How did you feel when the site went down?

I was doing my usual checks on my site and noticed that I could not access my blog. Each time I click on my shortcut URL, it was immediately redirected to another site that was not relevant at all. I thought, “Gosh, did someone hack my site”. After panicking for a while, I realize the familiar URL name – Advertlets.com. Thankfully for being savvy in programming, I realize that the JavaScript wrecked havoc on my site, immediately I removed Advertlets’s code, tested and my site is back online.

Wondering what went wrong, I investigated Advertlets’s website and to my horror I found out that the domain name expired! An advertising company’s domain expired! Naturally thoughts like - Advertlets is a scam or Advertlets bankrupted etc pops up. But then again the founder Josh Lim was just featured in the newspaper http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/5/nation/19914682&sec=nation talking about animation etc, I don’t remember him talking about closing Adverlets down.

I was furious about what Advertlets’s code did to my site, even the site goes down – it should not bring any other blogs or websites along with it. Thankfully I check my blog often but what if I didn’t, my site would have gone out of order for as long as it is. Although my blog is not a commercial site, I do not expect it to earn me anything and I do not have huge traffic but I do take pride in my own blog.

What action did you take?

I had to remove the entire code snippet from my website to bring my site up and running as soon as possible. Tested my site to make sure nothing else is affected.

Have you heard at all from Advertlets?

There were no emails from them but Advertlets support did post a generic reply to my blog “Please be aware that the redirect was not intentional, and was due to a complication in the renewal process. Service has been partially restored and will be back fully shortly.” If I didn’t promote my post in Nuffnang and became one of the top “Nanged” post, I don’t think I will get any sort of communication from Advertlets.

What action do you expect from them?

I know and I acknowledge that ‘things’ do happen sometimes but Advertlets did not manage the catastrophe well. To my least expectation, they should minimally send an email out about the issue and provide steps in removing the codes. Not all bloggers are technically savvy and may not know how to diagnose and fix it. At the same time, they should also provide an ETA (estimated time available) on when their site is back online. I guess all bloggers just need an assurance that the service is still on going and their earnings are still intact. Alternatively they could have a secondary support domain address to formally address and announce the issue to everyone. There are various ways to elevate the disaster but you’ll get the idea, nobody likes to be kept in the dark.

Subsequently, a good explanation should be address on what has happen and why. I think the inconvenience of thousands of bloggers should deserve a good justification. The idea of an expired domain name seems nonsensical and unbelievable? Is Advertlets running on a bad cashflow? And could not fund their most important asset – domain name?

Anything else …

All that I’ve mentioned is from a blogger’s point of view. What do you think the investor or advertiser thinks? What if there was an ongoing advertising campaign? What was the damage during the downtime? Are they informed of the issue?