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Someone sitting on my companies Blog Domain Name

  1. scottcbrown
    Member

    Who owns my company blog name? I am with Vision Service Group, and our webpresence is VSG360.com. I have been trying to find out who owns VSG360.wordpress.com, and fear that we picked it up back in 2010, but that the user who created it is no longer with our company, and now I can't seem to log in to the account.

    Is there any way to find out who the "owner" of the blog is? Can I get it reverted back to our ownership if in fact we do own it?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have used my personal account to access this forum.
    Blog url: http://scottcbrown.wordpress.com/

  2. timethief
    Member

    The person who owns the blog is the person with the username account who registered the blog and who provided the email address the blog is associated with.

    In order to help get access to the blog Staff need one of the following things in order to correctly identify you as the blog owner:

    1. an email from the email address associated with the account or revealing what that associated email address was

    2. the wordpress.com API key for your account. This was included in your welcome email with a note to keep it safe.

    3. a transaction number if you any upgrades were purchased for the blog

    Do you have any of those?

  3. scottcbrown
    Member

    We aren't sure who set up the account, and thus I have NO information. I can prove that it is our Domain Name, vsg360.com, as you can see pictures of Myself, Scott C. Brown on the People page, and I can send the owner's DOL, mine, the VP's along on letterhead that reflects our full name Vision Service Group, and also out web address VSG360.com.

    I am certain that the initial email address was either a VisionServiceGroup.com or VSG360.com address, but it could also have been done from a personal address.

    As we don't know who set it up, the API key is also lost or a moot point. As is a transaction number.

    I am hopeful that letterhead, business licence and photo ID will be enough. And there is nothing on the blog since 2010, and thus, it obviously isn't being used. I am really sorry for the trouble on this, and the fact that we dropped the ball.

  4. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Blogs at WordPress.com are the property of the users who register them, unless of course that user later transfers ownership to another user.

    In this case, http://vsg360.wordpress.com/ is owned by a user named vsg360.

    If you have lost access to this WordPress.com account, please visit https://en.wordpress.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword and click "Need More Help?" if necessary.

  5. scottcbrown
    Member

    Yes, thank you Macmanx, I have already submitted a lost password to that account. However, were this created by a former employee, the address would now be defunct, with no way to retrieve whatever was sent via the program.

    This is why I am trying to find out if there is a way to determine who opened the account, and if it was us, get the email associated to a current email address, so that we can reset the password and actually start using the blog.

  6. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    I can't give out any further information on the owner of this blog.

    Please try clicking "Need More Help?" at https://en.wordpress.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword

  7. scottcbrown
    Member

    Thanks again Macmanx, I have filled out that form. Again, I know that I can't get information, per se, but am trying to prove lack of use for 2 years, and in addition that we are the likely registrars of that Blog, but that we don't have any way to access the account now.

    Thank you for your assistance on this, and I hope that it gets worked out.

  8. notawoodpecker
    Member

    This could have been created by anyone anywhere in the world. Those may have been their initials and address, or a license plate number or almost anything else.

    I'm not sure if staff would post a geographic region for the owner/creator even if they knew.

  9. timethief
    Member

    I sure hope they wouldn't. Unless we choose to geotag that information is private.

  10. scottcbrown
    Member

    And I get that, and I know I am going out on a limb. However, I will point out that it has not been used for 2 years. All I would like, is that the owner be attempted to be contacted for a reasonable period of time. If they answer, and it is not us, and they want to keep the account, then that is great, and I accept that.

    If, however, no on responds, then it would appear that this is a "ghost" account, and in which case, it would be great to make use of it. But as I said before, we have never had any issues with VSG360 before, and it is a rare thing, I would think for this to be used, regardless of the variety of ways that this could be obtained, and what it could mean.

    I am not asking to take anything away from anyone that is using this. I am simply asking to ensure that there is someone attached to this, that it is current and will be used, and that it wasn't registered by an old employee here with an irretrievable email account. Truly, I don't want anything that isn't already ours.

  11. timethief
    Member

    There is no expiration date on blogs unused or otherwise. If you can make contact on your own with the owner of an unused blog then there is a means of a consenting blog owner to transfer the blog to another username account. http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#transferring-your-blog-to-another-user-or-account In the case that there is no contact information Staff will not breach the privacy policy and provide you with an email address.

    if you are not successful, you can register another blog with a similar name. http://en.support.wordpress.com/register-a-blog/

    Or you can register a domain via a domain mapping upgrade and it will not matter what the underlying .wordpress.com address is.
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/register-domain/

  12. auxclass
    Member

    If, however, no on responds, then it would appear that this is a "ghost" account, and in which case, it would be great to make use of it.

    Really bad idea - I have set up a history blog here (not the one linked to my name) and it has no domain mapping etc - I set it up here specifically because there is no requirement to use it - so if at some time I run out of history to put on the site the history (going back to 1963 or so) will live on and people that I worked with or went to school with can share some of the memories

    I have also helped three people in the forum set up sites - they had a terminal illness and wanted to leave something for their friends to remember them by - and you would take away their last wish - shame on you - shame - shame

  13. notawoodpecker
    Member

    Bottom line:

    If it's yours and you can prove it, WP will help you regain access.

    If it's not yours, there is no chance at all to ever gain control without permission of whoever does own it.

  14. scottcbrown
    Member

    Oh, for the love of all that is holy! People, I don't know all the ins and outs of this. I am not trying to take away someone's last testament to their lives and friends. I can barely contain my decorum at this point. Timethief, Macmanx and notawoodpecker have given me the information that I needed, and I have gone through the process.

    There is ALWAYS a way to check on ownership. What if, taking the last totally inappropriate example, I was hit by a bus, and the site was administered by me. It would clearly be my companies site. It would also be impossible for them to continue with it, if I registered this with a non-work account. Where would my company be then? That is all I am asking for, and have stated, if it is indeed ours, I'd like to reset the password and move to an active email account. If it is not, then awesome!! I hope someone enjoys it, whatever they are using it for.

    If there are more, constructive replies, input, ideas or solutions. I would gladly accept and encourage those. For those comment-ers who want to string me up for being shady, insensitive, or not having thought of every possible scenario or eventual consequence for the simple request I have made, please, go write on Mitt or Barack's blog. You will probably be better served.

  15. scottcbrown
    Member

    Also, I apparently can't spell the possessive form of company. My sincerest grammatical apologies.

  16. raincoaster
    Member

    Why don't you talk to your IT department? They can reinstate deleted email accounts and give YOU access to them, and then if someone at your company did in fact register this blog, you could just use your Lost Password button to get it back. Then IT kills those accounts again.

  17. notawoodpecker
    Member

    What if, taking the last totally inappropriate example, I was hit by a bus, and the site was administered by me. It would clearly be my companies site. It would also be impossible for them to continue with it, if I registered this with a non-work account. Where would my company be then?

    There is a good chance they would not be able to regain control. Their only chance might be if a surviving relative could access your accounts and approve a transfer.

  18. raincoaster
    Member

    This is why workplaces need to have standards in effect. We see this scenario all the time.

  19. scottcbrown
    Member

    Thank you raincoaster and notawoodpecker. I am the IT department now, and I am trying to repair all that happened before me. I now have standards in place, and have been slowly trying to gather up all the orphan accounts, and such. This is pretty much the last one. And while I can re-instate all the emails, I still can't guarantee that someone didn't sign up with their personal email. Le Sigh.

    I appreciate all the feedback on this, and I will just see what happens now.

    Thank you all, and I will consider this now closed, and we will need to try to find some other way of creating a new Blog.

  20. auxclass
    Member

    You have a regular .com domain name - create any blog here and map it to your existing domain name as a sub-domain

    Having different names (your .com URL and a not related WordPress.COM blog) sucks for SEO -

    The blog is not doing you any damage at this point since it is empty - so if you can't get into it just subscribe to it and if it ever starts up and tries to impersonate you then you have recourse to have the blog taken down no matter who owns it

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/map-subdomain/

  21. scottcbrown
    Member

    Thank you auxclass, I really appreciate that note. We have moved forward with vsg360blog.wordpress.com, and I will take up your idea of the subdomain, as that is simply brilliant!

  22. auxclass
    Member

    You be welcome & good luck

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