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Scumbag domain squatters

#21
I maintain websites for a number of clients. I really don't know how you can "forget" to renew a domain name. I start getting e-mails about 3 months before they expire, and if I let them get within 1 month of expiration I get notices in my snail-mail. I suppose if the owner of the domain changes e-mail addresses AND moves to a new physical address AND fails to have their mail forwarded you could miss the expiration notices. I can't imagine having someone that irresponsible in charge of a website if it's really that important to have one.

That said, name-squatters ARE a PIA. I had to settle for a .cc domain for one of my clients because some squatter owns the .com version; the .com version has never been used, it's just a good combination of words for the particular business, so this squatter bought it a long time ago and would gladly sell it for the *bargain* price of $10,000.00 :eyebrow: .
 
#23
MJ5150 said:
The day his lease expired, a porn company jumped on it and took over his site. If anything, it really sucked to see all of his hard work for four or five years gone in almost an instant.

-Mike
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I pay bucks to a host company and they give me fair warning annually when the domain is up and that I should renew. It's really that simple, isn't it?

P.S. Smash: Christian groups aren't the only ones protesting the way things are out there.
 
#24
P. Aaron said:
I pay bucks to a host company and they give me fair warning annually when the domain is up and that I should renew. It's really that simple, isn't it?
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Yeah. In the case of my friend, it was not a matter of it expiring without him knowing. He just put it off a couple times, and never thought someone else would jump on it the day it expired. Kind of like renewing the tabs on your car. If you do it a couple days late, it's not like someone else is going to renew your tabs and get your car. He meant to do it, and a couple days after it had expired he went to do it, and then found out someone else had claimed it. If he had owned a major, high traffic domain, he would have renewed it the first time the renewal came. This was a small site visited by friends and family.

I'm not going for the "my poor friend got scammed and didn't even know his lease expired" sob story. I was just adding a personal experience of how squatters are keeping an eye on pretty much all websites.

-Mike
 
#25
MJ5150 said:
Yeah. In the case of my friend, it was not a matter of it expiring without him knowing. He just put it off a couple times, and never thought someone else would jump on it the day it expired. Kind of like renewing the tabs on your car. If you do it a couple days late, it's not like someone else is going to renew your tabs and get your car. He meant to do it, and a couple days after it had expired he went to do it, and then found out someone else had claimed it. If he had owned a major, high traffic domain, he would have renewed it the first time the renewal came. This was a small site visited by friends and family.

I'm not going for the "my poor friend got scammed and didn't even know his lease expired" sob story. I was just adding a personal experience of how squatters are keeping an eye on pretty much all websites.

-Mike
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I recently reserved a domain (in the signature below) for my random rants. I was rather surprised that the name itself wasn't already taken. I had a list of about 60 names for the blog and they were all taken.
 
#26
I feel absolutely no sympathy for the people who lost their domain name to a porn outfit.

First, does it matter whether the new owners are porn? What if the new owners were, say Harry's Hardware Store? The business interests of the new owners aren't relevant.

Second, does it matter whether the original owners were Christian? What if the original owners were, say Joe's Hardware Store?

Third, does it matter whether it's a domain name, or another bill, such as the electric bill?

My point is, being Christian or not DOESN'T give anybody a free ride. They got their renewal notice, in almost all probability, but failed to fulfill their obligations.

Didn't Jesus say something to the effect of "render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar's" (when asked about the Roman tax collections)? That means, you gotta pay what you gotta pay, whether it's taxes to the government, or debts to private people. Religious affiliation, skin color, gender, or age: nobody has any special "rights", we don't get to avoid our responsibilities.

The bottom line: somebody at the organization didn't do what they should have--pay the bill.

End of rant. :D
 
#30
First use of Scumbag:

1967 [see SCUM n. 2d]. 1968-70 Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) III-IV. 106 Scum bag, a condom. 1974 Time Out 6 Dec. 21/1 Young blades carried their sheaths or condoms or..‘scumbags’ in their wallets.

Change in meaning around 70/71

1971 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 23 Dec. 5/2 Another called him a ‘scumbag’ and said he should have been killed. 1973 E. BULLINS Theme is Blackness 80 [Ann] No, you can't think that about me! [Peter] Why can't I, scumbag? 1976 G. V. HIGGINS Judgement of Deke Hunter iv. 29, I had three scumbags that went to trial. 1977 Zigzag Apr. 34/2 What little scumbag would say something like that?
 
#32
The original Lovesjones website was sucked up by cybersquatters (nothing too dodgy - just a search engine, albeit one I wouldn't trust because of how it took over). Unfortunately, the guy who'd set the band up and bought the name was in Brazil for six months and so, what would have been a simple renewal if he'd been around became too complicated and too slow.

Moral of the story - if you look after a website, make sure you've also got the ability to renew the domains when you see they've come to the end of their lease!

Wulf
 
#33
ICAAN has a set of rules and policies regarding squatting and similar disputes re. domain names. For details check:

http://www.shop4domain.com/drs1/htmlfiles/legal-disppol-rules.htm

Here is the list of authorised Providers for Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy:

Link Removed

They should contact one of these providers and explain their situation. In general, rules favor the original domain name holders, especially if they can prove that the new domain owner tried to blackmail them. They should make sure to maintain (and present) copies of any communication between them and the squatter. If he asked for money, usually he will lose the domain.
 
#35
hmmmm. i will probably get a lot of **** for this but honestly, i think it's really ironic, and kind of funny.
it sucks when your in a band and someone drops the ball.

it sucks that people wait for a popular domain name to come up for sale and use it for porn sites. its actually smart business. not very honorable, but it happens. if someone took my bands domain name, i would just e-mail everyone on our guest book/mailing list and just let them know about it.


would this be an issue if it wasnt a christian band?
 
#36
xshawnxearthx said:
would this be an issue if it wasnt a christian band?
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Definitely - although it's possibly more likely to expose an audience who'd normally stay away from such things (and who are perhaps more likely to be behind firewalls and filters that will block the content and / or fire up big alerts to those running the access points) to the seedier side of the Internet.

Wulf
 
#37
wulf said:
Definitely - although it's possibly more likely to expose an audience who'd normally stay away from such things (and who are perhaps more likely to be behind firewalls and filters that will block the content and / or fire up big alerts to those running the access points) to the seedier side of the Internet.

Wulf
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i should have said, "would it have been post worthy by brad if it wasnt a christian band?" not digging on him, so brad, i hope you dont think i am. i;m just wondering because this ish happends pretty much everyday, yet it was brought up because it was a christian band?
 

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