Years ago a long time domainer expressed to me that I was a fool, he had no idea why I was a moderator at Namepros, especially working for free. I said well it’s good to give back and help other people in the industry, though it can be a pain in the butt from time to time. He told me he would never even post on Namepros as it was not worth his time, so moderating was a foreign concept.
I remember a long time moderator Mark, who was on Namepros from the beginning, he mentioned how he could no longer keep names in his signature because people would intentionally click bomb his adsense on some of his developed websites. The goal was to get his account closed as they were pissed about some moderating decisions he made.
Move ahead to the present day and Eric Lyon posted that he is stepping down from his current position and transitioning to another role at Namepros. What’s disturbing is that Eric has had threats on his life and people showing up at his door.
I would like to thank Eric for his contributions to Namepros over the years.
I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone for all their contributions to NamePros over the years. It’s been a rollercoaster ride with a lot of ups and downs, and I’ve really enjoyed it. If it wasn’t for all of you, NamePros wouldn’t be what it is today.
Since 2009, it has been a wonderful experience assisting all of you and shaking some of your hands in person at events/conferences/meetups. I hope to continue doing that as I travel around the United States with my family on the adventure of a lifetime.
However, in August 2017, my family experienced a tragedy of losing our house, cars, and worldly belongings to the Hurricane Harvey floods. Since then, my time has been more limited/restricted, and I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to NamePros as I used to. Fortunately, due to the great moderation team that we have in place, things have kept operating smoothly and most members haven’t noticed how much less I’ve been working. We have a great team of moderators who have stepped up over the past few months and kept this ship full-steam ahead and growing.
In addition to my time availability, I have received death threats from scammers we’ve caught over the years, and I’ve had people show up unannounced at my residence (even as late as 11 PM) recently. This may not have been as big of a concern when I was single; however, I have a wife and toddler now that do not need to be subjected to this type of safety hazard.
The majority of people that I’ve met online are professional, kind, and respectful. Unfortunately, it only takes a few crazy people (it only takes one, really) that get set off or caught trying to scam someone, and they could seek (and have sought) to harm me or my family.
It’s sad and unfortunate that I have to be concerned for my family’s safety based on previous experiences with troublemakers threatening, stalking, coming to my residence, using my family in their unfounded slanderous attacks, etc., but now that we are going to be traveling more in a motorhome, security is an even bigger concern for my family’s safety, especially since we are all in a smaller, confined area without as much protection (no concrete walls to safeguard us).
While I take it day by day in keeping my family safe and building/adapting to a new lifestyle for us, I feel that I should move from community administration to another department with a more flexible time schedule. This will allow my family and me to focus more on getting everything situated that we need to on our new life journey.
A change in atmosphere and departments will be good for me, and I’ll be officially transferring from “Community Admin” to “Member Services” on March 23, 2018, to better reflect my current role and time spent working on NamePros. Fortunately, members won’t notice much of a difference thanks to our incredible team, and I’ll still be here to help you and answer questions. I love NamePros, and I am not leaving you; I am just moving to another department that fits better with my hectic schedule, new lifestyle adjustments, and safety concerns.
With the above said, NamePros has decided to eliminate the single-person admin roll. For admin-specific matters, please use the Contact NamePros Management section, and for all other matters, our member services and moderator team (me included) will look forward to assisting you.
Thanks for understanding,
Eric Lyon
