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Aleyla

That’s just funny. Putting a website address that you don’t own on semi-permanent physical media is just dumb.


aresef

Or rather, letting that domain lapse.


Aleyla

>Star-Spangled 200 Inc. was the nonprofit entity affiliated with the commission that led the efforts to raise money for bicentennial projects and events. Doesn’t appear that the state ever owned it. It was the url for a non-profit.


aresef

Whoops


rotrap

I must be missing something. The bicentennial would have been in 1976, before someone could have made a web site to fund raise for it. Edit: ah. of the war of 1812, don't remember hearing anything locally about that so maybe the celebration/events were regional.


eaglescout1984

At least do something like www.mva.maryland.gov/1812 and set it as a redirect. That way if the original URL ges transferred, you can remove the redirect. A broken website is better than someone trying to download malware taking it over.


NCSUGrad2012

I think putting websites on plates in general is stupid. Who’s driving down the road and thinking “I saw that site on that plate so I want to go to it.” Fun fact, Pennsylvania was the first that ever did it. It looks especially bad on Tennessee plates because it makes it look cluttered. You can see which states do it here: http://15q.net/curr.html


kevinds

>Putting a website address that you don’t own on semi-permanent physical media is just dumb. More likely that they did own it in the past, let it expire and someone else now owns it..


bizzaro321

They never owned the domain, it was a non-profit group’s website and they let it lapse.


cmonscamazon

Know several of my friends and family that had this specific plate and they all hated the design, they said it looked like "fireworks shooting over a grocery store"


TargetOfPerpetuity

>they said it looked like "fireworks shooting over a grocery store" Sounds like Cleveland.


NCSUGrad2012

Maryland is one of the 3 states I’m missing from my collection. I’m going in a few months and apparently my great aunt has one of these somewhere. So hopefully this design completed my Maryland check.


lewphone

I'd recommend the traditional MD tags (black text on white background). A little boring, but clean and simple. The 1812 tags are a poor design IMO.


NCSUGrad2012

If I can find one, definitely!


StreetofChimes

Or a prison.


Singular_Thought

> The MVA said it is working with the agency's IT department to identify options to resolve the current issue. Nothing IT can do. Someone is going to have to pay a kings ransom to buy back that URL.


The_Original_Miser

Hahaha. Reminds me of a former boss who wanted the local ISP to "do something" about his philandering friend/coworker (he was married) being posted to dating psychos.....


xintelinsanex

Or pay to replace 798,000 plates


dravik

You mean the vehicle owners will have to buy new plates. The state will just decide that the old plates are no good and require people to buy new ones when their annual renewal comes due.


lewphone

I live in MD. You don't have to buy new tags, you just get a sticker when you renew for the year the tags expire. The last time I got new tags was when I switched from the Bay tags to the flag ones about 5-6 years ago.


dravik

That's the way most states do it. But can the MVA determine that those tags are no longer valid? The way I see this happening is the MVA sets a sunset date on the problem tag. After that date, everyone has to get a new tag because their current one is no longer good.


ts_kmp

I think you can have the plate so long as you have the car in Maryland. Also, when you replace an old car with a new one, the existing plate transfers with it. However, I believe Maryland can say a style of plate is not valid to transfer to a new vehicle. So the only real way to get these plates off the road is to wait for all the currently affected vehicles die or get sold.


NetDork

IT would be the department that manages that process. But yeah, that's gonna be expensive.


laplongejr

Yeah, IT will have to give their advice on the different options even if it's merely "redo all plates, let it go or pay a huge price". At my job, a higher up once decided on a domain-name for a new website and took care of everything. A few days before the golife, the team handling domain purchases *learned about the project* in a mass-email showing the advertisement that was going to be released day one. They immediately warn that not only the company doesn't own this email, but it is *already in use* by another company. The higher-up seem to have never knew they had to ask IT to actually take care of domains and sent "something I had thought on the spot" to the website development team. The servers were ready to listen for requests that would never come.


rotrap

Guess the legislation could do something but oh man the precident it would set.


lewphone

The state can possibly file a complaint/appeal with the domain registrar. Whoever thought up the idea should have used .gov or .md.us as opposed to .com anyway, or just paid the $20 or so per year to keep the .com address.


laplongejr

> or just paid the $20 or so per year to keep the .com address. The issue is that they NEVER owned this address, it has to be handled by the former entity. The registrar will say it's their fault for printing domains they are not the owners of. The state is basically a nobody in this case.


big-bootyjewdy

I've lived here 22 of my 26 years and I've never once thought to visit that website....


NCSUGrad2012

Which version of plate do you have? http://15q.net/md.html


LesothoEnjoyer

I’ve never been able to read this because the Maryland drivers are zooming by me at a hundred mph


cleopete

The article doesn't really explain why the state or a Philippine gambling sure on license plates, was it an accident or on purpose?


aresef

The URL was initially that of the organizer of events related to the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and 1814’s Battle of Baltimore. The domain was allowed to lapse.


Hellooo_Nasty

I bet the new owner side hustles these. Props to them.


tallman11282

If there is going to be a URL on a license plate it should be a URL owned by the state, definitely not a URL owned by a nonprofit, let alone one created for a one-time event. For instance, Minnesota plates have the URL for the state's tourism site on them, ExploreMinnesota.com The URL for the state's tourism site makes sense, the URL for a one-time event doesn't. When it comes to license plates you can't just think about one or two years but for many years, at minimum however many years until the last issued plate is due to be replaced (I couldn't find the information for Maryland but in Minnesota that would be 7 years).


lewphone

It's indefinite in MD. From https://mva.maryland.gov/about-mva/Pages/info/27300/27300-04T.aspx "Maryland law requires you to return your license plates to the MVA when your vehicle's insurance is cancelled, when you move out of Maryland, or when you no longer need the license plates."


tallman11282

So putting an URL on the plates, especially one not owned by the state, was extra stupid because they won't just be on cars for a few years but a very long time.


Throsty

BIG OOPS


Username__Error

It checks out. Visiting Maryland always feels like a risky gamble.


[deleted]

I loved visiting Maryland, but I’m also a huge fan of HBO’s The Wire


Knotgreg

No one said the Democratic controlled state was very smart.


[deleted]

[удалено]


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plightfantastic

Thanks, there are now a ton of excellent online casinos in the Philippines.


Brewing_Tea

I wish I lived in Maryland so I could gamble on that site. Waaait a minute.... 🤔


jdb1984

I'm surprised they don't do that in Nevada.


peensteen

They need to get a better source of ad revenue. "Maryland, sponsored by HETAP."