This is funny!
Once upon a time I joined an online bodybuilding community called Bigboys where I was one among many who wrote articles for free. In 1996 the founder John closed down Bigboys and I started Thorax’s Iron Page. In 1999 we had more than 15 contributing writers and we decided to change the name to Iron Magazine Online, or “Ironmag.com” for short. I also registered the domain name ironmag.com on December 12, 1999.
Some archived pages by the wayback machine can be found here.
In 2001 another Iron Magazine emerged and my co-founder was not particular happy about it since they tried to cash in on our name. But I couldn’t care less since I had jumped onboard the Swedish Edition of Ironman Magazine as Editor-in-Chief and was working and traveling +12 hours a day. Our Ironmag was put on ice in 2002 since all of us who started the magazine back in 1996 and 1997 where busy with our careers. Ironmag was after all a free non-profit project who gave a lot of writers a good start to launch their careers (including our own).
I never had any contact with the people at the other Iron Magazine but my cofounder did and he told me some funny stuff like they actually believed that they were first with their magazine and that they wanted our domain name “that we had stolen”. That really made me crack up, but I never wasted any energy on it. After all, we started in 1996 and registered the domain in 1999 while they stared in 2001 (which is also stated on their website).
The other day though, I found a hidden webpage. And this is so funny I just had to share it!
http://www.ironmagazine.com/nutrition1.htm
If you can’t reach the site, here’s a screen shot for your amusement.
Damn! I can take the lying and pathetic crap since it’s probably real in his little fantasy world… but poop! Poop is such a strong word coming from an adult. Uh, my abs are cramping up. Crap.
Anyways, I wish them best of luck. And since Ironmag was my child, I’m sure I’ll renew the domain for another two years.
Thursday, August 23rd 2007 at 12:20 pm
OWNED!
I really hope he’ll apologize, or he’s a bigger moron than I thought.
Thursday, August 23rd 2007 at 2:50 pm
The original Ironmag totally rocked. I started reading it back in 1997 and I can’t thank you guys enough for all the information you put out during an era where all you had were lousy magazines to rely on. I learned a lot, especially from you Joachim and from Chris Thibaudeau. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for you and your website.
And thanks for the laughs. But I would like to smack some sense into him though.
Keep up your good work! I wish I could understand swedish. Perhaps you’ll translate some articles in the future?
/Nicolas, France
Friday, August 31st 2007 at 10:43 pm
What a bunch of douchebags! They totally ripped off our name back in 2001, and luckily for them we had decided to wind down the magazine at that time. Had they appeared at the height of our popularity in late 1999, early 2000 when we were working on our online store and potential co-branding initiative with that supplement company, we’d have had them shut down in a week. Heck we’d have bought them and fired all of their shitty writers.
The thing I find most satisfying though is the level of influence the former writers of Ironmag.com have acheived in this industry, while IronMagazine.com still probably couldn’t get a press pass to a local level-one bodybuilding show if they tried.
IronMagazine.com is and always will be small potatoes in this industry.
Keep the domain name Joachim - heck, I’ll even buy it off you.
Saturday, September 1st 2007 at 12:25 am
My favorite though, is the landing page for Ironmag.net. This guy is so hung up on you owning Ironmag.com, that he forgoes getting good search enging rankings with solid keywords and instead posts crap like “The Real IronMagazine Online - Imitators Not Allowed!”
For someone who actually earns money with his site, with a cheaply-made line of generic knock-off supplements (complete with home-made label design) that he can only get listed at online retailers (who by the way, would sell a supplement from my Grandmother if she started a brand) - he sure doesn’t run a very tight ship. Putting personal 8 year old vendettas over better search rankings and more sales is just pathetic. To waste a landing page with a chest-thumping display of idiocy just shows what a fool this guy is.
Face it DiMaggio, we thought of IronMag long before you did. You’re nothing but a knockoff artist. Everything you are today with your outdated little website, you owe to the fact that Chris Thibeadeau and I decided to take jobs elsewhere in the industry. Had we developed Ironmag.com like we planned, we’d have crushed you like a bug. Don’t ever forget that.
Oh well, I’m glad this pathetic loser gets to earn a living riding the coattails of something we did 8-9 years ago.