You've got to love this;

Link to Bangkok Post removed

Turns out the website wasn't hacked, the domain name expired and a quick thinking opportunist in Liverpool snapped it up, took advantage of the huge traffic and slapped a loan affiliate on to it. It would be funny if it didn't involve the Crown, I wonder if they'll go after the new owner of the domain for LM?

This is so typical Thailand, forgetting to renew the domain, it reminds me why my internet business thrives here, the competition is fast asleep (perhaps web dev and publishing should be listed as one of those industries where 'Thais are not ready to compete'.)

This guy will want $100,000 for it, fairs fair I suppose.

It's consistent with the general lack of understanding of the value of the net and websites here, which is why broadband is generally below par, only 2% of the country use high speed internet and 3G might arrive next decade. How many times have you seen a website of a major Thai organisation that doesn't work, or you click the flag for English, you get the homepage in English but beyond that it's back to Thai. Did anyone ever see the website of the Night Safari when it first opened (a 12 year old could have done better) or the site for the new million dollar Chiang Mai aquarium (under construction).

Sorry, had to remove the link:-

31) All members are not allowed to quote news articles or material from Associated Press (AP), bangkokpost.com or phuketwan inside topics on thaivisa.com. Posts containing quotes will be deleted from the forum. Links referring back to the sites are also not allowed and will be deleted.

No reason to buy it back. Just make another. It is not as though that domain is some kind of established brand.

Search BP for: 'Official forgot to relist protecttheking site'

Yes, I doubt they would buy it back, just start all over again with the great big Thai PR machine, pointing everyone at the new domain, all the same, in the web world this little blunder has just gifted someone an enormous windfall. After a year of getting everyone to visit protecttheking.net , this domain is extremely valuable, it would be months, years before the thousands of people stopped accidentally visiting this site, even if a small percentage click on the ads on the site, the new owner makes a fortune, all for a $10 registration fee. Lots of people make money like this snapping up expired domains. The guy who now owns it should have ads in Thai for mobile phones or similar on this site, it also has a huge value for Google's PageRank, so he can sell outbound links on it.

Of course, if this very important site had been entrusted to someone who knows what they are doing, none of this would be happening.

Search BP for: 'Official forgot to relist protecttheking site'

Yes, I doubt they would buy it back, just start all over again with the great big Thai PR machine, pointing everyone at the new domain, all the same, in the web world this little blunder has just gifted someone an enormous windfall. After a year of getting everyone to visit protecttheking.net , this domain is extremely valuable, it would be months, years before the thousands of people stopped accidentally visiting this site, even if a small percentage click on the ads on the site, the new owner makes a fortune, all for a $10 registration fee. Lots of people make money like this snapping up expired domains. The guy who now owns it should have ads in Thai for mobile phones or similar on this site, it also has a huge value for Google's PageRank, so he can sell outbound links on it.

Of course, if this very important site had been entrusted to someone who knows what they are doing, none of this would be happening.

Do people ever really click on internet ads?

I wonder if the officials who let it lapse can be reported for LM? They have certainly contributing to insulting behavior.

more like a comedy sketch than a news - most probably nobody ever heard about the site before, hadn't got any content and traffic and that's why it lapsed.

google PR for this domain is "0" and links do come only from the thai governmental websites - so not much use for a finacial company in the UK.

Do people ever really click on internet ads?

Apparently they do. As strange as it may seem to us, there are a zillion idiots out there who do; and the ad companies are making a mint out of it