I'm sure someone at the spamming site decided trolling for new clients would be a great idea, so they identified some fannish possible URLs and Googled for the related fansites, then signed up here and put in the ad.

It wasn't an ad!

edit: Or it was a lame one, with no branding, since they didn't point out that they provided a service.

True, it wasn't an ad. It was basically an "IJS." You know, in case we wanted to change b.org to one of the URLs they mentioned.

I nabbed the other one, btw, so I'll be starting a competing website soon. (kidding)

If it wasn't spam, then what was it? They just decided to drop by, register using their business address as their ID, and let us know that those two domains were now available out of the goodness of their hearts? That makes even less sense.

Raquel, the domains weren't buffistas.us or similar. They were longer, vampire slayer ones.

No, I know, I saw them. I was trying to joke about us changing "buffistas" to one of them without actually saying their names.

That makes even less sense.

I disagree, but I've kinda covered that ground.

What does seem clear is that the post wasn't explicitly selling anything. Not domain names, not services.

Nudging? Winking? Crass? Maybe.

Spam? Also, maybe.

Insta-delete? That I don't think.

The admin mailbox just got an email from them as follows:

To admins,

We apologize if etiquette was violated by posting that vampireslayer.us/vampireslayer.biz had expired and were currently open for registration. Any hint of spamming was unintentional as no marketing language was included in the post and no links to our business were included. We did not include the name of our business at all except as a user name. As a domain register (and Huge Firefly Fans - How else do you think we knew of this board?) we regularly receive lists of expiring domain names. Some of our techs regularly contribute to many boards including whedon related boards with technical advice and thought it a good idea to post here as info to those who might be most interested but not in the Domain Industry. The name of our site was used at sign up simply as common practice as we subscribe to many domain industry related organizations and this is common practice. If this constitutes spamming, again, deep apologies. Rest assured we have instructed our employees not to post to this board with any information on company time, and not to post any information that passes our business in the future even if it does relate to projects by Whedon, Minear, ME or any related entity. Regards - Unleashed Domains

I'm still confused, but whatever.

I guess I would encourage them to be a little more verbose in their posting to avoid the appearance of spam.

"Hi, we operate a registration site and got notification that _____ was available and thought people here might want to know about it. You don't have to register with us, just happen to be fans and thought you might be interested."

Would go a long way to at least *appear* less suspicious...

How odd.

Odd, but I like that they didn't intend to offend or spam. It certainly was not spam to all possible parties and run activity. Thanks for sharing the message where they clarify their intent.