First I'd like to update that the only thing I've received today was an email from Mark Klein telling me to send the forms in excel format rather than xml... Which is no problem. So obviously the boys in New Jersey are getting these emails. As far as an official update for this site... I'm sorry, I have none. There have been however, some questions about the authenticity of this site so I thought I'd take an hour or two to tell you a little about me.
Who is Registerflies? Could Regsterflies be Glenn and John?
There's been rumors about us being Glenn and John. There have been questions asking who we are... therefore, I should answer them. Let's clear up the questions that are being asked and move forward.
About Me
It seems that there has been some question on, "who is the anonymous Admin?". So, I figured I'd better approach this with kid gloves. To set the record straight, I'm an average Joe with a wife and two children that live in Akron Ohio.
To give you a little background, I came from a service industry. Prior to meeting some crazy Irishman from England that started me on this buying spree of domain names... I would drive every week from Akron, Oh to Chicago and wash garbage trucks in Chicago, Peroria, Franklin Park, Wheeling and lots of other cities in the Chicago and surrounding areas. At the time I had purchased a laptop and was buying (domain) names in the hotel after work. When I was done in Chicago, I'd drive back home to Akron and end up spending time in search of the perfect names.
The Crazy Irishman from England
So, I was on the internet and somehow or other became interested in domain names. I could see that this was a relatively untapped market that would eventually be a booming industry. I also recognized immediately that this internet do-hickey thing-a-ma-bob had broken down the walls which once separated us and was going to do nothing but mature and expand into something very popular.
Needless to say, I ran into Andy, in the NamePros.com forum. Somehow or other, me and this crazy Irishman and I hit it off, (I'm joking on the crazy). His enthusiasm about domain names actually excited me and he directed me to Registerfly. Prices were great and the features were great and the interface was awesome. So I proceeded to purchase domain names with the intent to sell them.
So there I was. a virgin to the domain industry, buying domains at Registerfly. Andy and I were trading names and information on NamePros.com and DnForum.com. This is when I started having problems. It was around Jan. 2005 that I really started to complain about the various problems that I had encountered with Registerfly. Missing names, long hold times, multiple charges to account during renewals and of course the arguing in the forums with Paul V. because Registerfly started using the forums as as customer support channel instead of handling their problems amicably via the proper support channels they had on their site.
After numerous problems with Registerfly and phone calls about domains and all the problems that had occurred with double billing and failed renewals... I started getting sick of the crap. At one point I started getting very upset that they wouldn't answer the phone but they were quick to respond in the forums. As time went on, I found myself spending a lot of time working on the Registerfly problems in my account with Registerfly. At the time, I think I had acquired almost 450 domain names in total.
Long Hold Times - developing Registerflies
As time past, I found myself spending 40 minutes on the phone with Registerfly just to be disconnected. One call after another. Then the complaints grew. I believe I tried to make everyone know about the problems I was having with Registerfly. In all the forums we frequented and traded domain names in, I let them all know my registerfly story. I was so mad at times with Registerfly that I'd foam at the mouth and have nightmares about visiting their facility and the things I could do to get back at them. My wife had to convince me not to drive down to New Jersey because she knew I'd just get myself into trouble... I was livid about my domains. This was my life... my property... my time and investment. Damn, was I livid about my domain names.
So as I spent time on hold, I also looked into being a webmaster... I mean, what's the next step?... I have a nice portfolio of domain names that I don't want to sell for chump change, what should I do? So, I started looking for ways to host and some sort of website template. This brought me to Drupal. So when I was home and an hold with registerfly, I was building a website with Drupal CMS for my newly founded Regsiterflies.com domain name. Any names I could transfer out, I did quickly. Most of my names at the time were .com and .net so it was not as hard to do as it is today. Much of my domains I transferred to: Fabulous.com because they are just.... Fabulous.
Since Registerflies.com was my first website and under Drupal, it took a bit to learn, as any of this crap does. So I learned to make a somewhat functional site with Drupal. Meanwhile I liked the CMS programs and started searching for others. Then I ran accross Mambo and Joomla and fell in love with Joomla. I figured, I could do a site with this stuff. So, that was the next generation of Registerflies.com which is what you see now.
I tried a few hosting companies since I was new to all this, until I wound up at Hostgator.com. I fell in love with a new level of support. Registerfly was my first introduction to the webmaster and internet game... so Hostgator.com was like a breath of fresh air. I had even tried Registerfly hosting at one point, (That's another website) but that sucked as well. Tried their parking for a while too... that too followed the same pattern as the rest of their services.
Commitment to bring RegisterFly to its Knees
So with Registerflies, I made a public commitment to bring the RegisterFly company to its knees and expose all these flaws and problems within their site and management, and expose it all. Something was very wrong and instead of spending my time fighting with them over the forums and the phone, I directed my attention to this site. I literally gave up the battle over the names I had left with them. Many of the names I liked; I had worked to get them to a safe place and the rest that were sitting within RegisterFly... I just had to let go because it was killing me. The records were inaccurate of what I had in my account as to what I had already moved out. So I simply pushed all the names into a friends account in hopes that it would clear up the names that weren't even at RegisterFly. This of course didn't work. So, I took my losses and moved forward with this website and didn't stop the battle.
As this site grew and the complaints grew, this site stayed up and offered a place for people to tell their RegisterFly story in an effort to let the public know if they did a search. I worked very hard at learning SEO tactics to get good ranking in Google when a search was done, and it worked. You could search almost any term for Registerfly and registerflies was listed on page one of the organic search engine listings.
What about Today?
Today isn't any different other than I've had to literally drop everything and focus all of my efforts on this problem and this growing community.
So today, I'm typing this letter to you from the basement of my home in Akron while standing in front of my laptop with an old secondary monitor hooked up so I can be more efficient when reading and writing and working on websites. I have an office as well that I work out of but at times it's just easier to work from home... especially with the winter weather we've been having lately.
There you have it, I'm just a normal guy that had all the same problems that you all have had with this registrar. I'm not working for, or employed by anyone but myself. Just another Joe six-pack with dreams of making a living on the internet rather than having to punch a clock or work for someone else. I have a wonderful and supportive wife along with a 7 year old daughter and 18 year old son, and two dogs and a fat cat.
Why so Anonymous?
That's easy... I don't want to get whacked! It may sound silly to you but somehow or other, I've landed in the middle of a bee hive and while this site has been helpful to many others, I have been threatened to be sued by RegisterFly and Paul V. at RegisterFly posted my personal information with address and all in a public forum and then Kevin followed up by bashing me and this site and quoting Paul V. with my information included. I don't want any problems, I just want the truth about this bad business to be known so that others won't fall to the same demise as I did. The public has a right to know about intellectual property safety.
For the purposes of being sued, or having my legs broken, I wanted to make it hard for them to find me. That's why I've preferred to remain anonymous. I hope this clears some things up.
The Facts
Seems there has been some discussion on the authenticity of this site. Matter of fact, someone even made a site just to slam me. Check it out! Needless to say, here are the facts...
- The administrator of this site is not and has not been employed with RegisterFly or any of their companies. The admin is not Kevin Medina and is not Glenn or John. The admin of this site is Justin... just another Joe Schmo that experienced the same problems you all have.
- RegisterFly has not paid me for anything. They have not paid me for helping them with the support form on this site and have not donated otherwise to this site. Although they had mentioned a donation, none was ever received.
- I am talking with the folks at RegisterFly and other contacts in the industry and I'm getting the whole picture. It's actually not my business, however there are folks out there that need to know what's going on and when this debacle will end and this site is already here so why not keep it up, even though it's accomplished what it set out to do.
- This site has cost me more time and money than any other site I've done. This all started out with negative energy and during the course of the last year, after I've taken my losses and moved on, I began to see the positive side of what it could become. So, I'm here and doing my best to give everyone watching this site, the right information.
- I'm not a writer. Not a journalist or anything... not even a public speaker, so there will be flaws in my writing. So then, you will see that my writing style is somewhat flawed. I could spend all day editing what I've wrote but there's no time for that.
These are the facts. Take it for what it's worth and do with it what you want. I'm here like the rest of you. I am one of you... a customer in distress.
Registerflies.com Website
We're here and we're staying. We're going to see this thing through. Today I'm going to be doing some updates because there seems to be some bugs in the site with regards to chat and some other buggy issues. I don't want to block anyone out of chat so that's not it. I've worked with the chat admin and we've come to the conclusion that there is something wrong inside of Joomla that is creating the problems. As far as the rest of the site, please be patient as we shift stuff around so that it's more useful to our users. I realize this site needs a face-lift and I'm working on it. Please also understand that this site is taking a lot of time and money to maintain and it's taking it directly from the time I would normally spend working on my customers websites, (paying websites)... So please be patient and understand that I've put my foot forward for the benefit of all those effected by RegisterFly.
Summary
Here we are, all of us with one thing in common that have come together here on Registerflies.com to communicate and share information. I am one of you. I stand here with you all as this debacle unfolds and do my best to relay the correct information. I am not and will not try to lull anyone here into a false sense of hope about their domain names. That's not why this site is here and this is not my intention.
Aside from the overall negative scope of this site, there is in fact some very positive things that are coming out of it. People on this site seem to be communicating and exchanging information and business ideas. We're communicating on this site from all over the world about a common problem we all have when it comes to domain name security. These issues need to be addressed and discussed so let's keep moving forward.
In closing, I understand how angry some of you are. I truly understand the pressures of losing a customers domain name due to the negligence of both ICANN and Registerfly. However, please don't direct your frustration towards this site or its admin... which is me. It just so happens that this site has become the conduit in the midst of this issue for communication. John, Glenn, and Mark have taken the step to communicate with me directly with the intention of helping you all with your names. Maybe this isn't enough and sure there are going to be doubts. Just understand that I am one of you and will continue to do my best to publish accurate information and communicate with Registerfly.
There you have it. What more can I say? Thank you all for your patience and understanding and I look forward to continuing to develop this site into a place where we can come together and provide an environment for positive changes in this infant industry, on a global level. Thank you all for being a part of this.
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