Thursday, March 28, 2024

FROM THE RIDGE: Website wrinkle trips up technophobic boomer

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I am, of course, a baby boomer, somewhat out of fashion now. The boomers and millennials are looking over the heads of the intervening generation, Generation X, and having a good go at each other. 
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They reckon we have destroyed the planet and have all the money and houses, which is true, and we reckon they are a feckless bunch of naive idealists, which is also true.

Boomers have struggled with the sheer pace of technology change whereas the millennials are digital natives and that’s when we cosy up to them for help and advice.

I was an early adapter to the internet in 1995 and took straight to email though I had no one to email in those days other than Chris. I’m big on emailing but never bothered with any other form of social media and, given the dramas and time spent by others on the likes of Twitter and Facebook, well pleased with sitting those life distractions out.

But I did need a website for my ram-selling business.

There was an oldish boomer called Trevor in Waipukurau who set up websites who said he’d do mine.

So, we set up Marlow Coopworths, but the instructions on how to be involved myself were too tricky so I left it to Trevor and would email him a newsletter and some pictures once a year and he would load them.

I knew the site was stale and kept meaning to do something about it but never did.

Then one day about two years ago I got an email from another fellow to say Trevor had died and he had bought the business.

I was very sad to hear the news about Trevor.

This new bloke, who we will call S, then started invoicing me $45 a month and when I asked what it was for it was for hosting, so I obligingly paid it.

But the site remained very average, which was my own fault.

I then decided I needed to greatly lift my marketing because all the other stud breeders are terrific marketers and it’s a competitive game with a reducing ewe flock.

I happened to bump into a fellow who did websites and we got talking and I thought this was my chance to lift my game.

I emailed S, who I’d never met, and asked for something called a UDAI number that allowed us to access the website and change it over.

He got back to me agreed it needed improving and said he would release the number for $500.

I responded by asking wasn’t the website mine anyway.

He told me he was the registrant, which meant he owned the site and it was $500 or else I could go get another name.

I told him I felt like I was being extorted.

I investigated avenues of redress and found the Domain Name Commission and saw that similar disputes had been found in favour in cases like mine but it took months and a few thousand dollars.

I spoke to the registrar of my website, which is the company that originally set up the name, and they didn’t usually get involved in disputes and directed me back to the DNC.

I tried a little blackmail and told S that as he had the names of some of his clients on his website I might contact them to warn them about his methods.

He called my bluff and supplied me with a woman’s contact details and when I investigated they were all her websites and she was her own registrant so didn’t have my problem.

In the end I crumbled and haggled and paid the man $300 to get control of my own website that I’d already paid to be set up.

We were both pleased to see the back of each other by this stage.

My new guy has been great and he patiently taught me how to engage with my own website and I’m doing okay. It’s on its way but you can be the judge of that.

He even didn’t mind me asking to be my own registrant, which is something readers might be interested in considering for their own sites, which is why I pass on this salutary lesson.

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