.UK Announced

[Jamie101]

It's a huge mistake to equate "non-profit" and "not aiming to make a boatload of money." After all, Nominet donates its excess to the Nominet Trust. The bigger the donations, the more power/clout/prestige the Nominet Trust has, and that reflects well on Nominet and the top leadership circle there.

Not to mention the fact that there have historically been various quite lucrative Performance Related Pay elements to the bonus system that Nominet senior execs benefit from, and you can imagine the excitement at tapping into an almost overnight £50,000,000/year+ new revenue stream (read: "windfall") for a company that only did about £25,000,000 in business last year.

The following quote is worth reading and re-reading until it REALLY sinks in. So much weasel language in just two sentences! "Our not-for-profit status means that we are unable to distribute funds to our members. It doesn't mean we are unable to make profits."
http://www.nominet.org.uk/whoweare/whatwedo/history

What that means, in a nutshell, is that Nominet don't get to distribute the surplus to shareholders (because they don't have any!) but they're not prevented from racking one up!

Thanks for the information.

There just seems to be so many weird things about Nominet that I can't seem to get my head around it.

As I said to someone a few days ago, I genuinely feel sorry for people that have so many quality .co.uk's (like yourself).

What exactly do Nominet do with their profits actually? Do they share this to the public?

 

[Edwin]

There just seems to be so many weird things about Nominet that I can't seem to get my head around it.

What's weird? As an organisation, they've cleverly engineered a way to milk at least £50,000,000 a year out of the (mainly) UK business contingent and the general public, plus countless £millions more as a one-time windfall from auctions here, there and everywhere. All that stands between them and this Jackpot prize is fudging a "public" consultation and misrepresenting the supposed benefits of their proposed solution in a way that people in general won't understand/notice/care because they never really pay much attention anyway or understand this whole "domain thing".

It's as crystal clear as it could possibly be what their intent is and why they're doing it.

What exactly do Nominet do with their profits actually? Do they share this to the public?

They hand what's left after salaries, executive bonuses and other perks over to the Nominet Trust each year. In the last few years, that has meant 7-figure cheques and lots of headlines every time they make the latest donation. For instance, £6,000,000 was handed over in September 2012 http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/£6m-donation-nominet-trust-and-september-communiqué

Of course, Nominet also plonks some of the surplus cash in a bank account as a hedge against future uncertainties, but all sensible companies do that so that's one thing you can't begrudge them too much.

It's all in their annual reports, if you care to look
http://www.nominet.org.uk/whoweare/annual-reports

 

[thecat]

Probably a dumb question but I can't find any sort of summary - so is .uk happening? If so, when, and how do I order ?

 

[Edwin]

Probably a dumb question but I can't find any sort of summary - so is .uk happening? If so, when, and how do I order ?

We should know in March if it goes ahead, and if so in what form (Nominet meet on it late this month, but the minutes of the meeting won't be published overnight)

Until then, Nominet are saying nothing at all.

 

[thecat]

Thanks Edwin - it might be worth someone updating the OP with those 2 lines. Saved me a lot of time

 

[4ndy]

Latest Odds

What would the odds be on the .UK actually going ahead?

Is it EVS for both or 2/7 NO and 9/4 YES

Can anyone quantify this in odds terms?

Best wishes
4ndy

 

[anthony]

...Of course, Nominet also plonks some of the surplus cash in a bank account as a hedge against future uncertainties...[/url]

So long as they don't go speculating a load of cash on the stock market, or something equally foolhardy, only an absolute imbecile would do that!

 

[foz]

So long as they don't go speculating a load of cash on the stock market, or something equally foolhardy, only an absolute imbecile would do that!

I would rather see the cash stockpiled than see it given away to charity.

Charities are a gravy train, most have salaried staff and in real terms what is donated 20%-40% in donated value ends up where its needed.

 

[Edwin]

I would rather see the cash stockpiled than see it given away to charity.

Charities are a gravy train, most have salaried staff and in real terms what is donated 20%-40% in donated value ends up where its needed.

It's not a conventional charity. Nominet gives all the surplus to the Nominet Trust, which is spent on "stuff" that vaguely relates to computing/internet. Very little of what it does is "needed" in the conventional sense (it's not feeding starving people, rescuing animals, saving lives etc.) but it all looks grrrreat for PR purposes.

 

[Murray]

Just out of curiosity Edwin, if direct.uk were to go ahead, what kind of number of domains would you see yourself registering?.

+ That question to everyone else.

 

[Marcoose]

Just out of curiosity Edwin, if direct.uk were to go ahead, what kind of number of domains would you see yourself registering?.

+ That question to everyone else.

I personally haven't even thought about it and won't be until they feed back.

 

[Murray]

I personally haven't even thought about it and won't be until they feed back.

I guess it would also depend on what the reg fee would be finalised at, if it's going to be around that £20 then holding a big portofolio of domains is going to be a tough ask.

 

[stevebrowne]

personally speaking, if it does go ahead, I would cherry pick a few that I wanted to keep (personal, business etc.) liquidate the rest and concentrate on .com going forward and regret the day I ever decided to look at .co.uk as a long term option.

oh, and advise anyone asking me about domains to ignore the .uk names and go for .com.

 

[aZooZa]

I think good .co.uk as portfolio holds are fine, regardless of the .uk outcome. Just keep them prime. Trying to amass .com domains as an alternative isn't a viable option on a keyword-by-keyword basis unless your pockets reach to the depths of the Marianas Trench.

 

[murph]

personally speaking, if it does go ahead, I would cherry pick a few that I wanted to keep (personal, business etc.) liquidate the rest and concentrate on .com going forward and regret the day I ever decided to look at .co.uk as a long term option.

oh, and advise anyone asking me about domains to ignore the .uk names and go for .com.

Have to say, this would be my approach. I've already lost all faith in .uk. I only consider .com's for new projects now.

 

[markb]

If direct.uk goes ahead, I will definately only be using .com's for future development. .uk's arent reliable and too many defensive registrations would be needed, plus you never know when nominet would decide to try and screw you over again. Its a shame, because the uk namespace was absolutely great before all these proposals.

 

[websaway]

If direct.uk goes ahead, I will definately only be using .com's for future development. .uk's arent reliable and too many defensive registrations would be needed, plus you never know when nominet would decide to try and screw you over again. Its a shame, because the uk namespace was absolutely great before all these proposals.

It is beyond belief what nominet have achieved over the last 3 months, you couldn't make it up, they are like incompetent drunks driving a jetliner.

 

[Edwin]

Depends in what form. We have no intention whatsoever to get into bidding wars for particular domains, but if they're £20/year and we can get them then probably about 1,000 to match our top 10-15% of generics.

We would of course mark up the sale price of the .co.uk/.uk "package" significantly and insist all such domains sell as pairs or not at all.

 

[foz]

personally speaking, if it does go ahead, i would cherry pick a few that i wanted to keep (personal, business etc.) liquidate the rest and concentrate on .com going forward and regret the day i ever decided to look at .co.uk as a long term option.

Oh, and advise anyone asking me about domains to ignore the .uk names and go for .com.

+1

 

[Nigel]

If direct.uk goes ahead, I will definately only be using .com's for future development. .uk's arent reliable and too many defensive registrations would be needed, plus you never know when nominet would decide to try and screw you over again. Its a shame, because the uk namespace was absolutely great before all these proposals.

I agree .com is the beneficiary of all this confusion. That's why I'm against direct.uk. I don't have a plan B that I prefer. They just need to shelve it, say its finished and won't be looked at again, and then start the marketing campaign to restore and repair the .co.uk namespace.