Well, we've gone full circle on the name weatherforum.net. Here's the cronology for those who may be interested:
July 14-2006 weatherforum.net expires along with the registrar simple-web.net
July-20-2006 Chris creates wxforum.net as a temporary place for the admins to meet and see about restoration of backup that Gary may have of the forum contents.
July-26-2006 the temporary forum address is announced on Weather-Watch, Ambient, WeatherMatrix forums and folks begin joining this forum.
Gary is deep in the prep for the new job (beginning Aug 1s in Texas).
Aug-1-2006 Gary starts new job in Texas (18hr days). WXforum.net has 41 members. Posts on other forums updated with status.
Aug-15-2006 Weatherforum.net leaves 'redemptionstatus' and enters 'pendingdelete' status. Gary is working with Schlund+Partner (upstream registrar to the failed simple-web.net), jumping through hoops trying to reclaim the name.
Aug-21-2006 Schlund not successful, Weatherforum.net picked up by eNom.com who starts a private auction for the name. Private=you had to be an eNom.com client before the auction started, so Ken couldn't join it.
Aug-23-2006 eNom.com auction completed -- weatherforum.net went to another reseller namegiant.com based in UK (final price was $70).
Aug-23-2006 - I send a polite note expressing interest in acquiring weatherforum.net from namegiant.com.
Aug-25-2006 - no response to email note, so I called them. Yes, they'd be pleased to sell the domain for a paltry $5,000.00 US. I noted that their recent acquisition had only cost them $70US and that their asking price was quite steep. They noted that I was unfamiliar with how it works now. I bade them thanks and good luck.
Upshot: Rest In Peace, Weatherforum.net
Please change any links you have on your webpages to wxforum.net -- our new home.
Best regards,
Ken