One time I had a phone number that was just one digit off from that of a local restaurant, and would constantly get calls asking what that night’s specials were. But nowadays, it’s worse, especially for meeting planners who promote their event on the Web and get misdirected by similar-sounding Web sites.
Like this story I heard recently on the MIMlist listserv. The 62nd World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Boston this summer, years ago registered the boston2004.com domain name. Then Boston wins the bid for the Democratic National Convention--organized by Boston 2004. After getting tons of hits and e-mail from people expecting to be seeing the DNC site, Noreascon4 set up a web page on how they're not the DNC.
This is hilarious—just a couple of the reasons on the site:
-We're not $10 million over budget. We don't even have a $10 million budget.
-Our promises for the future are supposed to be fiction.
-Thoats and banthas are more interesting animals than donkeys and elephants.
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