With every instance of a disaster striking, some people that consider themselves ‘domainer entrepreneurs‘ seek the registration of domain names related to the event.
If one builds a web site that offers information on the disaster or at least some pointers to further point that source of traffic to informational or relief web sites, that’s acceptable.
That was not the case with a domainer on DNForum that the day of the disaster at Sendai, Japan registered and offered for sale the domain name SendaiTsunami.com
Within minutes and by decision of Adam Dicker – the owner of DNForum – the sales thread was removed as insensitive and not fitting a domain investor’s morals and ethics.
An interesting discussion applauding the decision to pull the sale can be viewed here.
Good move. CNN had a feature this morning about “cybersquatters” registering charity typos or domains that sound like charity names that exist to steal your money. They even covered hyphens and alternate extensions as ways Domainers use to trick donors. Lovely for the reputation! I will post the clip if I can find it online.
Well-said, Owen. I’ve also seen Japan & tsunami keyword + info domains with “bait” images on Facebook that are nothing but tasteless and spam.
Hi Again,
I will just put my idea on the table again, that I posted on March 12th……Please read it all, this problem has been going on a very long time…. I have two March 14th updates at the “end” of my post, that only helps my views/idea….
So,
I would be happy to work with anyone to set this up…..I think it would be a real positive move for All of us who are involved in the domain industry on a daily basis and the domain industry as a whole….
It would, not take much time or resources to setup ( a few web pages maybe set on on just a “WP” blog platform,….and hopefully it will not have to be used that often…but the way things are going in the world…unfortunately…it will.
Cybersquatting ~ Cybersquatters:
http://dannosblog.com/2011-03/domain-industry-disaster-goodwill/
___
Best,
Dan
If you stay in one of these cities or countries…get the hell out of there!
Japan, India, hawaii, las vegas, mexico, turkey, taiwan
Why?
Because there is going to be an earthquake soon…
How do i know this?
Guess who owns these domains:
japanearthquake.com
indiaearthquake.com
hawaiiearthquake.com
lasvegasearthquake.com
mexicoearthquake.com
turkeyearthquake.com
taiwanearthquake.com
Yup… Frank Schilling … he travels the world and he registered those domains!
so i’m sorry to give you the bad news, but…earthquake is coming soon to those cities and countries…get the hell out of there!!!
Frank Schilling knows!!!
Sorry but I don’t support this decision. I don’t like these kind of domains because ethically speaking, registering them seems suspicious at best. But that’s not what’s at discussion here. The discussion is whether a forum owner should let his ethics prevail over those of his (often paying) forum users. When these users are clearly acting illegally or breaking forum rules, the answer should be yes. When they’re just being a-holes, the answer should be no.
Most people don’t like to see these types of domains in the forums but the same goes for politically charged threads or adult names. I don’t need to see the millionth bush/obama bashing thread nor those super domains like myjizzgun.com or whatever. The fact is, we are all trying to profit and sometimes at great lengths. There’s no high road just a lot of entwining roads sometimes high, sometimes low.
Bert – a domain forum is a private entity, not a free speech platform.
I forgot about this post but here’s my reply to Lucius: I don’t base my opinion on the free speech argument. I base it on the argument that the forum has a duty to its users not to impose its morality on them if they don’t brake any laws or rules. So I don’t say he hasn’t got the right, it’s just not the right thing to do. If he wants to remove domains or post on the basis that they are offensive in his eyes, he should make a rule about it. Clearly this would be an arbitrairy rule so that’s why he won’t and that is also why he shouldn’t remove the post.