The technology website ‘Benchmark Reviews’ was born onto the domain I created back on 27 February 2007, and was quickly built into a popular computer hardware website. Over the course of twelve years, several thousands of product review articles written by dozens of authors were published on that website. The benchmarkreviews.com domain, along with others that were also reserved, belonged to various projects that were hosted by different providers depending on hardware needs, however all domains were managed through the same registrar.
On October 2018, I decided to place the techplayboy.com domain for sale at a modest price, as the project had gone without updates for several years. This should have been a non-event, but unfortunately one day after posting that domain for sale it was removed, likely for trademark issues in the name, and somehow replaced in their system with the next domain in their system: benchmarkreviews.com. Needless to say, a fully developed domain with plenty of trust and traffic sold instantly for far less than it would have been valued.
No email was generated, and I was never notified. After many long hours on the phone, it became clear that a technical issue caused the sales cancellation of techplayboy and replaced it with benchmarkreviews. It was only after I received a sold notification that I learned benchmarkreviews was the domain in question. The provider claimed they could not reverse the sale, even though I contacted them within minutes. After many days spent attempting to retain the domain, it was clear I was not getting it back. A week later Google notified me of a new owner for the domain, and although I sent emails offering to buy back the domain, my messages were not responded to.
So here we are. The benchmarkreviews domain was sold, when it should have been techplayboy. There was never more than a few pages of content at Tech Playboy, while Benchmark Reviews had tens of thousands of pages. I am making the most of a terrible situation, one that has been heart breaking after more than a decade of work, and I will not be relegated into a victim. Benchmark Reviews content has been restored onto Tech Playboy, where all of our previously published work will live on for the benefit of the tech community.
It has been our pleasure to have your support and feedback over the years, and I wish it could continue. -Olin Coles
2025 UPDATE: Although no worthwhile website has been constructed at the BenchmarkReviews.com domain, it has nevertheless been annually renewed several times since it was lost in 2018. In spite of my best efforts to bid on or purchase the domain name, it unfortunately seems that whoever has it does not want to give it up.
