The Line I Will Not Cross

[RogueWriter]

I think it is kind of sorrowful that the .com .org .info .us , etc... for the domain name VirginiaTechMassacre has been registered, and that the .com is apparently a for profit site - at least that's the way it looks to me.

Somebody out there is a sick, sick person, IMO.


So, there are still bodies being pulled from buildings, and someone is trying to make money off of them.

The .org looks like a memorial site, at least.

 

[VisualArtistFrankBonilla]

Candle

VT Candle

Frank

 

[circa1850]

I have heard back from Virginia Tech this morning. Initially, they blew me off thinking I was another troll or leach.

Once I clarified my intent and showed them the redirects I got a second email.

They are very pleased with the 51 domain names registered and redirected to their memorial site. Needless to say, they are well aware of the many varmits that are attempting to capitalize on this. There is growing concern of the tens of thousands of domain names registered, many will be used to set up fake sites soliciting donations. Undoubtedly so.

They also informed me that they have been swamped with thousands of emails. And, yes, many offering to sell to them a domain name(s).

It is a small gesture on my part. But the way I look at it, I beat 51 opportunistic jerks to the punch and took some domain names out of circulation.

 

[estibot.com]

Well done circa1850. I think this sort of stuff (I mean the profiteers bulk registering names for tragic events) is something that we're going to have to live with. But I'm pretty sure there is no real money to be made in that. I believe that people will shun those pages and not click their ads. Look at wikipedia; crowd review is powerful - it's very hard to try to manipulate it to serve one's own interests (no I haven't tried- I'm referring to the folks who couldn't get their propaganda to stick in wikipedia so they set up conservapedia.com), but I digress...

 

[Spade]

I have heard back from Virginia Tech this morning. Initially, they blew me off thinking I was another troll or leach.

Once I clarified my intent and showed them the redirects I got a second email.

They are very pleased with the 51 domain names registered and redirected to their memorial site. Needless to say, they are well aware of the many varmits that are attempting to capitalize on this. There is growing concern of the tens of thousands of domain names registered, many will be used to set up fake sites soliciting donations. Undoubtedly so.

They also informed me that they have been swamped with thousands of emails. And, yes, many offering to sell to them a domain name(s).

It is a small gesture on my part. But the way I look at it, I beat 51 opportunistic jerks to the punch and took some domain names out of circulation.

Great job, and definetly the right thing to do.


Justin

 

[RogueWriter]

circa- good job, very well done.
domainspade- thank you for doing your part to take after them, as well. Maybe that guy won't be so quick to pick up blood domains in the future.

For some time I have been trying to figure out a use for my domain, Ubunghole.com . I wanted to start the monthly "ubunghole awards" and send a t-shirt and little trophy to the bunghole of the month.

If I ever have the time to start it, some of these treggers ( tragedy reggers ) will be receiving shirts.

 

[circa1850]

I have also set up a banner on my site, www.ceuq.com, with a cautionary statement alerting users to the fact that there is only one official site. This site had 355,000 users last year and already approaching 160,000 for 2007.

If you have active sites or blogs, such a statement and banner and redirect I would think would be beneficial.

 

[Devil_Dog]

'The Domainer Cherub of Justice".... lol

 

[circa1850]

'The Domainer Cherub of Justice".... lol

Glad you are able to amuse yourself.

You don't live about an hour from the campus, do you? You don't know countless people that have gone to school there or are currently going to school there?

I've got your cherubs.

 

[fonzie_007]

We should Charlie Wenzel this guy! Warning: addictive offsite thread. Well worth the time you'll spend reading it and a life lesson for some to learn.

That is a serious time-waster, but a great read! A-holes beware... you could be the next Charlie Wenzel.

 

[Alex]

Wow... that took me more than an hour to read... but really deserved it.
We should Charlie Wenzel this guy! Warning: addictive offsite thread. Well worth the time you'll spend reading it and a life lesson for some to learn.[/QUOTE]

 

[circa1850]

That is a serious time-waster, but a great read! A-holes beware... you could be the next Charlie Wenzel.

Somebody just hand me the cliff notes. My God, I am laughing myself silly from the parts I did read.

Was he a member on one of these forums, Denny or something like that? That picture looked so familiar.

Wow, 74 pages of just outright flaming! Hillarious!!!

 

[fonzie_007]

Somebody just hand me the cliff notes. My God, I am laughing myself silly from the parts I did read.

Was he a member on one of these forums, Denny or something like that? That picture looked so familiar.

Wow, 74 pages of just outright flaming! Hillarious!!!

Here's a post that sums it up pretty well (post #1637):

While many people claim this is about the $25 that Charles tried to extort from the buyer, it is not. It is not even about the $115 that the buyer paid. Charles tries to claim that it is between him and the buyer, but it is not. It is not really about Charles lies about the part being new when in fact it is used, as he has been forced to admit. What is it about? It is about a person who is so arrogant and stupid that he does not know that it is insane to try to rip off a person in a community, he does not know when the jig is up and that he has been caught and have enough sense to shut up. When a person commits a crime, fraud in this case, as well as perhaps attempted extortion, that person harms everyone. The trust between all buyers and sellers are reduced and it makes sales more difficult.

Charles was asked to send a postal money order, but instead sends one from 7-11, which according to their web page can take 30 days or so to really clear, so this will not be ending anytime soon. If Charles had any sense at all he would have sent funds which are far more certain, like cash, a cashier's check, postal money order, etc. He should still do that to ensure that aspect ends asap, but I doubt that he will have enough sense to do that.

If Mike still has the money order it would be a good idea to copy it and call and check to make sure that it has not been reported lost or stolen and also to let them know what is going on, just in case Charles decides to continue to be stupid.

Charles Wenzel dug himself a hole and this was not just an ordinary hole because on top is an outhouse for all the world to come and visit. He sits at the bottom of this pit yelling, threatening and insulting people, trying to demand that they go away. Then he thinks that he can issue a fake apology with threats and then edit it and hope that will also go away all the while he continues to say stupid things, making threats and harassing people. Charles has made himself the poster boy for all of the Internet scams and fraud. I personally think that this has reached critical mass and poor Charley Wenzel is at ground zero. There is no one person which can stop this, but good ol' Charley thinks that he can try to convince people to call all of this off. Even if the entire thread was removed, I am sure that it would pop up somewhere else.

Charlie is so stupid that he keep harassing Mike and his wife, as if they have control of all the people. I hope they report him to the police since his behaviour is unacceptable. The only way the calls are going to stop is to change the phone number, so he needs to get used to it or get a new number!!!

Round and round it goes, when it will stop nobody knows!!!

 

[circa1850]

Charles Wenzel dug himself a hole and this was not just an ordinary hole because on top is an outhouse for all the world to come and visit.

I would love to know who found this and how. This is one of the funniest threads I have read. And what a line...that deserves to be in a movie!

Even if the entire thread was removed, I am sure that it would pop up somewhere else.

What a prophet!

 

[Compassion]

Circa - the redirecting of domains is a good idea..


I own some "disaster" type domain, but in my case I was directly affected by the tragedy. I'm not profiting from the domains.

I graduated from Columbine in 1999. If you ever heard of me relating to that it's because I did a couple of interviews at the very beginning and I ran the fantasy baseball league Dylan was a part of.

I never accepted any money for interviews for photos or anything.

The media hounded me for weeks despite my efforts to avoid them.

I have DylanKlebold.org. ColumbineHighSchool.org ColumbineAlumni.com .org and 4-20-1999.com

I would like to organize something beneficial, although I was torn on getting involved with turning the local park into a memorial, so I didn't redirect to or attempt to raise money for the memorial.


The profiting of domains from disasters reminds me of the person who bought Dylan Klebold's car in an auction unknowingly, then sold it for a massive profit after he found out what he had.

I called and emailed the guy explaining my stance and the community viewpoint, but it didn't matter, he didn't care that he was exploiting the tragedy. I don't think he donated one cent of the money to anything charitable.

One more domain related note to this: I ran the fantasy website online. It received thousands of hits in a matter of days, however I took down the website as it became out of control and a magnet for attention. At the beginning the ONLY thing that came up when one googled dylan klebold was a standings page from my site. All of our phone numbers were on it, the message board got bombarded, It was too much.



Negative press on domains will only hurt us, so it may be best to not shine the spotlight on the people unethically attempting to make a quick profit from this horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech.

 

[circa1850]

I appreciate your input, thoughts, concern, and views from a historical and first hand account perspective.

I do not feel that I am shining a light on any of this except right here on this forum and with the folks at Virginia Tech. That is the only two places this has been discussed.

I did not do this for notariety. Am I the only one doing this? Thankfully no. I know of at least two other domainers that are doing the same thing. I am not sure if they are members of this forum. I do not believe they are.

And this was not even my idea. From a business perspective and one who has the capability and means to to this, I thought it was a great idea to help take many of the domains out of circulation.

The only reason I mentioned this from the onset is several people on this thread are posting the owners of domains from the WHOIS databases. Some of those registrants are getting phone calls from members of this forum. After seeing all the negative comments here, I wanted to caution people to exercise judgement and not to be so quick to jump to conclusions. The domains I registered and redirected are in my company's name and address. I didn't relish the fact that this info would be published and subjected to hate mail or phone calls. So far, so good.

From what I understand and from what I have read here and on other forums, these people are getting so bombarded with phone calls that they have made their numbers unlisted. But the WHOIS is still published. Added to that, it appears pressure has been placed on GoDaddy and Google and some of the parking companies that many of the names are now blocked.

Here is an example:
Ismailax.com

This domain name was parked at NameDrive and at last count on Tuesday, the day these words came out, received more than 550,000 hits. I have not checked but more than likely he now has privacy added. But that is way too late. Everything about the registrant is posted in so many places.

I think between three of us doing registering domains names and redirecting them, we have managed to take about 100 highly searched keyword domains out of circulation and redirected to VT's memorial fund.

If you will notice, I have not published a list of these names for that very reason...to not bring light onto a sensitive issue and domainers in general. If someone happens to search for a certain keyword or term, they will end up at the memorial fund site. The negative light is on those that have done such for personal gain. The press is and has been all over this for a couple of days now.

The negative press is already out there. En masse. Fox news and several others reported this long before it was posted on these boards.

As mentioned, Virginia Tech is getting bombarded with emails from all over the world. Sorrow, support, mourning, and sales pitches. The first email I got from them this morning was a form letter rejecting a sales pitch. When I contacted them again, the director of the site and foundation personally contacted me to thank me and apologized. As soon as he saw domain names in the email, out went the form letter they composed.

Here is part of the second email from VT:

Thank you for clarifying. We’ve received literally thousands of emails, including dozens from people who have purchased domains, and it’s easy to pass over details such as the ones you have. We appreciate you beating the squatters and redirecting to our website.

I made a decision to do something or to contribute as I thought would have the most immediate and greatest impact and that is the decision I and a couple of other domainers made.

Should this ever come to light, I think it would shed a "positive light" on what domainers can do. And it does come down to a more personal level than being a domainer. I do not domain for a living. I am in the medical profession, I am a business man, and I domain for the fun (sometimes its fun...).

Did I make the right decision?

We appreciate you beating the squatters and redirecting to our website.

 

[Dave_Z]

Did I make the right decision?

If you answer yes, then that's all the answer you need.

 

[circa1850]

If you answer yes, then that's all the answer you need.

My answer was and is yes.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Dave zen,

oh.. if more people had your maturity. Thats the way to peace. Trouble is karma is only experienced thru the eyes of one person at a time. Many people do not understand a forced choice is not a good choice.

Lets hope the news media does not mention how domainers are profiting from tragedy. This is very silly.

 

[shockie]

well done circa :tu:

 

[estibot.com]

Wow... that took me more than an hour to read... but really deserved it.
We should Charlie Wenzel this guy! Warning: addictive offsite thread. Well worth the time you'll spend reading it and a life lesson for some to learn.

[/QUOTE]

Serious time-waster...Boy, did he piss off the wrong crowd...imagine a thousand 4x4 types getting at you..

Now his name will be forever smeared on the Internet. Has to find an employer that doesn't know what Google is...