Someone on SO just commented that my "fantageek dot com domain" has been claimed by some p*rn site.<p>I forgot to renew this domain and now it is in the wrong hand, and my apps are still using the umbrella name Fantageek Labs
No specific advice, though I see this as a general issue for DNS and domain registry generally.<p>For those who suggest hosting your own services on your own domain: the frequency and ease with which these assets can be lost and transferred suggests that any security afforded is at best illusory.<p>My view is increasingly that <i>personal</i> domains 1) should be available and 2) must be treated as intrinsically different from commercial properties. A personal Internet domain is effectively an identity, and we don't sell either names or personhood.<p>(This also means that commercial operations built around personal identity are not transactable. This too might well be a good thing. The <i>assets</i> can be sold, the <i>identity</i>, and its associated reputation, cannot.)<p>This would of course require legislated change.<p>Make it happen.
A fellow I knew casually and whose blog I followed for many years (he was fond of trains, roleplaying games, and progressive rock) lost his domain name after he died. It ended up being spamsquatted, but weirdly, the metadata for the site remained intact (I guess as a lure?)
Your problem is that you thought you owned the domain name. You don't. You never did. You were merely leasing it. You failed to renew the lease, and somebody else snapped it up. It sucks for you, but you should have read the fine print the last time you renewed your domain registration.<p>tl;dr: you snooze, you lose