
Wolfram.org Is Not Wolfram.com - max_
http://wolfram.org/business/wolframresearch.html
======
strombofulous
I don't understand why the author is so upset? Seems like someone wanted do
buy something of his, they couldn't reach an agreement, and both parties
stopped talking.

"I started to understand that Mr. Wolfram simply needed a good information
designer -- not another domain name. I tried to tell him that. I tried to
offer my services, which at the time, I thought were most excellent. But Mr.
Wolfram's assistant insisted that they needed my domain (I know, I know --
it's the marketing people...)

So I went to my calculater and figured that those 44 domains they already
bought had cost them $3080 to buy plus $1540 per year to maintain! Wow, they
have a domain name budget! So I decided to base the price on Dr. Wolfram's net
worth (I figured $100,000 was a fair point to start), and, in addition, I
decided to ask for perpetual use of the email addresses eric@wolfram.org,
eric@wolfram.com, and the web domains eric.wolfram.com and eric.wolfram.org."

Honestly my response would be pretty similar to the assistant's: "no thanks"

~~~
dmarchand90
I don't think he's really upset I think he's just "having a laugh"

------
throwawaygh
Huh. I've never been involved in high-stakes domain name negotiations.

Is $100,000 actually at all _unreasonable_ an initial counter-offer for the
.org of the company's primary tld? Might be a bit high, but $4K seems _way_
too low. To be expected. It's a negotiation.

I feel like I would've countered $4K with $400,000, both of which seem like
they're the extreme points in a negotiation with a company with $50 to $100
million in annual revenue (according to glassdoor, for whatever that's worth).
Maybe would've agreed to $40K?

Giving a random person subdomains or email addresses on your corporate domain
name is legitimately a complete non-starter, so maybe that's what they
considered the counter-offer "unreasonable"?

------
jimmaswell
Insufferably pretentious with the petty, unsubstantiated jabs and pretending
not to understand why someone would want multiple domain names.

~~~
tomjakubowski
The closing paragraph of poorly disguised SEO keywords related to Mathematica
is a nice touch.

------
nscalf
This does not belong on hacker news.

------
Kednicma
Reminds me of the nissan.com situation. If your brand is worth millions, why
be so stingy with domain names? Just like with land, you're buying up common
resources and depriving folks like Eric of their self-expression.

------
jdkee
Stephen Wolfram has demonstrated by his behaviours, time and time again, that
he is a petty and vindictive person. Good riddance to him.

------
dmarchand90
I'm not sure why people seem so agitated by this. The guy is not being very
serious...

------
sdinsn
The writer sounds like a dick.

