following email this morning from John Grannis. I've read the email in it's entirety and I'm really not sure how to interpret it. I read the words then I visit the site and see things for sale...any yes I see things for free. I have mixed emotions about it and just wanted to solicit other independant opinions...

I want to believe....

see below
--------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,

Allow me to take a moment to tell you what my partner and I have been doing
since September 11, 2001. A day that changed our lives.

Like most of America we were glued to CNN watching the tragedies unfold.
About 3:00 that afternoon we were searching eBay and came across ³World
Trade Center² items. The "Buy now" listings including WTC post cards, books,
paperweights, etc were selling for top dollar within minutes of listing. It
was blatant and immediate exploitation of the day¹s events.

Addison, my partner, came across a domain name WTCAttack.com (or something
like that.) It was listed for 1 million dollars. He was enraged and I shared
his wrath. At that moment he pulled out his credit cards and we proceeded to
buy every domain name we could think of. He continued to purchase domain
names for the next 5 days and beyond. We spent every dime and maxed every
credit card we had to capture every possible domain name we could think of.

At the time we had no idea what we were going to do with these domains, but
we were committed to the fact that they would not be used for broker profit
and or exploitation in the wake of the most devastating tragedy in American
history.

You may be asking yourself how many domains are we talking about and what
could the value of this endeavor be? We purchased over 800 domains. Over
750 are being offered FREE to qualified individuals or entities, some have
been retired, and others are being developed. As far as values in recent
days, a similar ³Patriotic² related domain was offered on ebay for 5 million
dollars and has since received two bids.
View this auction
<http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1279707491&r
=0&t=0&showTutorial=0&ed=1002553574&am p;indexURL=0&rd=1> .

I have created a link to a page that lists just a few more of the
³Patriotic² and Attack related domains being sold now on ebay listed from
$100 to $75,000+.

View other domains <http://www.americasnewwarzone.com/domainsforsale.htm> .

Hundreds of others are being sold throughout the Internet daily.
EchoArts.com , who have donated their service, are currently appraising our
entire inventory.

In addition, we have commissioned 100,000 ISupportTheWarOnTerrorism.com
bumper stickers. We have committed to giving away 100,000 of these. We are
on the second run now. The first 10,000 were shipped to local businesses
surrounding Ground Zero, Manhattan.

In the last two weeks we have drafted a plan that we feel is the ³Right²
thing to do, perhaps to our own end. We are offering these domains FREE to
qualified individuals or entities who will use them for the ³Right² reasons.
In short our goal is to assure that those individuals who were adversely and
personally affected by the events of Sept. 11 will have a domain waiting for
them when they are ready for it. As you know most of them have other things
on their mind right now. Many of these domains are specific to the
Firefighters and Policemen who lost their lives that day as well as the
passengers of flight 93.

As these sites are developed they will remain in the "Web Ring" or ³ZONE²
all sites being linked to all others through the web ring software. Each
site will also carry a link on the index page to a central discussion board.
Also AmericasNewWarZone.com will have a link on each page.

We have been funding this effort through the sale of stickers and a
trademarked image of the Towers resurrected as the American flag. One is the
³911 Commemorative Print² and the other we call ³The Bush Doctrine². Both
can be viewed at AmericasNewWarZone.com <http://www.americasnewwarzone.com/>


Now I find out who my friends are or at least those who see the true
patriotic spirit of this undertaking and what Addison and I have
spontaneously created. As I said in the second paragraph, we spent every
dime and maxed every credit card we had to capture every possible domain. I
need your help.

We need financial assistance immediately. Without financial help in a hurry
this entire program will die. If I have ever been there for you or you
consider me a friend, I am calling that favor now. Please help me make this
happen. We can accept any form of payment convenient to you including Visa,
Master Card or Pay Pal. Bank of America, Glendora branch has set up a
merchant account for Americas New War Zone at no charge for the first year.
In addition to money, we need legal assistance to setup this company
correctly, protect us and protect the domains.

Again I appeal, please help any way you can. Please view
AmericasNewWarZone.com <http://www.americasnewwarzone.com/>

Please call or email me with your financial commitment to this project.
Every promotional consideration will be granted as this web ring emerges
across the globe.

Thank you in advance and may God Bless You for your courage to stand up and
be counted!

John Grannis
626-336-8436

P.S. In addition WhatsForLaunch.com <http://www.whatsforlaunch.com/> will
be placed on the auction block Saturday, Oct 6th. The opening bid is
$30,000. This is an incredible data driven domain with a secure certificate;
substantial traffic (stats available) and over 2000 opt in members. This
site is a guaranteed winner for any boat dealer.

Yep, might be popping the top on that can...

Well, if I saw that on Ebay, I'd think "That's ridiculous and it bothers me people are trying to get rich off this", but then I'd think, anyone dumb enough to pay that for a domain like that is stupid anyway.

NOw, if I saw Ebay and thought "Damn, now why didn't I think of that, and try to profit from this, too", I'd have bought 700 domain names.

Someone doesn't max out cards for nothing. If you want to give to the cause, send your cc number to the red cross. I bet they'd run it :)

Now, I'm just speculating, and I don't have anything against Grannis and think he's been a great asset to the boating world. However, in my speculation, I'd assume the domain name is free, and the HOSTING is not. I doubt I could get a free domain name and pull it to some other hosting company.

So, you charge $25 a month for 700 domains, and it's $17.5k a month. Not bad. If that is what they are doing. It's probably what I'd be doing had I desired to buy 700 names.

Also, although I've been to whatsforlaunch.com, I don't know how profitable that would be, especially in these times of recession (even before the 11th).

That's just my take on the situation. It is nice to see that they are trying to control the blantant profiteering off the domain names themselves and putting some control into it. Are they gonna try to make money? Sure. That's what we all do everyday right? try to make money.

If it were truely an unselfish attempt to stop this, there would not be advertising and affiliate relationships on the site, either.

Again, this is my take on it. I wish them good luck in getting this going. I see the good they are attemting, but think there are underlying agendas that we don't see.

Mark

[ 10-05-2001: Message edited by: 32fever ]

[ 10-05-2001: Message edited by: 32fever ]

Sounds like BS to me. were they so enraged about this... or jumping on the exploitation bandwagon.it cost $75 bucks(or close to that) to register a domain name... and at the end he is selling one for $30,000? where do you think that money is going?

I'd have to agree with fever and send the money to a "reputable organization"

32, I feel oddly pessimistic, but I agree with most of what you said. It goes back to the old quote..."there's no such thing as a free lunch...". You know, it's one of those deals where you want to believe that this is an honest, noble and pure gesture, but it just sounds to good to be true. I usually give things the benefit of the doubt, including this, but I find it rather difficult to 100% beleive.

for the record guys, it's costs only $8.95 to register a domain name nowadays.

http://www.godaddy.com

- jeff

And ironically, there's a link on the (ANWZ)site!

Max your card out on pure speculation?
"Now I find out who my friends are"?
I like John, but something just doesn't seem right here. Think I will just keep giving blood and keep donating what I can to the children of the fallen.
Just my .02.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm...

Shane :confused:

I received it this morning.........straight to the DELETED ITEMS mail box along with other "unsolicited" solicitations. Something stinks, and either it's a bad decision or exploitation. Very weird angle.

http://www.americasnewwarzone.com/domains.htm

That's my FREE opinion.

Nort (aka Universal Chaos)

It is a shame that none of you know John Grannis, you may have a different opinion. I realize that some of you might THINK you know him, but based upon the responses I am seeing in this post, it is clear to me you don't.

I however, DO know him and he has been one of my closest friends for the past 8 years, icluding driving my Super V Lite for 4 years where we won a bunch of races, lost a bunch of races and set a world speed record together. I have seen him at his worst, and what I belive to be his best, and he does not change very much at either extream, as a matter of fact I used to try to get under his skin just because I wanted to make sure he had a pulse from time to time because he was way too "steady Eddie" for a Shi$ stir'er like myself..

I watched him basically walk away from his muiti million dollar a year business based soley upon the fact that he told me he "didn't like doing that kind of work anymore".... imagine that.

He spent abbout 3 years as the Pacific Offshore Marketing Director when from the first day on the job he knew absolutely for sure that there was no future, no upside, few "thank you's" no money or future money, no place to go in "the company", and lots of rejection trying to "sell offshore racing" to real money Sponsors........ and why would anyone who is capable of so much more, and has so many other opportunities at his fingertips do this ??... I used to ask him that on a daily basis..... do you know what he told me...... he told me "I like doing this, I enjoy it"... imagine that.

I agree that on its face this looks like Addison and John must be working some kind of "angle", and I am not sure that there won't be some revenue streams down the road from it for them, but that is OK with me as long as thier commitment to use these names to help a lot of victims and charaties is carried out at the same time, we should all be OK with that, it surpasses what I would do, and probably what most of you would do, Patriot or not.

Here in America (where even OJ was innocent until he was proven GUILTY) don't we give our fellow Americans the benefit of the doubt before we assisinate thier character ?.

P.S... Johns offering of the whatsforlaunch.com domain for sale has nothing to do with the WTC bombings. He has developed that site for over a year, and as far as I know he is selling his only tangable asset to stay alive right now. I find it amazing how there are so many criticisms from the participants on this board who don't even take the time to read the entire post they will then immediately rip apart.

Gregg Reichman