The Family First URL redirects here The Wellington man who has redirected a Family First URL to a marriage equality site says he’s been accused by some of being a “thief” or a “squatter”, but he’s also had plenty of support for his bold action. The address www.familyfirst.co.nz, which used to redirect to the group’s main URL familyfirst.org.nz, was bought by Hamish Spencer after its owner failed to renew the subscription. He has redirected it to marriageequality.co.nz. “Right after I purchased the domain I talked with a few friends about what I should do with it, we all thought redirecting it to porn would be pretty funny, but then the idea of using it for some good eventuated, and it was pointed at Marriage Equality,” Spencer tells GayNZ.com Daily News. He says an average of 120 unique IPs are still hitting the page per hour, but he can’t be certain if they are looking because of the media attention, if they're genuinely 'lost' or if they just want to have a look at the marriage equality site. “At the absolute least, it's raised the topic for quite a few people, very, very little of which has been negative - a couple of people have called me a thief or squatter, but strictly speaking I'm not.” Spencer says the gay community has been incredibly supportive online, and happy and amazed at the redirection. He thinks it’s a beautiful twist of irony that to outsiders, it seems like Family First supports marriage equality. While Family First’s Bob McCoskrie has told media he never owned the domain, Spencer is adamant someone related to the organisation owned it before he bought it. “It did used to redirect to the .org.nz address, and going from the amount of people who visit, I can only assume that quite a few people used the .co.nz domain to access his site,” he says.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 6th September 2012 - 9:55am