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This really gets me hacked. I have had the domain thesignzone.com for some time now and have been trying to get signzone.com as well. It used to be a dopey little sign site so it did not bother me that much. The other day one of my best clients calls me to tell me he forgot the "the" and WOW! signzone.com is now porn with obnoxious pop ups and the whole works. I dont get why they would want that name but maybe I am missing something there. Is there anything I can do? Probably not without a ton of $$$. This just stinks...
-------------------- Brian Stoddard Northwest Signs
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How in the heck does Signzone.com get related to porn? Thats sortta like having "BurgerZone" and having porn there. You wonder what the guys who own that site are thinking don't you? I have a website that has "the" as it's first word and I will tell you the main problem I have found is in alphabetical search engines. You are always toward the end of the list. All I can tell you is look on Network Solutions and find out when it expires and hope that it doesn't get renewed then buy it.
-------------------- John Thompson JTT Graphics "The big guy with a little sign shop!" Royston/Hartwell Georgia jtt101@hotmail.com Posts: 626 | From: Royston Georgia | Registered: Feb 2002
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I tried to get peacesigns.com and it belongs to someone who is trying desperately to sell it...for tons of money. There is no site to see at this point but at least it doesn't shoot to a porn site...whew! But I sure was curious to see what I might be accidentally associated with. I went with the ".biz" option, but so many folks transpose the ".com" from habit. I understand your frustration...that's why I love to play pool...some days ya just wanna hit stuff...LOL!
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Hi when a web site domain name is not paid on time, porn companys grab them up and will only accept large amount of money to get them back. This practice is being investigated at this time.
-------------------- Terry Nicholson 16 Riddell Rd RR3 Prescott, ON Posts: 42 | From: Brockville, Ontario | Registered: May 2002
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I go for .coms only cause like Linda said, thats what people automatically think. For instance if you see Joes Hot Dog House in business in a brick and mortar and he has a web site joeshotdoghouse.biz selling tees for his place, if you don't know his web address you will think to yourself as an average passerby and automatically type in joeshotdoghouse.com and if it is somebody else using that domain, people might not ever figure it out. The only one at all that competes with a .com is .net but I still wouldn't buy it either.
-------------------- John Thompson JTT Graphics "The big guy with a little sign shop!" Royston/Hartwell Georgia jtt101@hotmail.com Posts: 626 | From: Royston Georgia | Registered: Feb 2002
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Terry has it right. A local organization has been trying to acquire a certain .com name for years. The owner linked the name to a porn site as a way of encouraging the local organization to pay a lot of money for the name. The organization instead went to the domain registrar and complained, and now the .com name goes to a short message stating that the name is for sale.
You might try compalining to the domain name registrar. Vic G
PS the registrar is an outfit called domainstuff. Doesn't sound promising. If they refuse to help you, send emails to the FTC and to California Senators with copies to the registrar.
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HA!HA!HA!HA!HA! All of this domain name talk got me to go to Networksolutions and check on my domain name (not for my sign shop) and when I first got it 3 years ago I had to add "the" in front of it because somebody else already had that name. I really didn't like doing that but what else can you do. I just checked on my name without "the" and IT HAD LAPSED, HA!HA!HA! I swooped that sucker right up. Thank you guys and gals I would have never checked.......
-------------------- John Thompson JTT Graphics "The big guy with a little sign shop!" Royston/Hartwell Georgia jtt101@hotmail.com Posts: 626 | From: Royston Georgia | Registered: Feb 2002
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Yes, there's a trick to bully people out of their domain names, it's also a cool way to secure your domain name in a way that nobody else can take it from you.
Trademark the name!
First you need to get a business license under the name you want, ie: signzone.
Then since the name is actually a business name and not just random words, it falls under the umbrella of protection available with trademarks.
Once you have the trademark, you can stomp in, yank the name away from anyone you want and keep it for yourself. Or if they dont want to give it up, go talk to a lawyer.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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Watch out for the services checking to see if a domain name is taken. If you type in the inquiry, you will find that within a week the name (if desirable) will be owned by someone trying to sell it. It has happened to me twice......All you are is an author for them. Net Solutions will not do this to you that I know of I have a few domain reg. with them...
-------------------- "Don't change horses in midstream, unless you spot one with longer legs" bronzeo oti Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 www.imagemakerart.com jack@imagemakerart.com Posts: 1549 | From: Joplin, MO | Registered: Mar 2000
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Every time one of mine gets ready to expire, for at least 3-4 months prior, we get hit with dozens of letters and e-mails telling us to renew, not from networksolutionds but fro god knows who. Only one place to deal with domain names network solutions which is also verisign. I have heard of places like Jack said, most have a budget price to sucker folks in.
-------------------- John Thompson JTT Graphics "The big guy with a little sign shop!" Royston/Hartwell Georgia jtt101@hotmail.com Posts: 626 | From: Royston Georgia | Registered: Feb 2002
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When I was thinking of registering a domain name with my company's name, it got snatched up. The only way someone would think of asignofexcellence.com is by checking the inquiries. Interestingly, that domain name has changed hands several times in the last few years, always to someone thinking they will get to sell it.
Of course, I found out nobody, not even the IRS, can spell "excellence". I finally registered asignx.com and dfwsigns.com.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5106 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I have been buying extra services for my site at net sol. so while there I typed in whois for signzone.com and it came up with Domainstuff.com if you go to Signzone .com it has Temporarily Under Construction. If you go to Domainstuff.com it comes up with a site that seems to be like the above mentioned site that Hijacks your name when you buy it with them. I could be wrong but the $9.95 registration fee and the other misc. stuff like them actually owning the name signzone.com makes you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Wonder if that name has already been hijacked before?
-------------------- John Thompson JTT Graphics "The big guy with a little sign shop!" Royston/Hartwell Georgia jtt101@hotmail.com Posts: 626 | From: Royston Georgia | Registered: Feb 2002
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I wrote them a nasty letter last night with various threats since they are using my trademark name (well its in the process ) so hopefully the site being down (actually it just forwarded to another site) is a good sign but I kinda doubt it. These guys are such scum. Thanks for the tips all, I will be watching it closely.
-------------------- Brian Stoddard Northwest Signs
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