It's WHOIS Data Reminder template time again, and that must mean it's time for me to do copy-editing. Yay!
Here is a copy of the default message each domain owner will receive if the reseller doesn't adjust any templates: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Valued Customer, ICANN, the organization responsible for the stability of the Internet, requires that each domain name registrant be given the opportunity to correct any inaccurate contact data (WHOIS data) associated with a domain name registration. Our records for your domain are as follows: example.com Registrant: John Smith Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US Domain name: EXAMPLE.COM Administrative Contact: John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 Technical Contact: John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 Billing Contact: John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 Registration Service Provider: ResellerCo, Inc. (123) 456-7890 http://www.resellerco.tld/ ResellerCo is the world's greatest reseller! Visit our Web site for domains priced below cost! Record last updated on 24-Aug-2004. Record expires on 07-Mar-2005. Record created on 07-Mar-2000. Domain servers in listed order: NS1.EXAMPLE.COM 10.1.2.3 NS2.EXAMPLE.COM 10.4.5.6 Domain status: REGISTRAR-LOCK To review and update your WHOIS contact information, please log into our management interface at: /manage If any of the information above is inaccurate, you should correct it. If all of the information above is accurate, you do not need to take any action. Please remember that under the terms of your registration agreement, the provision of false WHOIS information can be grounds for cancellation of your domain name registration If you have any questions or comments regarding ICAAN's policy, please contact them directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks you for your attention. Best regards, ResellerCo NOTE: Please do NOT reply to this message. This is an outgoing message only. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let's just say that if I got that from a company, I would not be particularly impressed at their attention to detail. Here are several fixes: 1. There is a missing period at the end of "Please remember that under the terms of your registration agreement, the provision of false WHOIS information can be grounds for cancellation of your domain name registration". 2. There should be blank line spacing between the various contact types, otherwise they're almost unreadable. Other minor formatting changes would also help. For example, this: Administrative Contact: John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 Technical Contact: John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 Could be more like this (line spacing, plus a little indenting and capitalization added): ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACT John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 TECHNICAL CONTACT John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 Again, this problem can't be fixed by a reseller changing the templates. (Maybe I got carried away with the capitalization and indenting, but at least blank lines are absolutely necessary.) 3. Same problem at the top, with domain name and registrant. This: example.com Registrant: John Smith Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US Could be: DOMAIN NAME example.com REGISTRANT John Smith Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US 4. The domain name mysteriously appears a second time, underneath the registrant. It should only be in there once. Those are the minimum number of things that should be fixed to make the message readable, which I can't alter even if I change the templates. Another thing that should be done that I can't fix myself is: 5. The billing contact, domain status, "Record last updated", and nameserver IP addresses are not required by ICANN, and can/should be removed for clarity. If we continue into default template text, which I personally don't care about but others will, because millions of messages will be sent using it: 6. Putting the default manage interface URL into the message doesn't work, because many resellers, like me, probably haven't changed it. If so, the message will say: "To review and update your WHOIS contact information, please log into our management interface at: /manage". The URL should only be included if the reseller has set it to something other than the default. 7. In "If you have any questions or comments regarding ICAAN's policy", "ICANN" is spelled incorrectly, unless I'm misunderstanding and the WDRP is actually required by the Indiana Canine Assistant & Adolescent Network. 8. "Thanks you for your attention" should be "Thank you", not "Thanks you". 9. The default paragraphs need carriage returns at the end to make them have line spacing. If these changes were made, the messages by default could read: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Valued Customer, ICANN, the organization responsible for the stability of the Internet, requires that each domain name registrant be given the opportunity to correct any inaccurate contact data (WHOIS data) associated with a domain name registration. Our records for your domain are as follows: DOMAIN NAME example.com REGISTRANT John Smith Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACT John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 TECHNICAL CONTACT John Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Company Name 123 Any Street Anytown, AN 12345 US +1.1234567890 REGISTRATION SERVICE PROVIDER ResellerCo, Inc. (123) 456-7890 http://www.resellerco.tld/ ResellerCo is the world's greatest reseller! Visit our Web site for domains priced below cost! DOMAIN NAME EXPIRATION DATE 07-Mar-2005 DOMAIN NAME CREATION DATE 07-Mar-2000 DOMAIN NAME SERVERS ns1.example.com ns2.example.com To review and update your WHOIS contact information, please log into our management interface from our home page. If any of the information above is inaccurate, you should correct it. If all of the information above is accurate, you do not need to take any action. Please remember that under the terms of your registration agreement, the provision of false WHOIS information can be grounds for cancellation of your domain name registration. If you have any questions or comments regarding ICANN's policy, please contact them directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thank you for your attention. Best regards, ResellerCo NOTE: Please do NOT reply to this message. This is an outgoing message only. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It still isn't fantastic, but it's much better. Tucows, can you please fix at least the major problems pointed out here before sending any of these messages? I'm a little disappointed that this message text, intended to be sent to *millions of people*, clearly had little thought or review given to the content (and this is hardly the first time I've complained about this sort of thing). This stuff is *important*; getting it wrong makes resellers look bad. Thanks! -- Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies http://www.tigertech.net/ "Perhaps these things don't matter any more. What do I know about the way people live now?!" -- Trollope
