It seems, in the 21st Century, there are important things a person should be able to count on: single-origin shade-grown, fair-trade coffee, for one. Your iPhone not becoming obsolete before you finish paying it off – there’s another. And then, your website and domain name remain yours.
It is of the latter, I write. I thought my website safe with Yahoo Small Business, but alas, they sold out to a Chinese company. It wasn’t the website itself that worried me, I redesigned it and found a home on Wix. But the domain name remained and every year I must have paid it for everything worked, until this month.
But, as with so many things that we pay with autopay, my credit card expired, only the merchant did not think to let me know the payment would stop. Before I knew, alonshalev.com was in someone else’s possession. I do not know who for they are not using it.
And so, I have adopted a hyphen, a dash, a simple line that separated first name from family. It’s the easiest way. I can use a Sharpie on the magnets that adorn my cars. So, alon-shalev.com it is. But somehow it feels someone has a part of my identity, like they stole a family photo album.
It seems there are some things in the 21st Century that a person should count on.
Good Writing,
Alon Shalev, now at http://www.alon-shalev.com
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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls Of Galbrieth (ebook currently at 99c) and five other Wycaan Master books all released by Tourmaline Books. Sign up for more information about Alon Shalev at his author website.
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