Dealing with a wannabe domain squatter

[Piyer]

Okay, squatter might be a poor choice of words, but it's the best term that comes to mind at the moment.

I've run a model railroad club since 1999 when I (alone) founded it on Yahoo!Groups. It is purely internet based (a website on my server, and the Y!G message list). I run it alone, there's no other management, no dues, no board of directors whatsoever. In other words, everything concerning its management goes through me.

Yesterday, one member -- with whom I cannot recall ever having a conversation with -- posts several unsolicited suggestions to the list for making the club and the website better, and offered to host the website on his site: "...I have secured space for such a venture and have fairly large bandwidth. ..." I replied to the list, reminding them that I was alive, and telling him that I liked his ideas (which I do) and that we can do them within the vast amount of space already available to the current website. He replied off-list, said he was working on something that he wasn't ready to show, yada, yada, yada....

I gave some thought to his idea overnight, and this morning I went to look at buying the domain for the group -- I currently use a subdomain of my website -- and that's when the problem surfaced. He beat me to it. He bought the domain yesterday, and from the looks of the whois record, he did so _after_ our conversation.

If he wants to own the name, I could probably care less, but what I am concerned with is the possibility of him using it to setup an unapproved (by me) website for the group, or worm his way into the management of the group. Considering when he bought it, I'm going to assume that a "No, you can't do that" won't work with him. Short of the good ol' threats of legal action, anybody have any other suggested courses of action? Would such an unapproved site be a violation of the usual TOS that hosting companies have?

[Vin DSL]

...I gave some thought to his idea overnight, and... He beat me to it...

I don't mean to be insensitive, but I'm afraid, that says it all...

[mattsiegman]

He can't claim any ownership or management over the group without your permission. Just put a link to the official site, and warn that the other may be a fake.