How did we get here?

As always, John Gruber was right.

While promoting his brand at daringfireball.net, it was prudent that he also control daringfireball.com.

During an episode of The Talk Show some years back, he reiterated this with Jason Snell of sixcolors and sixcolours fame. The two had acted for sake of brand protection, but they also acknowledged real-world security implications.

As I listened to that episode, I had an intrusive thought:

I hope John also picked up daringfirewall.net…

He had not. But someone had fairly recently parked daringfirewall.com in Iceland…

So I locked down .net myself, and reached out to Gruber by direct email. I've been hoping to transfer it to him gratis; no strings. A tiny gesture in (I believe) the public interest.

Did he ever get that email? I don't know. I can't expect that I would have myself, given the circumstances. I've tried again a handful of times, but I've seen no response.

I considered sending it to the ATP guys. Surely one of them could think of an entertaining use for this, while keeping it generally in the family… Then another intrusive thought:

Oh, my gracious… Moltz.

So that's where I am now: packaging up a placeholder site for an intended audience of… Moltz.

Free to a good home. To a safe home. Or at the very least: to a man on the inside.

Cheers! /jct/