[Tfug] Domain names

[John Gruenenfelder]

On Sun, Jan 27, 2008 at 04:47:11PM -0700, Quag7 wrote:
>
>Mixing one's labor with the land is customary, but domain squatting is not 
>something I lose sleep over.  I will say that I kind of wish that squatted 
>domains had something interesting on their web pages rather than those 
>generic "links to all sorts of subjects" which are fairly depressing in the 
>way spam is depressing.  A picture of a hot babe or lolcat or perhaps stills 
>from The Fall Guy or Simon & Simon (season 2) would be more interesting.  Or 

Well, I was, perhaps, a bit vitriolic.  I don't lose sleep over it either, but
I also think it's a pretty crummy situation.  And I don't really know what the
solution might be.  If they were more expensive or bulk pricing schemes were
eliminated, that might do it, but then that just hurts and/or annoys people
like me who just want one for personal use.  Or for a Free software project
(which is one of the names I will be registering).

I know that I, personally, see it as parasitic and don't plan on engaging in
that sort of activity.  But then, there are plenty of other activities that
are both legal and far worse.  Such is the world.

I do agree that those lousy domain parking pages could be a *lot* more
interesting.  The links are just pointless since I have to assume most search
engines are smart enough to disregard those pages.  I like your suggestion,
though... keep tabs on Rick and AJ by visiting a random website... (and one of
the better 80s TV opening theme songs)  :)

As somebody else mentioned, this has been going on for years.  True enough,
but this is actually the first time I've needed to purchase any names myself.
Currently I use dyndns.org for my DNS needs, but of course there you are
limited to what domains you can get a name under.

I started using them 10 years ago when the list was *much* smaller than it is
now and chose 'merseine.nu' for the domain I put my hosts under.  And, since
it was a tiny free service (at the time) I donated $20.  A few years later
they greatly expanded and began offering some pay services.  Since I gave them
money in "The Beforetimes" I was given a permanent account upgrade and get to
use many of the pay services for free.  Still don't actually need them,
but...  Now *that's* being nice to your customers.

>Anyway I still use godaddy.com which others have complained about but I've had 
>no problems at all.  Then again, I've never had to call them.  I've been able 
>to do anything I need through their rather extensive domain interface and 
>their support staff replies by e-mail within 24 hours.   I wouldn't say I'm, 
>oh, "brand loyal" or something, any more than I'm brand loyal to, say, 
>butter, but I've had no reason to switch, and I've moved domains around quite 
>a lot, and haven't had any problems.

Huzzah!  Somebody answered my question.  Thanks.  Their prices seem pretty
decent.  A lot lower than register.com, at least.


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Research Assistant, UMass Amherst student
                        Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
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