I knew that times were tough for the county, but domain names are not that expensive.
It seems, however, that the Miami-Dade Public Library has failed to renew its domain name. Right now if you cruise over to http://www.mdpls.org you get a message from Network Solutions saying “mdpls.org expired on 09/05/2008 and is pending renewal or deletion.”
So I called the main library and reported it. The front-line person seemed dubious, “It worked yesterday,” but agreed to report it to (unnamed) higher-ups.
Here's hoping they get that online catalog back online soon. Heck, I'd gladly pay for it myself, if necessary (or possible).
By the way, MDPLS, if you are trying to save a buck you can get a much better deal on domain name registration by switching registrars.
Update (8pm): They're back…
Looks like they’ve renewed, but maybe it hasn’t fully propagated yet.
Record expires on 05-Sep-2009
Record created on 20-Sep-2002
Database last updated on 11-Sep-2008
But did they do that before or after I called them? .org updates every ten minutes…
I’m surprised it wasn’t snatched up. I’ve had some really random domain names with low low traffic taken the day they lapsed.
There’s now a mandatory grace period after it drops — designed to deal with this exact sort of situation.