I posted a followup to plug-talk and that's really where you should have posted your followup to, rather than doubling down here on the regular plug list.
Maybe you are not subscribed to that list or maybe you don't even know it exists, but that is where meta-discussions are supposed to go. Claiming "this devolved to personal" is nothing more than an attempt to label and dismiss and it's not valid. An explanation follows - on the other list. Ted -----Original Message----- From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of mo Sent: Friday, June 12, 2026 2:48 AM To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [PLUG] supplemental domain name Yes topic is very relevant. Yes Ted is relevant & knowledgeable too. But then it devolved into something personal. That's fine but shouldn't that be something ppl explore directly? It stopped becoming something the entire group benefits from. It's not my group nor am I the admin, so you guys can continue however you want. On Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 14:06 Tomas Kuchta <[email protected]> wrote: > Ok - I found the topic relevant to me - that is why I responded - > hoping to distil some useful information from folks with different > experiences. > > Ted - comes across competent, but I cold not make practical sense of > his post. > > Apologies to everyone for the spam, > -T > > On Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 13:11 mo <[email protected]> wrote: > > > can everyone pls take this conversation to your DMs or somewhere > > else > other > > than here. pls! > > > > On Thu, Jun 11, 2026 at 11:06 AM Tomas Kuchta < > > [email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > That is heluva lot of assumptions you make Ted. > > > > > > No idea what minow or whale or .... is in respect to whois report. > > > I > > asked > > > AI to explain your long post - it sugested that it is a gang > > > language/slang. Hence my comment. > > > > > > -T > > > > > > On Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 10:31 Ted Mittelstaedt > > > <[email protected]> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > That's OK, since unless you know what a whois listing is - like > George > > > was > > > > writing about - then none of it is applicable to you. And you > > > > won't > > know > > > > what a whois listing is unless you have registered a domain name > > > > - > > which > > > > most people never do. It's all just part of the arcania of the > > > > DNS > > > system > > > > on the Internet. > > > > > > > > Ted > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Tomas > Kuchta > > > > Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2026 5:33 PM > > > > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> > > > > Subject: Re: [PLUG] supplemental domain name > > > > > > > > I am reading your advise Ted - I must amit that I have no f.... > > > > idea > > what > > > > you are talking about. > > > > > > > > Perhaps I am not from the same gang to get your references and > > > > abbreviations. > > > > > > > > Just saying > > > > -T > > > > > > > > On Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 11:32 Ted Mittelstaedt > > > > <[email protected] > > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > At risk of SOUNDING insulting - which I am not - I'm being > truthful - > > > > > and the truth is hard for some people - and I don't apologize > > > > > for > > that > > > > > - this is only a problem for people who are amateurish enough > > > > > to > put > > a > > > > > cell phone or other personal telephone number on a domain name > > listing. > > > > > > > > > > I've had my real contact info - including telephone number - > > > > > on Portlandia-it.com ever since it was registered. The phone > > > > > goes to > my > > > > > Asterisk server which has the usual voice response unit > > > > > (press 1 > for > > > > > X press 2 for Y, etc.) > > > > > > > > > > No problems whatsoever with spam calls. > > > > > > > > > > If you are a personal individual setting up a domain name then > > > > > that > > is > > > > > why the privacy stuff was created and your contact info is > > > > > going to > > be > > > " > > > > > [email protected]" with a phone number of > > > > > 8675309 > and > > > > > anyone seeing that is going to know what you are. Nothing > > > > > wrong > with > > > > that. > > > > > > > > > > The people with the complaints are the people who are > > > > > individuals, > > and > > > > > small, who are trying to pass themselves off as being > > > > > something > they > > > > > are not. > > > > > > > > > > The problem isn't putting your real contact info on your whois > > record. > > > > > That is something you MUST do to pass yourself off as "looking > like a > > > > > bigger company" if that is what your game is. The problem is if > you > > > > are a > > > > > minnow pretending to be a whale - you need to go whole-hog and > > > > > get > > the > > > > > PBX with the VRU and all the rest of it. > > > > > > > > > > That's what I did. And what I ended up getting sometimes was > > contacts > > > > > from would-be clients who were the ones looking for the larger > whales > > > > > with the bureaucracy's that entire purpose of existence is to > > > > > bow > to > > > > > them and jack up their self esteem. They didn't want to hear > > > > > the truth about how technically impossible their idiotic > > > > > demands were, either, when I told it to them. That was fun, > > > > > for a while. Then > it > > > > sort of got boring. > > > > > > > > > > It never ceases to amaze me how some people will pay 3x the > > > > > money > for > > > > > the same service they can get from a sole proprietorship as > > > > > from a larger regional organization just so they won't be > > > > > "fired as a customer" from the larger organization when they > > > > > start acting like > > > jerks. > > > > > > > > > > PLUG is a minnow. That's not bad. Minnows can do what the F > > > > > they want, and say what the F they want to anyone they want > > > > > (even when > the > > > > > truth is > > > > > inconvenient) and minnows don't have to pet and stroke people > > > > > and > be > > > > > politically correct so someone's nose does not go out of joint. > > > > > Therefore things will be easier for everyone to do what > > > > > minnows do > > and > > > > > use the proxies and their 1-800-NOT-HEAR phone numbers on > > > registrations. > > > > > > > > > > It's not like they can't go to the website and send an email! > > > > > > > > > > Ted > > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > > From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of > > > > > George > > > > > Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2026 12:21 AM > > > > > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> > > > > > Subject: Re: [PLUG] supplemental domain name > > > > > > > > > > Oh good. Pass that info around. It happened immediately. > > > > > Scammers scrape the db for names with address and phone > > > > > numbers. -gbk > > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 12:18 AM Russell Senior < > [email protected]> > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > "whois linux.portland.or.us" has no data. > > > > > > > > > > > > "whois portland.or.us" leads to the org that delegated linux > > > > > > to > > us. > > > > > > > > > > > > On 6/10/26 00:12, George wrote: > > > > > > > Uh oh. .us does not allow for an anonymous whois identity > > listing. > > > > > > > You'll find a sharp increase in scammer telephone calls to > > > > > > > the number on the listing. I had to abandon my domain .us > > registration > > > > > > > and assign the name, address and phone number to one in > > Reykjavík. > > > > > > > The scammer calls stopped after about a week. > > > > > > > -gbk > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, Jun 9, 2026, 10:21 PM Russell Senior > > > > > > > <[email protected]> > > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > >> I mentioned this at the PLUG meeting last week, but I > > > > > > >> will mention it here as well. > > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> Through a series of shenanigans, we have recently come > > > > > > >> into > the > > > > > > >> "possession" (or delegation, if you prefer) of the domain > name: > > > > > > >> linux.portland.or.us. > > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> DNS is configured, the letsencrypt certificate is > > > > > > >> configured, > > and > > > > > > >> the website is configured to use either: > > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> pdxlinux.org > > > > > > >> www.pdxlinux.org > > > > > > >> linux.portland.or.us > > > > > > >> www.linux.portland.or.us > > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> And, at least for me, it seems to work. This is intended > > > > > > >> for > > now, > > > > > > >> to be a fun experiment. Email is not configured for the > > > > > > >> new domain > > > > > yet. > > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> Let me know if you notice anything wonky. > > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> -- > > > > > > >> Russell Senior > > > > > > >> PLUG Volunteer > > > > > > >> [email protected] > > > > > > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
