What a freaky day.
This morning I got an email from some random guy who was starting a new blog and came up with this fantastic idea to call it "Blogography", but the domain "blogography.com" was taken which made him mad. And then he found out ".net" and ".org" were also taken, and he got even madder.
He checked the URLs and discovered something astounding: the same jerk bought all three domains!
Oh wait... that's me!
After writing back to say "so?" I received another email accusing me of everything from domain squatting to destroying the internet. He went on to pretty much demand that I release one of the domains so he could have it (apparently, he didn't want ".info" or ".tv" or any of a hundred other top-level domains available). This made me laugh, but not as much as when he tried to comment-spam me (he left six before realizing I manually approve all comments).
Back when I thought of the name (April 2003), I Googled "blogography" to make sure nobody else was using it and came up blank. Since that time, dozens of other "blogography" sites have sprung up on the internet... but I was first, and I wanted all three domains to make sure some ".net" or ".org" didn't cause confusion. This is not an unusual thing to do, and having somebody equating it to domain squatting is just bizarre.
Almost as bizarre as trying to figure out how to animate something. Since TV is in reruns, I decided to goof around with making my DaveToons move. At first I was going to do it like South Park, and have the characters bounce along without actually walking... but it didn't work for me. I needed a simple "walk cycle" to give the illusion that I was at least trying to make an effort. How hard could it be?
A lot harder than you'd think. It took me nearly two hours to get something I considered to be acceptable, and I'm still not really happy with it...
He needs to bobble a little bit when he walks, but my attempts to do this make him look like a complete spaz. He also needs a shadow, but when I attempted to add one, it looked like he was walking with a pet blob. At some point I need to just accept the fact that I am not Walt Disney, and be happy that I can manage this much.
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Relax about the naming thing… there are so many people wanting to do stuff and so few pronouncable / funny / … names. It can’t be avoided that several people want to use the same name, and clash a bit. We shouldn’t be as paranoid as corporations about this.
I haven’t heard the expression ‘domain squatting’ for a long time. Probably because it’s become ‘standard practice’ for so many people to ‘squat’ around in the hope of securing some name for their own use. But in the days of Google that’s not all that relevant either. I’d say both of you are wrong 😉 You don’t need the additional domains, while the other guy shouldn’t have a problem to find something else…
Personally I didn’t do much thinking before naming my blog… I just wanted to try it out and there was a form field to fill, so I filled in an expression which amused me at the time. And as many other blogs it just doesn’t need a domain of its own and can happily live in some subfolder of a domain that just happens to exist…
(Although I have to admit that I considered registering xn--n3h.org or xn--s0h.net or something. But even that doesn’t make too much sense and just amuse myself.)
“Dear Dave, I wanted to name myself Dave, but you’re hogging the name. How dare you! You must give up your rights to the name Dave right now so I can be Dave. Because I thought of it and then found you. No fair. Give it up now!”
Or…something equally absurd 😀
I would absolutely love to see someone try to tell me that I’m squatting on the name “kapgar.” That would just make my day.
You should post one or two of his comments here. I would love to read your responses. I think it would just fire him up even more which would make it that much funnier.
Sorry, considering the events of this morning in London, I’m finding my sense of humor to be a bit “off” if you will.
A suggestion on your walking Dave toon. You could go the route the muppets did. When walking only show the top half of Toon-Dave. It’s kinda cheesy but it could save you lots of work and headaches.
We “Delmers” get in very few arguments over people wanting to steal our names or domains. It’s what keeps us humble.
I don’t think you need to get too detailed, like with a shadow and all. The picture you drew looks just fine. I like the movement in the arms. But if you make things too detailed, I think that might counter the deceptive simplicity of your cartoon design. So, keep it simple. That’s my opinion.
You bloody squatter Dave! You should buy all the blogography domains just to piss him off. The Icelandic domain could get very creative:
Blogography.is/allmine
Blogography.is/badass
Blogography.is/mydomain
*cackles desperately*
Dave! *gasps for breath*
The..! *gasps and composes*
Dave the worst part about that animation is the fact that he doesn’t stop. You have no idea how hysterical it is for me to watch that little dude just walk across the frame over and over and over. You get a gold star.
Also, props to you for being Blogography, lock stock and barrel. If I could have, I would’ve bought all the KachinaCrowes but I really couldn’t justify it to my “backers”.
*reobserves “walk cycle”*
Dude, I love you….