D’Arcy-
no one cares how many tld’s you have- or what they are anymore-
as long as they can spell it- and hit google- they’ll find you.
Trust me- the content- the goods- are at darcynorman.net and everyone can find it.
But- you’re right- GoDaddy now officially sucks. It’s too bad- I used to recommend them. I use BulkRegister- who has now been bought- not the cheapest- or the best interface- but they are scum like Network solutions or Go Daddy that make it almost impossible to transfer registrations to other registrars.
I wouldn’t worry about the squatter- he’s wasting his money.

Yeah I should get samikhan.ca… I already got samikhan.net for about $50 bucks at a domain auction and probably will pay the baby who owns samikhan.com his college tuition for that name later (If I am rich)…. heh vanity is such a funny thing. I got #1 for Sami Khan on Google and pretty much every other engine… Each day I get about 4-5 hits from Britain, Germany, and other countries around the world with people looking for a Sami Khan… Well damn it, I am THE Sami Khan, or so says Google; the rest might as well as change their name.

I don’t need the domain - don’t want it for anything. But the idea of someone else potentially foisting their casino/viagra/porn spam on a domain with my name in it makes my skin crawl.

And, there is only one Sami Khan. All others are poseurs.

I guess it is some sort of badge of honor that someone would fork over $4 or whatever it takes to squat your name.

I’m not far from GoDaddy’s HQ, want me to go lob some rotten eggs at their front door?

Unfortunately it’s all too similar to some of the recent activity we’ve seen related to patents in online environments. Squatting on the efforts of others–or people’s good names–is indeed the lowest of low, rat-bastard behaviour.

Alan, toss a couple for me.

Alan - GoDaddy isn’t the real evildoer here, they’re just an enabler or a safe harbour. But, as GWB says, if you harbour evildoers, you are one. If you’re not with us, you’re against us. Lob a flat of rotten eggs for me too.

Doug - It’s different from the patent issue (but also evil) because the domain squatters (and spammers, etc…) are taking advantage of an absence of accountability. They can do this stuff and get away with it because there’s no real way to hold their feet to the fire, and it costs them next to nothing (in time and money) to do it. Even with a microscopic chance of gain, it outweighs both the cost and risk. Something’s got to change.

The patents are sort of on the other end of the spectrum - taking advantage of an overemphasis on accountability in the patent system. There needs to be a middle ground in there somewhere.

Don’t take it personally Mr. Norman, it’s just business. It may not be readily apparent to you how I am monetizing your name — and 1 hour martinizing it as well — but suffice it to say that every time you blog, I make money. Had you accepted my business proposal some months back, you would be enjoying a small percentage of this moolah as well. You would also know the true meaning of discipline.

So in case you were wondering who owns the rights to alanlevinegonewild.com, georgesiemensinhotpants.net, edubloggersexxxparty.com, and countless other domains, you can stop troubling your petty little mind.

Keep up the hard, poorly paid work. I’ll be here literally rolling in hundred dollar bills. It’s all about the Benjamins. Or the Elizabeths, depending where I am.

at least a good 1-Hour-Martinizing will help me keep my name (and domain) clean.

and thank you so much for the mental imagery invoked by your sample domains. Combined with the term “domain squatting” it really made me feel oogy.

I’m beginning to become a bit perturbed at the scale of the Lighips Global Supremacy organization. It’s starting to take on shades of the Hanso Foundation…

I guess I must have been really lucky - when I went for my domain, I was wanting .ca from the start (Go Canada), but thinking that .com would make it easier for the masses of people who default to that domain when they think Internet. boora.com is a respectable architecture/design firm in the US (Most recently winning an award for the Mesa Center in Arizona).

For protection, I picked up boora.org as well - I was thinking about .net, but I think that would be a bit much. I can see what you mean though if someone was using your name to push shyte. I know I would certainly be trying to get boora.com if that company wasn’t something respectable.

Heh, somebody’s been sitting on sylvienoel.com for years, but whenever I go there, it’s just an empty site waiting for content. I’m just happy with my .ca domain. And since i know there are other Sylvie Noels out there, I’ll leave the .com for one of them.

Hi there. You don’t know me, but I came here from a search. I read this post, and currently, as of this writing, your .com domain has expired from the person that had it registered last. It may not stay that way, but if you read this soon, you might go ahead and register it.

I think that the previous owner will still have a grace period (45 days?) to register it after it expired. If they do, then your money will be refunded, as I understand it. You might read the godaddy help to be sure.

Anyway, thought I’d let you know.

Thanks for the heads-up, Moresheth! I just checked, and it’s in the process of expiring. It stil requires the transfer process, so it’s not available yet. I’ll keep an eye on it, though.

Well, Mr. Norman, you haven’t been paying attention. The domain is now free. For some time, I suppose, given the expiry date you quoted.

I suppose you didn’t want it that badly.

True, Mr. Schneiders. I decided I didn’t want the .com after all, so stopped tracking it. I’ll settle for .ca and .net.

People have automated scripts that register other TLD of newly registered domains. Sucks.