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There are many web sites devoted to covering the Oneida Nation, the Turning Stone Casino, and the land claim effort. If you are interested in further information, click on any of the following
 | Residents point of view |
| Discussion forum |
| Turning Stone Casino |
| The Bear Clan |
| The Wolf Clan |
RayHalbritter(.com)
Below is a log of events that brought us down this path. The page itself was initially created to provide Hart Seely of the Syracuse Post Standard accurate information for an article they were doing. We then decided to keep the page up for anyone else that was curious.
November 15: Received e-mail out of the blue from people looking to buy another domain name I personally owned for $5K. Makes me start thinking...
November 20: Start to formally organize 'NetBingo' and start sending out invitations for friends to join me in this.
December 8: Participation count closes out at 32 people. Name suggestions start coming in, and complete the first of several mass attacks on the dictionary.
December 17: First round of voting finished, and we purchase 64 names. ToDie4.com was the most popular name, and RayHalbritter.com did not make the first cut.
(Side note: we carried 825 names from our first voting session to our second. In that short span of time, a full 208 of the 825 were sold to other prospectors!)
December 23: Second round of voting complete, and we buy 103 names. Here's where RayHalbritter(.com) joined the ranks.
December 29 (6:15 pm): Sent the following to three webmaster type addresses related to the Turning Stone and Oneida Indian Nation, asking that it be forwarded to Mr. Halbritter...
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Mr. Halbritter, As you may already be aware, it is completely legal and possible for people to register and own almost any internet domain name they wish. For example, your last name already exists as a web site in Germany (check http://www.halbritter.com). Since the above name is already taken, we expect that either yourself or other parties in the area would have great interest in owning and using the domain name www.RayHalbritter.com, which we have ownership of. I'm sure you are quite busy right now, especially in light of the activities surrounding the Turning Stone's Y2K celebrations and such. With that being the case, I'd appreciate the opportunity to discuss this with you further after the beginning of the new year. I look forward to working with you on this. Sincerely, |
December 29 (9 pm): Received the following brief reply from Dan Umstead...
| Please send a phone number or address where we can reach you. |
December 30 (12:50 pm): Replied to Mr. Umstead.
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I have a fairly busy schedule, and prefer to conduct as much of this business as possible through e-mail. Hopefully, this won't present any difficulties for our initial discussions. E-mail also has the benefit of providing a good record of our exchanges, thereby reducing the possibility for confusion. Will you be representing Mr. Halbritter in this matter? If you still prefer using the phone, when is a good time for me to call? I'll try to adjust my schedule accordingly. |
December 30: Received the following from Mr. Umstead...
| I'll pass this message along to Ray. |
January 3: Sent the following to Mr. Umstead...
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I am assuming that you will be representing Mr. Halbritter regarding the purchase of 'RayHalbritter.Com'. Is this true? We noticed that the Oneida Indian Nation registered both the .net and .org variations of 'RayHalbritter' last Thursday, VERY shortly after my e-mails to you. You now need to complete the set by acquiring the .com. To be frank, we were quite startled to discover that these PR holes had not already been closed by somebody on Mr. Halbritter's staff. If 'RayHalbritter.Com' had been acquired by one of the many opponents to the Nation and its activities, it could have resulted in a significant source of embarrassment and irritation. I'm sure that everyone now realizes this was a serious oversight. It is fair to say that we've done both Mr. Halbritter and the Nation a service by finding this oversight, closing it, bringing it to your attention, and offering it to you for purchase first. The question now is how to proceed. Precedents for this type of exchange demonstrate an amazing spectrum of prices. We want to be fair to you, while at the same time getting fair market value and compensation for our efforts. We've not yet completed a valuation model on the name 'RayHalbritter.Com', and would be happy if you saved us the trouble by making an offer to start things rolling. I'm sure neither of us are interested in spending any more time on this than really necessary. There's a lot of other good work to accomplish in Y2K. We look forward to hearing back from you. |
January 3: By late evening, I was startled that we'd not received a reply from the Halbritter camp. One of the players suggested that we could sweeten the pot a bit for them by acquiring 'TurtleClan.com'. Good idea. Done.
January 4 (9 pm): Sent the following to Mr. Umstead...
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I'm sure that you're quite busy, which probably explains why we've not heard anything from you concerning your possible purchase of 'RayHalbritter.Com'. However, we are interested in finding a buyer quickly so we may all move on to other business. In order to encourage a favorable response, we have decided to make a special offer. If we can reach a fair price agreement for the transfer of 'RayHalbritter.Com' in short order, we are willing to toss in ownership of 'TurtleClan.Com' at no additional cost. We look forward to hearing from you with an offer. |
January 5: Received the following from Mr. Umstead...
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Mr. Ivory, Thank you for your recent communication concerning the domain name "www.rayhalbritter.com." Mr. Halbritter has asked me to respond to your communication on his behalf. At this time, neither Mr. Halbritter nor the Oneida Nation has any interest in owning or using that particular domain name. Nevertheless, we wish to thank you for sharing this information with us. By the way, the Oneida Nation is now the registered owner of the domain name "www.johnivory.com". If you have any interest in owning and using that name, we would be happy to discuss the matter with you. |
Zing!
But then again, what do I care? I've been on the web since before there was a web. If I'd wanted that domain name, I'd have bought it several years ago. In my opinion, it's like buying vanity plates for your car. I don't have those either. Besides, there are over 260 'John Ivory's in the US, but really only one RayHalbritter(.com).
What's interesting here is that I discovered they registered johnivory.com the same evening that I sent my initial e-mail! They never even considered or explored our offer; no thought whatsoever to negotiating, only retaliation. This, despite the fact that in the full month since we acquired his domain name we never said a word about this to any of the many opponents of Mr. Halbritter or the Nation. It certainly has helped me understand the frustration of people involved in the land claim.
None the less, it is still our first preference to offer the name to Mr. Halbritter, and not his many detractors.
January 20: Contacted by Hart Seely of the Syracuse Post
Standard. Wrote these pages to provide him with accurate information
about the timing and nature of all exchanges. Now you're
you're reading it.
February 10: Article comes out in the Syracuse Post Standard (page 3). Pretty good, actually, photo and all. Contacted at 9:30 in the morning by Karen Huxtable of WKTV, NewsChannel 2 in Utica. They've expressed interest in covering the story.
If you have any questions, send an e-mail to
Halbritter@BlueVista.Com.