Fryertalk? -- FT mirrors on web
 

Somehow, and I'm not quite sure how, I was reading a Flyertalk thread that actually resided at fryertalk.com. I attempted to reply, but got stuck in a "not logged in" loop -- kind of obvious, since I'm not registered at fryertalk and was entering my flyertalk username. Turns out that fryertalk is a mirror of flyertalk.

However, this struck me as a little bit like a phishing scheme -- I did enter my username & pass a few times before noticing -- so I changed my password here and did a whois lookup on fryertalk. Nope, not registered by Internet Brands or at NetSol, but rather by a programmer in Atlanta named Jim Popovitch.

What gives?

Edit: noticed that I chanced across it by clicking a Google search result that appeared to go to FT. There's another "mirror," at fliertalk.com. This could be the same kind of mirroring-for-ads that Wikipedia fell victim to earlier, before Google changed its algorithm to push commercial Wikipedia "mirrors" down the list. However, unlike Wikipedia, Flyertalk content isn't published under FDL, CC, etc.; indeed, such mirroring without consent appears to violate this guideline: http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#q73

Wow I posted about Fryertalk as a gag on Omni in 2003...

link to thread

Perhaps someone picked up on my gag and registered it for real!

Also see: http://www.aboutus.org/InsideFlyer.com

I'd seen fliertalk.com before. It's registered to the same Jim Popovitch.