No, I Didn't Forget To Pay The Bill
For the apparently gazillion of you that logged in to The Artful Writer this morning only to discover that the domain registration had lapsed, I apologize.
And I’m flattered. Honestly. I was buried under a deluge of emails. This site is like meth to quite a few of you.
The happy news (sort of) is that it wasn’t my fault. Yes, the domain had lapsed, but it’s not like I ignored renewal notices or used a bad credit card. My host also handles my domain registration, and they usually just renew it and charge me…
…but they sort of, um, forgot.
The good news is that because they work closely with the registry (and possibly even own it, I’m not sure), the problem was fixed ten minutes after my email to the owner. It’s rare that your whole site can ‘asplode and you come out of it loving your host even more, but I do. So thanks to Stacy Tabb at Hosting Matters for her excellent customer service.
For future reference, if things should ever go kablooey, I do mirror the site using theartfulwriter.com as an alternative address. Note that all of the links on the mirror will need to be manually adjusted in your browser to get the mirrored versions, but if you’re one of the seriously addicted, this will at least keep you from convulsing.
Sorry again for the downtime.
twitch twitch
uhthankscraig..
…
twitch
No withdrawl here. I was just worried that we were going to have to plan a benefit concert to help you out of your financial woes.
Craig,
It is strange that your host/registrar would put up an ad-heavy replacement website the day after your domain “expires.” Standard practice is to give a window of several weeks for you to renew the domain. It’s bizarre and questionable behavior.
Keith:
Like I said, they made a mistake. It’s not their normal practice.
I’ve used the same hosting company as you for several years and they’ve always been very quick and helpful to resolve the very few problems that have popped up.
Glad to see you back. Your insight is valuable and your disappearance would be a loss to the community.
That’s how I lost “.com” and am now at “.net” - my #@&%$#!! former webhost didn’t renew… and someone scooped it. Next thing you know, the scoopers will sell it to me for $2k. I figure, what I wrote is the draw, not the address… and tell them to go #@%$# themselves.
My hits are higher than ever… and, oddly enough, the webhost and scoopers have the same business address. Oh, and they still have the domain name - I won’t buy it back.
Just glad you’re back. This site is killer!
bill,
sounds like the webhost and the scoopers were in cahoots… webhost drops the ball, scooper picks it up, sells it back to sucker and gives webhost percentage. good on you for not playing their game.
Johnny, no. Not at all. The host fixed the problem.
That happened to me once, too. Welcome back.
craig, i know…i was addressing bill. :)