Someone stealing/squatting new WordPress registration domains?
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I just registered a new WordPress.com account for a domain I was considering (same name) and within 30 minutes the .com domain had been squatted on, before I could go to register the domain myself. This made me all kinds of confused at first, but the only thing that I did was create a (private) WordPress account with that name and the domain was instantly sniped (I had checked that the domain available just before and after using WordPress.com) I guess I lose on this one, but I wanted to see if this was a common practice, and if so WordPress.com needs to seriously consider warning people that this could happen (I would gladly pay their $17 fee now :-P ) Anyways just thought I’d throw this out there see if anyone has seen this happen as a result of a WordPress.com account.
Nate
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No, there’s nothing that directly ties blog registration with domain registration, unless you register a domain while registering your blog of course.
More than likely the domain was already taken, but we offered an alternative.
What was the domain name that you were trying to register?
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I did a whois on bucketlistinc.com and found that the name was registered yesterday with Wild West – the name servers are pointed not here.
My wondering is how someone grabbed a new name so quick and what the heck they plan to do with it – the domain name is on a park a domain site but does not have a for sale sign on it.
Just sort of wondering what the person plans to do with the name – and it seems odd to grab new names here as many of the blogs are just I like to blog sites and don’t have much potential to make much money.
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I just ran that domain through our system, and it definitely wasn’t us, because it’s not here.
If you started registering the domain and did not complete it, it is possible that WWD may be holding it, which is basically what happens as soon as a registration is started, to prevent anyone else from registering it while you’re trying to. If that is the case, they’ll probably return it in a few days.
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The domain is bucketlistinc.com
I was doing domain searches a little earlier (a couple hours) so it is of course possible my searches at GoDaddy/other were somehow sniffed out, but it was most definitely grabbed directly after I registered the name here because your domain search said it was available (then when I re-tried that same ‘new blog’ page an hour later it said the .com was gone). I have the person who registered it’s personal information as they didn’t activate the private registration immediately, but yes I am also curious what their purpose in getting is besides selling it eventually.
This is lesson learned for me (never hesitate to grab an available domain) but I am genuinely interested if this is a trend.
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It’s definitely normal if you proceeded any further past the search point, and the domain will probably be returned in a few days.
If you were just searching for it, I’m not sure what to say. Domain registrars have been know to snag good domains from searches, and we have no control over that.
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Ok, well thanks for the info. I don’t need any kind of answer from WordPress specifically I just wanted to throw my data point out there to see if there was some way people are subscribing to new blog names and registering them as a trend. Thanks all.
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There are name squatters out there for sure – I was helping a friend that was thinking about a site on the history of a small town with all of 75 full time residents and that name had been squatted on and the squatter wanted over $ 1,000 for the name – so my friend passed on it.
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