What makes you happy ?

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I was debating a site move. Someone left a snide comment that because this was on the web I could do what I wanted then move on and reinvent myself. I am changing domains, I do intend to blog less contentiously, I do intend to blog better but I’m not doing it to reinvent myself.

This blog started in it’s current form in January 2004. Between then and now my family has changed, we went through bankruptcy, my mental health went from up to down many times and has now settled somewhere closer to the norm, I have aged and now see certain things in a different light, much of my anger and frustration has waned (though it will return of that I am sure) and none of this is reinvention. It’s how things are and things change. This domain is now wrapped around memories and choices which I made at the time and they were right at the time - but much like the haircuts we get, the clothes we wear, the foods we eat and maybe even the music we like our tastes over time change. We are no different than we were 5 years ago because we are still the same person but we are very different on the inside. Just because it is on the net does not mean it has to stay on the net. Just because there is digital evidence at archive.org does not mean you should be able to come back to a site to see the same state. I’m not ashamed of what was here, I would defend what I said at the time, my family all know and have read whatever they wish it’s just that I will feel more comfortable without it around me - in precisely the same way that I left ‘podz’ behind.

In around 2001 I met some people from uk.people.bodyart for the first time. We all shared an interest in bodyart but if we were all to meet up again then while our interest maybe close to the same level our participation would have dropped (I’d not let Martin pierce my hand again for instance…) But we aren’t reinventing ourselves - we are just changing as people do.

I get some comments on really old posts and when I go back to read the post I most of the time have no clue what on earth I was on when I wrote whatever the post was. It reads like it was written by a stranger - and given what has happened between then and now maybe I would be.

Am I doing it because of work? Nope. If you have read this blog for a long time you will have seen the post frequency fall and just recently it fell a lot more. That happened incidentally. The recent part - yes there was a reason and no it was not work.

Anyway…… all the posts and pages here were made private. I’m not deleting it, but it’s just for me should I choose (which is like those embarrassing photos we all have but won’t throw away but won’t show). Some posts are back published - those I like or whose comments are well worth reading ( I apologise for the feed doing what it did). Some other posts will follow because I know they exist I just can’t find them yet. The new domain is bought (today, so there is no history to google…) and when there is a theme I’ll drop back to this post and edit the link in.

There were:
3,150 posts.
10,148 comments.
2,063 different nicknames represented in the comments.

Post 3152 will not happen.

Thanks for putting up with me here :)

This domain just stole my content.

Whois:
Domain Name:HOWSHITWORKS.ORG
Created On:23-Apr-2007 05:12:04 UTC
Last Updated On:18-Oct-2007 16:37:37 UTC
Expiration Date:23-Apr-2008 05:12:04 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:GODA-030591892
Registrant Name:Developer Hut Inc Developer Hut Inc
Registrant Organization:Developer Hut Inc
Registrant Street1:P.O Box 3743
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Idaho Falls
Registrant State/Province:Idaho
Registrant Postal Code:83403-3743
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.2087579111

Hosted at http://hostingloser.com who have no sitemap, no contact, no aup / tos.
So the loser that steal anyone’s blog content hide away in the State of Idaho.
They have http://www.buyblogcomments.com, they sell ads and have ads on stolen blog content.

Google ‘developer hut inc’.

And the jerk behind this? The man who steals? The man who takes the work of others to make himself money? Jon Waraas. Behold - a thief.

http://www.jonwaraas.com/who-is-jon-waraas/

–

Update 12 Dec.
I find http://growablog.com/ as part of my work. Why do I find it? It’s spamming. Spamming trackbacks.
And guess who it is?

Registrant:
Developer Hut Inc
P.O Box 3743
Idaho Falls, Idaho 83403-3743
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: GROWABLOG.COM
Created on: 02-Jun-07
Expires on: 02-Jun-08
Last Updated on: 18-Oct-07

Administrative Contact:
Developer Hut Inc, Developer Hut Inc developerhut@gmail.com
Developer Hut Inc
P.O Box 3743
Idaho Falls, Idaho 83403-3743
United States
2087579111 Fax –

It’s that thief Jon Warass again. He is stealing from every blog he can scrape.
Oh yes, and I did email him to ask him to stop stealing. His response was that I got 2 free links from him. Well hell yes, that’s just great eh? He’s still Jon Waraas - thief

From their website:

*By electing to place a link to GoDaddy.com on your Web site, you acknowledge and agree that you have no right to modify, change or alter in any way Go Daddy’s trademarks and other intellectual property, including, but not limited to, the link to GoDaddy.com. Any modification, change, alteration or similar action shall result in termination of the right to place such link on your Web site. You also acknowledge and agree that you have no right to use any of Go Daddy’s intellectual property except as contained in the links provided above. The right to place a link to GoDaddy.com may be terminated or revoked for any reason whatsoever in the sole and absolute discretion of Go Daddy.

” Any modification, change, alteration or similar action” - what is this? Thesaurus time?

“... you have no right to modify, change or alter in any way … the link to GoDaddy.com”
So you copy their link code, realise the img tag could do with an alt tag and instantly your right to place that link is terminated.

“ The right to place a link to GoDaddy.com may be terminated or revoked for any reason whatsoever in the sole and absolute discretion of Go Daddy.”
And ANY link to them ANYWHERE can be terminated if they want. What? Bizarre, utterly bizarre.

A domain of a friend’s expired and it was not renewed. Not good. It was still in the cycle though and for $200 could be recovered from enom. No, not for that much. As it was getting close to being up for grabs we decided to wait it out. This domain only has the .co.uk registered otherwise, and that is to the same person. Still, he really did want it. So I placed two backorders.
One was at GoDaddy, the other at Pool. GoDaddy is $19 upfront and includes the domain. Pool is free to try but then $60 if they get it. Pool is well thought of in this game. I was online and constantly reloading my registrar’s domain search page - I use Namecheap - and saw nothing. I was reloading GoDaddy’s page and all that said was that they had last checked the day before and I knew that the domain was dropping at about 6pm that day.
Pool got it. It’s cost $60 but the domain name is returned. It wasn’t a high demand domain but the $60 is one of those lessons that you learn. I emailed GoDaddy. I said that the backorder had failed and what were my options with the $19 they had. I did not ask for a refund. I was told there are no options. All I can use it for is a backorder. I have 32 domains registered at Namecheap and I have enough in an account there to cover the renewals for the next few months. After doing all the above I’ll not be letting any domain expire. So backordering has no use at all to me.
It’s not that I want the $19 back. If I had been told that I could buy a domain and hosting I’d have been happy. Just hosting would be okay. But no. Bob Parsons has obviously decided that as most people will use backordering just the once it’s a really easy way to lock money in and away from people. It would not cost to move the credit. In fact there is no earthly reason to stop a credit being moved - apart from inflating profits. The amount is not the point - and it is part of the lesson learned in some ways - but the fact that GoDaddy refuse to allow that credit to be used anywhere else in their system is just plain annoying.

When I used to answer people in the wordpress.org forums who asked about hosting I would advise them to stay away from GoDaddy for a couple of reasons - and this event above is exactly the sort of detail that to me demonstrates how they would deal with an actual problem - badly. Come to think of it I don’t think they ever featured on the /hosting page there. Wonder why….