Recently I have experienced frustrating (and somewhat embarrassing) issues with my blog. It all started when I canceled the domain I paid for through WordPress way back when I was new to the blogging world. The problem arose when someone else picked up the domain through GoDaddy. Now that is a common occurrence but is causing me grief because the site is now an adult-only (or soft porn) site. Not quite the image I am trying to portray…
The Blog in Question
The blog in question is called L****b.com. I will not provide a link or even tag it as I do not want to associate myself with that blog. If you are curious about just what kind of site it currently is, you can google it yourself. My biggest concern now is that this blog still links to my Facebook page. Why, you ask? That’s what I am trying to find out. I am not sure if the association is intentional (fraudulent don’t you think?) or accidental.
Steps to Investigate my Domain Nightmare
I have contacted FB with a request for them to investigate my predicament. I have not yet heard back from them. I appear to be caught up in a loop of reporting problems, lists of solutions (that don’t work, or apply) with nary a real person to contact or chat with.
When I asked WordPress for help, they discovered the domain was purchased through GoDaddy. That was a step forward, but now they (WP) cannot do anything further to help the situation. They did suggest I contact the new domain holder, but I have had no success finding out who exactly that is.
I have also contacted GoDaddy and was told they cannot make changes because the new domain owner has tight security options. I bet they do! I suggested they (GoDaddy) contact the new blog owner to ask them to delete the link to my FB page. They (GoDaddy) refused to do so. Once again, contacting someone who cares appears to be a recurring theme.
Recourse for This Domain Nightmare
In the meantime, I have been painstakingly going through my (almost) one thousand blog posts, removing the offending name from my tags and categories. WordPress helped me in this case by suggesting a way to filter out the affected posts. I even changed the name of my WordPress blog (did you notice?) so it does not sound or look anything like the offensive site. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused any of my followers. I have also (I hope) removed any links I created to that website on any of my blog pages, pictures, business website, correspondence etc. I also changed my Facebook name to Loree Bee.
How You Can Help
Please notify me if you happen upon the blog through any of my links. As a non-IT person, I’m sure I have missed a few! And, if you are aware of anything else I can do to prevent this site from linking to me, I would appreciate the help. I am not sure either if those of you that followed me under that name would still be on the list of subscribers; you may want to check your list of blogs you subscribe to.
Last, but not least, if you get an invitation to like or subscribe to my (sort of) new blog (loreeebee.ca), it’s not a scam, please accept it and help me move on.
Update on Domain Nightmare
Shortly after contacting Facebook, they fixed the issue so the fraudulent blog is no longer connected to my Facebook page. Phew! I think I filtered out all the connecting posts too, any searches I do now no longer bring the other name up.
That’s frustrating and why I keep paying the huge amount of $100 to WP to retain my domain when I dropped Godaddy as well.
thanks for your input!
Hopefully you get a resolution!
not holding my breath!
That just sucks. It’s difficult to deal with all that. Even when I worked at big tech companies it often took a legal team to that resolved.
I think you’ve done what you can and likely you’ll discover ones you missed as time goes on.
thanks for your input
Wow, what a nightmare. Sorry that you have to deal with this. Hopefully you will be able to get this out of world and concentrate on the nice sides of having a blog.