Professional Web Developer, Apprentice Photographer
As a college student in the mid 1990s I got my first regular access to the internet. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the internet was more then just a new piece of software, but a new way to communicate with others and find and form communities and relationships. Back then we didn’t have Facebook or Twitter — or really even web sites at all — the communities I found were in mailing lists like the very active forum for hikers that centered around the Appalachian Trail, at-l.
Out of those interactions came my desire to share online and as the web grew into a place for regular people to share more static and permanent information I registered my first domain name – hikenj.net.
Comcast Internet service has rolled out their “Domain Helper” service which hijacks failed domain lookups. Other services have tried this and gotten hit with some pretty loud internet backlash both for financial [advertising] and net neutrality issues [having control over how to directing users from the error, funneling users to partners].