MacSlash Domain Stolen

MacSlash's Robert Daeley writes in to tell us that the domain name for MacSlash, the Mac news site, is incorrectly pointing to a generic "Dotster" page, either by accident or by malicious domain theft or squatting. They have registered macslash.net and hope to be back up again soon, and have as yet been unable to get word from "Dotster" regarding how this all happened.

Comments

Dotster have a contact form

[Kris_J]

https://secure.registerapi.com/help/csupport.php Why don't you all go off an ask them what they did with the domain? I'm sure they'd enjoy the email...

Status is still ongoing

[daeley]

We still have not heard from Dotster at this point (23:10 PDT may 29), however some folks have reported being able to get in. If you are able to, please post in the Domain Troubles story so we know you got there.

For more information and updates, please email us at macslash@earthlink.net or call Ben Stanfield, Executive Editor, 270-881-0680. Thanks to everyone who has contacted us already. And thanks to Pudge for posting the story.

We are hoping to have this issue resolved ASAP. We apologize for the inconvenience.

IP address

[Megane]

I'm surprised nobody seems to have posted this yet:

63.238.196.105 macslash.com.
63.238.196.105 www.macslash.com.

Sorry, but http://63.238.196.105/ won't work because it's vhosted and needs a request for macslash.com.

Re:Mac sites dropping like flies

[Xenex]

Really? Where'd you heard that? Maybe I should be paying more attention to the unofficial forums...

If it's true, this is great news! I'd be so happy even if Jack only posted one or two new 'shows' a week; anything is better then nothing, and it'd be totally understandable with 'the intern' and all.

I've been feasting on Random Episodes for weeks now to help with the withdrawal symptoms, and honestly the quality of the stuff that Jack has put out daily for so long is amazing. Most people couldn't write three long pieces like that each day and still be funny, informative, and entertaining.

Kudos to Jack, and I can't wait for the big return from hiatus.

Re:this is wierd

[Betaman]

Yup... I registered macslash.org cause I thought macslash.com was squatted. (please don't disembowel me) I have contacted the real owners of macslash and I will be transfering the domain and hopefully forwarding .org to their IP address in the meantime.

Good marketing

[anthony_dipierro]

I'm going to have to forget to renew my domain name so I can get slashdotted too!

Update

[daeley]

As of 0952 PDT Thursday, there is still no word from Dotster. It seemed as if some folks were able to get through (including me) last night and post, but it is now offline again from where I am: no Dotster page, no MacSlash, no nothin'. A whois via networksolutions.com still brings up that Valencia hombre. Anybody seeing anything?

I will post again to this thread when we have more info.

Thanks again to everyone who has gotten in touch with us, and to the other Mac sites for posting info.

Follow-up

[cloudscout]

I've been following this story since yesterday afternoon on my fly-by-night Mac blog, obzorg.org.

If you're getting the Dotster 'coming soon' page when you try to reach the MacSlash site, check out these updates including AcaBen's public statements on the subject.

Easy to ignore forever

[Valdrax]

Since you're using Mozilla RC3, use the following list of steps to avoid ever having to see this kind of crappy advertising ever again:

1. Open your Preferences panel.
2. Expand the tree for "Advanced" and click on "Scripts & Windows".
3. Deselect the ability of Javascript to:
   • Open unrequested windows
   • Move or resize existing windows
   • Raise or lower windows

That should get rid of all the most annoying features of JavaScript without killing the useful or "pretty" website enhancements.

Re:this is wierd

[ellem]

Oh man. I only came for the disemboweling...

This blows.

:)

Renewal Blacklist

[stupor]

dotster's mail server is blacklisted by mac.com which is where the renewal notices were sent. so anyone with a mac.com email address rejects all mail from dotster. sucks to be blacklisted.

Update 2

[daeley]

1601 PDT, Thursday. Ben Stanfield, who is driving somewhere between Kentucky and Washington D.C., just received a call from a V.P. at Dotster who said that his people have been receiving A LOT of emails from you guys. He is personally looking into the problem and has assured us that he will do everything in his power to get this problem corrected. If it ends up being something that Dotster cannot assist us with we have already received an offer for Pro-Bono work from a lawyer who works with domain disputes all of the time. If worst comes to worst we'll be meeting with ICANN soon.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, macslash.net should be propagating even as we speak, so hopefully by tomorrow things will be back to (relative) normalcy. If not, I will continue to post updates in this thread. (Knock on wood laminate desk.)

Thanks much to everyone for their assistance, emails, and well-wishes.

Re:The Culprit Is Revealed ...

[joe52]

Someone is redirecting people to MacMall through an affiliate link at Commission Junction. I seriously doubt that MacMall is behind this activity. The person who is in control of macslash.com is just redirecting people there because they pay a sales commission and it is a logical affiliate link to push on macslash readers.

I'm sure that the people at Commission Junction and MacMall would like to know that one of their "affiliates" is using a redirect to send them traffic, which probably violates their terms of service. I would really recommend against harassing these people since they didn't do anything other than offer a commission on sales of mac hardware and software that is being abused by the person who now has macslash.com.

Update 3

[daeley]

OK, two pieces of business.

macslash.net is not propagating properly, and since .org has already (thanks again to Charles Ruggerio for hooking us up), we are going ahead with macslash.org for now. We will be posting a story on the site later today breaking down the whole situation.

Secondly, a Mac/ user (samiam) has already posted a great explanation of the apparent redirection to MacMall, so I won't repeat the story.

Thanks much!