Everyone should keep up to date with their domain names and make sure they don’t expire. That is especially important when it comes to live websites, more so when you are advertising that website.
There was a story on PinkNews.co.uk about some religious group in North Carolina protesting a rock festival using a sign that pointed to what they thought was their website. Problem was the domain expired, a Reddit user registered it and pointed it to a gay porn site.
From the article:
Anti-gay protesters have been accidentally promoting a gay porn website for weeks without knowing.
Earlier this month, evangelical protesters appeared outside the Carolina Rebellion rock festival to condemn rock music and homosexuality.
The protesters’ signs point to the anti-gay blog ‘Warnings of Wrath’ – which rallies against homosexual “sodomites”.
However, an anonymous Reddit user noticed that the group’s web domain had actually expired – and bought it for themselves, without tipping off the protesters.
They redirected it to hardcore gay porn site ‘ScaryF**kers’ – which the protesters have been unwittingly advertising ever since.
The user wrote: “They condemned gays and rock music outside Carolina Rebellion. I bought the (unexpectedly expired) domain from their signs and pointed it at gay porn of people who probably like rock music. Fair?”
Read the full article on Pink News
That’s the price to pay for allowing a domain name to expire.