Domainers Association

[Edwin]

Stupid question, but am I right in thinking that because a volatile user was excluded due to not agreeing to the rules or adhering to them that they might on purpose disrupt the running of the association perhaps by false representation or by even more abuse?

I am saying that there would have to be a LOT of exclusions for the association to be clean enough to be useful, and the collateral damage from saying "no" to so many people would be an undercurrent of ill-will towards the association that would no doubt get reflected when those excluded from participating spoke to the media, blogged, tweeted etc.

To sum up:

1. Nobody likes being excluded.
2. A LOT of people would have to be excluded because they wouldn't/couldn't meet the very stringent standards of domaining behaviour set by the Association (if they're not stringent, the whole exercise is pointless)
3. See 1.

 

[Edwin]

I am of the view that it's best to focus on your individual business, and leave it to the parties concerned to protect their intellectual property. It's too big, and too thankless a task, for any independent organisation.

Sums up my position in one neat, tidy paragraph, especially with my added emphasis.

 

[JamesTuplin]

I believe a far better way to organise such an association would be to gather experts from each field. I.e development, brokerage, affiliate marketing, transfers (all tlds) , technical, legal etc to offer non legally binding advice To others . I think the main issue before was that people wanted legal advice and protection for free. Just charge perhaps 50 GBP a year for impartial advice. This being split between the experts as a thankyou for their time.

 

[JamesTuplin]

I think the focus should be on educating others on domaining "best practice" not cleaning up the mess afterwards. 1 such service could be a risk assessment of a users portfolio. But again, it cannot get to the point where a members good will to help a fellow domainer then lands him in court.

 

[Ashton]

UK Domain Association.

The UK Domain industry is strong, successful and growing. However we do not have a body to represent us. There are rules, no repesentation and events are irregular and are either organised by individuals over forums, or by business'. There are international events but these don't cater truly to the UK audience.


What it would provide for domainers:

Listing pages
Services
Education
Resources
Tools
Certification
Representation
Events


What it would provide for business:

Education
Listings
Reports
Guidelines
Trust / Confidence

More things

 

[Brassneck]

I have worked in Government for 20 years and met with representatives from hundreds of trade associations. The worthwhile ones always have a couple of things in common. They employ staff and they are extremely professional / experienced / knowledgable / pragmatic etc. It costs serious money to fund these kinds of organisations - I would say minimum annual cost of £100k for a domain name association and that is absolute minimum. Not sure how that would be funded - although Nominet have plenty of spare cash.

Stephen.

PS if anybody is serious about setting up a group, happy to provide guidance of what works well in terms of actually being listened to by anybody who matters - e.g. Nominet, Govt, press etc

 

[Pred]

tend to agree with Edwin's posts

I think the idea from o/p is goodhearted and with good intentions but a little naive on what would work

Lots of time and money, plus anything is there to allow anyone else to start another 'domainer org' etc

most domainers are one man bands or like working in a small clique and keep themselves very private

i think meeting up for a beer is one thing and cool to network a bit but I don't really see any need for a little quango to be set up with no authority, power, recognition, relevance (insert adjectives here)

just my 2p

there will always be some dick registering amywinehousefoundation.com and the ltd. and thats what the public and press will focus on

smart businesses all know about generic domains and their value, nothing wrong with providing good info, but we all do this anyway, dont we? on our blogs. sites

 

[Bailey]

Given the general level of TradeMark law knowledge of a large percentage of domainers - it sounds like a terrible idea. Even those that believe they act in "Good Faith" get it wrong

 

[GreyWing]

there will always be some dick registering amywinehousefoundation.com and the ltd. and thats what the public and press will focus on

Agreed mate, I have lost count of people who actually handed over names free of charge, donated names, caught them for other people and it never ever gets reported either by Nominet or the Press.

So the press would still just focus on the bad stuff by non members then come to the organisation for a token comment condemning the individual.

Plus the person who run it would lose so many friends in the industry by as Edward says "excluding people". Making judgements in this game may not be very popular with others.

 

[Bailey]

Yep Far to many blurred-lines. From a pure domainers point of view I consider it unethical to profit from "Disabilities" - However a site builder can quite honestly provide a worthwhile resource

 

[Pred]

plus any such 'society' or 'association' would need to have the best acronym domain.
which would either be: 'dns' or 'dna'

good luck getting them in any relevant extension
ie: com. , .org, co.uk, .org.uk

I'm sure the irony is not wasted on any of us

 

[Brassneck]

Just in case people are wondering what exactly a proper trade association does, worth having a look at some of the diverse organisations listed on this site

http://www.britishservices.co.uk/associations.htm


As I said above, these are likely to be well funded and professional. Not impossible for the domain industry but would be a hell of a job to get off the ground. This one is relevant to us - http://www.ispa.org.uk/

And here is their membership list - http://www.ispa.org.uk/cgi-bin/member_list.cgi

 

[GreyWing]

Maybe though, a group of domainers like that all voting as a group at Nominet could offer some weight if it was ever needed.

I don't think it would do any good when looking at the public or attract a premium when selling a name. But could have benefits when looking the other way to regulation such as the internet regulation from Government or Nominet.