The .blog Bait and Switch
Chris Schidle (via Hacker News):
At the time the link led to a WordPress.com page where you could sign up for updates (the full get.blog website was not up yet). Thinking that chris.blog had a nice to ring to it, I signed up immediately.
[…]
Alright, I guess that’s fair. If multiple Chrises (or Chris’s? whatever) apply then it goes to auction. I’d still have a chance to secure it, and Automattic maximizes their revenue by auctioning it off. Win-win.
[…]
Perhaps it’s not fair to call this bait & switch. Really it was bait & refund, and certainly the situation would be far worse had they chosen to not make the application fee refundable.
But still, I thought I had chance at securing the domain. That was the logical conclusion given the terms they outlined (via successful application or winning an auction).
[…]
Knock Knock Whois There LLC, the subsidiary of Automattic behind the .blog TLD, has responded with this post regarding reserved domains.
