Folders RSS feed

Based on an email I got from a member I realized that the RSS feed for the Folder channel was not working. For this who do not know the linkaGoGo channels feature, channels allow you to access parts of your bookmarks in other applications. For example as an RSS feed or a on Active desktop. And you can show your most used bookmarks are the latest posts on the Society page.

So I had a look it and it turned out the RSS feed for folders never had worked. I did have a design problem because RSS feeds are not hierarchical, however a folder structure is hierarchical. So decided to only list the top folders in the RSS feed and the RSS link would point into the linkaGoGo folder page for that folder so you immediately navigate to the subfolders. Which seemed like a reasonable compromise.

I justed added the folder RSS feed as a Live bookmark on the Firefox bookmarks toolbar and it is really cool having my folders sitting there at your fingertips.

GoGolian

linkagogo.com is back

Finally, after almost 2 months, linkaGoGo can be reached at its regular linkaGoGo.com location again. Yesterday I received an email from godaddy.com that the domain linkaGoGo.com was now registered through godaddy.com. With the approval of ICANN Godaddy.com made a deal with registerFly to take over all their domains.

Over the next few days we will make changes that all traffic for linkaGoGo.net is automatically rerouted to linkaGoGo.com.

GoGolian

ICANN making progress

According to ICANN’s blog, RegisterFly made a deal with an existing accredited Registrar to take over the domain names. They are currently transferring all the domain name data and is expected to complete next week.

So hopefully next week we should have control back over our domain.

GoGolian

Society Spam

Despite various attempts to stop spam on the Society page, I could not get it under control. Not only did the Society page became unusable as there was no real information to be found there anymore, the non-stop posting of entries slowed down the website and almost brought it to its knees yesterday.

Apparently someone created a system to spam our Society page. They signed up for a Trial accounts and then automated (and therefore abused as it was part of a form) the addition of websites.

So I decided for now to only allow members with a Plus and Premium subscription to post to the Society page. The ‘Add and Post to Society’ button is only enabled for these subscriptions. Spammers using the backdoor will get an error response.

This does not mean that Plus and Premium members are allowed to spam. But this will make it much easier to monitor for spam activity. Note the Society page will be available for all members.

Hopefully with this measure the Society page will get its original purpose back, which is to share useful Websites with other Gogolians.

Gogolian

ICANN chooses registrar next week

Today ICANN posted an update that they received interest from four registrars to temporary host the RegisterFly domain names. Next week ICANN will decide which of the registrars will get the honour. Then registrants like linkaGoGo should be able to get control over our domain names.

GoGolian

linkagogo.com back or not?

Yesterday I received an email from RegisterFly, the domainname provider that manages the linkagogo.com domain name, with a confirmation that they had unlocked the linkagogo.com domainname and provided me with an authorization code. I should now be able to transfer the linkagogo.com domain to another domain name provider and activate the linkagogo.com domain again.

I feverishly started the transfer process on Godaddy, first initiate the transfer process by having Godaddy send an email to the email address of the linkagogo.com administrator. This used to be a registerfly admin address, but since the domain was now unlocked I could update it with an email address I had access to. A few seconds later the email arrived in my inbox. It contained a transaction id and a security code, which I had to provide back to Godaddy for the next step to authorize the transfer. Godaddy then asked for the transfer authorization, which I now had from registerFly. And the transfer was now started.

The transfer can take upto 7 workdays. But since I had already “waited” so long, these few days would not matter; I had seen this work with other domains that I had transferred. However this time I got an email within a few minutes stating that the transfer could not proceed since the status of the domain name is “Pending Delete”. I then contacted Godaddy and Verisign (who is the actual executive administrator for ICANN) and they both said they can do nothing and that only ICANN can provide the order to change that status. So I send an email at ICANN with the request to change the status in such a way that the domain can be transferred. Waiting for that now, they normally responds very quickly, but are covered with red tape.

I am so disappointed, all these organizations all making money of our domain names and noone really able to help you. And now despite paying all this money I run the risk that someone else grabs my domain name I will have to spend more money to get it back. Fortunately I own the linkaGoGo trademark and it should be easy to get it back according to some documentation I read.

So for now we keep operating under the linkagogo.net domain name.

GoGolian

RegisterFlies

I thought I kept myself well informed of trends and news on the Internet, but now I feel like a dummy, a moron, not in touch with reality. Today I ran into a website called registerflies. This is a website dedicated to people who are victimized by RegisterFly. RegisterFly is the registar who managed the linkagogo.com domain. From reading this site I understand this may affect upto 2 million domain names.

I can’t believe after looking at this website and the stories of all the folks that are victimized by registerfly, that I only found out this week what was going on. The sad part is that there will still be people who won't know and will buy new domains or renew their domains and lose their money.

I placed calls, send email, filed support tickets and the result so far is zip. Noone can help me at the moment to regain control over the linkagogo.com domain.

- Registerfly does not respond on my emails, calls or service tickets.
- ICANN forwards my complaints to RegisterFly
- Other Registars like GoDaddy can only help when RegisterFly cooperates.
- Dyndns.org who did the naming service for linkaGoGo says that ICANN is no longer pointing traffic at linkagogo.com.

ICANN apparently filed a lawsuit against RegisterFly to handover all the domains and contact information, so that the can hand it over to another Registar to clean up the mess. If none of the other actions taken succeed, this may be the last resort.

So while this is going on decided to move the whole website over to linkagogo.net. So at least it is accessible for existing members. At the moment there is a mass mail running to inform all the linkaGoGo members of this change. I included a link to opt-out if you are not interested in that kind of information.

Since our regular support email does not work, made the support@linkagogo.net available. Also if you have problems getting your ‘Add to linkaGoGo’ buttons to work you can find the updated ones under Options / Setup.

GoGolian