I’m back! When I moved my blog to WordPress a few years ago I purchased the domain “stevepicray.com” so I could tell people how to easily get to my site. Well, in 2012 I was late in paying the renewal fee, so they said I would have to pay $100 instead of $26 (because if you don’t have $26, you probably DO have $100, right?). Obviously I didn’t have the money for that, and they said, “If you wait until the domain becomes publicly available again, you can just re-register it for the original fee of $26.”

I waited until that happened. Unfortunately, that is when I found out about the existence of “cybersquatters.” Cybersquatters are people or companies who purchase expired domains (or domains likely to be purchased), and then charge exorbitant fees to sell the domain to whoever wants it. Stevepicray.com went back on the market in August of 2012, and at that point a company purchased it before I could get to it. They started using it as a portal to spammy search engines, pornography, and a host of other things that have nothing to do with me. I sent them an email asking how much they would sell it back to me for, and the response was something over $1000.

Um. No.

I talked to some internet savvy people, and they said, “well, if it’s not a domain that makes any money or generates much traffic, they won’t keep paying the renewal fee, and you can then just repurchase it.” Evidently that’s what happened, because this week I checked, and the domain was available to purchase again.

If you are reading this and you’ve bookmarked my site, then skpicky.wordpress.com will still get you here, but you could also type in stevepicray.com and get to the same place. Your choice.

It feels good to be home.