Website and Emails are Down

[Des Moines Maker Space]

Our domain name, area515.org, is not working right now. Until it is restored, you won’t be able to access our website or use any email address ending in “@area515.org”

• Memberships, keys, and ability to access the space are unaffected. 
• Nobody’s personal or payment information has been compromised. 
• To request training (or communicate with the board) please contact us using area5...@gmail.com.
• Slack communication is unaffected (likewise our Google group)

What happened: A few days ago our lease on the “area515.org” domain name expired. (For us non-techys, it’s paying so that when someone types that address into their web browser, they get directed to our website.) The domain was on auto renewal, but we forgot to update with our new payment info. We did receive emails warning of the expiration, but we missed them.

     By the time we realized what happened, someone else had bought the domain name, and put it up for resale on a site called sedo.com. Sedo.com is an auction site for domain names (like eBay, but specifically for domain names). The minimum bid for our domain was set at $500. (Normally our domain name only costs $11 per year.)

     On Saturday afternoon we placed our bid for $500 to get the domain back. Our bid is good for 7 days. Nobody has bid against us. Since we've gone 24 hours with no response so far,  I have a feeling that we won’t hear anything back until closer to Sept 6 - the end of the 7 day deadline. When we know more, we’ll post it here on our Google group here.

Questions & Concerns: Post them on our Google group here! It’s a thread specifically about this. I and the other board members will try to answer your questions and concerns as best we can.

Legally, everything that’s happened is above board. No laws have been broken. We made a mistake, somebody saw an opportunity to exploit it for financial gain and they took it. We, on the board of directors, screwed up by not making sure our payment info was up to date and not regularly checking the email account on the domain registration. This was not one person screwing up, it was multiple people making mistakes, and we are doing our best to make it right.

Thank you for your time,

Brad Freese

Secretary, Board of Directors

Area 515 Des Moines Makerspace

[Brad Freese]

Update: Nobody else bid on our domain, but our $500 bid was not accepted.  The seller - who I will henceforth simply refer to as "Jerkface" - didn't make a counter offer or communicate in any way.

After some discussion tonight, the board of directors has decided to offer the same $500 bid again. Jerkface now has another 7 days to either accept, counter-offer, or ignore our bid. At the same time, we are going to start looking at alternative domain names so we can get back up and running sooner rather than later.

[Andreas Christianson]

Would you mind sharing an update about the domain? What did you decide to do?

[Brad Freese]

Our second bid for the domain name was also not accepted. Jerkface has apparently decided to stick with a business strategy of “buy low - sell never.” So now the board is deciding on a new domain name. We just need to decide on one, purchase it and then we’ll be back online. We’ll announce the new domain as soon as we have it.

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[Scott Yates]

I nominate "dsmhackerspace.org" or some such similar combo.  Is there a .maker top level maybe?

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[Kai]

Any progress on a UDRP?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Domain-Name_Dispute-Resolution_Policy

Kai e'Kael

[Brad Freese]

As an alternative, one the domain sites suggested “area515.sucks” for $100/year. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsmhackerspace/CAM_0QiWzwJ%3D%2BqQe5VP5FkowH1VstZ3OV5b9MowBtLXnBAZ732w%40mail.gmail.com.

[Brad Freese]

Regarding UDRP- Dave looked into it and it costs like $3,000 to even bring a dispute.

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[Kai]

Yeah, just noted that:

"In order to file a UDRP complaint with a UDRP provider, the costs often start around US$1,000 to $2,000."

That ain't cool, ICANN.

Kai e'Kael

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[Jeffrey Ollie]

Which is why the price for the domain is set at <$1000, so that it's cheaper to pay the scammer than to dispute it.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsmhackerspace/b28e563e-3ac7-49aa-aad3-f0817d298ed1%40gmail.com.

--

Jeff Ollie
The majestik møøse is one of the mäni interesting furry animals in Sweden.

[Kai]

Guessing abuse report was already filed with pir.org too?

Kai e'Kael

[Kai]

Great, I see even pir.org, who's "mission is to serve as an exemplary
registry and as a model for registry operator behavior" still charges
well over $500 for an appeal.

Sad.

Kai e'Kael

[Barry Von Ahsen]

I've still got dsmhackerspace.{com,net,org} and desmoineshackerspace.{com,org} and would be happy to transfer

-barry

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsmhackerspace/CAM_0QiWzwJ%3D%2BqQe5VP5FkowH1VstZ3OV5b9MowBtLXnBAZ732w%40mail.gmail.com.

[David Champion]

Yes, let's get those transferred. I'll connect with you off list.

-dc

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dsmhackerspace/EBTVTZcwlQkp-bjOcbJ5hwfQtb0jud5RoJV29TgmxPdXmIFcXbmIUP4gTgUpSzoQt9SazlHFMqd7H0361A0wxVtaCW2hIF4M1TwB1yUFjvA%3D%40vonahsen.com.

[dragon788]

I'm a big fan of Hover.com for cheap domain registration with auto renewal, because domains are basically all they do and they are very big on the notifications well before a renewal or for any billing issues.