Thanks for the feedback. I will take that and plonk it on the desks of all those I think can help. A lot of my colleagues are looking for feedback and this is really useful.

Thanks for your offer to “I’ll be happy to talk to anyone there and walk through the points of failure.” That is awesome. We will take you up on that one.

Thanks,

Shashi

That was you? My gosh, thank you so much! Chad, the Network Solutions gentleman I worked with on the phone, told me that the domain had been renewed and that it appeared that “my partner Bruce” was responsible.

NetSol has my NIC handle connected to an obsolete e-mail address. In one place in the records, I am listed as *technical contact* of one of my own domains, under the correct current e-mail address. In seventeen other places, I’m listed as primary contact (and technical contact) using an e-mail address that hasn’t been operative for years.

When I changed to my “new” e-mail address (years ago), NetSol apparently changed one instance of the record but didn’t connect the other records to it.

In other words, NetSol’s records act as if there is a gentleman named Jeffrey Zeldman who has an e-mail address at zeldman.com and a NIC handle of XYZ and is technical contact at zeldman.com.

And there are seventeen guys named Jeffrey Zeldman who have the exact same NIC handle but use a different (obsolete) e-mail address.

NetSol doesn’t “know” that there’s one Jeffrey Zeldman. It thinks there are a bunch of us sharing the same NIC handle, and that most of us choose to use an obsolete e-mail address that bounces.

The places in the NetSol interface that are supposed to permit users to update their information do not allow me to update the information on the “other users named Jeffrey Zeldman.”

As the domain neared expiration, I’ll assume that NetSol contacted the Jeffrey Zeldman at the obsolete e-mail address.

When that e-mail bounced, NetSol apparently did not try to contact the “other” Jeffrey Zeldman.

Thus the domain was allowed to lapse.

You probably can’t fix the interface problems in the user account admin that preserve outdated e-mail addresses and give them preference over updated, working e-mail addresses; or the other problems in the interface that prevent users from updating their information to maintain its accuracy. But maybe you can tell someone you work with about these problems? I’ll be happy to talk to anyone there and walk through the points of failure.

Meantime, thank you so very much for noticing the problem and re-registering the domain on my behalf. Write to me offline (or use my contact form). Thanks! :)

I visit alistapart.com frequently. I work for Network Solutions and I am @shashib on Twitter. I just wanted to clarify that the domain was renewed by me yesterday morning when i noticed that Alistapart.com had expired and heard about it on Twitter. later the support guys told me that you had called and renewed it for a few years more.

I @ you on Twitter and later sent you a message from the contact page here. Having a domain name renew automatically may be a good way to prevent this ( my 2 cents)

I am sure glad everything is fine.

Regards,

Shashi