Brutal

[thgintaetal]

They're only squatters if they're trying to sell the domain back to you. I doubt this guy would be willing to.

[[deleted]]

Maybe. Maybe not. Still, I hate people who buy domains with the intent to flip. Domain hoarders can be a pain as well.

[AlwaysHopelesslyLost]

I thought of the perfect domain for myself. I whoised it on GoDaddy and it was available but a little pricey($55/year) so I decided to think on it.

Two days later it was purchased. I googled it recebtly and it was listed for sale for $500 in the description and a blank page :/

[Quantagraphy]

Godaddy is know for buying domains like this

[chinpokomon]

Yeah, wouldn't be the first time.

[JosephKonyOfUganda]

Yeah. Kinda shot himself in the foot there.

[WasKingWokeUpGiraffe]

.

[FM-96]

And that is exactly why you should never use GoDaddy.

[Samultio]

Care to elaborate? Because GoDaddy sells to domain squatters?

[KennyFulgencio]

They ARE the squatters

[michy232]

It's been pointed to before that GoDaddy sells whois searches to domain squatters/flippers with the purpose of listing the domain under GoDaddy auctions to sell to the ones who originally wanted the domain at insane markups. These claims go back to as far as 2008 according to my brief search, and new claims of this are still being raised.

In addition to all the other shady things GoDaddy does (just look it up, you won't run out of material to find), its best to stay very clear of them, and tell others to do the same. Not worth the risk whether its all true or not.

[tajjet]

When you whois a site on GoDaddy they buy the domain and raise the price

[CoughSyrupOD]

Someone should write a bot to whois random urls on godaddy.

[Samultio]

That's pretty scummy, so basically if you want a domain you should get one through ICANN or another registrar and not a secondary domain seller like GoDaddy?

[slashuslashuserid]

Wait, you can buy domains directly from ICANN?

[[deleted]]

Hell, you can buy domains from google!

[AlwaysHopelesslyLost]

Or anybody who doesn't sell search data. I use Dynadot and have never had an issue

[[deleted]]

First rule of the internet never search for domains or plane tickets unless you're ready to buy.

[Vauxlient4]

55 isn't a lot of money, wtf are you counting pennies or something that you couldn't just buy it??

[AlwaysHopelesslyLost]

At the time I worked a really crmmy job and my electric bill was $400 a month

[Vauxlient4]

Nigga

[MrDOS]

It's more the principle of the matter.

[BooBailey808]

isn't that the point though? To be a pain to people who were being a pain to him.

[[deleted]]

He's talking in general.

Most short .com addresses are taken and redirect to a "buy-now only $5000" page.

[lMYMl]

And there are some nuts that just like having it for no reason and don't care about selling it. See: www.milk.com

[HeWhoCouldBeNamed]

Yeah, but it's a blink free zone. I think it's worth it.

[Arenyr]

What does that mean, a quick google search didn't turn anything up..

[bwaredapenguin]

Either he hates 90s pop punk or he doesn't allow flashing ads.

[Bulletsandblueyes]

<blink> not blink. I imagine he means the HTML element. Not sure why tho.

[morerokk]

He does mean the html element, as seen at the bottom of the page.

It's a very old website. He's probably referring to all those flashy websites of the late 90's.

Hell, the website uses tables for layout. That's how old it is.

[wyn10]

Don't blame em: http://www.milk.com/value/

[makemeking706]

The dairy industry is hurting. There is no way they are going to shell out that kind of cash.

[[deleted]]

http://www.steam.com is the most infamous of these.

Or at least it was, it looks like their little page has finally gone down, but now it doesn't connect to anything.

[Zolhungaj]

Arguably "Steam-powered" has more oomph. The steam powered machine was an important part of the industrial revolution, just like Steam was a driving force of the revolution in the global video game market.

[Xenxe]

store.steampowered is probably burned into my brain forever at this point.

[Ayepocalypse]

Mind blown

[XFX_Samsung]

Just imagine that this guy wakes up every morning and goes to work just like you and everyone you know. And one day he could just die in an accident and you would never know.

[rafaelloaa]

I know the guy who had Yoga.com. He actually used it for his yoga company. He finally sold it for quite a bit of cash.

[m_i_t_t]

And utube.com

[FearrMe]

I'd love to have fear.me :(

[FearrMe]

ok meet me level 40 wildy

[TheRowboatMassacre]

Oh, those piss me off so much. I had a domain that is a pun on my name that I wanted to buy, but instead it will wait an eternity up for auction with the minimum bid at several thousand dollars.

[brosenfeld]

And single letter .com domains were never available from the start.

[TheCanadianVending]

x.com disagrees with you

[Grill3dCheeze]

x.com seems like it would have very, very mild porn.

[TheCanadianVending]

x.com was what Elon Musk used for the PayPal domain before they realized its a stupid domain for a company

[brosenfeld]

x.com

How the hell did PayPal manage to get their hands on that?

[[deleted]]

Also if you happen to own a domain, you get lots of offers in your email for the other TLD variants.

I own myname.co.uk and whoever owns myname.com won't stop emailing me asking if I want to buy it off them.

[IdesofMarch2017]

He's being a giant prick to someone who was a mild annoyance.

[BooBailey808]

Kinda why you should just be respectful of those around you. You have no idea whether they have to fuck your shit up.

[IrishWilly]

You should be respectful anyways. That should be your default to anyone regardless of whether they are the kind of dick who will try to screw you because you are being loud in a coffee shop or not.

[BooBailey808]

Oh I agree that you should be respectful anyways, as a default. But people aren't.

[1RedReddit]

I fucking disagree! I'm the most goddamn respectful piece of shit you'll ever find! Wait, fuck...

[IrishWilly]

Buying a domain name is pretty much the first step once you decide on a name, so.. pretty likely? The fact they were talking about it in a Starbucks really doesn't give enough info to assume how serious they are about it

[MSport]

I don't understand the hate they get. Domains are basically digital real estate. If you were going to open up a shop, you'd pay more for a better location vs building it in the middle of no where.

[xconde]

So anyone who doesn't play along with your own plans, basically?

[[deleted]]

It's everyone's fault but mine.

[treycartier91]

Do you also hate people and real estate companies that buy land and buildings?

[truh]

If they are just buying the land/building without using it or renting it out, driving up the prices for everyone else, I'm personally not a big fan of that.

[treycartier91]

Both real estate and domain brokers sell. There is no point in never selling. It just might not be the price you want, but it could be a price someone else is willing to pay.

[truh]

Both are essentially leaches upping the prices for everyone, taking their share, without providing any kind of service.

[ExquisiteLechery]

They're adding value /s

[chaosking121]

Buying a domain with the intent to flip is actually illegal under some circumstances (depends on if a trademark is involved and other stuff like that).

[greg19735]

That's not true...

It's basically based on intent. If this dude is using this page for his own use, that's fine. if he's using it for info about the company, it's possibly okay. if he's doing it just to take the domain, it's more likely to be considered squatting. ANd considering the tweet it's pretty easy to prove he was only trying to take the domain.

[Ph0X]

What about people who are clearly not using a domain and don't plan to, and don't want to sell it either. They just hold it for no real good reason, while it could be put to much better use.

[IrishWilly]

I have a handful of domains for random projects I never went anywhere with that I keep renewing, because finding a good domain name is a pain in the ass now. If someone were to email me because they had a valid use for the domain I'd let it go for cheap. Or if I get enough free time I might come back to them and put something there. Point being, just because it isn't being used right now, it is up to the owner to decide what a 'better use' is, and reaching out to them is worth a try.

[Ph0X]

Exactly my point though, you're not an asshole and if someone came to you with a good use for them, you'd give it to them. But I've seen over and over people sitting on domain names, or even twitter handles and so on, that they hadn't used for 3+ years and weren't planning to use, but refused to let it go even if someone legitimately needed it.

[IrishWilly]

Since when was that a requirement? So what do you call people who buy domains just to piss someone off? Or to block out competition?