That's not a conflicting message. That's poor reporting combined with an attempt to imply drama that anyone familiar in the least with domains can see is highly unlikely.
Edit: The reporting is about this good: "man in valet jacket seen driving car he doesn't own to hotel entrance. Possible theft?"
Their "source" was a random tweet from someone with no relation to the situation. They should be embarrassed. I'm going to tweet that Microsoft is switching to Linux to help them with their next article.
(Speculation: Why don't US registrars usually offer autorenewal? Here in Europe, especially Germany, it is unthinkable that my domain would just expire. I get auto-renew by default, no matter how I pay. Conversely, with the US servers and domains we hold, sometimes people don't even get payment reminders before the expiration date. Only when it's too late do you get a notification. I find that strange.)
I've always wondered how people could forget their domains. I get at least 7-8 reminders for my domains prior to their expiry, and that's even on domains set to auto-renew. It didn't occur to me it was a difference between European/US registrars.
Friends of me had it happen with web hosters, server housing and domain registrars. When they were just starting out and forgot to tell the provider to get the monies from their credit card, or whatever, they would just disconnect the server or park the domain. Happened a few times and is really annoying. I had assumed it to be a function of the far better giro system here in Europe, but since a few months I'm paying most things by regular credit card bookings instead of bank transfer, and it still works.
Maybe people just need to ask for and demand automated payment?
I don't know what you're doing with your U.S. servers but Network Solutions and GoDaddy both offer auto renewal by default and warn you when your domain is going to expire.
Why doesn't the domain owner just regiter the domain out a few years? It's not that expensive and they could at least delay this kind of issue. I'd assume RoR isn't going anywhere for a few years.
This rubyonrails.org situation itself might actually provide a counter-point to Europe/US registrar comparison. It appears (indicated by whois + DHH comments) that the domain is probably registered through a reseller in denmark and the reseller is parking the domain.
you can buy a domain back (more correctly, extend your lease, not buy back - because nobody can get a long hold on it in that time frame) at the same price in the time frame of 3 days - no matter what. Sadly, I speak from experience.
So who is the registrar? Seems pretty serious to screw up a domain like that, especially a domain that is so major in the web dev world. I want to know who to avoid using in the future.
In Luxembourg (.lu), the registrar just disconnects your domain name for or a few days before it's free to register again. If your domain doesn't work anymore, you will probably notice and check if you have missed to pay or not.
The use enom, so their domain is in holding atm, so only the owner can renew it. They will mostlikely have to pay ~135$ is it is considered in a redemption period.
Enom does offer an auto renewal option, but its an option, not a default.
Domain Name:RUBYONRAILS.ORG
Created On:19-Apr-2004 22:40:29 UTC
Last Updated On:23-Apr-2009 00:07:53 UTC
Expiration Date:19-Apr-2010 22:40:29 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R39-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:AUTORENEWPERIOD
31 comments
[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 41.7 ms ] threadhttp://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/23/rubyonrailsorg-domain-d...
Edit: The reporting is about this good: "man in valet jacket seen driving car he doesn't own to hotel entrance. Possible theft?"
It seems like the owner info was changed a few hours ago to http://buydomains.dk/
(Speculation: Why don't US registrars usually offer autorenewal? Here in Europe, especially Germany, it is unthinkable that my domain would just expire. I get auto-renew by default, no matter how I pay. Conversely, with the US servers and domains we hold, sometimes people don't even get payment reminders before the expiration date. Only when it's too late do you get a notification. I find that strange.)
Maybe people just need to ask for and demand automated payment?
Domain Name:RUBYONRAILS.ORG Created On:19-Apr-2004 22:40:29 UTC Last Updated On:23-Apr-2009 00:07:53 UTC Expiration Date:19-Apr-2010 22:40:29 UTC
Ip of parked paged owned by eNom
Enom does offer an auto renewal option, but its an option, not a default.
Domain Name:RUBYONRAILS.ORG Created On:19-Apr-2004 22:40:29 UTC Last Updated On:23-Apr-2009 00:07:53 UTC Expiration Date:19-Apr-2010 22:40:29 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R39-LROR) Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED Status:AUTORENEWPERIOD