MetaChat - How *do* they do it? Domain squatters suck.

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30 January 2007

How *do* they do it? Domain squatters suck. →[More:]Seriously, how do these gnats know that I ran a whois of my first & last name dot net on the evening of the 26th?

There is no chance in hell that this is a sought-after domain name. It's not a common or particularly nice last name. So they had to have picked up that someone ran a whois on it. It was registered to "SPOT DOMAIN LLC DBA DOMAINSITE.COM" by the next morning.

It is SO FRUSTRATING. Now I can't even register my writing site under my own name.* There's no way in hell I'm bidding with this assholes. It would only encourage them.

(*unless I use a .nu or .cc or something, which I'm not interested in doing.)

post by: loiseau at: 19:28 | 6 comments

.cc has some writing connotations (carbon copy), but I understand your plight/frustration. They do suck, and they are one of the reasons why big companies can get away with forcing legit owners/users.
For a long time I've been an advocate of a use-it-or-lose-it change to domain registering. Even stuff like bushsucks.com (which I see is no longer owned by people not wanting negative urls associated with bush, guess his popularity has really gone down), or yourfavoritepoliticansucks.com should be used or lost, not bought and mothballed.

posted by edgeways 30 January | 19:42

Sometimes when there's no activity or traffic to the domain they drop it within thirty days. Here's to hoping?

posted by hugsnkisses 30 January | 20:05

What site are you using to do your whois searches?

posted by chrismear 30 January | 20:09

Ya that sucks. I'm glad .ca is a bit cleaner.

posted by Mitheral 30 January | 21:45

Sometimes when there's no activity or traffic to the domain they drop it within thirty days.

Wow, I didn't know that. And, w00t, you're right! The .com that has the title of my brother's proposed new book, that was grabbed with stunning quickness a couple of months back, is free.

That'll be me buying you a few beers at the next meetup, then. Frikken geeeeenius, you are :)

posted by TheDonF 31 January | 02:01

I would use .ca, and I do for a different site, but for this, I don't want to give the impression that I won't work internationally.

I got the domain, though -- my host bought it anyway, and I guess I won't know how much he paid for it until I get the bill. But seriously, these people hadn't a hope of selling it to anyone else, so they probably took a minimal profit.

So now I have my professional site, finally... and I'm sure the work will be rolling in any minute now... won't it?

Okay, maybe not.

posted by loiseau 01 February | 14:13

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