What now?

Hi:
I'm a new member here, though I've visited this forum many times. This is really quite sad. I think we all need to make this matter a personal one, since this could happen to anyone. In fact, I remember another popular domain being hyjacked by these same people a while ago (can't remmber the URL).

We should contact the registrar (is it Networksolutions here?), or the hyjacker, by informing his advertisers of his offense etc. I'm sure we can come up with ways to fight back.

I think you should absolutely make efforts to let people know of the change. I come here every now and again just to look at posts and get info, I"m not sure if I've even posted here before. Several days ago when I clicked on my bookmark and got redirected to the hijackers site I couldn't make head nor tail of it. This had just happened to Macslash.com too, but with them their domain name had expired and they hadn't got their notification. I kept trying with your site, then today I just thought I'd see if you'd gone to a .net domain and luckily you had. I think it would be a terrible waste to let this community vanish. Just because some selfish person/people have taken your domain name should not be reason for you to give up. No way. This site is a great source of information, and it's fun too. Damn right you should let people know where you are now. Don't give up!

Good Luck
Fast

I definitely think we should try to spread the word as much as possible. This is certainly something that people in the webmaster community should be aware of, because it could happen to anyone.

I was reading somewhere today where some people have gotten their domain back from these people because of bad publicity (users emailing Ultimate Search and complaining).

Maybe we could try that? I wouldn't want to do that without getting an OK from the TWF higher ups though. They may have another game plan.

BTW....what is the gameplan for this situation????

I wonder if other forums such as webmaster world and site point would help TWF in directing members to the new .net?

Quote: Originally posted by disaster-master
I was reading somewhere today where some people have gotten their domain back from these people because of bad publicity (users emailing Ultimate Search and complaining).

What's the URL of the article?

Boy are you lucky I hadn't cleared my history yet. Would have never found it again.

http://metatalk.metafilter.com/mefi/2142

Look at the 5th paragraph from the top. The site that got their domain back was the British Poetry Society.
*lets turn the TWF Brits loose on the guys...that will show them*:D

I think that we should all email the new site and complain. It's not even as if they have a forum on there and they have picked up an immediate page rank of 6 in Google which is totally unfair!!!

Quote: Originally posted by Megan
I definitely think we should try to spread the word as much as possible. This is certainly something that people in the webmaster community should be aware of, because it could happen to anyone.

Agree.
What about you Mark, Marc, Chad? Mods? Others?

I did post something at another forum about domain theft in general and our specific problem. I hope that others will do the same in webmaster-related forums you're active in.

And please, keep posting! Keep TWF alive! We cannot let this problem destroy our community.

http://www.macslash.org/articles/02/05/29/2050202.shtml

this is happening with more and more regularity. I'm frankly starting to despair.

Is there a thread that explains in more details all the sordid affairs?
I see who the .com is registered to now; but would enjoy some more detailed information so I can discuss the matter with others that are better aquainted in these matters.
Anyone can feel free to contact via my email or PM.

Thanks,

Barb

Quote: Originally posted by disaster-master
. . . . . should we undertake a massive campaign to let everyone know where the .net is? . . . . .

I would certainly hope that all members are updated as to the new address.
I, for one, may had never found this forum again if Megan had not contacted me with the new URL.
I'm not a webmaster, so I don't try and visit often. I'm sure, had I not been notified, I would have clicked on my bookmark when I wanted to check up on this site and I would have ended up somewhere totally wrong.
I know about web hosting and some about domain names. So, frankly my usefullness in this forum is limited to those. However, I like to dable with site building and was happy to find such a useful tool such as this forum when I did.

You need to contact all members. Whatever it takes.

We're working on that, trust me

We are unsure at this point as to what exactly the problem is and who is at fault. The domain was paid up until March of '03 but seems to have mysteriously expired on May 26. A company called Ultimate Search promptly registered it and uploaded thier portal directory.

There are two possible culprits here - first of all, this problem of domains mysteriously expiring without notice seems to happening to a lot of people lately. This may be just a problem with the registrar, who knows. The second problem is this Ultimate Search company, who often seems to end up with the mysteriously expired domains.

Chad is currently working on figuring out what exactly went wrong and how to get the domain back. In the meantime, I hope that everyone will continue regular participation here at TWF.

In the meantime... Is anybody looking into the possibility of changing the hard link for the member's banner at the top from the .com to .net? Looks kind of tacky up there with that "broken" image and all.

Yes nails that has been discussed and should be taken care of soon. Thanks for mentioning it though and thanks for responding so fast to the mail out.

This is really a mess. I suppose you have seen where the .com TWF is pointed to? I have found at least 4-5 other sites that these people have taken the same way the got TWF. Hope we can get her back.

Sonia

I share everyone elses opinion, this sucks. Its just not right and something should definently be done to get back twf's domain name!

Quote:
In the meantime... Is anybody looking into the possibility of changing the hard link for the member's banner at the top from the .com to .net? Looks kind of tacky up there with that "broken" image and all.

Even people with links to their profile in their sigs will need to change the URL.

Seems like a split in opinions. I wonder if one of you mods can convert this thread to a poll? "Stick with .net or reclaim .com?"

Hadn't even thought about internal links within the site such as linking to profiles. Can't convert to a poll now but I say we need to get the .com back out of priciple if nothing else!!

In principle, I agree that we should get back .com.

But how hard will it be to settle on .net? What would the difficulties be?

Thank you disaster-master for sending that e-mail to me. I used to visit at least once a week to read new posts/threads although I don't post as before due to my busy schedule. I love this forum and I hope that all members be notified soonest possible.

I was supprised to see some kind of portal site and could not believe it and tried for days until I gave up and hope someone would inform me. Thanks again, disaster-master

Regards

Trouble is that if we give up on the .com they get away with it and they pinch the page rank we've built up with links etc!

I'm not a regular here but I'd like to put my 2p in.

Two questions need answered.

Do we fight for the .com back and, if so, how?
I think we should fight for it but how? Is there anything that the rank and file members can do? I've got a few mail bomb programs here! Joke

I do not think we should give up the fight for our .com. The only way to deal with this is legal action against either the new owner or the domain registrar, or both. Either way, this is a depressing thing. But keep your spirits up!

It would help if we actually knew what happened and who is directly responsible.

Since the domain was paid for until March 2003, there will be no problem getting it back. Last year this happened to a larger corp. If I remember correctly it was a sports drink maker(like the bulk up the body type powder mix stuff). They got thier domain name back in less than a week because they produced a receipt for the domain purchase that stated the expiration date and the threat of leagal action. So rest assured you will get it back. You may want to consider legal action against the thief and the reg. company, if this is hurting your revenue in any way.

I use Go-Daddy for all my domains and I feel that they are aware of these types of scams, not to mention cheaper than any of the others. Net Sol and those bigger companies are doing some not so ethical practices as of late also. I believe that there is a story on godaddy.com about it.

Regards,
Guy :batman:

Dang, that really sucks that the .com got hyjacked. I came here one day and the forums weren't here and I finally get a e-mail with the new link. Well, I think we should keep this domain name and try to get back the .com one and have one redirect to the other... just in case.

If this has already been said sorry, I just read 3/4 the first page (lazy me).

i'm glad to see you're still here, when i went to webmaster-forums.com and saw ultimate search i knew immediately what happened. it's happened to me before, and it's bullshit.

let me know what i can do to help. ill write to my congressman or put it on my christmas wishlist or something, let me know.

I thought TWF had been hacked!

Well the domain I guess has been.

Haven't you guys been trading as webmaster-forums.com for some time? You do charge for banner advertising, right?

If you have been trading as webmaster-forums.com you can get a lawyer and retake the .com

I would still recommend keeping the .net and just pointing it.

This thread has been dormant for 10 days, but I've only just now gotten to it.
Since the Google PageRank is the most tangible asset stolen by these theives (traffic may be more valuable but less tangible) has anyone contacted Google about this?

The Sysop? Site Owner?

just wondering...

Andi

One of the admin bods should really send an email to Google explaining the situation but the best way is to get as many of the links to the .com changed over then at next crawl by Google the page rank will be adjusted accordingly.

This shows all the links to the .com that Google is registering so maybe everyone can look at the list and if they have anything to do with a site listed then they can change the link.

[URL=http://www.arb-forum.com/ ]http://www.arb-forum.com/ [/URL] - National Arbitration Forum. They look into domain name disputes.

I've seen Ultimate Search camping on a number of sites previously. One thought I had was of emailing any reputable companies they who are advertising with them to tell them of Ultimate Search's unethical practices? Maybe they'll lose some business!

I am by no means a regular in these forums, but it is sad to see this happening, as it is a greate resource.

I am the editor of the webmaster forums at dmoz, so i've changed the url for webmaster-forums.. Hopefully it should be fixed in the next google update and get some pagerank back. All the best with getting back the domain!

Just noticed this morning that we now have a google page rank of 3! Still there are lots of sites that haven't changed their links to us, some of which belong to members of this forums

I have started contacting those listed on the google backward links for the .com

I'll just slide a note under the door here:

The title image still shows .com. Any chance of that changing? Some might be confused into thinking this site has multiple domains.

Does this mean you're not getting .com back?

Doesn't look like it, but we've decided to go with the .net now anyway so all links need changing.

I'll try to get to that tonight. I've been busy lately with freelance work and such and haven't had a chance to look at that.

Edit: And the "link to us" graphics as well

I'm having quite a bit of success so far with getting sites listed on the google backward links for .com to change their links to us

I have now sent everyone on the Google links list an email asking them to change their links.

Shoot, I forgot to get those graphics changed. I'll have to e-mail myself a reminder. The link to us graphics may have to wait until I have more time.

Congratulations on your 2K post!

Logo updated. Thanks Megan!