aufalcon.com website

[Dauphin]

An update on the website. It's in a bit of a mess as problems with the image uploading are annoying people and the loss of the domain are causing linking issues.

The domain-reselling company that now owns the domain wants to lease it back to us for US$250 a year. I've been in touch with various US gov / consumer bodies over the past few weeks to try and get it back into our ownership where it belongs but they are unable to get involved. Only a contest in court and resulting court order will get it back to us, and that'll cost a bit.

A bit of Googling on the company itself (eNom and DNBuy) reveals that they are well-known for doing this to a lot of people.

So the club may have to change its name to aufalcon.com.au and as for the website, hopefully the uploading images problem will be sorted out soon (appears to be a server issue) and a new website will come along to work with the new domain in a few months.

[RG]

Originally Posted by Dauphin

An update on the website. It's in a bit of a mess as problems with the image uploading are annoying people and the loss of the domain are causing linking issues.

The domain-reselling company that now owns the domain wants to lease it back to us for US$250 a year. I've been in touch with various US gov / consumer bodies over the past few weeks to try and get it back into our ownership where it belongs but they are unable to get involved. Only a contest in court and resulting court order will get it back to us, and that'll cost a bit.

A bit of Googling on the company itself (eNom and DNBuy) reveals that they are well-known for doing this to a lot of people.

So the club may have to change its name to aufalcon.com.au and as for the website, hopefully the uploading images problem will be sorted out soon (appears to be a server issue) and a new website will come along to work with the new domain in a few months.

Only issue, which is a rather large one, is all of us with AU.com stickers now have to cough up for .au ones as they are incorrect and useless.

Also causes an issue with the clothing we bought.

[Dauphin]

Yes, I raised that concern in the past and have been working to get the domain back into our control primarily for this reason. So we either raise the funds each year from our members to pay this company an annual premium to lease our domain back to us or we let it go and move on.

If we can get 20 people to put in US$12.50 each, each year, then we can get it back.

Members? What are your feelings? I don't want to render all the merchandise and stickers useless either but we'll have an ongoing issue that will come back to bite us each year.

[sbcb]

We do not negotiate with terrorists.

[Peuty]

Didn't we all chip in last time this happened so it wouldn't happen again?

[Cam]

Originally Posted by Peuty

Didn't we all chip in last time this happened so it wouldn't happen again?

Ding ding ding.. Has happened before..here... after it was discovered the domain name was gone here...

[Dauphin]

Originally Posted by Peuty

Didn't we all chip in last time this happened so it wouldn't happen again?

That was my understanding also.

It turns out that US$250 is to be paid per year to effectively lease it from them so we can use it for our purposes. I don't think this was clear to anyone involved in the last payment. I only found out after getting directly involved with the company a few weeks ago.

I don't want this discussion to turn into a blame game or to dwell on what happened, we need to make a decision on what to do / work out a plan to resolve the situation.

If we keep the domain we will have to go through the hassle of raising the same funds each year before it expires. It's not fair on everyone and I'm not looking forward to chasing it up when it comes around every time.

At the same time, as RG pointed out, it upsets our merchandise / clothes. Car stickers can be replaced easily enough (I presume?).

I've tried my best to appeal to this company of morons regarding our non-profit club but they don't care.

[Ride]

I'm happy to chip in if that is what is required to get the website back. My black AUFalcon.com jumper is my favourite and it kills me the URL doesn't work.

While we're not trying to get into a blame game here, registrars send out emails to the domain holder(s) well before the domain expires so that it can be renewed. Surely this could have been avoided and now we're effectively being held at ransom by this company that waits for domains to expire, purchase them and then sells (or in this case rents) the domain back at an inflated price.

What is to say that this company does the dodgy on us and just rob us of our funds and not let us use the domain? I've never heard of the concept of domains being 'rented', and wonder how the technical side of things work when they would have to change the nameservers to where the website is hosted?

[ronwest]

Originally Posted by Dauphin

I don't want this discussion to turn into a blame game or to dwell on what happened, we need to make a decision on what to do / work out a plan to resolve the situation.

Ok, so we need a person to organise the collection of funds and the subsequent payment to these particular parasites.

Obviously we also need enough people to commit to this year by year.

Who is up for it?

[hardlynormal]

Unfortunately this is a common occurance, and your at the will of the company in question.

$250 a year is A LOT of money, and while it doesn't effect me at all.. i think you'd be better off letting them have the domain and making what ever changes u can to goto .com.au

stickers are easy to change, clothing sucks but it beats bowing to these greedy domain owners.

[Cam]

Originally Posted by Ride

While we're not trying to get into a blame game here, registrars send out emails to the domain holder(s) well before the domain expires so that it can be renewed. Surely this could have been avoided and now we're effectively being held at ransom by this company that waits for domains to expire, purchase them and then sells (or in this case rents) the domain back at an inflated price.

What is to say that this company does the dodgy on us and just rob us of our funds and not let us use the domain? I've never heard of the concept of domains being 'rented', and wonder how the technical side of things work when they would have to change the nameservers to where the website is hosted?

I am pretty sure that the primary contact (both account and technical) on the Domain was no longer part of the club, for whatever reason.. The email address may also have been invalid, it's something I see all too often. In fact twice last week..People just don't think about updating Domain Registration details, until its way too late..

I would toss up the costs in re issuing all the clothes, stickers etc, Versus say what its going to cost over the next 5 years to keep paying DNbuy year after year....Or maybe start with .com.au stuff from now, and then in 3 years or so most people will be due to upgrade their clothing anyway...

Imagine this guy has 300 other domain names he has done the same too, he's making $75k a year, all off people forgetting to update registration information. I'd prefer to not be part of one of the 300 domains paying his retirement fund...

[Whoosha]

This is the same problem we had last time.Casper has made numerous attempts to clears this up with no luck.It would appear they just wan"t to screw us anally ,$250 a year is a joke and personally I will not be paying for it again , that being said as far as the .au part is concerned AFF hold that domain, and as for adding .au to the end of it when searching I carn't see it being that big of a deal as far as a outside search goes as Most people I know usually add the .au to the name if .com fails anyway, the internal side is ware most of the problems seem to be .. My 2c

[POELWYK]

yeah im with you guys on this Dont pay the $250 its not worth it

just restart it all with .au

with the rest of the gear like stickers can be chnaged

the other stuff well people just have to put up with the .au not beeing there

i think its well ove due for a rerun of the Hoody and stuff anyway

[robbyj]

Agreed on not paying the money, im only new but plan to stick around a while, i would have chipped in a few dollars... but $250 USD a year is a joke.

i think .au being AUstralians and driving AU's and all.. suits us better anyway.

I can understand the whole merchandise arguement side.. but in a few years when ya jumper is ruined and some people have paid this mob X amount of $$$....

[Riksta]

Paying them will just show them that we want that domain.

I'm sure if we let it go for a year or so, maybe they'll give up "holding" it and let it go back to public so we could purchase it again for a more reasonable price.

There should be some sort of law against this kind of behaviour happening, or some sort of arbitration system where if you can show you owned a domain for x-amount of time and forgot to renew then a company like this wanting to "lease" it back to you should have no leg to stand on.

My thoughts anyway.

[RspecAU]

Originally Posted by Cam

I am pretty sure that the primary contact (both account and technical) on the Domain was no longer part of the club, for whatever reason.. The email address may also have been invalid, it's something I see all too often. In fact twice last week..People just don't think about updating Domain Registration details, until its way too late..

I would toss up the costs in re issuing all the clothes, stickers etc, Versus say what its going to cost over the next 5 years to keep paying DNbuy year after year....Or maybe start with .com.au stuff from now, and then in 3 years or so most people will be due to upgrade their clothing anyway...

Imagine this guy has 300 other domain names he has done the same too, he's making $75k a year, all off people forgetting to update registration information. I'd prefer to not be part of one of the 300 domains paying his retirement fund...

Cam you hit the nail right on the head. I think we are better off changing what we need to and this company get stuck with the .com site and as bobuleh say the au suits us better anyway...thats my 2 cents

[whiskers]

I'm with you guys, don't pay up.

I do what whoosha said, like putting the "au" on the end of the search if the .com doesn't work. just my 2c worth as well

[Dauphin]

I've had some clarification on the issue. It'll just be the one US$250 payment to get the domain back and point it to our server at this time. Their system is confusing as it says $250/yr but I have verified it's just a one-off and then back to regular prices for the following years.

We can also update the contact info so it reminds us and we can be as careful as we want, but....... Murphy's Law.

I've had domains expire before (not due to not updating the contact email - the company stuffed up renewing it after I paid them weeks in advance) and I got it back with no problem like this. There's no need for it and they are purely holding the domain at ransom and acting like it's normal business practice. They are always very polite and firm about it and it works for them. I don't want to give in as well.

The .com.au website is still getting new members almost daily who find us through the forums and Google, so the domain is not an issue for the internet. It's just the clothing. All the Google links will drop off and be rebuilt into the new domain over time.

So I assume that the majority of us are ready to let go of aufalcon.com and become aufalcon.com.au, unless we want to pay up US$250 the once and then take a risk for the future.

[robbyj]

A one off isnt to bad.. then again we let them win.

Im all for aufalcon.com.au.

[Ride]

Looking at the situation now, I think we'll have to go with the .com.au and then keep an eye on the .com when it expires next year (April 24th I believe) and then snap it back when they've lost interest in it.

[KR1STO]

Originally Posted by Ride

Looking at the situation now, I think we'll have to go with the .com.au and then keep an eye on the .com when it expires next year (April 24th I believe) and then snap it back when they've lost interest in it.

that's a great idea...

[robbyj]

Originally Posted by KR1STO

that's a great idea...

Whoever manages the websites will be having fun changing every link back and forth from .com to com.au tho.

[KR1STO]

i understand that mate, but, it's do-able..
also it looks like we may be up for another round of shirts/hoodies anyway as there's a fair few people wanting some..
could make all the new merchandise with the .com.au....
Then we could just stick with the .au site anyway...

My question is... Why do we NEED 2 sites...?

[robbyj]

Im with kristo, even if the .com site becomes available again.. if we change everything over to .au ..i dont see a point in then changing back if the company gives up the .com site

If the change is made to .au which i think the general consensus is.. stick with it. We are AUstralian (most people anyway) after all.

[KR1STO]

exactly my point....

[hardlynormal]

Originally Posted by bobuleh

Whoever manages the websites will be having fun changing every link back and forth from .com to com.au tho.

a decently setup site shouldn't have that issue.

[RG]

Originally Posted by KR1STO

i understand that mate, but, it's do-able..
also it looks like we may be up for another round of shirts/hoodies anyway as there's a fair few people wanting some..
could make all the new merchandise with the .com.au....
Then we could just stick with the .au site anyway...

My question is... Why do we NEED 2 sites...?

That works for the guys who are planning to purchase new items but not the ones who are not.

We need to think of ALL members, not just those that are updating their merchandise in the near future.

[Ride]

Originally Posted by hardlynormal

a decently setup site shouldn't have that issue.

This is bang on the money, if the website is coded properly then you can essentially park the domain against the .com.au one so that no matter which one you follow, the pages being served will be the same.

[Dauphin]

The link changes are a small website config change and I just updated it.

[Jimmyd]

Originally Posted by Dauphin

The link changes are a small website config change and I just updated it.

Just need to update Sig & Avatar now....


Anyways, no skin off my nose whether we are aufalcon.com or aufalcon.com.au, but if you need to pay off the terrorists/mercenaries I'll pledge $50 to the cause. PM bank details if needed.

Cheers

James