[wsfii-discuss] Restoring the wsfii-homepage . . .

Sun Aug 8 01:11:29 UTC 2010

Dear friends related to wsfii.org !

Some time in the spring of this year wsfii.org was not timely renewed, 
and we lost the domain, and then access to the content of the homepage. 
This e-mail explains the circumstances and the situation.

IMPORTANT: For now all the wsfii-content is made available again on 
http://wsfii.info - or if you better like NET, also http://wsfii.net works.
So please go there for wsfii-content. And you who cared for the content 
on the homepage, please get involved again, and please care for it based 
on the changed names !

EXPLANATION:

By the 19.th of May Jürgen Neumann wrote to me and made me aware that we 
had lost wsfii.org and that it now was used as a commercial site. He 
asked me if we could do anything to make the homepage and it content and 
links work again.

I asked internally in our organisation here on Djursland what had 
happened, and I was told that the domain never were transfered to 
DIIRWB, so we were not informed that it needed to be renewed.

I searched the web and found that the name of the new owner is Stephen 
Wilson, and that he had put it on domain-auction at Sedo.com.
I signed as user at Sedo.com and bit him 60 $ to buy it back, and in a 
comment explained to him what the name stood for, and that wsfii.org was 
used for a homepage of an international non-commercial loose network of 
volunteers who wants to promote cheap community wireless networks in 
underserved areas of the world. The bits last for a week, so next week I 
gave a bit of 65 $. He turned down the bit and asked for 1900 $.
Next week I bit 75 $ asking him to sell it back without profit to our 
non-profit initiative. At the same time I bought wsfii.net and 
wsfii.info, and let him know I got each of them for about 17 $, and that 
we would use them instead if necessary, as we didn't have the kind of 
money he asked for.
He then asked for 1800 $ while I every week have renewed my bit of 75 $ 
until now. This week he has returned my bit asking for 1795 $. - So as 
he seems to think we can meet halfway - and I cannot find about 900 $ at 
the moment -, I found it appropriate to realize the idea to make the 
wsfii-content accessible again at the two new domains wsfii.net and 
wsfii.info, for the time being. So our server-group have now pointed the 
two new domains to the homepage-content, and it seems to work.
If I get the opportunity to pay the new owner of wsfii.org - on the 
level of 8 or 900 $ - I will do it, but for now I hope we can restore 
the use of the wsfii-homepage based on the new top-domain-names, and I 
hope those who cared for the content will come back and continue to do 
so. Please write back if there seems to be any problems on the homepage.

With warm greeting to all from Bjarke Nielsen
Founder of the Djursland Computer-support-community,
of the wireless landscape-networks on Djursland and
of the Djursland International Institute of Rural Wireless Broadband 
(diirwb.net).
(but now relatively retired and leaving leadership of organisations to 
new leaders ;-))

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