# straightdope.org

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 4, 2001, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847 "2001-04-04T23:38:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/1 "2001-04-04T23:38:26Z")

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More than a year ago I noticed no one took this website; but it now belongs to someone, a WHOIS showing a Mark Seiler of San Mateo. But it’s not on the web yet. Any guesses to what’s up with it?

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/2 "2001-04-04T23:45:50Z")

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My guess is that the Mark Seiler guy is just squatting on a name he thinks the Chicago Reader is willing to buy from him. Little does he know that the Chicago Reader is too cheap to even give the Straight Dope decent servers, and is unlikely to care about some domain name. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

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**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/3 "2001-04-05T02:40:19Z")

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I typed in the address into my browser and got the standard “no such address, check URL” screen. Hmmm…

Robin

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**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/4 "2001-04-05T03:35:55Z")

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And doesn’t Mark Seiler sound pretty damn close to Mark Serlin too…I think I smell a conspiracy…

Keith

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**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/5 "2001-04-05T09:29:24Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by MsRobyn \*  
> **I typed in the address into my browser and got the standard “no such address, check URL” screen. Hmmm…**

cause they don’t have a website. The name can be registered though.

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/6 "2001-04-05T15:42:41Z")

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Ms. try this WHOIS:  
[http://turbo.redshift.com/members\_only/whois/](http://turbo.redshift.com/members_only/whois/)

It’s very powerful. Usually WHOIS won’t show much info but this one shows it all & then some.

Just type in a URL.

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**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/7 "2001-04-05T15:51:11Z")

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Handy,  
your URL gives a “Forbidden  
You don’t have permission to access /members\_only/whois/ on this server.” error message.

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**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/8 "2001-04-05T16:00:39Z")

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Try this one:

[http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois](http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois)

Actually, the lookup site I like is this one:

> **[Network-Tools.com: Ping, Traceroute, WHOIS & More](https://network-tools.com/)**
>
> Documentation for the ping command on network-tools.com

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**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straightdope-org/60847/9 "2001-04-05T16:35:29Z")

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How about [http://www.whois.net](http://www.whois.net) ? Works OK for me.