Yahoo! Domain Names

[toef]

I just feel like venting here, so here it goes:

Years ago I used to make joke websites for lots of my friends, and over time ended up purchasing probably 5-6 domain names as jokes, through Yahoo! Domains (since they were only $5 or so at the time).

What's great is Yahoo! sets up an auto-renewal on your account, and for the time being I was fine with it, because I liked to keep the joke websites running, and for $25-30 a year, it wasn't bad.

A year or two later, they bumped their rates up to $10-15 per year, and I cancelled some of the less funny jokes, but still kept a couple of my main sites active.

Now skip ahead a year, and I see that they are raising their 1-year auto-renewal fee to $35, which is an insane increase, and a ridiculous fee for 1-year of a domain name.

So I went ahead and cancelled all my Yahoo! accounts a few months ago, even though I had anywhere from 2-4 months left on each of them.

Skip ahead to today, and when looking through one of my bank accounts that I don't use anymore (but never actually closed), I see that Yahoo! billed me the nice $35 for an auto-renewal on one of my sites.

Because I don't use that bank account anymore, it had no money in it, and I was hit with a $40 overdraft fee.

I would just bite the $75 of wasted money if I felt I was actually to blame, but:

a) I'm positive I cancelled all my Yahoo! domains months ago (and switched them to Go Daddy, or a cheaper host), and

b) Yahoo! never emailed me to alert me of any upcoming auto-renewals for any domain accounts. Had they emailed me a day before charging me, I could've noticed that for some reason one of the accounts wasn't cancelled, and could've cancelled it again.

I'm on the phone with them now, and because I happened to catch this fee only 2 days after it was posted to the account, maybe they'll give me a break, and refund the charge, and then my old bank said they'd cancel the overdraft charge.

Moral of the story: Don't support Yahoo! Even if they give me a refund, their absurd $35 fees for renewing websites is probably screwing over a lot of people who forgot they bought domains on Yahoo!, and also forgot that Yahoo! automatically renews the account every year... and apparently doesn't care to even remind you the renewal is coming up.

[brettallica]

That's retarded on a number of levels. Hopefully you'll be able to recoup that money and put it towards an anti-yahoo! petition, or maybe you could host the yahoosucks.com domain for a few years.

I feel sorry for those who are less savvy about their internet hosting options and have just kept yahoo!'s site hosting because they don't know any better. I strongly non-recommend any of the ones like yahoo! or some of the others like it. No one should ever pay more than ~$15 per year for a domain name. I pay $9 at GoDaddy, and recommend all my clients to do the same.

[Johnny Vinyl]

When Yahoo bought MusicMatch (the best ever music player) and butchered it, I stopped supporting Yahoo.......

John

[Sussudio]

i used to make a lot of websites through geocities' free service. but apparently geocities is now shutting down, and all my sites are going goodbye earth

oh well, guess it's type to copy the source code and try something else

[toef]

Originally Posted by Sussudio

i used to make a lot of websites through geocities' free service. but apparently geocities is now shutting down, and all my sites are going goodbye earth

oh well, guess it's type to copy the source code and try something else

Haha. Yeah, I used GeoCities for a while, after Angelfire started getting ridiculous with pop-up ads.

I used my school's free webspace for hosting the site (because each student was alloted ~500mb of space, and unlimited bandwidth), but since graduating, I switched it over to a few different free sites.

I only used Yahoo! for the actual domain, and now I will use them for nothing. I was put on hold for about 30 minutes, and then decided to run off to the bathroom, so I hung up the phone, not realizing that it was now after 9pm, and Yahoo!'s phones are down for the day (I guess if you call in before 9, they'll still get around to you, but they take no new calls after 9).

[brettallica]

Do either of you guys (toefer and Sussudio) write your own HTML and/or CSS code?

[toef]

Originally Posted by brettallica

Do either of you guys (toefer and Sussudio) write your own HTML and/or CSS code?

I used to know a lot of HTML, but have gotten rusty at it from not using it much in the last few years. CSS I can't build from scratch, but I used to take existing sheets and change them around a little.

What I used to do for the joke sites I made was steal existing templates from other sites, and use that as a starting point to "make" my own layouts. I used FilmAffinity.com's layout a few times, but after I messed around with it a bit, my version barely showed any resemblance.

A few years ago I found out about Dreamweaver, and other similar programs that make me care even less about the code. The only problem is that after a while, Dreamweaver HTML files can look like a mess.

One of my domains that I dropped last year became what appeared to be a gay dating site for men... which is kind of sad (the name had "boys" in the title, but the site was about baseball). I think that site's since shut down, and the domain goes nowhere now.

Edit: Here's a picture of what the site looked like. It was a thing for me and two of my friends, so I assigned us each a color, so our posts to the site would be color-coded. The top two are blue, because they were posts I made, but if you scrolled down or browsed through the archives, there were orange and red ones, based on the other guys writing stuff.

Note the picture of Julia Roberts near the top. I had a code set up to randomly pick 2 pictures from a folder, and figured I'd make a bunch of banner pictures to randomly display, but ended up only making the two shown there.



It was pretty basic HTML, but I wanted to make something that my two friends could easily log in and update, since they were pretty HTML-illiterate, let alone anything more advanced.

Also, the name of the site (shown under the K logo in the top left) randomly cycled through about 25 different text-image versions of the title (written in all different kinds of fonts). I thought it was a cool little touch to change things up every time someone loaded a new page.

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by toefer

I used to know a lot of HTML, but have gotten rusty at it from not using it much in the last few years. CSS I can't build from scratch, but I used to take existing sheets and change them around a little.

What I used to do for the joke sites I made was steal existing templates from other sites, and use that as a starting point to "make" my own layouts. I used FilmAffinity.com's layout a few times, but after I messed around with it a bit, my version barely showed any resemblance.

A few years ago I found out about Dreamweaver, and other similar programs that make me care even less about the code. The only problem is that after a while, Dreamweaver HTML files can look like a mess.

One of my domains that I dropped last year became what appeared to be a gay dating site for men... which is kind of sad (the name had "boys" in the title, but the site was about baseball). I think that site's since shut down, and the domain goes nowhere now.

That's cool. I was just curious where you (and Sussudio) stood in that regard, since you both mentioned that you dabble in web design and hosting.

I started with learning HTML as a side-hobby via MySpace because I was interested in it, but that was "back in the day" before they really tightened up on what you're allowed to do code-wise if you're a member. I actually started a MySpace account with the sole intention of learning HTML and applying what I learned to my member profile page, but then canceled my account because the whole thing MySpace thing became — well — pretty lame in my opinion (pervs, annoying acquaintances, wasting time, etc...similar to this site but without the pervs [I hope] jk)

I've since shored up my code vernacular quite a bit and am very fluent in both HTML and CSS. I now build sites from scratch and have landed accounts and clients in the short time I've been an official with my services. I don't use Dreamweaver for the exact reason you mentioned — the code gets bloated and sloppy. I also don't recommend any of those site-builder websites (like geocities; I think they offer that) because of the same reason. What I really don't like about those is they oftentimes use inline CSS, which is a nightmare to edit.

I guess I've led this thread totally astray. Yahoo sucks! I've always disliked yahoo! and what it has to offer. My first free e-mail account was hotmail, and I've stuck by it since then. Everything else comes up short. Then I hear things about your experience (which I've heard before by the way), and it just affirms my hatred for the company.

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by toefer

It was pretty basic HTML, but I wanted to make something that my two friends could easily log in and update, since they were pretty HTML-illiterate, let alone anything more advanced.

Also, the name of the site (shown under the K logo in the top left) randomly cycled through about 25 different text-image versions of the title (written in all different kinds of fonts). I thought it was a cool little touch to change things up every time someone loaded a new page.

That looks like a pretty cool setup! I like those colors (and some of the other stuff, too). Were you using blog-type software for you and your buddies to post, or were you just over-writing the code each time you wrote a new one?

[toef]

Originally Posted by brettallica

That looks like a pretty cool setup! I like those colors (and some of the other stuff, too). Were you using blog-type software for you and your buddies to post, or were you just over-writing the code each time you wrote a new one?

Over-writing the code, but it was pretty simple, because I left some hidden text with instructions on how to copy and paste their posts.

I only learned about WordPress recently, and have played around with that a bit, but it gets a bit confusing with all those files. I forgot the other big blogging thing (Blogger, maybe?) but WP seems to be a lot better for customizing. After a few days of playing around with it, I was able to make a nice custom template (from an already nice looking template as a base), but I hate blogs, so I never bothered using it.

One nice thing about it, though, is if you run a sort of news-blog site, and want a way for multiple people to easily add articles/posts, or whatever, WordPress makes doing that incredibly easy.

But yeah, this thread had no real purpose anyway. I just wanted to point out that I hate Yahoo!, and their domain service sucks. Though, to their credit, the first person I talked to (before she transferred me over to another department) was very nice.

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by toefer

Over-writing the code, but it was pretty simple, because I left some hidden text with instructions on how to copy and paste their posts.

I only learned about WordPress recently, and have played around with that a bit, but it gets a bit confusing with all those files. I forgot the other big blogging thing (Blogger, maybe?) but WP seems to be a lot better for customizing. After a few days of playing around with it, I was able to make a nice custom template (from an already nice looking template as a base), but I hate blogs, so I never bothered using it.

One nice thing about it, though, is if you run a sort of news-blog site, and want a way for multiple people to easily add articles/posts, or whatever, WordPress makes doing that incredibly easy.

But yeah, this thread had no real purpose anyway. I just wanted to point out that I hate Yahoo!, and their domain service sucks. Though, to their credit, the first person I talked to (before she transferred me over to another department) was very nice.

I hosted a WordPress blog for a while on my site, and yeah it was pretty easy. It's cool how you can configure and customize it relatively simply. I'm like you about blogs, though: I'm not really into them all that much. I've been thinking about putting up a rants page on my site, since I have a lot of topics about which I feel pretty strongly and the world would enjoy reading.

Here's a little something I'm working on now, as far as a CSS template is concerned... binder paper!

Style #1
Style #2

They're still a little buggy with older browsers, but they do work with all the modern ones.

[toef]

Originally Posted by brettallica

Here's a little something I'm working on now, as far as a CSS template is concerned... binder paper!

Style #1
Style #2

They're still a little buggy with older browsers, but they do work with all the modern ones.

That's pretty cool. I think it'd look good if you could find a handwritten-style font. I don't really know how fonts work anymore on websites, but I remember in the old days of HTML it seemed like you were limited to just a handful of common fonts.

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by toefer

That's pretty cool. I think it'd look good if you could find a handwritten-style font. I don't really know how fonts work anymore on websites, but I remember in the old days of HTML it seemed like you were limited to just a handful of common fonts.

I also think a handwriting style font would be good, but there are only a few that are widely universal (Bradley Hand and Comic Sans are the main ones), and I'm not super-big on those. I chose Tahoma and Trebuchet MS since those are nice soft fonts and are easy to read.

You can stylize your style sheet to use whatever font you want, but in the end it's all dependent on what the end user has on their computer. If you pick some super-sweet font that you have, the real world might not have it. This is the worst because then their web browser will just "guess" which font on the local system matches closest to what was intended to be displayed. This is why you generally just go with very common fonts — even today.

Here's a list of common fonts.

[toef]

Originally Posted by brettallica

Here's a list of common fonts.

Good ol' Comic Sans. For whatever reason that became my favorite font in middle school, and I used it on the first webpage that I made, as well as my default font on AIM, email, and whatever else. I used it for pretty much everything, except papers I'd type up for school.

[Sussudio]

Originally Posted by brettallica

Do either of you guys (toefer and Sussudio) write your own HTML and/or CSS code?

brett...i'm sorry, i'm like 3 days later answering this...i used to dabble in html code in college, now i just remember basic stuff. i'm more of a WYSIWYG guy

[toef]

Update

I finally got around to calling back Yahoo!, and after a speedy 60+ minutes on hold, finally got to talk to someone, and he wasn't thrilled that I was ready to take my frustration out on someone.

I explained to him that my anger wasn't directed at him personally, but as the only Yahoo! representative I can talk to, he'd be the one hearing it.

I brought up the issue of how Yahoo! never alerted me to any upcoming domain renewal, and instead just billed me for a hefty $35 (a $23 increase over last year's rate) and how GoDaddy has emailed me multiple times to remind me of an upcoming renewal, and also includes the renewal price in the emails ($9.95).

His response to that was that GoDaddy is trying to steal business away from Yahoo! because they're hurting. Really? How exactly is GoDaddy trying to steal my business away if I'm already a GoDaddy customer, and they're simply reminding me about my renewals?

I told him it seems more like Yahoo! is the one trying to steal customers by offering $8.95 domains ($1 cheaper than GoDaddy) and then tricking people into the $35 renewal fees.

He responded with "GoDaddy does not offer the same benefits that you get with a Yahoo! Domain purchase.", so I asked him what he meant by that, and he continued reading off some sort of cheat-sheet, and told me about Yahoo! 24/7 customer support.

So I called him out on that, asking why the phone lines are only open from 9am-6pm pacific time (as in, not 24-hours), and if the customer support is so great, why was the time on hold estimated at "over 1 hour" (which was an accurate estimate, since it was about 65 minutes, but the point is... that's a long wait for paying a $25 premium over GoDaddy for Y!'s customer support).

His response to that was "I'm not going to argue, bye."

Score one for Yahoo!'s excellent customer support.

-------

Anyhow, I'll avoid reviving this thread again, but take this as one last reminder to make sure you don't have any Yahoo domains, and if you do, make sure you switch them before getting hit with the huge renewal fee (unless you actually want to pay over 3x more than any other domain hosting site).