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MacSlash Domain Stolen

Posted by pudge on Thu May 30, 2002 12:18 AM
from the sigh dept.
Businesses Links Apple
MacSlash's Robert Daeley writes in to tell us that the domain name for MacSlash, the Mac news site, is incorrectly pointing to a generic "Dotster" page, either by accident or by malicious domain theft or squatting. They have registered macslash.net and hope to be back up again soon, and have as yet been unable to get word from "Dotster" regarding how this all happened.
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  • Dotster have a contact form (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kris_J (10111) on Thursday May 30 2002, @12:35AM (#3607488) Journal
    https://secure.registerapi.com/help/csupport.php [registerapi.com] Why don't you all go off an ask them what they did with the domain? I'm sure they'd enjoy the email...
  • Registrant:
    Vicente Peiro Crespo
    Chiva , 23 , 27
    Valencia, Valencia 46018
    ES

    Registrar: Dotster (http://www.dotster.com)
    Domain Name: MACSLASH.COM
    Created on: 28-MAY-02
    Expires on: 28-MAY-03
    Last Updated on: 28-MAY-02

  • Link (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by gnovos (447128)
    www.macslash/com will never resolve. Try www.macslash.com
  • on att broadband (mchsi).

    Not sure if a name machine is messed up somewhere or what, but I resolve just fine from my machine.
  • I don't know if it's just some of you people, if Dotster fixed the problem already, or what...but macslash.com points to macslash.com.

  • Status is still ongoing (Score:5, Informative)

    by daeley (126313) on Thursday May 30 2002, @01:13AM (#3607577) Homepage
    We still have not heard from Dotster at this point (23:10 PDT may 29), however some folks have reported being able to get in. If you are able to, please post in the Domain Troubles story so we know you got there.

    For more information and updates, please email us at macslash@earthlink.net or call Ben Stanfield, Executive Editor, 270-881-0680. Thanks to everyone who has contacted us already. And thanks to Pudge for posting the story.

    We are hoping to have this issue resolved ASAP. We apologize for the inconvenience.
    • Cool. A 270 area code. Fellow Kentuckians.
    • Will the website still be accessable by an IP address?

    • Update (Score:4, Informative)

      by daeley (126313) on Thursday May 30 2002, @12:07PM (#3610317) Homepage
      As of 0952 PDT Thursday, there is still no word from Dotster. It seemed as if some folks were able to get through (including me) last night and post, but it is now offline again from where I am: no Dotster page, no MacSlash, no nothin'. A whois via networksolutions.com still brings up that Valencia hombre. Anybody seeing anything?

      I will post again to this thread when we have more info.

      Thanks again to everyone who has gotten in touch with us, and to the other Mac sites for posting info.

    • Update 2 (Score:5, Informative)

      by daeley (126313) on Thursday May 30 2002, @06:03PM (#3613542) Homepage
      1601 PDT, Thursday. Ben Stanfield, who is driving somewhere between Kentucky and Washington D.C., just received a call from a V.P. at Dotster who said that his people have been receiving A LOT of emails from you guys. He is personally looking into the problem and has assured us that he will do everything in his power to get this problem corrected. If it ends up being something that Dotster cannot assist us with we have already received an offer for Pro-Bono work from a lawyer who works with domain disputes all of the time. If worst comes to worst we'll be meeting with ICANN soon.

      Meanwhile, back at the ranch, macslash.net should be propagating even as we speak, so hopefully by tomorrow things will be back to (relative) normalcy. If not, I will continue to post updates in this thread. (Knock on wood laminate desk.)

      Thanks much to everyone for their assistance, emails, and well-wishes.

    • Update 3 (Score:5, Informative)

      by daeley (126313) on Friday May 31 2002, @11:56AM (#3618039) Homepage
      OK, two pieces of business.

      macslash.net is not propagating properly, and since .org has already (thanks again to Charles Ruggerio for hooking us up), we are going ahead with macslash.org for now [macslash.org]. We will be posting a story on the site later today breaking down the whole situation.

      Secondly, a Mac/ user (samiam) has already posted a great explanation [macslash.org] of the apparent redirection to MacMall, so I won't repeat the story.

      Thanks much!
      • I wonder the same things sometimes. I was going to post something to the queue, then I realised that anything you post means nothing and they only accept things from this anonymous coward guy, whoever he is.
  • Im sure we can get together a mob of angry macslash users right? i mean mac users are always refered to as zealots and a cult, well what's a cult without a militant arm?

    there just aint no justice like mob justice.

  • Surveyt says...updated 2 days ago. (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sounds like someone missed the expiration notice...

    Domain Name: MACSLASH.COM
    Registrar: DOTSTER, INC.
    Whois Server: whois.dotster.com
    Referral URL: http://www.dotster.com/help/whois
    Name Server: NS1.DOTSTERINC.COM
    Name Server: NS2.DOTSTERINC.COM
    Updated Date: 28-may-2002

  • I've been suffering from the shakes since As The Apple Turns (http://www.appleturns.com) went off the air last month and now MacSlash, too! Excuse me while I hide under the covers from the baby Steve Jobs that's crawling on my ceiling. Wait maybe if I go to Apple's Hot News page and keep hitting reload I can get a fix...
    • Yeah, but the good news there is that AtAT is scheduled to return next week! Hurrah!
      • Really? Where'd you heard that? Maybe I should be paying more attention to the unofficial forums...

        If it's true, this is great news! I'd be so happy even if Jack only posted one or two new 'shows' a week; anything is better then nothing, and it'd be totally understandable with 'the intern' and all.

        I've been feasting on Random Episodes [appleturns.com] for weeks now to help with the withdrawal symptoms, and honestly the quality of the stuff that Jack has put out daily for so long is amazing. Most people couldn't write three long pieces like that each day and still be funny, informative, and entertaining.

        Kudos to Jack, and I can't wait for the big return from hiatus.
        • It's right on the main page of his site, as of sometime yesterday.

          Credit Rockwood [rockwoodcomic.com] for flushing him out of his hiding place - Rockwood posted a hilarious strip starring Jack, and it looks like that caused him to snap out of the doldrums. (Check yesterday's comic for the start).

          Thanks Brian! We Appleturns fans owe you one.

          D

  • The domain is pointing to the right number, there is no place at the internet, remember?
  • I noticed www.scandalsheet.net [scandalsheet.net] had stopped resolving. I was hopping mad as I'd had trouble renewning it and thought Netsol had messed up.

    So I quickly re-registered it with joker.com to make sure I kept it.

    I then found out I had never had scandalsheet.net, only scandalsheet.org!

    Ah well, now I have both!

    Sam

  • but.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dalassa (204012)
    I thought domain name stealing/squatting had pretty much ended with google.

    Oh well, sadly it appears that Dotster has enough server power to avoid a massive slashdotting.

  • IP address (Score:3, Informative)

    by Megane (129182) on Thursday May 30 2002, @07:09AM (#3608331)
    I'm surprised nobody seems to have posted this yet:

    63.238.196.105 macslash.com.
    63.238.196.105 www.macslash.com.

    Sorry, but http://63.238.196.105/ won't work because it's vhosted and needs a request for macslash.com.

  • If you previously owned Macslash.org please email me at: webmaster@edgeofheaven.com

    sounds antagonistic to me
      • Yup... I registered macslash.org cause I thought macslash.com was squatted. (please don't disembowel me) I have contacted the real owners of macslash and I will be transfering the domain and hopefully forwarding .org to their IP address in the meantime.
      • Yes, please do not disembowel him; he was kind enough to register macslash.org and let us know about it when he discovered the hijacking. Disemboweling is reserved for the dude in Valencia... or the fscker at Dotster who screwed this up, whichever it turns out to be
        • The threat was to disembowel him if he was a squatter, but as it turns out he's not (as I though to be the case). So no disemboweling is necessary. What he does deserve is a big HUZZHA for doing the right thing.
  • As of 10:15 am Thursday morning from inside UMich, www.macslash.com is still a dotster default page. Plain old macslash.com, however, gets me to their site.

    -----
    Apple hardware still too expensive for you? How about a raffle ticket? [macraffle.com]

  • I've posted this to Metafilter [metafilter.com], where domain hijackings have been a frequent topic of discussion (see discussions re succaland.com [metafilter.com], smug.com [metafilter.com] and hoopla.com [metafilter.com], where some insight into the subject of domain hijacking might be gained, perhaps).

    Still got MacSlash at home this morning, but I've been getting Dotster instead at work since yesterday.

  • Good marketing (Score:3, Funny)

    by anthony_dipierro (543308) on Thursday May 30 2002, @10:26AM (#3609551) Journal
    I'm going to have to forget to renew my domain name so I can get slashdotted too!

  • Follow-up (Score:3, Informative)

    by cloudscout (104011) on Thursday May 30 2002, @12:14PM (#3610354) Homepage
    I've been following this story since yesterday afternoon on my fly-by-night Mac blog, obzorg.org [obzorg.org].

    If you're getting the Dotster 'coming soon' page when you try to reach the MacSlash site, check out these updates [obzorg.org] including AcaBen's public statements on the subject.

  • Expired. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by stupor (165265)
    The domain expired on May 28th From the verisign registry and was grabbed by Dotster's Namewinner software. The domain was NOT transferred.
    • And what evidence do you have to back up this claim? I'm sure if it were that simple, the folks ovet at MacSlash would have caught it farily quickly.

      I would love to see the NSI whois page showing this to be the case.
  • expired != hijacked.

  • Renewal Blacklist (Score:4, Informative)

    by stupor (165265) on Thursday May 30 2002, @05:50PM (#3613447)
    dotster's mail server is blacklisted by mac.com which is where the renewal notices were sent. so anyone with a mac.com email address rejects all mail from dotster. sucks to be blacklisted.

  • www.macslash.com is pointing to macmall.com now. Is someone trying to pull a Joe-job on MacMall?

    -jcr

  • Recap (Score:2, Informative)

    by ablair (318858)
    What seems to have happened is the owners of macslash.com let their registration expire (the Dotster e-mail warning them of this was filtered out as spam on their mac.com e-mail account apparently), and Vicente Peiro Crespo of Valencia, Spain registered and paid for it legally at expiry. According to what he's said on the macslash.org thread [macslash.org] about this, he does this with expired domains and redirects them through Commission Junction for a little extra money from ad revenue. Not exactly the most honorable thing for a moonlighting hobby, but perfectly legal.

    However, he has said that when owners ask for their domains back (eg. when the domain is still in use) he gives it to them sans profit; and further he has stopped advertising on macslash.com as soon as he found out the domain was still near & dear to people's hearts and he's stopped advertising. He's also put up a link from macslash.com to macslash.org as of this posting, as you can see [macslash.com]. This dosen't sound like the work of a beligerent opportunist nor is this a "hijacking" as the title of this thread implies. His first post on Macslash about it mentioned that he was willing to return the domain if the former owner contacted him. But now Vincente says that he, Dotster, and Commission Junction have recieved so many flames about this that they've cut off his account and he's no longer making any money off of anything.

    Somehow this seems like a simple mistake (on both the part of Vincenete and Macslash's owners for letting it expire) that could have been easily corrected but now exacerbated by a lot of flamers. So stop sending nasty e-mails to everyone on the planet about this and maybe Vincente will give the domain back if he's still inclined. Otherwise MacSlash will have to get used to permanently being at MacSlash.org [macslash.org]
    • Since you're using Mozilla RC3, use the following list of steps to avoid ever having to see this kind of crappy advertising ever again:
      1. Open your Preferences panel.
      2. Expand the tree for "Advanced" and click on "Scripts & Windows".
      3. Deselect the ability of Javascript to:
        • Open unrequested windows
        • Move or resize existing windows
        • Raise or lower windows
      That should get rid of all the most annoying features of JavaScript without killing the useful or "pretty" website enhancements.
    • So how does M$ keeps their domain names? I would think the evil empire would be a prime target for these domain snipers? Something must happen that allows M$ to maintain the reistration so what are they doing that macslash wasn't?
    • Somehow I don't think that the domain just "expired". When you run a web board like macslash you don't accidentaly let your domain name expire and not register it again.
        • atypically useless

          Pardon me but, what the hell does that mean?

          Secondly, regardless fo whether the content is shit, the board is popular in it's own user base and has been arround for a while. You don't just forget something like that.
    • Someone is redirecting people to MacMall through an affiliate link at Commission Junction. I seriously doubt that MacMall is behind this activity. The person who is in control of macslash.com is just redirecting people there because they pay a sales commission and it is a logical affiliate link to push on macslash readers.

      I'm sure that the people at Commission Junction and MacMall would like to know that one of their "affiliates" is using a redirect to send them traffic, which probably violates their terms of service. I would really recommend against harassing these people since they didn't do anything other than offer a commission on sales of mac hardware and software that is being abused by the person who now has macslash.com.

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