The site was put up by John Marek, a political detractor of Huntersville Town Board candidate and former mayor pro tem Brian Sisson, and it was highlighted in this space in last week’s edition. The site included a quote attributed to Sisson that he says he did not say, as well as a realistic-looking campaign sign that featured an image of a wrench resting on Sisson’s name as well as the Web site’s domain name. By Saturday, the site forwarded visitors to John Marek’s own business site, prompting Sisson to write on his Facebook wall that it was good to see the site “pointed” in the right direction.

By Monday, however, typing the domain name into the Web browser took visitors to the Web site of The Range at Lake Norman, an indoor gun range under construction that is owned in part by Sisson’s wife, Tricia. Brian Sisson says that at some point over the weekend, Marek directed the domain name toward Sisson’s own campaign Web site, and because Sisson could then access the domain pointer in cyber space, he decided to forward the final destination to the Range’s Web site.

Why? “Free advertising,” Sisson said on Monday. “If he is going to direct the domain name toward me, I might as well take advantage of it.”

Talkers aren’t really sure how techno-geeks manage to point Web sites all over the place, but Sisson is in the information technology business, so he does know how. Where www.whattatool.com takes visitors by now is anybody’s guess, but so far it’s a tool being most used by its intended target.