I own the domain, they own the business. What can('t) I do?

[juststranded]

Hello,

I'm trying to figure out if what I want to do is at all illegal or even unethical.

There is a local registered non-profit community theater where I live. Let's call it "The Theater". So, they are The Theater Inc. I own thetheater.com and thetheater.org. I point the nameservers so they can host their website with the domains. They are only using thetheater.org, so thetheater.com goes nowhere.

Their website is REALLLLLLY bad. It's an ENTIRELY table-based design with poor aesthetics, and infrequent/inadequate updates to go along with it. I've offered to volunteer to build and maintain their website for them. I've built a really nice AJAX/DHTML design and built some local PHP/MySQL stuff so that it's easy to update the contents of the site for new movies, showtimes, blog/news updates, etc. Anyway, they haven't replied to me at all and I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and throw it up at thetheater.com since it's not even being used.

I haven't included any ads or affiliate things to make money off of it. I'm really just trying to help keep the theater alive because it's been through 3 closings in recent years and this is probably it's last chance before it turns into office space.

Your opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[6StringGeek]

Sounds like you're doing them a favor by letting them use the domain. But i think you should make sure they're cool with your plans. You could get someone in corporate upset that you're posting their copyrighted info on that domain without their permission...even though your intentions are good.

I would ask for a meeting and outline the who/what/when/where/why so they can see how your idea would benefit them.

[JunkMale]

Well if they have not replied to the email, that only goes to show just how much they pay attention to the site as a promotional tool.

I am betting that they have not got any literature with any URL's on to show a web presence.

It may be in the theatres intrest to develop a proper information system that can allow people to pre-book tickets, giving them an idea on how many bums are pre-paid and what is left to full the joint.

If you look at allot of amature sites for the arts, they all have one thing in common, they have invested time in developing a site that offers more than just show times, where they are, they offer up news on up and comming events in the forthcoming year, event reminders, pre-booking and many other features that would benefit them.

If they never respond, then they were not worth the effort.

[aj_nsc]

If they never respond, then they were not worth the effort.


Ditto. I know what you're saying (to the OP), you've developed a beautiful design/systerm for the company to use on your own personal time out of your own interest, but, in all honesty, you probably shouldn't have, because it's of no use to anyone unless they respond to your e-mails. Don't put it up, and don't waste time like this in the future, unless you really have nothing else to do.

[juststranded]

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Believe me, I haven't developed a full-fledged working site. I only spent about 2 days screwing around with the layout and outlining function/features. I really didn't have anything better to do. Plus, when I started doing it, I had planned on just putting online anyway, without their approval.

I understand the "not worth the time" mentality, but this theater really means a lot to me, and I'm not going to let something like not responding ruffle my feathers enough to give up on it. They need help to organize better (which a good website would really help with) and I know that, so I'm cutting them some slack.

The difference between getting permission or not is, just like JunkMale was saying, being able to pre-sell tickets online, being able stay ahead of updates by having inside information instead of updating from the rumor mill, etc.

If I ever get the site approved and running, I'll update your guys with the URL. Until then, thanks again for your thoughts. I'm off to try to set up a meeting.


P.S. Facebook Connect could really save their ass. I just hope they'll let me do it.

[donatello]

Estibot says the domain is worth about $2100.00

Sell it.
You probably won't get that in this economic climate though.

[juststranded]

The domains aren't actually "thetheater.com" and "thetheater.org". Those were just placeholders for the real ones.

Thanks though. If they were worth that much, I'd sure as hell sell them.

[juststranded]

Haha. It just so happens that the Executive Director of the theater responded to me this evening to set up a meeting.

Thanks again everyone.

[JunkMale]

Estibot says the domain is worth about $2100.00

Sell it.
You probably won't get that in this economic climate though.

Should be taken with a pinch of....

Estibot is not a good tool for domain apraisals as it has not way of knowing other factors that dictate a domain name like how much traffic the name alone generates and the service it provides, etc.

If you search for that site in a search engine, you find plenty of comment about it being "Just for fun" and "not accurate" and other comments that indicate its limitations.