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UKBackorder - Not Accepting New Public Auctions ??

Discussion in 'The Bar' started by Johnp, Apr 5, 2020.

  1. Hay

    Hay Active Member

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    i suspect its because it was having a negative impact on their caught auctions... meaning they wasn't getting the bids they had hoped for... After all they did make the bids hidden because i suspect they didnt want the public seeing how low people are bidding on their caught auctions.
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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    IWA Meetup
     
  3. super-whois

    super-whois Active Member

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    LMFTFY
     
  4. Hay

    Hay Active Member

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  5. seemly

    seemly Well-Known Member

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    A subscription is a continuous recurring income. A single domain auction is not. Make from that what you will.

    Unless the service on offer is better or provides something unique over your competition, then you're going to struggle to truly compete and consume that potential custom base.

    The bulk of domainers are fundamentally tight-fisted by nature, and so they are not a good audience to attempt to generate revenue from.

    Take into account the hounding Rob was receiving, plus the support and queries he was providing, time left for development is pretty much nil - which is the saddest part and is probably the only aspect of it that Rob enjoyed in the first instance.
     
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  6. Ben Thomas

    Ben Thomas Well-Known Member

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    Or how high?
     
  7. Hay

    Hay Active Member

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    I find it hard to find "How high" as the quality of domains have not been that great, not just for Rob but in general.

    As for auction, like i said before, we need a community run auction with blockchain technology for full transparency and let it be "Free" for everyone with randomly selected acorn members as auction moderators to manually approve the domains to prevent spam domains being posted on it.. Several "Random" moderators would be able to vouch for bids, max bids and auction transparency rather than 1 person running the entire thing.
     
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  8. Ben Thomas

    Ben Thomas Well-Known Member

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    Perhaps, though I'm sure I remember Rob hiding the auctions not so long after a people started complaining on here about how bids were massive on backorders in comparison to public auctions, even though the domains didn't seem to be any better (sometimes worse) than those in the public section.
     
  9. DJ

    DJ Well-Known Member

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    This has all ultimately come about as a consequence of the shill bidding on caught auctions debacle a few months ago.
     
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  10. seemly

    seemly Well-Known Member

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    Without wanting to come across as negative or attacking; Go on, then. Get cracking.

    Once you realise how much of your own personal time it consumes on development alone, but then factor in how ungrateful the community is for your efforts, let's see how long you are happy to continue developing the platform.
     
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  11. Hay

    Hay Active Member

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    I understand the logistical challenge the build such a platform, i write code on a daily basis and it wouldn't be a two minute project. It would need a lot of time and effort which i why i referred to a "community" solution because if the community is behind the project and perhaps even several developers from the community then it becomes a manageable project however there are a lot of hurdles but i do believe there is a need in the market for something the community could control with as much transparency as possible without becoming a security issue.
     
  12. Murray

    Murray Well-Known Member

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    It shouldn't hurt droplist subscriptions

    Same as people bought filtered lists for the .UK drops, knowing what's dropping doesn't help much unless you have tools to filter them
     
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  13. Richard K

    Richard K Active Member

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    I used to give free bars of chocolate away to anyone in my neighbourhood who wanted them. But it became very expensive after a while, so I stopped.

    Now everyone hates me.
     
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  14. lazarus

    lazarus Super Moderator Staff Member

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    True that, for the more advanced filters that require a resource.
     
  15. lazarus

    lazarus Super Moderator Staff Member

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    I would be interested in a transparent community led "not for profit or free to use" auction site. I believe it has to be by the community for the community.

    I have the knowledge and time to contribute to such a project if we can get a few more that are willing to commit then lets go for it.

    Also maybe a poll to gauge interest in who will be willing to use it, so its not a wasted effort.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2020
  16. Siusaidh

    Siusaidh Well-Known Member

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    I think one real key would be user verification, to make bidding as transparent as possible. I've already been messed up once this week because of a fake bidder. There may be reasons why a bidder wants to protect anonymity at the surface level of what is shown on an auction web page, but it would be great if a core group were very strict about identity verification of anyone who wants the right to use the auction site. I think those running an auction site should know precisely who participants are, including contact details, all verified before they can take part.

    Further thoughts: I personally like the idea of a deposit that gets forfeited if a domain doesn't sell. (A variant could be, that the deposit is lost if that happens three times.) Otherwise you get people posting vast lists of absolute rubbish, which makes the site unclassy, and obscures the clear listing of decent domains.
     
  17. Hay

    Hay Active Member

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    @Siusaidh - With the right KYC process in place you could verify the identity of each bidder however if one single entity controls the auction then you have to place your trust that each bidder really has been vetted and in cases like Rob, you have to trust that those bidding against you are real bidders and not fake users specifically created to increase the bids on a domain in order to gain maximum profit.

    This would be hard to tackle which is why i suggested multiple Acorn members should have "Moderator" access where they can see the real bidders along with all the auction data because i suspect a single entity is not going to be able to pull the wool over all the "Randomly selected" moderators eyes in order to be biased on their own auctions unless in industry really is that corrupt.

    Ultimately we need to know for certain that each and every bid is made from a real user and not a user who is financially benefiting from making bids on the domain by way of pushing the price up or by way of a 50/50 split share on the hammer price
     
  18. Ben Thomas

    Ben Thomas Well-Known Member

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    That’s a lovely metaphorical story you’ve told, Richard. But I fail to see how it is relevant here? Nobody has any untoward feelings for Rob because he closed public auctions, in fact personally I think I said I would have paid for auctions or an auction subscription. But of course, you’d rather be right wouldn’t you.

    It is a sad world we live in.

    Roll on the new contender though, where one man fails another man prospers.
     
  19. Richard K

    Richard K Active Member

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    Ben, I think the facts have changed since this conversation began but at one point it looked as though he was going to continue allowing public auctions but only for those sellers who subscribed to UKDroplists for £13.99 a month.

    If you don't feel you need Rob's droplist, then surely the natural thing to do is to subscribe to it anyway and treat your monthly payment as a £13.99 subscription to his auction service. You say you would have paid for an auction subscription (and I do also remember your making that point earlier on) so, given that £13.99 would hardly be an exorbitant monthly auction fee, what really is the difference?
     
  20. Ben Thomas

    Ben Thomas Well-Known Member

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    Well, I would have probably done that had he given me half a chance :) as you say, facts changed very quickly. Also it seemed a bit underhanded the way he went about it. And you can say all you want about how it’s his business etc. etc. but when you’re in business with a public facing service, your customers should come first. I wouldn’t have minded paying either fee but it seemed a very large waste to pay for a drop list sub that I wouldn’t have used.
     
  21. Richard K

    Richard K Active Member

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    Fair enough.