Hello Smogoff,
Today I would like to use the expertise obtained from my career specializing in essentially the destruction of holy matrimony by attempting to figure out how Smogon (this website) would be divided and subsequently awarded in a divorce proceeding. Now, keep in mind that I can only speak to the provisions of property division as set forth by az law, so this knowledge may not apply in other regions. That being said, let's get into some of the basic concepts and vocabulary you'll need to familiarize yourself with in order to tackle this challenge.
First off, it should be established that az is a community property state. What this means is once you get married, the property you and your spouse acquire during the course of the marriage will be subject to division upon getting a divorce. Property, in this context, can be anything from bank accounts to real property— it's all game, baby. Of course, this is a very minimal definition, and truthfully there's a lot that goes into calculating the extent a piece of property should be divided.
For example, let's say you owned a house prior to the date of marriage. You bought it with money you earned yourself, right? So you would think your spouse should NOT be entitled to any of it, yeah? That would make sense, sure, but here in az land, your spouse would be entitled to half of the increased value of the house.
Going back to the concept of community property, a business is also subject to division upon divorce. Therefore, Smogon.com would be subject to that same division. But there's a bit of a challenge here: in order for a court to legally divide property, it needs a value, and with Smogon not exactly being transparent with its generated revenue and overall net worth, it would be almost impossible for a court to do so. Typically, when you want to find something out from an opposing party in a divorce, you can use several methods of discovery to obtain information or documentation that's relevant to the divorce, such as business records, profit-and-loss statements, expense reports, etc.
Unfortunately, because I am not married to the legal owner of Smogon.com (unless... Chaos ), I am unable to file for divorce and, subsequently, propound discovery upon them. Therefore, we'll need to do some research and come up with rough figures, which we can hope will be close enough to the actual numbers. Accordingly, the research should yield answers to the following questions:
Excellent. Based on these numbers, I’ve calculated the average number of site visits to be 5,900,000. That’s the number we’ll begin to plug into our handy little calculator here.
What about pageviews per session? I think that’s the average number of pages a user will visit during their visit to Smogon.com. That site I referenced earlier actually gives us a number for that: 5.6 pages per visit.
Next, we have the geographic value of audience. Let’s look at our site results:
Hmm. Based on this map, there is quite a diverse geographic visiting Smogon.com, but to the extent the audience of Smogon.com is “valuable” to advertisers? Not so hot, given they value audiences from the USA, Northern and Western Europe, Canada, and the UK. Because of this, we’ll select “Medium.”
And now we have the value of niche of Smogon.com. Once again, I’m not confident what this means, but according to the calculator, the value of niche is defined as the level of commercial opportunity available to site visitors. In layman’s terms, I take that to mean to what extent users can spend money on the site. We’ll go with the “Very low” option, in that case.
Lastly, ad placement. Based on my own browsing experience on Smogon.com, it feels like the ads aren’t super aggressive thankfully. In fact, it isn’t even guaranteed that an ad pops up when you refresh the home page of Smogon.com. For these reasons, I shall go with the “Conservative” for ad frequency.
Bingo. We now have a calculation of the monthly AND yearly revenue generated by Smogon.com. Check it out:
These figures make sense, and align with the estimated annual revenue range Similarweb gave us. Because of this, I feel comfortable moving forward using these numbers.
But wait, what about wages? Thankfully, that’s not something we need to concern too much over, seeing as Smogon.com relies on volunteer labor. But, who knows? Maybe some or all of the Senior Staff (“SS”) receive a salary. For the sake of computing a total monthly expense cost, we’ll give all of SS a salary.
Before we get into the numbers, we first need to see who we’re paying. For brevity, SS will consist of anyone who is currently a Super Moderator and Administrator. Here’s a list of everyone (as of April 20, 2022) who is SS:
Based on this list, there are fourteen Super Moderators and six Administrators. For the Super Moderators, we’ll calculate their monthly income based on the az minimum wage of $12.80. Realistically, they probably don’t work 40-hour work weeks on Smogon.com, so we’ll only calculate their monthly wages based on a 20-hour work week instead. Therefore, we will attribute each Super Moderator’s monthly income to $1,109. Times that by the fourteen Super Moderators on the team, that’s an additional $15,526 being added to the total monthly expenditures.
What about the Administrators? Well, we’ll give them a higher hourly rate to account for the increased responsibilities. I like to think of them as leads of the moderation team. So, in my experience, they would probably make around $16 an hour. We’ll go ahead and give them a 30-hour work week, since I doubt Smogon.com is compliant with full-time employment labor regulations. That gives us an individual monthly income of $2,080 for each Administrator. For six Administrators thence, we’ll go ahead and add another $12,480 to the monthly expenses.
That should conclude our estimation of the cost of monthly expenses. I’m sure there are things I’ve missed, but for the sake of continuing, I feel confident in our calculations thus far. Accordingly, the total cost of monthly expenditures is $34,506.
We’re so close to figuring out the value of Smogon.com, but we aren’t quite there yet. The next question is very important.
That brings us back to our original question: how would Smogon be divided in a dissolution of marriage? In a vacuum, it would be a 50/50 split, but that isn’t accounting for potions of the business value that is held by shareholders. Given Smogon’s affiliation with Pokémon Showdown, there’s undoubtedly a financial interest in the site held by Showdown’s owner. In terms of the divorce then, whatever portion held by the owner of Smogon (Chaos) minus the value held by relevant shareholders is what will be subject to division.
This quickly becomes a question not about the broad or vague, but rather the personal and individual. Chaos is the creator/owner of Smogon.com, so ultimately none of this concerns anyone more than it concerns him. Any chunk of $91,064,129 is no little amount, so it can be said that precautions should be taken for you, Chaos, decide on engaging in the historic legal binding of marriage.
It is for this reason that I ultimately recommend you have a prenuptial agreement prepared and signed by you and your future spouse before deciding to officially marry. I understand that love snatches the rationality from us all, which is why I am here to perform my civil duty in cautioning you against this future loss. Please do note that I am not authorized to practice law, and ultimately you should consult with the attorney above all else, but as a representative of the concerned lay man and constituent of your site, do me a favor and act in accordance to your best interests.
Today I would like to use the expertise obtained from my career specializing in essentially the destruction of holy matrimony by attempting to figure out how Smogon (this website) would be divided and subsequently awarded in a divorce proceeding. Now, keep in mind that I can only speak to the provisions of property division as set forth by az law, so this knowledge may not apply in other regions. That being said, let's get into some of the basic concepts and vocabulary you'll need to familiarize yourself with in order to tackle this challenge.
First off, it should be established that az is a community property state. What this means is once you get married, the property you and your spouse acquire during the course of the marriage will be subject to division upon getting a divorce. Property, in this context, can be anything from bank accounts to real property— it's all game, baby. Of course, this is a very minimal definition, and truthfully there's a lot that goes into calculating the extent a piece of property should be divided.
For example, let's say you owned a house prior to the date of marriage. You bought it with money you earned yourself, right? So you would think your spouse should NOT be entitled to any of it, yeah? That would make sense, sure, but here in az land, your spouse would be entitled to half of the increased value of the house.
Going back to the concept of community property, a business is also subject to division upon divorce. Therefore, Smogon.com would be subject to that same division. But there's a bit of a challenge here: in order for a court to legally divide property, it needs a value, and with Smogon not exactly being transparent with its generated revenue and overall net worth, it would be almost impossible for a court to do so. Typically, when you want to find something out from an opposing party in a divorce, you can use several methods of discovery to obtain information or documentation that's relevant to the divorce, such as business records, profit-and-loss statements, expense reports, etc.
Unfortunately, because I am not married to the legal owner of Smogon.com (unless... Chaos ), I am unable to file for divorce and, subsequently, propound discovery upon them. Therefore, we'll need to do some research and come up with rough figures, which we can hope will be close enough to the actual numbers. Accordingly, the research should yield answers to the following questions:
- How does Smogon.com generate revenue?
- Based on the question above, what is the gross revenue generated by Smogon on a monthly basis?
- What are some of the necessary and reasonable expenses associated with operating Smogon.com?
- What is the profit generated by Smogon.com after subtracting the gross monthly revenue from the monthly expenditures?
- How can the overall value of Smogon.com be determined using only profit?
- What is the value of Smogon.com?
- How does Smogon.com generate revenue?
- Based on the question above, what is the gross revenue generated by Smogon on a monthly basis?
- the number of site visits per month;
- the page views per session;
- the geographic value of audience;
- the value of niche; and
- the level of frequency ads appear for users.
Excellent. Based on these numbers, I’ve calculated the average number of site visits to be 5,900,000. That’s the number we’ll begin to plug into our handy little calculator here.
What about pageviews per session? I think that’s the average number of pages a user will visit during their visit to Smogon.com. That site I referenced earlier actually gives us a number for that: 5.6 pages per visit.
Next, we have the geographic value of audience. Let’s look at our site results:
Hmm. Based on this map, there is quite a diverse geographic visiting Smogon.com, but to the extent the audience of Smogon.com is “valuable” to advertisers? Not so hot, given they value audiences from the USA, Northern and Western Europe, Canada, and the UK. Because of this, we’ll select “Medium.”
And now we have the value of niche of Smogon.com. Once again, I’m not confident what this means, but according to the calculator, the value of niche is defined as the level of commercial opportunity available to site visitors. In layman’s terms, I take that to mean to what extent users can spend money on the site. We’ll go with the “Very low” option, in that case.
Lastly, ad placement. Based on my own browsing experience on Smogon.com, it feels like the ads aren’t super aggressive thankfully. In fact, it isn’t even guaranteed that an ad pops up when you refresh the home page of Smogon.com. For these reasons, I shall go with the “Conservative” for ad frequency.
Bingo. We now have a calculation of the monthly AND yearly revenue generated by Smogon.com. Check it out:
These figures make sense, and align with the estimated annual revenue range Similarweb gave us. Because of this, I feel comfortable moving forward using these numbers.
- What are some of the necessary and reasonable expenses associated with operating Smogon.com?
But wait, what about wages? Thankfully, that’s not something we need to concern too much over, seeing as Smogon.com relies on volunteer labor. But, who knows? Maybe some or all of the Senior Staff (“SS”) receive a salary. For the sake of computing a total monthly expense cost, we’ll give all of SS a salary.
Before we get into the numbers, we first need to see who we’re paying. For brevity, SS will consist of anyone who is currently a Super Moderator and Administrator. Here’s a list of everyone (as of April 20, 2022) who is SS:
Based on this list, there are fourteen Super Moderators and six Administrators. For the Super Moderators, we’ll calculate their monthly income based on the az minimum wage of $12.80. Realistically, they probably don’t work 40-hour work weeks on Smogon.com, so we’ll only calculate their monthly wages based on a 20-hour work week instead. Therefore, we will attribute each Super Moderator’s monthly income to $1,109. Times that by the fourteen Super Moderators on the team, that’s an additional $15,526 being added to the total monthly expenditures.
What about the Administrators? Well, we’ll give them a higher hourly rate to account for the increased responsibilities. I like to think of them as leads of the moderation team. So, in my experience, they would probably make around $16 an hour. We’ll go ahead and give them a 30-hour work week, since I doubt Smogon.com is compliant with full-time employment labor regulations. That gives us an individual monthly income of $2,080 for each Administrator. For six Administrators thence, we’ll go ahead and add another $12,480 to the monthly expenses.
That should conclude our estimation of the cost of monthly expenses. I’m sure there are things I’ve missed, but for the sake of continuing, I feel confident in our calculations thus far. Accordingly, the total cost of monthly expenditures is $34,506.
- What is the profit generated by Smogon.com after subtracting the gross monthly revenue from the monthly expenditures?
We’re so close to figuring out the value of Smogon.com, but we aren’t quite there yet. The next question is very important.
- How can the overall value of Smogon.com be determined using only profit?
- What is the value of Smogon.com?
That brings us back to our original question: how would Smogon be divided in a dissolution of marriage? In a vacuum, it would be a 50/50 split, but that isn’t accounting for potions of the business value that is held by shareholders. Given Smogon’s affiliation with Pokémon Showdown, there’s undoubtedly a financial interest in the site held by Showdown’s owner. In terms of the divorce then, whatever portion held by the owner of Smogon (Chaos) minus the value held by relevant shareholders is what will be subject to division.
This quickly becomes a question not about the broad or vague, but rather the personal and individual. Chaos is the creator/owner of Smogon.com, so ultimately none of this concerns anyone more than it concerns him. Any chunk of $91,064,129 is no little amount, so it can be said that precautions should be taken for you, Chaos, decide on engaging in the historic legal binding of marriage.
It is for this reason that I ultimately recommend you have a prenuptial agreement prepared and signed by you and your future spouse before deciding to officially marry. I understand that love snatches the rationality from us all, which is why I am here to perform my civil duty in cautioning you against this future loss. Please do note that I am not authorized to practice law, and ultimately you should consult with the attorney above all else, but as a representative of the concerned lay man and constituent of your site, do me a favor and act in accordance to your best interests.
