If you have an idea for a domain name or a web site, do yourself a favor…keep your mouth shut, register the domain, and talk later. If you don’t you could end up looking like conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, who made a call to action on her radio show Monday and had it backfire in her face.
As the story goes, the website Politico.com ran an article on GOP Presidential candidate Hermain Cain linking him to sexual allegations over a decade ago. Ingraham, a conservative talk show host who must support Cain, decided that a protest of the website should be in order because they ran the story, and made that public request on her radio show. “They’re occupying Wall Street, we need an OccupyPolitico.com,” Ingraham said. Naturally there was probably a mad scramble to several computers around the country as listeners looked to take action based on the host’s request or capitalize on a domain just mentioned on a nationally broadcasted show.
The winner of the mad dash to the domain? A listener in Toms River, NJ. (I would post WHOis info but I know what that will lead to with a few readers, so instead of me posting public information made available to anyone in the world who wants it, you’ll just have to click here to see it). Here’s the best part of the whole story…did the new domain registrant decide to take that call to action? Nope, they decided to apparently stick it to Ingraham and the rest of her listeners and forward the domain to the exact Politico article that sparked the call for protest, appearing to put the accusing article right in the face of anyone trying to boycott the website and article.
Well played, good sir. Call me crazy, but I love it when someone uses the internet and a domain name to give a big “F-U”, it’s what the internet is all about, right?
***Edit: Since the composition of this post, OccupyPolitico.com now forwards to an “Occupy Politico” Facebook page that only has related news articles running on it. While being under the impression that the owner of the domain was trying to use it in the reverse way that Ingraham had intended, I guess now I just don’t understand what the guy was doing at all. If he was trying to protest the Politico website by driving traffic to it, I guess that would fall in line with all other Occupy protests in the aspect that they don’t make any sense… but hey what do I know.
Note: It is still awesome to use the internet and a domain to give a big F-U…this did not change.