Art of the Odd

Logged in to check my email on this account this morning, and the webmail interface looked funny. No matter. I remember Dreamhost said awhile back they were testing a new webmail system. So I put in my username and password, and… Why can’t I log in? I go check the status blog. And the discussion forum. No one’s saying anything about webmail problems. Odd. So I try the webmail for another domain. Yep, it’s fine… Weird. I wonder if I can log in to WordPress? “This domain is parked free, courtesy of GoDaddy.com”? Huh?

Turns out, www.artoftheodd.com expires today. And I didn’t get the renewal notice why? Oh, because I’m a dork, and when I transferred my hosting to Dreamhost, I didn’t set up an account for the email address I had attached to my Whois record. Fine, I’ll transfer the registration to Dreamhost, since I have to renew anyway. What do you mean it’s going to take a week? Do I have to look at that “parked” page for a week?

(For the record – no, I didn’t. The transfer was complete in less than an hour.)

Moral of the story – know when your domain names expire, and make sure your registrar can actually get a hold of you to let you know that’s happening.