It has become more and more common for Publishers to buy and sell PAS Websites from one another, then request that we transfer the Websites to the new owner's Publisher account. Previously, we did not have an official stance or policy in place to provide for these transfers and several issues were consistently coming up that we wanted to address. What we have done is come up with a Website Transfer Policy that should address all of these issues. For some background, we'd like to point of what some of these issues were and how the new policy will address them.

Q: Does PAS allow "Website Transfers" or "Publisher Account Merges"? Does PAS facilitate or broker them?
A: After discussing this internally at great length, we have come to the conclusion that we definitely do allow these types of transfers. After all, the websites that you run are yours to run, we simply do our best to make that easier for you. While we will allow these transfers, and we will facilitate them from a tech perspective, we will not broker the transaction or arbitrate any negotiations. We will, however, handle all of the 'tech' work in moving the actual websites & players within the PAS system over to the new owner - provided that the instructions provided in the newly published policy are followed.

Q: How will timing and scheduling of these requests be handled?
A: One of the biggest reasons for this new policy is the timing & scheduling of the transfers. Due to the numerous 'edge cases' that can come up when working on transfers, they can be very time consuming. The potential exists for problematic and / or duplicated data (usernames, email addresses, stats, etc) each of which must be checked & resolved by our tech team (by hand). This means that we have to invest a significant amount of time into the transfer on our end to ensure that it's done correct and that everything is completely accurate afterward. In addition, previously we had been spending significant time prior to working on the transfer due to legwork involved in verifying the authenticity of transfer requests, confirming details of the request, etc. The new policy will address this issue, as well.

PAS will now guarantee that all transfers are complete within 14 days of the initial request, provided that you follow the instructions when making the request. This gives you a hard time frame for the 'worst case scenario' as far as scheduling, and often times the transfer will actually be scheduled & completed even sooner than the 14 day deadline.

Q: How do we handle a Transfer if a Member Username or Email Address already exists on both Publisher accounts?
A: These duplicate data issues remain a concern but, under the policy, we have given ourselves enough to time resolve them and, when needed, communicate with the requestor to ensure that we resolve the duplicate data appropriately. All transfers that take place under this new policy will also receive a final 'report' indicating any issues that were resolved by hand as well as a general summary of the transfer and what was moved (how many Members, Trackers, Websites, etc- were moved or had to be altered due to data inconsistencies).

Q: Can you sell a Website or Publisher Account without selling the players under it?
A: This one has come up a few times, and the answer is simply a "No". Here at PAS we believe in providing the highest quality of service to your customers. We believe in providing you, the Publishers, with the best service possible - and in turn, we also believe in providing your players with the best level of service that is possible. Under this same line of thinking, we do not believe that we can provide a high level of service to players if we allow websites to be sold without the accompanying players.

We must ensure that a Player's service is not interrupted by the business dealings that go on within the industry. At its core: If a player is in the habit of logging in to 'Website A' every day to see his stats, that player should continue to be able to do so regardless of any Publisher or Website Transfers, too.

Q: How do we know that it's an authentic request & not a hacked account or forged request?
A: Our new policy addresses this via the instructions provided. When requesting a transfer or brokering a deal with another Publisher, please be sure that you are both aware of and have thoroughly read through the policy. Be sure that when you are ready to make the transfer that you have read the instructions ('Requesting a Transfer' on the policy's page) and that you follow them when making the request.

Q: Why is there a service fee for these transfers?
A: As mentioned in several of the answers above, these transfers can be very time consuming for us to complete and require manual hands-on time from our tech team. The introduction of this policy allows us to provide a guaranteed level of service to Publishers so that you are aware of what to expect, and provides everyone with some 'boundaries' so that everyone is on the same page. With this new policy there should never be any question as to what will happen, when it will happen, or how it will happen. The introduction of this one-time service fee is what allows us to provide this high quality of service and allows us to dedicate the proper time to these transfers in order to guarantee this level of service.

Be sure to check out the actual Website Transfer Policy, which can also be found via our PAS Docs Main Page (under ‘Additional Resources’ heading).

We hope that this helps to clarify how we handle Website Transfers and Publisher Account Merges and hopefully addresses any concerns that you may have had regarding them. If you have any questions related to your specific situation please feel free to open a helpdesk ticket and let us know!