Troutdale, Oregon- Troutdale is a colorful place, all right, but “badmoms” and “eurotrash” probably aren’t what people expect to see when they visit a “historic Troutdale” Web site.
Instead of the exploits of town founder Capt. John Harlow, visitors find X-rated photos and an invitation to enjoy “infinite porn.”
The Troutdale site was “porn-jacked,” at least the third local site taken over during the past four years. A Web site operator — apparently based in the Czech Republic — grabbed up the lapsed Internet domain name of the Troutdale site and turned it into a fee-based porn access portal.
The Web site administrator is listed as Dr. Matthias Moench, based in the Czech Republic town of — honest — Horni Mesto. Attempts to reach Moench at the telephone number and e-mail address listed on a domain registration site were unsuccessful.
The turn of events has the original site creator in Troutdale fuming, and Web masters around town scrambling to delete links.
“I’ve spent most of the day trying to clean up the mess of a slimy smut peddler in the Czech Republic,” said Mike Goss, who created the site to coincide with a Troutdale art festival in 2005.
It’s unclear how many Internet visitors are viewing the site. Goss said the site received a couple hundred hits a day during the festival.
Web site operators pay an annual fee for domain names, the part of an Internet address between “www” and, most often, “.com.” Goss did not renew the domain name when it expired at the end of March, allowing it to be claimed by anyone willing to pay the fee.
The practice is not illegal. The same thing happened to Web sites operated by the Tualatin Valley Firefighters Union in 2002 and to the Forest Grove Chamber of Commerce in 2003.
Goss suspects porn site operators grab such sites in the hope that some people who stumble across it will become paying customers. A dozen other sites had links to the Troutdale site, providing a potential customer base, Goss said.
The Troutdale switch came to light recently when a woman e-mailed City Councilor Robert Canfield, who writes a city politics blog. His page is linked to the site created by Goss, a friend who runs an accounting software and management consulting business.
The woman told Canfield, “You might want to take that off your Web site.” Canfield checked it out and alerted Goss.
Goss said his original site had links to local artists, restaurants and art galleries. He spent most of Wednesday warning local businesses and suggesting they delete the link to the former historic Troutdale site. He said he won’t visit his old site.
“Although I don’t own that site anymore, it’s being misused,” he said. “My wish is that (the operator) goes bankrupt and his personal server explodes.”