Roswell Web Magazine
Do you wonder why issue #17 stayed up for two years without being replaced until now with a new issue?
I, Jan Girand, initially began this Roswell Web Magazine in early 2002. Knowing nothing about websites, I found an able webmaster, Tony, who helped design and build the site to my specs, and patiently taught me how to operate it, to become my own webmaster.
Originally the domain was hosted by a fairly local corporation. An employee of that company, who had nothing to do with this website and unknown to me, registered it in his name (naming himself as registrant), making him the legal controlling owner.
I later tried unsuccessfully for months to move the website to a different host/server. After I notified that aforementioned corporation’s officers of my dilemma, they assured that their employee release it so I could move it.
The web-consultant who helped me move it to the new domain server, unknown to me once again, registered it in his name!
(Fooled once, shame on him; fooled twice, shame on me.)
That new web-consultant did almost nothing except help me move it to his host/server. Some time later, he apparently also changed my password since I was unable to access my webmag to make corrections or add new issues. Then began another long struggle to regain ownership and control of my webmag.
In early December I hired a local person to move contents of my original webmag onto a new domain, make some changes, make it again accessible to me and help with minor problems. She took far too long (three months) and did not complete what I paid her to do. However, that time I made sure she registered me (and not herself) as the named registrant and named administrator.
I lost confidence in that nonworking relationship and also her host/server’s erratic service. I searched for and locally found a new–more affordable, more experienced and more professional–web-consultant who redesigned the webmag into a more user-friendly (for viewer) format. I asked her to move it to a new host/server.
My next ongoing problem was with my domain’s registrar. To make any information changes with the registrar, including just changing the named technical support person (changing my named web consultant), was a long, frustrating process. The registrar required a tremendous amount of personal identification by fax and email, causing me concern about identity theft. The registrar insisted on knowing who I am and all kinds of proof of identity, but I did not know them, those who received my identifications.
This entire frustrating process–that has gone on almost since I began the webmag–has fueled my determination to be fully in control of it. But I still have much to learn. Ignorance is NOT bliss.
All of this has been a costly experience–in money, in time and especially in high levels of stress.