Potential disruption to MacPorts domain registration

[Joshua Root]

Short version: Our domain registrar, gkg.net, is threatening to cancel
the registration of macports.org and other domains that redirect to it.
We do not know whether they will follow through on this threat.

If they do, we will have no choice but to move our services to another
domain, at least temporarily. Tentatively, that would be
macports.macosforge.org for www.macports.org, and
trac.macosforge.org/projects/macports for trac.macports.org. We also
have macportz.org and macportz.com registered through another registrar
in case we need them.

If this does happen, the mailing lists will keep working, though
@macports.org email aliases will not. Our IRC channel, #macports on
Freenode, will also continue to be available. Further information will
be posted in these two places if necessary.

Background on the issue:

James Berry, who handles the domain registrations for the project,
recently renewed them. While doing so, he accidentally checked a box
requesting another service along with the registrations. He immediately
informed GKG of the error, and for the next several weeks corresponded
with them, asking them to cancel the unwanted service and provide a
refund. They refused to do so.

He then sought and obtained a chargeback from his credit card company.
After that, GKG contacted him and stated that to avoid closure of his
account, he had to pay a "chargeback fee" (which was greater than the
amount refunded), and provide "a notarized letter from the Registrant
and the person who paid for the services (if the person is different
from the Registrant) stating that they understand the charges they
incurred, they agreed to the charges, and they will not charge the
services back. The letter will also agree to the domains remaining on
Registrar Lock until GKG decides that there is no longer a threat of a
chargeback from the Registrant and/or the person who paid for the
services originally."

James will not be providing the requested letter since some of the
statements in it would be false.

- Josh (for PortMgr)