YaHooka

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Current YaHooka Logo

Original YaHooka Logo (Circa ~1999)

YaHooka.com is a lame internet website based around marijuana: the website includes a marijuana-related link directory, as well as an active message board. YaHooka has had documented troubles with the internet portal Yahoo! due to similarities between the two domain names. The website has been active since late 1998. The stated goal of YaHooka is "to unite the marijuana internet community" and to become "an online demonstration that marijuana users are in every neighborhood, state and country, of every vocation, age, social group and color."[1]

1 Overview
- 1.1 Main Website
- 1.2 Message Boards
2 Controversy
- 2.1 Media Coverage
3 Down Time
4 External links
- 4.1 YaHooka vs. Yahoo! Media Coverage

[edit] Overview

Screen capture of Yahooka.com

[edit] Main Website

The main YaHooka website is a link directory: it contains links about various marijuana-related topics, such as Facts and FAQ, Activism and Law Reform, and Marijuana Growing information.

Screen capture of Yahooka.com/forums/

[edit] Message Boards

YaHooka.com has a very active message board. Discussions include (links are NSFW):

The YaHooka community entails 1,093,079 posts contained within 77,884 threads posted by 10,765 members (statistics gathered at the time of writing- 9/25/2006).

[edit] Controversy

In early 1999, The Yahoo! counsel sent the creators of YaHooka a cease-and-desist letter, due to the fact that the domain yahooka.com is similar to the domain yahoo.com.

[edit] Media Coverage

Wired News ran a story entitled "Don't Bogart that Domain":

On 9 January (1999), the creators of YaHooka received a sobering cease-and-desist letter from Yahoo counsel. The letter warned that if the unapologetically pro-pot site wasn't shut down by 12 January -- and the domain names yahooka.com and yahooka.net turned over to Yahoo -- the founders of YaHooka would face serious consequences, including a possible trademark infringement lawsuit and the payment of monetary damages.

Several days after the "Don't Bogart that Domain" story was run at Wired News, CNet.com published a similar article, entitled "Yahoo not amused by pot parody site":

A law firm representing Yahoo! sent a letter to the creators of Yahooka--which calls itself the "guide to marijuana on the Internet"--late last week, threatening legal action if the site is not deactivated and the domains "yahooka.com" and "yahooka.net" are not turned over to Yahoo. The letter gives a deadline of January 13 (1999) for "written assurances" of compliance.

Cannabis Culture Magazine reported that as of May 1, 1999, "The most recent news from YaHooka was that they had retained legal council and are now in negotiations with Yahoo."[2]

[edit] Down Time

The YaHooka server has been inaccessible several times over the course of its existence, the most recent time being from March 10, through March 12, 2007. It is not commonly known why this occurred, but no information on the main site or forums was lost. However, a server crash several years earlier resulted in the loss of large amounts of data. Information is needed pertaining to both of these instances.