Posted on May 9th, 2008
I got the following email this morning from CIRA…
The dot-ca WHOIS service is a public search tool that allows users to look up information about the holders of dot-ca domain names. A WHOIS search returns such information as name, address, phone and fax numbers and email address. After consulting with the public, CIRA adopted a new WHOIS policy that no longer displays this information, to provide greater privacy for our Registrants.
As an individual Registrant, your private information will be protected by default – no action is required to receive this additional privacy feature.
As a result of the changes to the dot-ca WHOIS, there have also been changes to the Registrant Agreement. To review the new Registrant Agreement, please visit http://www.cira.ca/en/cat_Registrar.html. A list of changes to the Registrant Agreement can be found here.
Please visit http://www.cira.ca/en/Whois/whois_intro.html for more information about the new dot-ca WHOIS.
I personally think this is a good move by CIRA as I know that the one concern for most customers is that they are going to be spammed through email, phone, fax or mail.
What do you think of this change?
Posted on May 5th, 2008
Every business has a story to tell.
Our story begins with you and how you have been successful.
Every day we see new customers join our family and community here at BlueFur.com. We would like to hear your story of how you have been successful online and how we have helped you achieve that. I am sure that when you clicked through the sign-up you had a vision of how your online journey would be. Not every story beings with “Once upon a time” and end with “…and lived happily ever after”. I am sure there were twists and turns on your journey and how you over came those obstacles is knowledge I am sure would benefit everyone.
If you would like to share your success story we would like to hear from you and spot light it on our blog. Contact me directly with your success story today.
Posted on April 17th, 2008
I got the following email this morning from CIRA…
On Monday April 13, 2008 dot-ca crossed a significant milestone - the registration of the one-millionth dot-ca domain name! This achievement marks a significant milestone in the history of dot-ca domain names and demonstrates the pride that we all take in maintaining a unique, Canadian presence online.
Dot-ca is a made-in-Canada success story that started with the registration of the first dot-ca domain name in 1988 and follows the rapid growth of the Internet. Your registration and your domain name have contributed to this success and form part of the million-strong dot-ca community on the Internet.
The staff and Board of Directors of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) would like to thank you again for choosing dot-ca for your domain name and look forward to your continued support.
I am actually a little surprised it took 20 years to reach that many domains. Does it mean we will be getting a discount for the next million? Probably not. Anyways congratulations CIRA and hope it only takes half the time to get the next million.
Does CIRA reaching a million domains mean anything to you?
Posted on April 14th, 2008
I am still getting emails from people asking if we are really renaming to YellowFur.com. Sorry for those that fell for our April Fools joke, no need to worry but we will be keeping our great domain and brand BlueFur.com.
Now that we own YellowFur.com I was thinking that we could create a sister site with a new service. I have been doing some research on providing VPN services. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. The way a VPN works is it allows you to connect to a remote network so that you can then surf the Internet from that server.
Why would anyone want to use that service? I have found a few sites, especially movie, TV and music sites that prohibit Canadians from viewing content based on having a Canadian IP. If I were to connect to a US based VPN I could then surf to these sites without any issue and view the content. There is a downside to VPN in that there is usually a reason why those sites are blocking access (legal issues). There is also the concern that someone would be using the VPN to spam, phish or do some illegal behavior. We have the ability to phone verify customers automated so those doing illegal behavior can be curbed.
With those factors in mind what do you think of us offering a VPN service?
Pricing would be in the $10 per month range which would include a secure VPN with a dedicated IP on a server in the US. We would have a 50% off coupon for BlueFur.com customers bringing the price in around $5 per month. I am curious to see what you think of this type of service before we continue with any internal testing.
What other services could we brand with YellowFur.com if not this?
Posted on March 31st, 2008
We acquired another Fur domain that could work. As the leader in community evolved hosting your opinion on which one we should choose is in your hands. The 2 options are…
Which company name should we go with?
This poll will be closed tomorrow at midnight.
Posted on March 31st, 2008
We at Manticore Media Group Inc. would like to announce the change of the name of our hosting business from BlueFur.com to YellowFur.com due to allegations of trademark infringement again. We felt that, rather than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees defending our use of the name and possibly affecting our ability to continue to deliver affordable hosting and the excellence in customer service our customers are accustomed to, it was the best option to settle this matter out of court. Manticore Media Group Inc. and YellowFur.com will continue to strive to meet and exceed our customers’ needs and expectations. We look forward to marketing under the YellowFur brand and growing with the industry in years to come. As I am sure there will be many questions we have posted some of the obvious ones here:
Will there be any disruption in my service due to this change?
There should be no disruption to your service due to the change. Once we are 100% sure that the YellowFur.com domain is running at full capacity we will start to point the BlueFur.com domain to the YellowFur.com domain. This should happen in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Why did you pick YellowFur.com?
Finding a domain which allowed us to continue using our lovable mascot was a tricky venture. We feel that YellowFur.com is a great brandable name that is unique and easy to remember.
Who brought these allegations of trademark infringement against you?
Part of our agreement states that we can not disclose the details of the agreement. Let’s just say that they are a very large US based company with deep pockets.
Does this mean you are going out of business?
By no means does this mean we are going out of business. We look forward to the challenge of getting our new name out and making YellowFur.com a household name.
Is there any way we can help?
If you provide links on your site to BlueFur.com we advise you to update and redirect them to YellowFur.com.
