Stephenville -
Whaleback Nordic Ski Club hasn't gone into the business of selling sex toys despite such a site showing up when people Google it or go directly into the whaleback.ca website address.
Jack Lamond, who is the webmaster for ski club's site, said a technical mistake led to them losing the domain name to a company selling a male sex toy called a "Fleshlight."
Domain names are unique identifiers that usually point to a publicly available website somewhere on the Internet. Companies, organization and individuals can lease domain name in yearly increments from one of thousands of professional name registrars name providers or resellers online.
For instance, the whaleback.com domain name points to a website for a ski hill in New Hampshire.
Lamond said the purchase of the domain name took place very quickly, and there is really nothing they can do about it as companies like this literally purchase hundreds of names, offer them back at quadruple and maybe even 10 times the normal cost.
The buying and reselling of domain names is big business. Some companies provide a domain registration service in which you pay in advance for a name that is taken and if by chance the current owner doesn't renew the lease before the deadline the service will "snap" it up.
"Once you lose your Internet (domain) name, it belongs to someone else. That's why you pay a domain name fee," Lamond said.
After being stung with this, his advice to other domain name holders is if you have a site, to be sure to hold on to it.
Lamond said the club's new domain name is www.whalebacknordic.ca and he is asking people who frequent the site to go to the new address and bookmark it on their computer."
Parents of children who use the ski club's website are advised to do this quickly to prevent possible exposure to pornographic material.
He said attempts will be made to have the club's new website linked into Google however until such a time as that can be done, it's best for people to put the new address in and bookmark it.
