WordPress contacting the owner of an out-of-use blog
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I want to use a blog name but it’s taken. However, the owner only created 1 entry and hasn’t touched it since 2006. In the forums where this type of problem was discussed, a staff member said I could contact you and have you contact the owner and see if they would transfer the name to me. I have also left a comment on their blog but don’t expect a response. Can this be done? Thanks.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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The question form forced me to put the blog I need help with, but girlinhyphens is not what I need help with. It’s psychoblogger.wordpress.com.
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If you don’t receive a response from the site owner to your comment, WordPress.com Staff will not contact them or turn the site over to you. See here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/recycling-blog-names/
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WordPress.com does not recycle blog names/urls. I don’t know where you saw that, but it is not true. There is no date in the future that a blog name will become available: there is no expiration date whether the person uses the blog or not. The account belongs to someone and apparently has belonged to that person since 2006. Staff will not take it away from that person, nor will they share personal information about how to contact him/her.
You can leave a message on the abandoned blog to see if the blog owner will transfer it to you, but you are probably correct that there will not be any response.
You can make a similar address, adding a number before or after the name, substituting a number for a letter, use an alternate spelling or purchase a domain mapping upgrade if the name is available.
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Let me clarify: I was not asking or assuming that WordPress would snatch it back for me or asking them to recycle it without the will of the owner. I know that it doesn’t expire or become available in the future which I found out in researching this question on WordPress help.
The original answer I had seen said that if you don’t receive a response to your comment on the old blog, you could ask WordPress to contact the owner and ask for you or let the owner know that they could contact me if they so chose, thereby ensuring privacy for the blog owner.
Here’s the old answer, btw: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/blog-name-i-want-is-taken-but-that-person-hasnt-updated-since-2007?replies=4
Obviously it’s old so I asked again.
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Odd that tsp would mention that, as I have never seen any Staff reply in the 7 years I’ve been here saying that they would. (tsp made that reply when he was still a forum volunteer, albeit experienced forum volunteer, and long before he starting working at Automattic.)
Regardless, the current WP.com policy is as stated in the Support document I linked to above.
If you find that an active blog address is registered by another user, you may be able to obtain it for your use if the owner of the blog agrees to transfer it to you. You may contact the blog owner – via a comment on their site or through a contact form, if available – to ask for their consent. If you do not get permission, or do not hear back from the blog owner, we cannot transfer the blog address to you.
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justjennifer: Nevertheless, I think you answered my question when you said “WordPress will not contact them for you.” This old answer said that they would. Maybe that was true then and not now, or it was never true. It was a ‘staff’ member that said it so I assumed it was true.
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@TSP was not a staff member at the time he answered that question – he was a volunteer and not a staff member – the staff have made it very clear many times they will not contact a blog owner – period end
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The specific nuance to the question that I was interested in is will WordPress contact them for you, not, will WordPress just give it to you if the owner doesn’t respond. I imagine they would not do that. But it looks like you’re saying they won’t do the former, either, justjennifer. So if that’s the case, that answers my question. Thanks.
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Welcome!
As 1tess pointed out above, you can go the purchase domain name and mapping route. Both are paid upgrades.
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