Direct.uk is ongoing.....

[Jay Daley]

Thanks Graeme.

 

[jasman]

I'm looking forward to the domainers with deep ass pockets getting missile lock on nominet and starting the volley, successful or not it will be a war of attrition, and the prospect of some big holders portfolios and big website owners losing out means they will fight tooth and nail.

How much will it cost nom to defend an onslaught from 1000s of suits, frivolous or not they still have to reply and it still costs ?

How long before said onslaught starts eating away the profits and emptying the coffers ?

My pockets may not be that deep but I know many are.

Agreed, there is a huge backlash just waiting to explode, and Graeme, Nigel and many others have uncovered plenty of dirt for evidence.

I and many other Nominet members believe they were misled by the Nominet management into agreeing to the change in voting rights, which has left the majority of Nominet members much less able to hold the board to account (apart from via legal action). If it can be shown that members were misled I think there are good grounds for annulling the change in voting rights and restoring the previous voting system which kept the management in check.

Then any new plans that Nominet wanted to launch would require member approval. I also think the senior management bonus schemes need looking at as I suspect that the prospect of bigger bonuses from new domain launch windfalls is the main reason why they are attempting to expand Nominet's activities, not because it is in the interests of members, stakeholders or the public.

 

[martin-s]

Interesting to see a survey from Nominet about one of my renewals. Asks the question:

"What is/was jobsoncruiseships.co.uk intended for?"

A commercial or business information site
A commercial site processing online transactions (online shop)
A commercial or business email address
Hosting a pay per click advertising page
An investment to re-sell the domain name
To protect a name and prevent others from using it
Personal website or blog
Personal email address
A charity, club, not for profit, church, voluntary or association site
It was just reserved for future use
Technical/ web development/ experimental platform site
Educational site
Defensive registration – to protect my brand
It was registered but never actually used for anything
Other
Prefer not to say/ Don’t know

 

[Lucien Taylor]

What did they say this survey was for Martin?

I am interested because in a recent tribunal it was revealed that Nominet positively lobbied against domainers, and held them out as a threat to the industry in communications with the government. Personally, I think they are simply prejudiced against small-businesses and argue this to protect the narrow remit of their consultation processes (i.e. domainers are not invited to the strategy lunches).

The information garnered from this survey could be used against domainers and small businesses. Alternatively, they are trying to better understand the real business behind Nominet and where their money is really coming from. For me, it comes down to trust, and my understanding of their motives - again, communication and engagement.

 

[Nigel]

Interesting to see a survey from Nominet about one of my renewals. Asks the question:

"What is/was jobsoncruiseships.co.uk intended for?"

A commercial or business information site
A commercial site processing online transactions (online shop)
A commercial or business email address
Hosting a pay per click advertising page
An investment to re-sell the domain name
To protect a name and prevent others from using it
Personal website or blog
Personal email address
A charity, club, not for profit, church, voluntary or association site
It was just reserved for future use
Technical/ web development/ experimental platform site
Educational site
Defensive registration – to protect my brand
It was registered but never actually used for anything
Other
Prefer not to say/ Don’t know

Very intrusive questions - from an organisation who said legal advice precluded them from emailing existing registrants about the direct.uk consultation.

 

[foz]

Still promoting .co.uk quicksand.

https://twitter.com/BigCatEvents/status/342566717878317056/photo/1

 

[foz]

Very intrusive questions - from an organisation who said legal advice precluded them from emailing existing registrants about the direct.uk consultation.

We all know that was bullshit. Railroad track consultation ending in the Christmas break. Deviancy only someone like Cowley could put out.

 

[Nigel]

Still promoting .co.uk quicksand.

https://twitter.com/BigCatEvents/status/342566717878317056/photo/1

Thanks for that - so they're still brazenly pumping .co.uk - no warnings anywhere about the ongoing discussions about direct.uk. How many people/businesses continue to invest large sums of money/time in .co.uk domains blissfully unaware that nominet want to relegate .co.uk to the 2nd division.

I had a little flurry of activity from proposed buyers recently. I imagine it was following nominet marketing activity (which happened a few months back following their radio campaign). Once I put these buyers on notice of direct.uk it soon cooled their enthusiasm. But obviously a lot of uninformed buyers will have taken nominet's bait.

If Nominet still proceed with direct.uk I personally believe it could turn out to be the biggest misselling scandal since PPI.

 

[GreyWing]

If Nominet still proceed with direct.uk I personally believe it could turn out to be the biggest misselling scandal since PPI.

I have always said it could leave Nominet insolvent. They raise 1 Billion at auction, quickly give it to the Trust. Then legal cases come in, 10 months later a judge orders it to reversed and auction fees returned.

Nominet has no cash, end of company.

 

[websaway]

Interesting to see a survey from Nominet about one of my renewals. Asks the question:

"What is/was jobsoncruiseships.co.uk intended for?"

A commercial or business information site
A commercial site processing online transactions (online shop)
A commercial or business email address
Hosting a pay per click advertising page
An investment to re-sell the domain name
To protect a name and prevent others from using it
Personal website or blog
Personal email address
A charity, club, not for profit, church, voluntary or association site
It was just reserved for future use
Technical/ web development/ experimental platform site
Educational site
Defensive registration – to protect my brand
It was registered but never actually used for anything
Other
Prefer not to say/ Don’t know

did this survey originate from this ?

Hello. We are Insight Engineers, an independent market research company, commissioned by Nominet, the registry of all internet domains that end with “.uk”. Nominet are conducting a short survey that would help them in understanding their customers’ motivations around their recent decision not to renew a domain name.. We understand that you are the owner or the designated / official contact for the domain that was registered with xxxxxxxx.

Please press "Continue" if you would like to participate in this survey or "Exit" if you do not wish to do so.

 

[foz]

Yes - [email protected]

 

[Nigel]

Yes - [email protected]

Wonder if nominet asked their own research company why they prefer using a hyphenated .com to the .co.uk version of their domain!

 

[Nigel]

I have always said it could leave Nominet insolvent. They raise 1 Billion at auction, quickly give it to the Trust. Then legal cases come in, 10 months later a judge orders it to reversed and auction fees returned.

Nominet has no cash, end of company.

agree 100% - Should they proceed then there will, no doubt be quite a few larger claims and I can see a lot of smaller businesses/individuals swamping nominet with small claims court actions - especially if they acted on nominet's 'a great place to be' campaign since Oct 2012.

 

[websaway]

It would appear they will not make a decision on direct uk in the very near future because they are carrying out a survey on non renewed domains and I would imagine that's to do with the decision process.
The longer it drags on the more uncertainty creeps into the uk domain market, it must be hurting some registrars.

When is the June meeting ?

 

[Nigel]

It would appear they will not make a decision on direct uk in the very near future because they are carrying out a survey on non renewed domains and I would imagine that's to do with the decision process.
The longer it drags on the more uncertainty creeps into the uk domain market, it must be hurting some registrars.

When is the June meeting ?

agree the registrars must be hurting - that's why they're doing the 'a great place to be' campaigning - even though, by doing so, they are digging themselves further down into the sand.

Not sure when the June meeting is - not sure they gave a date.

 

[retired_member29]

Is there anyway the .uk proposal could go ahead and benefit domainors and the majority?.

 

[monaghan]

Is there anyway the .uk proposal could go ahead and benefit domainors and the majority?.

The only practical way would be to replace the .co.uk with .uk and withdraw the .co.uk, however, given that we have grown up with having the .org.uk, .me.uk, .sch.uk and so on you can't really condense multiple levels into a single higher level.

The .nz model of allowing first refusal to the .co.nz might work for some names, however, with so many good names registered here in .org.uk & .me.uk, I can see that it would become a stalemate for these names if the same process was applied to all.

In reality, we were using .co.uk before Nominet was created and most of the new TLD's being created are longer, I really find it difficult to understand what actual benefit removing the ".co" will have.

There is also the issue that there are multiple SLD's under .uk, not all are managed by Nominet, so ensuring fair play will be quite difficult. Who should have oxford.uk? The University of Oxford as they will have the .ac.uk, Oxford council as they have the .gov.uk, the hospital as they probably have the .nhs.uk, the local police as they would have the police.uk, then you get onto the Nominet managed domains for business & pleasure.

 

[Lucien Taylor]

They seem to be pretty keen to introduce it - the majority of the board are not really internet people, and they convinced the government that it will be safer. They presumably think it will excite the market. A related-diversification in banker's speak.

The question now is how to limit the damage when they go ahead, and protect the interests of domain investors and owners (small businesses, and brand holders alike). The .nz is interesting but don't believe the current board would be interested in following .nz models.

 

[websaway]

They seem to be pretty keen to introduce it - the majority of the board are not really internet people, and they convinced the government that it will be safer. They presumably think it will excite the market. A related-diversification in banker's speak.

The question now is how to limit the damage when they go ahead, and protect the interests of domain investors and owners (small businesses, and brand holders alike). The .nz is interesting but don't believe the current board would be interested in following .nz models.

Are you just speculating or are you suggesting that you know more about the current situation than most non board members, and if so ... How do you know ?

 

[Lucien Taylor]

I'm obviously speculating, how can I know more than most current board members about their intentions?

I am looking at their outreach, their communications, their lack of candour in certain situations and transparency with the wider membership and the fact that they have launched this initiative without consulting first. Then consulted. Got a resounding 'don't do it' from the stakeholders. And have now reopened the issue.

I have also seen documents released under FOI, and I am aware that at least one major registrar that attended a meeting to discuss the .uk issue and was given the impression that it was a done-deal. I am sure if we had all been invited to discuss the idea, we would have been given the same impression.