Hostsave was bought by a company called Gate.com.  Unbeknownst to me, due to the terms of the buyout, Gate.com was not able to continue Hostsave's automatic renewal policy.

The domain name was transferred to Network Solutions.  Network Solutions claims they sent me emails regarding the expiration of drowningman.net.  They may have.  I never received them.  They may have gone in my spam filter or Network Solutions may have used an outdated email address (from the Whois registry) rather than the one I gave them.

Here's where it gets interesting.  There are internet sharks (mostly in the former Soviet Union) that look for expired domain names that they suspect expired by accident.  They purchase these domain names and try to extort money from the former owners.  When I contacted the current owner of drowningman.net he told me I would have to pay him $2500 to get it back.  I had sent him an email with a personal appeal letting him know that I am a PhD student (therefore poor) and detailing how the domain name expired without my knowledge.  I offered him $100.

Now keep in mind this site is not a money-maker.  The Google ads basically pay for the hosting of the site and that's about it.  The purpose of buying these domain names is to take advantage of a flaw in the system that people who are not professional webmasters are not aware of.  I spoke with a web professional who said this situation happens all the time.  Why else would you buy an obscure domain name like drowningman.net?

So, drowningman.net is no longer mine.  It is owned by a shyster from Estonia.  I am truly sorry for that.

If you go to drowningman.net you will see that there is still a significant remnant of my site left.  I have been trying to get Network Solutions to take it down since I no longer own it.  Please pass on this new url to anyone you know who uses this site.