Apparently, johnmccrarey.com was worth something to someone in Poland. As they have absconded with my domain name. Former readers now get some drug spam ad instead of the wit and witticism to which they became accustomed at Long Time Gone. Not!
Long story short: I like everyone else was redirected to the Tramadol spam when I logged onto LTG. I contacted my blog host (blogs-about.com) who said my domain no longer pointed to their server. They suggested I contact GoDaddy.com who was the domain servicer. I said I have no relationship with GoDaddy and I had purchased the domain through them. I was advised that blogs-about is just a broker and my domain had been purchased through GoDaddy. Ok, then.
So, I call GoDaddy and they need my customer number, which since I was never their customer I don’t have. After jumping through numerous hoops I was finally able to ascertain that my blog domain registration had expired and when I did not renew, it had been purchased by the aforementioned guy in Poland. And there was nothing GoDaddy could do to get it back. (well, I could use their domain purchase service and try to buy it back). Which I am still considering. What the hell is my name worth?
I was incensed and outraged and frustrated and disgusted and more. First, I recalled having paid for a 5 year registration of the domain, and that was four years ago. (Of course, four years later I have no way to document that). Second, I received no notice of the expiration or opportunity to renew. GoDaddy insists that I was sent several emails. I didn’t get them, although it is *possible* I treated them as spam since I didn’t heretofore know GoDaddy from Adam.
Whatever. I finally purchased mccrarey.com and no here is where my blog resides. It is like starting over as none of my former readers know how to find me (they were few, but loyal and I miss them). So, I will send an email to as many as I can locate and ask those who linked to me previously to update their links.
And I suppose life goes on.