4 ms·

Wolfram.org Is Not Wolfram.com

30 points by max_ 6y ago

jimmaswell 6y ago
Insufferably pretentious with the petty, unsubstantiated jabs and pretending not to understand why someone would want multiple domain names.
- tomjakubowski 6y ago
  The closing paragraph of poorly disguised SEO keywords related to Mathematica is a nice touch.
strombofulous 6y ago
I don't understand why the author is so upset? Seems like someone wanted do buy something of his, they couldn't reach an agreement, and both parties stopped talking. "I started to understand that Mr. Wolfram simply needed a good information designer -- not another domain name. I tried to tell him that. I tried to offer my services, which at the time, I thought were most excellent. But Mr. Wolfram's assistant insisted that they needed my domain (I know, I know -- it's the marketing people...) So I went to my calculater and figured that those 44 domains they already bought had cost them $3080 to buy plus $1540 per year to maintain! Wow, they have a domain name budget! So I decided to base the price on Dr. Wolfram's net worth (I figured $100,000 was a fair point to start), and, in addition, I decided to ask for perpetual use of the email addresses eric@wolfram.org, eric@wolfram.com, and the web domains eric.wolfram.com and eric.wolfram.org." Honestly my response would be pretty similar to the assistant's: "no thanks"
- dmarchand90 6y ago
  I don't think he's really upset I think he's just "having a laugh"
nscalf 6y ago
This does not belong on hacker news.
throwawaygh 6y ago
Huh. I've never been involved in high-stakes domain name negotiations. Is $100,000 actually at all unreasonable an initial counter-offer for the .org of the company's primary tld? Might be a bit high, but $4K seems way too low. To be expected. It's a negotiation. I feel like I would've countered $4K with $400,000, both of which seem like they're the extreme points in a negotiation with a company with $50 to $100 million in annual revenue (according to glassdoor, for whatever that's worth). Maybe would've agreed to $40K? Giving a random person subdomains or email addresses on your corporate domain name is legitimately a complete non-starter, so maybe that's what they considered the counter-offer "unreasonable"?
Kednicma 6y ago
Reminds me of the nissan.com situation. If your brand is worth millions, why be so stingy with domain names? Just like with land, you're buying up common resources and depriving folks like Eric of their self-expression.
sdinsn 6y ago
The writer sounds like a dick.
jdkee 6y ago
Stephen Wolfram has demonstrated by his behaviours, time and time again, that he is a petty and vindictive person. Good riddance to him.
dmarchand90 6y ago
I'm not sure why people seem so agitated by this. The guy is not being very serious...

30 points by max_ 6y ago

Insufferably pretentious with the petty, unsubstantiated jabs and pretending not to understand why someone would want multiple domain names.

tomjakubowski 6y ago
The closing paragraph of poorly disguised SEO keywords related to Mathematica is a nice touch.

strombofulous 6y ago

I don't understand why the author is so upset? Seems like someone wanted do buy something of his, they couldn't reach an agreement, and both parties stopped talking. "I started to understand that Mr. Wolfram simply needed a good information designer -- not another domain name. I tried to tell him that. I tried to offer my services, which at the time, I thought were most excellent. But Mr. Wolfram's assistant insisted that they needed my domain (I know, I know -- it's the marketing people...) So I went to my calculater and figured that those 44 domains they already bought had cost them $3080 to buy plus $1540 per year to maintain! Wow, they have a domain name budget! So I decided to base the price on Dr. Wolfram's net worth (I figured $100,000 was a fair point to start), and, in addition, I decided to ask for perpetual use of the email addresses eric@wolfram.org, eric@wolfram.com, and the web domains eric.wolfram.com and eric.wolfram.org." Honestly my response would be pretty similar to the assistant's: "no thanks"

dmarchand90 6y ago
I don't think he's really upset I think he's just "having a laugh"

nscalf 6y ago

This does not belong on hacker news.

throwawaygh 6y ago

Huh. I've never been involved in high-stakes domain name negotiations. Is $100,000 actually at all unreasonable an initial counter-offer for the .org of the company's primary tld? Might be a bit high, but $4K seems way too low. To be expected. It's a negotiation. I feel like I would've countered $4K with $400,000, both of which seem like they're the extreme points in a negotiation with a company with $50 to $100 million in annual revenue (according to glassdoor, for whatever that's worth). Maybe would've agreed to $40K? Giving a random person subdomains or email addresses on your corporate domain name is legitimately a complete non-starter, so maybe that's what they considered the counter-offer "unreasonable"?

Kednicma 6y ago

Reminds me of the nissan.com situation. If your brand is worth millions, why be so stingy with domain names? Just like with land, you're buying up common resources and depriving folks like Eric of their self-expression.

sdinsn 6y ago

The writer sounds like a dick.

jdkee 6y ago

Stephen Wolfram has demonstrated by his behaviours, time and time again, that he is a petty and vindictive person. Good riddance to him.

dmarchand90 6y ago

I'm not sure why people seem so agitated by this. The guy is not being very serious...