LinkMoney.org

This has nothing to do with ICANN the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, but they certainly ought to be involved in a major policy change.

The domain of the very popular website MakeUseOf.com has been STOLEN! This was reported by Daniel Scocco during the night on his Blog DailyBlogTips.com.

The report says that MakeUseOf was being hosted on GoDaddy and that GD allowed the domain to be transfered away from the owner to somewhere in Dubai. GoDaddy no doubt will cover their ass by saying all security terms were met, but I say Bull Shit! Get better security terms!

How can this happen? MakeUseOf has over 20,000 subscribers, I being one, and we all enjoy the tips and free information given out contiuously be MakeUseOf.

This is a Nightmare, a Horror Story fitting for the Halloween season for sure, but sadly true and how will it be resolved?

What would you do if your baby was stolen and taken to a foreign country?

This industry needs better security methods similar to what the online banking industry uses such as, multiple security codes, a primary image associated with the account, two security questions, a mouse pointer select keyboard, and anything else that someone could come up with.

I did notice that one method being offered by some registrars is to limit activity to a specific IP address. That way transfers could only come from one specific computer. That seem like a good idea to me, what do you think?

For now you should make sure that you use DIFFERENT passwords for all of your domains, your administration panels, your hosting company accounts, and so on. Use multiple email addresses for different accounts.

What do you think? Can anyone come up with ideas on how to make this more secure. Lets talk about it. This HAS to be fixed.

Come on GoDaddy, fix this and return MakeUseOf to the rightful owner.

Rich Hill

UPDATE – UPDATE – UPDATE:

MakeUseOf has a temporary home on blogger until this gets fixed.  go there and give them your support.

http://makeuseof-temporary.blogspot.com/2008/11/make-use-ofs-temporary-home.html

As was postulated on the previous posting of this dot ME subject, GoDaddy Giveth and GoDaddy Taketh Away.

So after receiving a receipt and then a confirmation email that I was the proud new owner of three bouncing baby websites with a dot me extension, I was elated. Cigars all around.

Well that birth was aborted. GD sent an email about an hour later that said they were real sorry but those domains had been previously sold. Remember that term “Previously Sold !” they also said I would get a full refund for the money that I gave them in one business day. Remember that term, “One Business Day !”

So yesterday I got a very nice telephone call from Jennifer at GoDaddy. She was really very sorry that they had to strip me of my happiness. (My description, not what she really said, but what she meant anyway.) I was not upset in the least, thanked her for calling, told her GoDaddy was my least favorite registrar and that I mostly did not like their “In Your Face” crappy website. They CONSTANTLY try to sell you something, buy this, buy this, buy this.

Jennifer said I would be getting a full refund within “48 Hours.” 48 Hours from when? What happened to the one business day? GoDaddy got to use many millions of dollars to draw interest on for a few days, you can just bet on that, and in my opinion they knew just EXACTLY what they were doing.

I actually was very nice to Jennifer. It is not her fault she works for a shitty company. Oh by the way, “if there was anything that I wanted to purchase today while she was on the phone, that GD would consider a slight discount.” …

So after reading many other messages about this whole mess I found out that there was a new website to auction off dot ME domains that there had been more than one buyer for. So I went to the dot ME auction website and surprise! Two of the domains that I had bought and paid for were listed on the GoDaddy auction site. Turns out that they had not been sold to someone else after all. Someone on another Blog called this Bait and Switch. Is it?

So I tried to register to bid in the auction. I was told I did not have permission. So I sent an email to GD very politely asking how might I get permission to register for the auction. I received an email this morning from GD that said they were very sorry but only people that had made purchases and then had them taken away would be able to register for the auction. Huhh? WTF?

So I very politely sent them another message back stating that I was one of those same unfortunates and gave them my receipt number. We’ll see what happens today, but I think the auction starts tomorrow. so this just might be a way to shut out every one except GD’s best butt buddies. I’ll let you know what happens.

Think BlueHost people, and I’m not even going to insert my Affiliate Link.

Tell us what you think about this whole raw deal. Are we going to soar to new heights with our favorite dot ME domain, or crash and burn into a brick wall? Leave your comments below.

Use the little Orange button at the top to subscribe to this Blog and we will keep you posted.

Rich

*** PLEASE – PLEASE – PLEASE – Do me a favor, especially if you are pissed off with GoDaddy. Please use your favorite social bookmarking tool to vote for this Blog. Mostly I would consider it a VERY special favor if you would take some time to DIGG this Blog. If we can get a high enough DIGG count then more and more people will learn of this mess and maybe something can be done about it. ***** (DIGG it!)

Shoemoney posted a blog yesterday about the new TLD .ME to become available on Thursday July 17, 200 at 8:00am Pacific time. I knew that this was going to be happening soon but had not paid much attention to it.

So after a lot of discussion in the comments section of Shoemoney Blog, I got hooked.
http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/07/16/me-landrush-starts-8am-pst-tomorrow/#comment-77594

Last night I made a hot list of about a hundred domains that I thought would be really really cool, knowing full well that I would not be buying more that two or three, but Hey I can dream can’t I?

Well naturally even with all best plans to lurk over the keyboard with my finger poised watching the second hand just like on an Ebay snipe, I totally forgot about it. LOL

So about noon Eastern time I signed on to GoDaddy and sure enough the dot ME was being sold. So I started down my list, SOLD, SOLD, SOLD, SOLD, etc, etc. You get the idea. Then lo and behold I got one! Then another, then another! What a shock. I’m not going to brag about what they are yet because some of the discussion on Shoemoney was that if domains had multiple requests, they would go in a bidding war.

I don’t know if that bidding war stuff is real or not, I can’t find anything in the fine print, and I did get a receipt and then a confirmation email. Incidentally I used the coupon (gdp0422v – Save 20% off $75 or more.) It saved me over twenty bucks.

You pay $19.99 per year with a two year minimum, so it isn’t exactly a bargain domain name.

What do you think about this new domain name .ME? It is the country domain name for Montenegero, but anyone may purchase one, as far as I know. We reported in a previous post on this Blog about ICANN opening up possibilities for any TLD name that you want. Read about the ICANN Paris announcement on a previous Link Money dot org post.

Can you think of some good .ME names? As I understand it there are no two letter names available, but I did snag a good three letter one.

Would you take a gamble on a dot ME domain name? It might tie up your money for a while and then if the scuttlebut is any where near true, you might even lose it after you have made the purchase. In that case I guess GoDaddy would likely have many millions of dollars in their interest bearing accounts before they have to issue a refund.

Let us know what your thoughts are on the .ME domains.

(Click on comments below.)

Read more on this dot ME Fiasco on another Link Money dot org post.