June 27, 2002
2:31 PM   Subscribe

What on earth has happened to Textism? Is Verisign paying Dean back for his latest Googlebomb? Another hoopla? I don't believe it.
posted by mook (32 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason:



 
Holy fucking shit. Nobody saw that one coming. Or maybe he just sold out. Yeah right.
posted by insomnyuk at 2:34 PM on June 27, 2002


It's coming back 404 on me -- is that it or has it been hijacked?
posted by me3dia at 2:37 PM on June 27, 2002


I'm getting a page for TAS communications. someone call dean and find out what happened.
posted by rebeccablood at 2:40 PM on June 27, 2002


It appears he still owns it

Perhaps someone forged a DNS change on him.
posted by mathowie at 2:41 PM on June 27, 2002


I am getting T.A.S. Communications.

Their company info reads

"At one time, T.A.S. Communications was a company whose name stood for telephone answering service only. Over the last forty years we have grown considerably in areas of coverage, diversity of communication services, and products offered to our clients."

Seems like a duplicate of their old website here.

Maybe its Textism's idea of a joke...
posted by mook at 2:42 PM on June 27, 2002


the verisign googlebomb 404s.
posted by rebeccablood at 2:44 PM on June 27, 2002


Cardigan is 404ing, too.
posted by me3dia at 2:45 PM on June 27, 2002


I get a 404 when I try to connect to www.textism.com (the IP address seems to be 209.167.184.2 for me).
posted by iceberg273 at 2:46 PM on June 27, 2002


To the BatComputer, Crime Fighters!
posted by ColdChef at 2:49 PM on June 27, 2002


Somehow I doubt that this is a joke. Mathowie: is it possible that the database has not updated yet to reflect the change of ownership, but still point textism.com to the new server?
posted by insomnyuk at 2:51 PM on June 27, 2002


Open Brackets, his girlfriend's site, is also 404ing. All three sites are registered via the same service provider of TUCOWS, Easy Hosting, so maybe it's some sort of mistake at their end. (?)
posted by me3dia at 2:52 PM on June 27, 2002


Generally these "mistakes" never get corrected :(
posted by insomnyuk at 2:54 PM on June 27, 2002


www.textism.com is 209.167.184.2 (same as tascommunications) where just textism.com is 209.167.184.208. It might be the hosting ISP with a misconfigured DNS, or just everyone else's hasn't updated yet.
posted by samsara at 2:57 PM on June 27, 2002


Somehow I doubt that this is a joke. Mathowie: is it possible that the database has not updated yet to reflect the change of ownership, but still point textism.com to the new server?

The way the domain system works, the name changes well before the DNS is hosed, so no, it's unlikely (if not impossible) that a web server would go somewhere else before the domain record shows the change.

I have heard that his host's apache server config might be hosed, that everyone they host is pointing at the root page, so this is non-news really. It should all be back soon.
posted by mathowie at 3:01 PM on June 27, 2002


I hope this is all some wacky mistake, but if not - time for some good ol' fashioned weblog vigilanteism.

On preview ... aw good.

*puts away sharpened stick*
posted by D at 3:03 PM on June 27, 2002


Since when was MeFi the World Wide Blog Status Centre!?
posted by Dark Messiah at 3:03 PM on June 27, 2002


I'm getting this:

Welcome to the VeriSign WHOIS Server.
There is no match for this domain name.
This domain is available for purchase!
Go to www.netsol.com to register it today!


from Verisign on a whois for www.textism.com.

I'd grab it but I don't have a credit card with me.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:03 PM on June 27, 2002


Since when was MeFi the World Wide Blog Status Centre!?

since july, 1999.
posted by rebeccablood at 3:05 PM on June 27, 2002


Uh, scratch my last comment. Looks like Verisign's whois server is hosed. I get that response for any domain.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:08 PM on June 27, 2002


Perhaps this is part of the great disturbance in the force that has been happening over the last few days, what with MeFi's DNS problems and problems at several other sites I visit. A coincidence, or something darkly evil?
posted by evanizer at 3:10 PM on June 27, 2002


Is Verisign paying Dean back for his latest Googlebomb?

Who the hell is "Dean"?! Isn't referring to bloggers by only their first name on the front page JUST the sort of clubbish, exclusionary behavior that mathowie objects to so much? I can just imagine what the majority of the 14,000 members seeing that think, not to mention the many other readers, new and old, who are not on a first-name basis with every blogger on the planet.
posted by rushmc at 3:17 PM on June 27, 2002


Ahem ... In his lastest entry, Mr. Allen wrote that Textism had recently been down for fourteen hours due to a denial-of-service attack.
posted by timeistight at 3:23 PM on June 27, 2002


oh hell, everybody knows dean! if you don't, you should!
lovely photos of his dog, and of course much much more. viva la france
posted by billybob at 3:37 PM on June 27, 2002


For most members here, all of this is one big "Huh"??!?

Who the hell is Dean?

What is textism.com?

Who the freak cares?

I mean, unless you put this in some sort of reference, this is equivalent to posting,

"What on earth happened to 'Shattered Fungi'? Is Verisign paying Hoki back for her latest Googlebomb? Another hoopla? I don't believe it."

Seriously, this is about as "meta" as a toad is to the animal kingdom.
posted by yarf at 3:41 PM on June 27, 2002


Yes, Dean is hardly a Carl, Justin or Jenni.
posted by bradlands at 3:50 PM on June 27, 2002


"Who the hell is "Dean"?! Isn't referring to bloggers...
So I think you know who Dean is. I didn't. But it was the easiest thing in the world to do a little google searching. Information Superhighway 'n all that. Don't know/care much about John Entwistle either. But one post on the front page for people who do is nothing to get one's knickers twisted over.
posted by Catch at 4:28 PM on June 27, 2002


So I think you know who Dean is.

I had no idea who he was (still don't, for that matter). I assumed "blogger" because of the (vague) context and Dark Messiah's comment.

But since it doesn't bother you, and since you are so willing to research vague in-group posts, I will try to post a bunch of generic posts about "Bill," "Susie," "Alex," and "David" in the coming weeks. Cyber scavenger hunt.
posted by rushmc at 4:35 PM on June 27, 2002


Textism has been notoriously inconsistent over the past few months. I don't know what kind of uptime he's guaranteed, but he hasn't been getting it. It seems no surprise whatsoever that he'd be down *again* . . . And I doubt it has anything to do with Verisign or Hoopla.
posted by dogmatic at 4:39 PM on June 27, 2002


Isn't Dean that guy on Roseanne who dated Becky after she broke up with Mark?
posted by JanetLand at 4:47 PM on June 27, 2002


Go right ahead, rushmc. So long as there is enough context, if I'm interested I will do some research on your Bills and Suzies. Be sure I won't attempt to derail any threads you post with pointless complaints.
If igorots is bliss
'tis folly to be white.

posted by Catch at 4:52 PM on June 27, 2002


Context: Dean Allen publishes the world-wide websites Textism and Cardigan Industries, and is a frequent writer and lecturer on typography and editorial design. He also did the redesign of webstandards.org.

He became a hero of romantic geeks everywhere by falling in love with a woman who emailed him about something he wrote on Textism and subsequently moving from Vancouver to Pompignan in the South of France to be with her.

He also has a goofy-looking dog.
posted by timeistight at 4:54 PM on June 27, 2002


It's working fine now, folks...at least it is for me....
posted by tomcosgrave at 5:09 PM on June 27, 2002


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