How to get an abandoned/stale domain back in to the pool?
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There is a domain that I would like to use, actually numerous ones that I have tried, and in this particular case, the user has said that they will no longer be using it as of 2009. It hasn’t been updated since. So, with me not being able to contact customer support to ask the question, does anybody out there know how to get the process rolling to have the name, or names in general, added back to the “available” pool?
Thanks in advance for any help.
KarlThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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re: unused blogs
There is no expiration date on blogs unused or otherwise. If you can make contact on your own with the owner of an unused blog then there is a means of a consenting blog owner to transfer the blog to another username account. http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#transferring-your-blog-to-another-user-or-account
In the case that there is no contact information Staff will not breach the privacy policy and provide you with an email address.
if you are not successful, you can register another blog with a similar name. http://en.support.wordpress.com/register-a-blog/
Or you can register a domain via a domain mapping upgrade and it will not matter what the underlying .wordpress.com address is.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/register-domain/re: reserved blogs
When we register a username account the matching blog is reserved for our future use. It cannot be obtained by anyone other than the person who has registered the matching username account.re: deleted blogs
You cannot claim a deleted blog URL. No one can use a deleted blog URL regardless of who registered it. Deleted blog URLs are not recycled here. You can confirm by reading:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/delete-blog/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/recycling-blog-names/ -
I appreciate the response, thank you.
As I mentioned elsewhere:
“I know that every company has the right to do as they choose, and being the biggest blog site on the net, you can certainly afford to turn away people, but this is your business model? Sites that people want to use, that they might pay for, are left vacant for eternity because you aren’t willing to stale date it: in many cases after 5 or more years.
Wow, I wish my company had the luxury of turning away paying customers.” -
If you are serious about blogging over the long term then purchasing your own domain name and the very affordable domain mapping upgrade are the way to go.
You can register a domain via a domain mapping upgrade and it will not matter what the underlying .wordpress.com address is.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/register-domain/ -
And if you read the reasons given by WordPress.COM for the policy – their policy is a great respect for the privacy of the original blog owner – People register and don’t use blog names for many reasons – change of plans, temporary health or other issues, grand plans that did not quite work out, keeping a name that connects to them personally from being used by others (some companies also do this) – some people put blogs here because the blog will live on without needing to be added to (memorials to friends is one of many examples, others do history of an area (I have a site for history) )
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There is also the viewpoint from a wp.com user who appreciates that an abandoned, reserved, or unused name/account/url won’t be claimed by someone else after a period of time. The security of knowing one is able to come back even after years to a blog or site is valuable.
Knowing that some other person who does not have the same intentions as I won’t be able to take my name in future is worthwhile to me. I’d hate to see a mature blog replacing my kitchen site for example.
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Thanks for the replies.
Firstly, as I said, if this is the policy, then so be it: that is the right of the folks running this place. I don’t have to understand it, I don’t have to like it, it’s their house, their rules, I accept that. However, for those that are perhaps less savy in the ways of business, eventually this model falls apart. Why do you think that “.com” has now become “.everything”?
My point in all of this, which seems to be missed, is that, just like the internet, eventually Squatters will possess a significant number of the domains, domains that other people could put to good use. I do own the domain associated with my blog, and, as you can probably tell, I was still in the process of getting my blog set-up. The reason I originally posted the question is that I have several other sites that I am interested in and the names are stale. I know this because the original blog owner explicitly said, “I am out of here, won’t be back…etc” as of 2009.
So here is a question: Why would I put http://www.mydomain.com on the WordPress servers, and pay them, when http://www.mydomain.wordpress.com is owned by somebody else? Would that make sense to you? I’m not being sarcastic, I am truly curious as to what you think. -
Please realize that this is, for the most part, a peer to peer support forum so you are talking to fellow bloggers, volunteers who have no say in the policies set by WordPress.com. As such you are reading opinions of wp.com users.
The links provided by timethief refer to the support documents written and posted by WordPress.com. They are the long-standing position of WordPress.com.
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Hello 1tess, I understand what you are saying, that contributions come from members and are simply their opinions, just as my comments are my opinions.
Part of my intention in posting my opinions is that I had hoped that perhaps somebody in the higher echelons of the company would read the thread and realize that, while their policy is honorable, they are reducing the number of “good” blogs in favor of not offending somebody that doesn’t care, or who has moved on years ago.
I think that part of the “challenge”, at the start of all this, is that there doesn’t seem to be an easy way, or any way?, to contact somebody in the support department of WordPress, unless you purchase one of the higher plans/programs.
I don’t think any further comments on my part will add to the quality/usefulness of this thread, so I will leave it here.
All the best. -
Yes, well I’ll put a modlook tag on this thread so staff will see it and respond.
But there are ways that Automatic uses wp.com which may not be obvious: they constantly update and experiment with this platform and in many ways we are guinea pigs, with free hosting, for the WordPress.ORG software. There are upgrades here to add to the experience, and (apparently) the cost is offset by the adverts wp.com places on our blogs.
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Hi there everyone!
I completely understand you wanting to make sure that you have both the precise username and password that matches your passion, your business name, or your online identity (or all three!), @tinybookguy. But you should keep in mind the role that custom domains play in WordPress.com’s environment.
If you have a custom domain in our system (which you say you do) and you choose to map it to your WordPress.com blog, no one will ever see your xxxxxxxx.wordpress.com address except for you, and you’ll only see that when you’re logging in to the Dashboard when you’re making changes to your site or posting (and not necessarily even when posting, give the wide variety of other ways in which you can post!). Your viewers will always just see your domain.
While it may be frustrating that you cannot reclaim sites or usernames that have come before, we find that it is in keeping with our company vision.
I hope this clears things up for you a bit!
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