Personally, I'm all for ridding the internet of name-squatters, though Tumblr really should have deleted all of the old data first. I think Pitchfork Media's response is fair and more than I would have expected.
Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
11–20 of 32 posts
Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#12A refreshingly drama-free resolution to the affair.
Except it's not a resolution. Tumblr's response ( http://meaghano.com/post/393246405/tumbledore-ive-run-pitchf... ) totally contradicts it.
There is only 1 contradiction: the part about notifying the original owner through email. There is really no way to verify this since the screenshot of the email may have been forged.
The part about having 0 posts was explained by Meaghan all the way at the bottom of the page. The RSS feed shows deleted posts.
I found this comment thread amusing though. http://meaghano.com/post/393246405/tumbledore-ive-run-pitchf...
Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#13The original owner of pitchfork.tumblr.com has his own response with a screenshot of an email from Tumblr stating that they didn't ask him before reassigning it: http://tumbledore.tumblr.com/post/393276231/this-is-in-respo...
Sorry! :-)
Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tumblr lets you change subdomains easily. If Pitchfork chooses to relinquish the subdomain, the original owner could take it back immediately, regardless of how Tumblr Support acts.
Pitchfork's response implies that they will give back the subdomain if the guy asks. That should be the end of this. Except I'm almost certain this guy is going to continue complaining in order to keep attention on himself.
and hey, why not? i was amazed at the attitude difference between his blog post (extremely angry, implying that tumblr SOLD it to pitchfork and did not care of his interests) and the letter he sent to tumblr (polite, to the point). whats more, it doesn't look like he waited to hear back from either party before the letting loose the slander and finger-pointing. did he even email pitchfork for an answer???
hopefully tumblr will release some sort of official position on it like pitchfork did. and 3.5 months is not very long, but the its not like the posts were actually anything important accorindg to that screen shot. maybe tumblr should add a new feature that shows a message on login to let the user know that their domain may be reclaimed.
Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#15It sound like they did not try very hard to contact anyone, this is pretty bad even from a free service. If this was a facebook or google doinging this there would be a huge shitstorm from you guys.
Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#16Correct me if I am wrong, but you cannot trademark the name of an everyday object, such as a pitchfork, and then have rights to any use of the word in a domain.
So do they have the rights to pitchfork.wordpress.com, pitchfork.heroku.com and pitchfork.github.com ? Of course not.
This is not about IP, this is about a company doing their friends a favor. I will now stay away from tumblr. If I cease posting for a few months they could take my domain away.
Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#17Personally, I'm all for ridding the internet of name-squatters, though Tumblr really should have deleted all of the old data first. I think Pitchfork Media's response is fair and more than I would have expected.
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Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#18Correct me if I am wrong, but you cannot trademark the name of an everyday object, such as a pitchfork, and then have rights to any use of the word in a domain. So do they have the rights to pitchfork.wordpress.com, pitchfork.heroku.com and pitchfork.github.com ? Of course not. This is not about IP, this is about a company doing their friends a favor. I will now stay away from tumblr. If I cease posting for a few mon…
> Correct me if I am wrong, but you cannot trademark the name of an everyday object, such as a pitchfork, and then have rights to any use of the word in a domain.
You can trademark the name of an everyday object. See 'Apple' computers vs 'Apple' the music label. Now they only have a trademark dispute is someone in their industry has the apple.com or apple.github.com or whatever (e.g. if Microsoft or Dell registered apple.wordpress.com, Apple might have a case to take it away from them do to brand confusion -- which was the original reason for trademarks).
Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#19November 18, 2009 isn't exactly what I'd call inactive. Sure it wasn't super recent, but still, it's less than 3 months ago.
If you've posted five times in a year, and the last one sounds like you've decided your blog is obsolete, then it's not an instance of somebody abandoning a longrunning thing. It looks like somebody gave the service a few tries and gave up.
Still, sending them an email is good customer service.
Re: Response from Pitchfork Regarding Tumblr Subdomain
#20November 18, 2009 isn't exactly what I'd call inactive. Sure it wasn't super recent, but still, it's less than 3 months ago.
If you've posted five times in a year, and the last one sounds like you've decided your blog is obsolete, then it's not an instance of somebody abandoning a longrunning thing. It looks like somebody gave the service a few tries and gave up.
People often "give up" on a site a few times before they become a regular user. I do this all the time; For example, I signed up for HN "675 days ago" but I think I might have made 1 or 2 comments in the first 200 days.