11% of our recently dropped domains got picked up...

[Bailey]

Lets face it. the day the public pick-up on the whole concept of the .uk existence is going to be the day after the Press publish all the horror stories of convoluted/scammed/misused identities. About 2 to 3 days after the general release would be my guess. As lovely as the Nominet people are to talk to. I just hope they are planning on a 10 fold enquiry line for 2019. either that or a few million quid on a high profile press campaign (and not an ignored email junk-box job)

 

[aZooZa]

David, you're full of $%^&.

 

[RobM]

Amazing how a shitty low wage will turn people into whores Get used to it Azooza.

 

[aZooZa]

Well, honestly - what trite nonsense.

 

[aZooZa]

That would depend on their financial means, how long they project securing a return to take and how adept they are at picking domain names that will have value. Obviously some people are better at this, when doing it at scale, than others.

Really?

 

[Edwin]

That would depend on their financial means, how long they project securing a return to take and how adept they are at picking domain names that will have value. Obviously some people are better at this, when doing it at scale, than others.

Surely it depends only on being able to pick names that will command at least 1 £50 bid on DL? That's a 10x markup on registration costs. So if you have the catching infrastructure it's a few minutes work per caught name but a nice ROI if you can do it in some volume. You can get it wrong 50% of the time and still make money in volume. Hardly "risky".

Of course, if you're reliant on buying in the drop catching expertise off a third party at £30, £40, £50 a caught name (or whatever that particular catcher charges) then the math falls to pieces.

 

[Edwin]

Amazing how a shitty low wage will turn people into whores Get used to it Azooza.

Not that low - it's higher than the average national wage for 30 days work a year.

 

[Edwin]

I forgot that I can't possible be allowed to hold an independent opinion on how things currently are with the state of the ROFR compared to how it could have been, given I'm an NED and of course no way associated with a domain name investment entity that holds any desirable .co.uk domain names.

It's not that, it's that in the entire universe of domaining, there is exactly one relatively high profile, vocal cheerleader... and that's you!

Everyone else sees it for the car crash that it is.

So it's hardly surprising that people connect your unique position and your paid position, and assume that the latter influences the former.

 

[Edwin]

There is a gulf as big as the ocean between modifying your business model to make the best of bad developments in the industry and thinking they're now a good thing. All your commentary tends towards the latter.

The final implementation of .uk did not magically go back through time and make the idea itself a good one.

It was bad for the UK namespace to introduce .uk, period. The apathetic take-up and general confusion are testament to that.

Surely taking advantage, where possible, of the limited new opportunities presented by .uk doesn't equate to it being a good idea.

As to your last line, I cannot disagree more. The biggest disaster is still to come, June 2019, when the ROFR expires and it becomes a bunfight, free for all. If the domain name industry has had a bad name to date, that's as nothing compared to the chaos the deadline expiry will unleash. Trust in Nominet will plummet. Trust in the extension will plummet. Costs will sky-rocket.

You can't pretend they won't. We've all seen the numbers, done the math. There is no conceivable way of spinning .uk so that it ends up "the same or cheaper" than the previous status quo. Coupled with Nominet's vampiric price-rise, it makes domain ownership much, much more expensive.

But the organisation that you're so cosily tucked up in bed with will make loadsamoney, so that's ok...

 

[Edwin]

BTW, it's frequently been discussed that Nominet should try and do better outreach.

But I'd argue that your constant cheer-leading for them is having 100% the opposite effect.

 

[martin-s]

But I'd argue that your constant cheer-leading for them is having 100% the opposite effect.

What he said.

.uk is pretty much a total failure thus far - and I can't be the only one hoping it stays that way? Can't it die a quiet death and let us all move on?

 

[aZooZa]

I have faith it won't be a big disaster because nobody wants that.

You'd've done well selling tickets for the Titanic.

 

[martin-s]

Lots of people and entities are going to make money from .uk. Some domain name investors are and others are investing in these names, warehousing them. You seem not to be aware of this. As a self interested domain name investor, in this particular instance, I want to legitimately make sure I end up being one of those.

My feeling is that you'll lose every penny you spend on .uk.

 

[Edwin]

My feeling is that you'll lose every penny you spend on .uk.

No he won't. His domains are good enough that the .uk versions are going to be worth > regfee, even if .uk << .co.uk in value. And that's fine, for him.

But what's true for David isn't true in 99.9% of cases.

 

[ian]

I'm uncertain of the future of the .uk extension, but for the price of the reg fee, I'm happy to take that gamble over the next few years. I'm not in the enviable position of having to decide whether to register thousands of .uk's in 2019, but maybe that is a good thing!

I wonder if David will answer this, he's often mentioned that he's happy with the ultimate process Nominet introduced for .uk compared to earlier considerations, but hasn't from what I've seen said whether he wishes it had been rolled out at all. Would appreciate his personal opinion as a domain investor on this?

 

[martin-s]

No he won't. His domains are good enough that the .uk versions are going to be worth > regfee, even if .uk << .co.uk in value.

What if .uk has no value whatsoever?

 

[Admin]

BTW, it's frequently been discussed that Nominet should try and do better outreach.

But I'd argue that your constant cheer-leading for them is having 100% the opposite effect.

Quite, I had a small amount of optimism when @[email protected] joined the forum, but she hasn't made a single post, not even an introduction.

 

[Blossom]

BTW, it's frequently been discussed that Nominet should try and do better outreach.

But I'd argue that your constant cheer-leading for them is having 100% the opposite effect.

Actually I think the opposite is true. No one wants to be somewhere they feel like they're going to be attacked.

 

[martin-s]

Actually I think the opposite is true. No one wants to be somewhere they feel like they're going to be attacked.

I agree with the principle of what you say, but to be fair we've had to put up with quite a lot of bull from someone who isn't exactly living up to his billing while you've been away.

Of course, as someone from a 'big 20' background I imagine you might be more "commercially minded" than several of us regarding management of the namespace.

 

[domainseller200]

None of this will matter in 12 months time when we are all dying in bunkers from radiation poisoning