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@ilyaigpetrov
Last active July 20, 2023 02:46
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Why My .tk Site Was Deleted by Freenom? | by https://git.io/ilyaigpetrov

Permanent link: https://git.io/why-my-tk-site-was-deleted

UPD: Now (October of 2018) Freenom informs you a few days before deleting your site. Thank you, Freenom!

My .tk Site Was Deleted by Freenom

I sustained a site anticensority.tk registered by Freenom.
Site/domain was heavily used but had almost no HTML content.
It also was behind Cloudflare servers for better caching.

One day I found it unfunctional and discovered it was deleted
by Freenom. I sent them a letter asking why it happened.

Response From Freenom

Dear Anticensority Company,

The Freenom Review Team has visited your website today.
Your domain: ANTICENSORITY.TK

We found that the free domain name and/or the website address you used
with your free domain name was not accessible or did not follow the
guidelines set in our terms and conditions.

It may well be that you are still working on the content of your website
and/or using your domain for other means. We kindly request to start using
your new domain soon according to the terms and conditions which can be found at:
http://www.freenom.com/en/termsandconditions.html

In a few days from now we will visit your website again. To prevent domain
hijacking all domains that are not accessible or not follow the guidelines
set in our terms and conditions will be cancelled.

Alternatively, you may upgrade to a Paid Domain. Paid Domains incur a
different set of policies. For example, Paid Domains have no usage requirement.

You can upgrade using the Upgrade tab under domain management for
your domain ANTICENSORITY.TK.

We thank you for using Freenom.

@jun9
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jun9 commented Jun 4, 2021

I had the same experience with one of my free .ml domains with them.
Website was normal in use, domain got deleted and available to sell at $9.95 WITHOUT any notice!!!
I'm wondering if paying them makes any difference.

@ghuysmans
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I've just experienced the same thing. For a moment, I thought I forgot to renew my .tk domain but it has simply disappeared without notice.

@ilyaigpetrov
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ilyaigpetrov commented Aug 21, 2021

Don't forget that it's their policy to delete sites without content. This way they try to fight domain parking.

@ghuysmans
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I had my blog there, along with a few interactive demos for teaching, so that couldn't look like a parked domain...

@SapogaN
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SapogaN commented Oct 11, 2021

I had a couple of domains with CNAME records pointing to the main domain. Main domain uses only A and MX records. All domains got deleted except for the main one.

@ilyaigpetrov
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@SapogaN, I think, CNAMEs are considered as a way of domain parking, which they try to fight.

@PWSSV2122
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PWSSV2122 commented Feb 13, 2022

i had i domain that i was using for a important school project, and now freenom just took it and there asking €8.22 for it. Thank you Freenom!!
image

@ilyaigpetrov
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@PWSSV2122 was there any content on your site? Freenom deletes sites without content or with low quality content in order to fight domain parking.

@filippo-orru
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Same experience. Was inaccessible for some time because I was working on something else and now freenom decided it's gone :)
Costs 8€ to get back.

@ghuysmans
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@ffactory-ofcl If you wait long enough, you'll get it back for free.

@filippo-orru
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filippo-orru commented Apr 17, 2022

@ghuysmans Hm, thanks for the info. Will check but for now I've just bought a domain from cloudflare. No markup and the site is 100x better than freenom.
I used to not have money for that but now I do.

@Gabboxl
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Gabboxl commented Aug 5, 2022

Same problem for me. I had one domain which I used for a personal blog and suddenly it got deleted without any warning. And it isn't even available for purchase anymore! That's so weird

@antwal
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antwal commented Aug 26, 2022

same problem, even respecting all the terms imposed by freenom, they canceled my domain anyway, if I have to pay them 8 USD I prefer to buy a domain from a more serious company that before deleting or making changes to a domain they contact you about it

@Ambratolm
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Ambratolm commented Jan 16, 2023

same and didn't receive a single notice. I only discovered what happened when Cloudflare started sending emails for every linked domain warning me that the nameservers no longer point to Cloudflare. When I loged in Freenom account, I found all domains gone, the list was empty without any explication of how and why. I tried re-adding them but it says "Because of technical issues the Freenom application for new registrations is temporarily out-of-order...". 😑

@ilyaigpetrov
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@Ambratolm, did you have any content on your site as a proof that you are not a squatter?

@Ambratolm
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@ilyaigpetrov Squatter? Let's google this. "Squatting is occupying an area of land that the squatter does not own.". Isn't this what we basically do online everyday xD
If you mean registering domain without using it. I have material proofs, but why the effort? They shall take back what they own. Just a warning could of been appreciated in all cases.

@Zibri
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Zibri commented Feb 10, 2023

I had 3 domains od freenom.. mainly for testing. Since a few days they are all gone...
No trace of them even on the website control panel.
And If I try to add a domain it says it's not possible.

@Zibri
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Zibri commented Feb 10, 2023

This is the message if I try to register a domain:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Because of technical issues the Freenom application for new registrations is temporarily out-of-order.
Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. We are working on a solution and hope to resume operations shortly.

Thank you for your understanding.

@AlephaNull
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AlephaNull commented Feb 25, 2023

I had my GitHub pages site connected to that domain. It was a *.ml site. But now I can't even access the *.github.io site. I can't access my site at all, and that will be the case until I have the cash for an actual domain and hosting.

@podrivo
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podrivo commented Mar 28, 2023

Just experienced the same thing. I thought I'd forgotten to renew my domains, because they disappeared without notice. So weird! Tried to register it again, but couldn't because of the "technical issues" message, as others reported. And I can still see records of when I registered them, back in 2016.

It wasn't that a big of a deal, but damn, cold. Not even a simple email explaining.

@Julaiman07
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Not recommended

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