This message was originally sent out by Bill Bowen on the SilentLambs mailing list:
I wish to explain some of the events of the last couple of months and let everyone know where silentlambs.org is going from here. In October of this year I was approached by a webmaster, Rev, who offered to provide server space for silentlambs and set up a new website. I questioned him on more than one occasion to make sure he understood what the job entailed and how much would be required. I encouraged him to think carefully and make sure he was not biting off more than he could chew. I was assured that there was no problem. In the course of website development a friend noticed that there was a copyright for megasites at the bottom of the new webpage. I immediately emailed Rev and asked:
Finally I want to ask a question, does silentlambs own the website? This is important as if something ever happened to you I would not want to lose everything we are working on. I do not want to own it but I would prefer silentlambs inc own everything to do with the site.
Revs response was:
Yes, of course silentlambs owns the site.
I felt assured on no uncertain terms that silentlambs, inc had complete ownership. If this had not been the case I would have terminated all work at that point. The old silentlambs website was setup with that agreement and this was the understanding that was presented to me in his email. So I moved forward on good faith at this point. The push to get everything set by a certain date was stressful to say the least in the rush to set up the forums certain things were put on the back burner with finishing the silentlambs website. While the forums were important the website as an education source remained the primary focus of needing to be completed. I tried to be patient as more and more time was spent on the forums and repeated requests for website work was ignored. Matters came to a head when an argument was started on the sl forums that violated forum policy in which Rev was involved. After have to make an explanation publicly along with numerous private emails to communicate and try to resolve the situation that took the best part of two days, the following day Rev wrote an announcement of resignation from anything to do with the forums or website. This left me with no one in charge. Whatever the reason terminating services without any notice and put silentlambs in such a very awkward position. I wrote an email to that effect, Rev responded that he would stay on and help out a little while longer.
At this point I had no one to run the forums but for a temporary time frame according to the impression I was given and I also was going to have to find a new webmaster. I also began thinking about what the forms had accomplished in the six weeks of operation and after review discovered that little was being accomplished in a positive direction. I reviewed this information with key persons I had worked with since day one in silentlambs. Everyone had the same consensus, the forums needed to go. So on Friday 13 I emailed Rev and informed him of the decision and after that put up the announcement on the silentlambs forum. I gave everyone till Sunday at to copy anything they might wish to keep from what was on the forum. Shortly thereafter I received an email from Rev stating he was not going to allow me to terminate the forum. My email response was the silentlambs forum was going to be terminated that was a final decision. Once again I was told that was not going to happen, in effect the silentlambs forum was being hijacked. It was at this point I was forced to make the concession that if Rev wanted to continue there had to be a non connection to silentlambs. If he wanted to set up his own forum there was not much I could do about that. This was still Friday night and so I logged on to delete any reference that I might have made to silentlambs on this new forum. At this point my admin password had been changed and it appeared I had no access to the forum. I then emailed my concerns about the silentlambs references and was told to make a list and Rev would determine if items would be deleted. To this day certain posts still remain on the forum. I also requested that all links to the forum be terminated as of Sunday from the silentlambs website. As of today this has yet to be acted on. I then explained in an email that we needed to communicate verbally and sent Rev my telephone number to work out the details on this. This request was made on several occasions over the last four days. Rev never responded by phone. Requests for specific actions were either ignored or said they would be done when he got around to it. On Sunday I again sent an email and stated I was going to go with a local webmaster and needed all passwords to access the site, make changes as well as learn to navigate the site in a personal class I was paying for. I asked the information be delivered to me by Monday as my appointment was on Tuesday. It was at this point Rev informed me that he had a design copyright on the website and I would have to sign a contract before he would release the site. While this was disturbing from our earlier understanding I asked him to forward a copy of the contract and I would be glad to look at it and see if I could work with it. Due to this new wrinkle I asked a friend who is a non jw anything to take a look at the website and see if at least we might be able to save the text in the event the contract could not be agreed to. He and an associate went in and copied what he could but made a few disturbing discoveries. Silentlambs website did not actually exist. From the inception it was a verbal understanding that the forums were to stand alone from the silentlambs website. In the event one or the other was attacked it would serve not only as a security measure but also if the forum ever had to be ta down it would not affect the website. My investigator found out the website was nothing more than a shell with all the information linked to the lambsroar.com website. My website theoretically did not exist, it appeared, silentlambs website also had been hijacked. As this was Monday I noted the link was still continuing to link to the lambsroar forum in addition to other modifications to the sl website that were being done without my authorization. I emailed yet another request to comply with my concerns and was again basically ignored. I then went back to my webmaster friend and asked if he could make the changes. When we logged on we discovered that all passwords to the sl website had been changed. I was locked out of my website, Rev was apparently modifying certain areas without my approval and the website was being used as a doorway to the lambsroar forums against my written request. At this point I requested the DNS be reversed back to silentlambs old website, this generally takes about 24-48 hours. I had originally written to Rev that I planned to move back to the old server on the 23 rd, I was left with no option. Rev refused to act on specific requests, he changed all passwords to my website to prevent me from having access, refused to call and communicate to find resolution. In my opinion the silentlambs forum was hijacked on Friday, the website was hijacked the following Sunday. Therefore I am forced to send Rev the following message:
RevI have become concerned about continuing the website with megasites for the following reasons,
1. You have yet to kill the links to lambs roar as requested by Sunday.
2. You have not provided me with passwords to my website as requested by Monday.
3. You have changed the current passwords that did work to my website.
4. You have provided no contract to me as you promised on Monday.
Therefore I withdraw any permission for any association or use of the silentlambs website, logo, text information, or any information we have shared as a result of our association in working with silentlambs. You are terminated as webmaster and I request that all information that we have shared pertaining to the website be deleted from your files. I have no interest in any website design or work you have done for silentlambs and request that any design information that in anyway has silentlambs material associated with it to be destroyed and not be used in anyway to represent you are your organization as part of silentlambs,inc or any of its associated entities. This applies to all work done on the website and forum. I wish the CGI script that was purchased by silentlambs, inc to be returned to silentlambs, if this is not possible then I request that it be destroyed along with all other material associated with silentlambs that has been provided to you.
This message is going out on my email list so as you read this Rev will be reading this also. I cannot comment on the stress or emotional state that would make a person take these actions. To date I have attempted to develop five new silentlambs websites from people who volunteered their work since the first one was finished. Most lost interest after much initial effort. Rev was the first person to get to the point of actually getting a site up and running but once again yet it fell far short of accomplishing what was intended. Silentlambs website is crucial to letting everyone know the extent of abuse in the JW community. I have tried for two years to use volunteers to finish the message offered on the website it has cost me literally thousands of dollars in time and effort with little being accomplished in finishing this goal. Therefore we are compelled to take a different course to accomplish to a complete degree what the website endeavors to achieve. Silentlambs is going to hire a professional webmaster to build a ground up website and pay him a fee to maintain the site on a regular basis. We will not use any webmaster that has ever had any association with JWs or who posts on any jw or xjw forum. A person who is not involved emotionally will simply accomplish the job at hand and see it gets done right according to silentlambs instructions. Due to the non profit nature of silentlambs and the work in protecting children silentlambs will negotiate the best rate we can for services to the organization. This is a decision that in the big picture should work to the advantage of all concerned. The stability of the website is of paramount concern as well as access to complete resources to assist abuse survivors in education, legal issues, and simply knowing they are not alone. There will still be places to volunteer in relation to the website, some are rendering very valuable services at this time, but no one will ever again be allowed to hijack silentlambs website for whatever personal agenda or problems they may have.
As this represents an additional cost to silentlambs I encourage you to keep silentlambs in mind as a worthy charity that assists abuse survivors. As far as the recent problems, I blame myself most of all for trying to cut costs for silentlambs and trusting people who were not able to handle the responsibility. The old silentlambs website will continue to function as the new site is being built. If you wish to post something a new guestbook will be going up shortly, it of course will be monitored to protect abuse survivors from further abuse. All old posts will continue to be archived.
I wish to close by saying we appreciate the kind support of so many for silentlambs and believe we will continue to make a difference in the lives of those who have been hurt by Watchtower policy.
Edited to replace name with Rev
Edited by - Simon on 18 December 2002 12:30:9
Edited by - angharad on 19 December 2002 9:26:13