Which big-time domainer got UrbanBikeProject.org?

[randomo]

A nonprofit in my area, Urban Bike Project, which does wonderful work for the community, somehow failed to renew its .org domain in November.

A domainer snapped it up through TDNAM for about $400 - probably a fairly big-time domainer, as it's now directed to Frank Schilling's InternetTraffic.com, which (as I understand it) is used mainly by industry heavyweights.

The whois shows GoDaddy privacy, and no reply came when I emailed that privacy address. Meanwhile, the domain is being offered for $8,800(!) through GoDaddy Premium.

I know this is a familiar story - a small-time organization's domain, with a bit of traffic, gets drop-caught when they accidentally don't renew it. But when that nonprofit is one I've dealt with, the whole story seems nastier: the failure to answer inquiries, the absurdly high asking price ... all for a domain that has little value to the new owner. (Whatever traffic it gets will die out almost completely if the organization is forced to start using a different domain, which it will certainly do rather than pay many thousands for the old one. I will personally work with them to make sure the backlinks get changed to their new domain.)

Any of you happen to be the proud owner of this domain, or have any clue how I can find out who is? Thanks.

 

[junosama]

Man that really sucks, at least give them a fair price to buy it back. That is a huge markup. I am sure they knew it was an active non profit.

If the non profit has a trademark they might be able to get it back. I would contact a lawyer who specializes domains. You could at least probably get their contact info by force that way and call them out publicly.

 

[Keith]

They obviously weren't monitoring their site. It redirects to a parked page when it expires which still gives them plenty of time to renew. I'm not sure how a drop like that is accidental?

 

[DU]

They obviously weren't monitoring their site. It redirects to a parked page when it expires which still gives them plenty of time to renew. I'm not sure how a drop like that is accidental?

I run a non-profit site. It's not the most active club in the world. Our site was down for about 2 weeks expired and no-one noticed.

Site has about 60 members or so but it's only used when upcoming events are close which most of them know about anyway. It does get guests asking for information fairly often but they'd just go somewhere else.

It does have traffic and PR and ranks for the terms it needs (I don't do much to it - it mostly sits there) so I know it would likely get taken if it dropped. A domainer has repeatedly offered to sell me the .COM! Which I used to have.. but switched to .org.

A canadian club that is similar has someone squatting on the .COM claiming affiliation to the real club (.CA and .ORG).

Some domainers are scum. In this case if it is Frank.. it's not likely to be intentional harm. If he knew I'm sure he'd do the right thing - its hardly going to kill him (but he still probably wants to make sure it's a non-profit)



I recently found a dog groomer and a carpet store whose site was down. NEITHER of them were aware. One of them was shocked because they paid someone to keep track of it.

It's surprisingly easy.

 

[liquidcherry]

Hi Randomo,

it seems to me that the non profit already moved on?

http://www.bikede.org/

cheers

liquid

 

[randomo]

Hi Randomo,

it seems to me that the non profit already moved on?

http://www.bikede.org/

Thanks for checking, but that's a different organization. (Even though Delaware is a small state, we have more than one nonprofit related to bikes.)

 

[liquidcherry]

Thanks for checking, but that's a different organization. (Even though Delaware is a small state, we have more than one nonprofit related to bikes.)

wow(lot of lance armstrongs in your state!), that explains it, good luck with this!!

cheers

liquid

P.S:

have sent you a PM