Losing logline.it: A Forced Domain Change
A few days ago I received a serious looking email telling me that logline.it had gone “inactive/NoRegistrar”. It sounded like your average domain scam threat, only… the sender was “nic.it”, which raised a red flag. These ‘nics’ are the official domain registries.
I checked my domain account, and the domain had indeed vanished.
Imagine you operate a website for years and years, only to find out one day that the domain is no longer supported by your web host.
I launched the site nearly 12 years ago and it has been active pretty much uninterrupted since, with thousands of loglines and hundreds of users.
But it gets worse
Later that day I checked the website and my fear was confirmed.
It had gone.
And with the domain in limbo, there was absolutely no way to bring it back.
Why did this happen? My host no longer supports the suffix … and notified me of this change in exactly 1 message back in November. The message was buried among literally HUNDREDS of emails I’ve received from them over the years.
Also… they never sent a reminder or warning that I stood the risk of losing the domain.
Insanity, right?
Yep.
Why “.it”? It’s Italian!
When I first started logline.it, I chose the domain name because it was short, unique, and has a cool ring to it.
But it’s also … Italian.
Country suffixes are often subject to limitations but companies all over the world have used foreign countries’ suffixes to their benefit. I’m sure nobody believes that “youtu.be” is—like me—belgian.
My host must have thought it had become too much trouble to enforce the .it restrictions. Registrants needs to have European citizenship. I live in Australia but have a Belgian passport, so I’m ticking the box.
But they didn’t care.
However, that Belgian citizenship may come in handy in this story soon…
Understanding Domain Ownership Verification
I’ll spare you the details, but while domain registration is a swift automated process that takes only seconds, with only minutes to get your site up and visible to everyone, re-activation is a whole different challenge.
Resolving the issue of losing the “logline.it” domain involves going through a manual domain ownership verification process. And companies that make money from automated processes don’t like it when their staff spend their time on a domain they only earn a few dollars per year on.
So I’m now desperately trying to find people that are willing to do this.
And it appears they work at the Italian registry (”nic.it”).
After 12 years of continued operation, I’m not dumping “logline.it” just yet.
But despite having been the registrant of “logline.it” for so long, it appears that the anxiety of the past few days will continue a little longer while I re-establish my reputation with the Italian registry.
One thing I will have to prove for the first time in those twelve years: that I’m (also ) a EU citizen.
So, there’s hope.
Apology and Next Steps
If you’re reading this, it means you’ve found “loglineit.com”.
Now I’m in two minds… Should I leave the site at this domain and forward traffic from “logline.it” later, or move back to “logline.it” altogether? If you have experience or an opinion, please tell me.
Meanwhile, to all the users of logline.it, I want to extend my sincerest apologies for any inconvenience … and for the email I will send out to notify people.
The good news: I am now in direct email contact with Silvia at Nic.it and hopeful that I can continue being the registrant of the domain.
To be continued.
Meanwhile, why don’t you post a logline to test your latest story?
Here’s mine:
“When his beloved community website suddenly disappears, a stubborn story scientist must fight bureaucracy and greedy corporations to regain control and bring his website back to life.”
Happy writing!
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