In April of 2008, the people responsible for the Jack Daniel's trademark contacted me and asked me to stop using the name "ILoveJackDaniels", and URL "ilovejackdaniels.com", for my site, and to change the logo.
As a result, I moved the site to its new home here at AddedBytes.com.
At some point, I will write up some of the issues associated with moving a domain with this much traffic, especially bearing in mind that the old domain will not be redirected to the new domain indefinitely.
The idea of changing the name and domain of the site had of course crossed my mind before. Although I don't sell my services through this site, it still reflects on me professionally and the old name, while highly memorable, didn't exactly conjure up the sort of image I was after.
I liked the old name - it was personal. It wasn't trying to be clever or stuff keywords where they don't belong. It was interesting and memorable, which are both rare qualities in domain names. I will especially miss giving my old email address over the phone.
Ultimately, while the thought had on several occasions crossed my mind to change, I had decided against it. As it turns out, the universe had already made its mind up that I should move, and so here we are, on a shiny new domain with a shiny new site.
I appreciate all of the support, suggestions and gestures of solidarity. My thinking now is fresh domain, fresh start. Normal posting service will shortly be resumed. Thanks for all of your support (and long live Added Bytes)!
7 Comments
In the last week or so, ILoveJackDaniels.com started returning 404 errors. I had a link to your great Regex cheat-sheet, but I never saw a permanent redirect code from my link-checker. I wonder if the link was broken for the last year? Or was the site mirrored at both domains?
#1, Chuck Houpt, 10 December 2009. Reply to this.
To possibly answer my own question: I suspect the reason I never saw permanent redirects is because I was linking directly to the cheat-sheet PNG image, not the page (just a link, not an embedded image). From the Internet Archive it is clear that the site's pages was redirecting for a long time, but maybe images on the site were not redirected.
#2, Chuck Houpt, USA, 17 December 2009. Reply to this.
Thanks, i was wondering what happened to you. And i thought ilovejackdaniels was gone for good. Your cheatsheets has become a hit with me and my fellow developers. So cheers! looking forward to the future of addedbytes and to you. More power. :D
#3, Jiego Cordoviz, Philippines, 3 August 2010. Reply to this.
Could you state what the thinking they had/have in objecting to free advertisement?
Don't tell them but I don't like theri stuff anyway.
No reflection on your tastes though.
We are all fifferent.
Thanks for all the great info.
Pete G
Texas7
#4, Pete, USA, 31 October 2010. Reply to this.
Well, because some buffoon at some (probablly too big for itself) company decided that they didnt want someone using JACK DANIELS in their URL, the rest of us have to suffer.
Does the BUFFOON realize the cost of a lost customer? or CUSTOMERS? Do some research on that figure. It might help that person actually understand BUSINESS.
I, for one, will never purchase Jack DANIELS ever again. They can kiss my ass.
#5, Mike, USA, 7 December 2010. Reply to this.
You should have said, "Jack Daniels is a dude, dude". I wonder if they harass people in the phone book. Seems like a lot of sites are changing names. Flash sandy was/is having problems too. IMAX sent their site a letter for using a name that "sounds" like a technology they stopped developing in the 90's. Crazy world of patent trolls.
i like the feel of your new site though.
#6, Jackie Daniels no relation to Jack, USA, 20 January 2011. Reply to this.
That would have been a crazy email to get. I would have been more upset than it seems you were. I would have probably just tried the "my inbox was broken" excuse if it would have helped save my domain name. At least you were able to change it to another name you wanted.
#7, y2j, 10 February 2011. Reply to this.