Opencaching domains

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Opencaching domains

Post by NativTxn » Mon Oct 10, 2011 2:14 pm

I'm sure I've asked this before, but I can't find it.

Why on earth didn't the OpenCaching network secure the domains for opencaching.com, opencaching.net and opencaching.org in the first place and just have them re-direct to the opencaching network sites? This would have prevented any name duplication from the beginning.

BTW...the .org and .net sites still appear to be open. Can those be registered to the OC network?
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by glorkar » Mon Oct 10, 2011 3:58 pm

I'm sure it all boils down to money. They don't give those things away :/ That and I believe it was in keeping with all of the other nodes that started in Europe. All of them are opencaching.(country code)
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by Mr.Yuck » Tue Oct 11, 2011 8:36 am

glorkar wrote:I'm sure it all boils down to money. They don't give those things away :/ That and I believe it was in keeping with all of the other nodes that started in Europe. All of them are opencaching.(country code)
Yeah, I'd tend to agree. Someone else actually registered Opencaching.com in 2003. It was sitting there for a couple years as a forum, but never got off to ground to have any Geocaching content. I don't know if that person was still holding onto it and Garmin bought it from them, or it had expired. I can try to investigate.

Either way, I'll be pissed at Garmin, like, forever. :mrgreen:

Oh, here we go. Compliments of the Wayback Machine Internet Archive, Opencaching.com as it appeared in October, 2003. http://web.archive.org/web/200310072327 ... /home/news Owned by some guy named "Hank".

I'm just making up stuff as I go along. It looks like "Hank" gave up on Opencaching.com in a post dated December 20, 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/200601082011 ... /home/news So yeah, the domain was probably expired, and Garmin bought it A WHOIS lookup will only tell you that it was created in 2003, and Garmin is the owner, not when Garmin bought it.

P.S. wait at the Wayback machine page for a few seconds to be redirected to the old opencaching.com content.
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by glorkar » Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:07 pm

I remember digging into that a while back. I think I actually ended up contacting Hank on GC.com. Can't remember whatever came of the conversation though.
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by glorkar » Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:22 pm

Here we go: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=272&start=20. Looks like he never did join...at least not under that name.
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by Mr.Yuck » Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:35 pm

glorkar wrote:Here we go: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=272&start=20. Looks like he never did join...at least not under that name.
Oh yeah, I do remember that thread. And I was around back then, and actually did go to his forums several times; they were surprisingly active. Although I remember a lot of it was pro-Groundspeak people giving him and his supporters a hard time. :lol: You can still see the forums on my Wayback Machine links, but none of the links work.

No idea what his Geocaching.com name was, but I do seem to remember him being from North or South Carolina. Don't quote me on that though. :mrgreen:
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by Mr.Yuck » Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:05 pm

New development! I saw Opencaching.us disagreeing with a Garmin ambassador on Twitter (Don't read too much into that, it was a very friendly disagreement) about when Garmin bought the domain. Seems there are people out there who think Garmin owned the domain since 2003. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, the wayback machine shows Opencaching.com having a generic "expired domain" placeholder as late as Memorial Day, 2010. So if they plonked down the money for Opencaching.com any more than 1 year ago from today's date in early November, I'd be surprised.

http://web.archive.org/web/201005310332 ... ching.com/
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by DudleyGrunt » Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:13 pm

Umm... that was me. And I was sure to be very polite with @mtntrek and we did seem to have a good dialogue.

As far as Garmin's acquisition of the .com, they could have gotten it any time from 1 June 10 on. I'd be surprised if Garmin didn't own the domain until about a month before their launch, but anything is possible.
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by Mr.Yuck » Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:36 pm

DudleyGrunt wrote:Umm... that was me. And I was sure to be very polite with @mtntrek and we did seem to have a good dialogue.

As far as Garmin's acquisition of the .com, they could have gotten it any time from 1 June 10 on. I'd be surprised if Garmin didn't own the domain until about a month before their launch, but anything is possible.
Yeah, I knew it was you, as opencaching.us :mrgreen: I had previously said you can't tell from a WHOIS lookup when they bought it, but seeing that on Twitter made me investigate further. Especially when I hear that there are people walking around thinking they owned it since 2003.
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Re: Opencaching domains

Post by caughtatwork » Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:13 am

I reckon Garmin got its hands on it around November 2010.

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report ... aching.com
The change of IP address implies a new location for the server / domain.

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