more domain issues

Originally Published 2003-10-03 08:08:05

From: Alison Stone

To: fuery

Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 12:27 PM

Subject: Continuing website problems





Dear Johnny,



I'm writing on behalf of Lisa. It appears the mncabinet.com is once again linked to the porno site. Any suggestions?



Thank,

Alison



---



Hello Allison,



The problem hasn't changed. Since your company doesn't own the domain mncabinet.com, the new owner can (and has) post anything there he or she wishes.



What we were able to do was get it removed for awhile and update the search engines databases so that a search for your company name no longer sends potential customers to mncabinet.com.



In my last correspondence with Lisa, I touched on this:



[snip]

Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 11:55:39 -0700 (PDT)

From: "Johnny Fuery"

Subject: RE: mncabinet.com questions

To: "Lisa F

CC: "Stephen N



> 1) If the site is now being redirected to

> mnbuild.com, do we need to do

> anything else??



Well, it's not being redirected. Links directly to

mncabinet.com are simply going nowhere -- your browser

displays a "Page Not Found" error. The domain is

effectively dead.



> 2) Do we have to buy back the site from

> Slutnames.whatever or will the

> redirect stand? And do we know whether or not they

> actually "own" it or

> stole it.?



I'm pretty sure they own the lease to mncabinet.com

fair and square. Unethically, perhaps, but not

illegally.



If you actually want a redirect, i.e., typing in

"http://mncabinet.com" yields your site located at

mnbuild.com, then yes, control of the domain must be

reobtained from Smutnames.



Please note that much of the damage has been done,

however. The prominence of mncabinet in the google

search results went away when we asked google to

remove it from it's directory and cache (remember, it

was linking to the smutnames obscenities). I'm not sure

if you agree, but it seems to me that the largest

value of that domain was in it's prominence in the

google engine. Even if it were recovered, I'm

unfortunately not confident that the google placement

would return. It very well may, but it's difficult to

guarantee that behavior.

[end snip]



In terms of options, there are only two choices at this point are:



+ continue the efforts to phase out mncabinet.com. Since the search engines have been updated already, this means making sure that all of the sites you control do not refer to it. It also means keeping your eyes open for links to mncabinet.com in "the wild", i.e., on the internet at large that you do not control and contacting the webmasters of those sites asking them to update their sites. This actually tends to happen on its own (webmasters don't appreciate linking to smut either), but you should nonetheless make certain your own sites are completely updated. This effort is largely complete already; I had thought based on the lack of response from my last message to Lisa (quoted above) that this course of action was the decision.



+ buy control of mncabinet.com from the new legitimate owner. He quoted me $500 in my initial correspondence with him. I can handle this or I can simply forward you his contact information.



Let me know what I can do for you.



btw, thanks for the opportunity to work with you.



Johnny Fuery

925.997.3878