Hi Alex, Let me clarify a few things in line.
On 12-Nov-05, at 12:20 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Tucows wants > to take all non-renewed names and automatically put them up for > auction. > This means the domain names never enter the redemption period. Not so. actually the name will be held in escrow, available to the former registrant to renew for the full 80 days that is currently allowed. Any deviation from this timeframe is unacceptable to me and us as a company. Even if we have a winning bidder willing to pay 100K for a a domain, the former registrant can get his name back through existing means. > More to > the point, once Tucows starts doing this, every domain name > registered by > a Tucows reseller will *never again* be returned to the available > pool! Funny you should say "available pool". Because reality is that any decent names goes to a "pool" of sorts just not a general one :-) > We will never have the opportunity to sell this domain name again, nor > will any other reseller, or any other registrar for that matter. > No one > will ever be able be able to buy this domain name from any > registrar at > its regular retail price, because it will be held hostage in the > auction > system until someone buys it at some artificially inflated price. We have to do a better job of explaining to you what happens to a domain name that has any perceived value. Currently it is not returned to a system that has any fair rules, in fact it is returned to a system that is grossly gamed and monopolized by registrars that control hundreds of accreditations in order to ensure that they win up to 80% of dropped domains, which are subsequently sold at auction at so called inflated prices. Our auctions allow our resellers a chance to participate in this by "keeping it in the family" so to speak. > I think > Dave's use of the term "hijacking" was very apt. That's a point that i cannot agree with given the steps we've taken to be a good actor in the process and to account for our resellers and their registrants rights and benefits. > > Until ICANN officially changes the rules on handling of expired > names for > all registrars, no registrar has the right to deviate from established > practice and contractual obligation. To do so removes any > semblance of > fairness from the domain registration system. The argument that it's > justified because other registrars are doing it is, well, utter > nonsense. > That's the point, the current system does not even have a semblance of fairness. to simply let it be is not a responsible course to take. Regarding our contracts with the registries and with ICANN we know them quite well and they know what we are planing to do. No red flags have been raised whatsoever. in fact select resellers seem more concerned about our contracts than ICANN ;-) That's strange. > One last thing. Someone else on this list recently wrote that every > domain name that's dropped is quickly re-registered, even those > names of > low perceived value, so the auctioning of all expired names doesn't > change > the current reality re. unavailability of names. Actually, that > may have > been the case a few years ago. It's certainly doesn't seem true any > longer, at least in my experience. The vast majority of domains > dropped > by our customers (by choice, or through lapsed accounts or forgotten > renewals) are in fact still available months later. It seems the > land-rush is over. All the less reason, I think, to tie up > thousands of > domain names in an auction system, but what do I know. I guess all > those > ad views are more important. Actually the land rush is just heating up. With players such as google and yahoo catering to this portion of the market specifically. we feel there is plenty of steam left. I recently attended the T.R.A.F.F.I.C conference (http://www.targetedtraffic.com) and was overwhelmed by the attendance and the maturity of the market. One thing that folks wont be able to accuse us of is not being thoughful about entering this market. We've churned this around internally ad nauseam, I'd say a little too much for a little too long (I take a large amount of responsibility for that). But we are nearing a point were we will release what i think is a very cool product that have never been tried before with such a large network of resellers. What I'd like to do over the coming months leading up to the launch of our auction service is to start taking these conversations to webinars which will allow us to present to you current realities, their histories and show you how we plan on addressing them with our product offerings. while respecting various rules and sensitivities you may have about this product. These are important discussions and agree or not I thank you all for sharing your views and concerns. Thanks, James M Woods Product Manager - Domains Tucows Inc. www.tucows.com 416.538.5453 My Blog: www.warpjam.com _______________________________________________ domains-gen mailing list [email protected] http://discuss.tucows.com/mailman/listinfo/domains-gen
