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March 11, 2017
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The Mohave County website ends with .us -- who was the idiot who did that?
Government sites MUST use the .gov extension.
- That's how people know that they are at a (hopefully) SECURE website providing actual government information.
- COUNTLESS fraudsters exploit the average web users' ignorance and they set up sites with some valid government info, but often SCAM people or con them into paying for services that the government provides for free or for a much lower cost.
- It would be such a thrill if we could actually FIND the government info we're looking for.
I finally went to the Sheriff Facebook page and found the "real" site there:
https://www.mohavecounty.us/ContentPage.aspx?id=131&cid=711
Note the .us extension. ANYONE, you, I and the devil can set up .us domains!
My search results for "mohave county sheriff" and "mohave county sheriff department" did NOT contain ANY official County site!
March 11, 2017
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I also could not find a link to report problems to the webmaster, so I emailed Supervisor Bishop:
Subject: Change county web to .gov
Dear Supervisor Bishop,
The County needs to update its web address to .gov:
Who do I contact to accomplish that?
Thanks,
Christine Baker
March 11, 2017
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Got a very quick reply:
Good Morning Christine,
I referred your question to Nathan McDaniel, the Director of Mohave County IT. His response is as follows:
“It is something we have considered. However, we are not presently planning to make a change to a .gov domain. Technically it's possible but it would require changing every county email address as well as the county website to .gov.
Also per the GSA naming conventions we can only use http://www.mohavecountyaz.gov. Along with using .gov, last time I checked we would need to pay the GSA a fee annually to use .gov. We currently own mohavecounty.us and it does not require any fees or costs to operate.
Reconfiguring the domain is not just a simple switch. It also requires every business card and letterhead to change. The cost is potentially extensive and not just a minimal configuration change.”
Respectfully,
Marianne Salem, CPM
Executive Assistant for
Supervisor Jean Bishop
Mohave County Supervisor District 4
Marianne.salem@mohavecounty.us
928-753-8618
I'm obviously going to have to contact Nathan McDaniel.
I just changed several domains to SSL and while it took me at least an hour to figure out how to do an htaccess redirect for the first domain and change a few settings, it was a matter of minutes once I knew what I was doing. That would take care of the website.
Regarding the email addresses, they could continue to run the .us email server and FORWARD the emails to .gov. After a few months most contacts would have updated.
Not every employee needs new cards right away and you can replace business cards over time.
The cost of GSA? Don't know.
I DO know that it is NOT free to use ANY domain, you have to pay every year.
It's NOT hard to believe that Mohave County prefers to save a few dollars at the expense of the people.
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