Drop list consultation

Gill · Oct 20, 2019

The solution to this is to suspend domains for 30 days from the renewal date and then release them on a random day and time over the next 60 days.

Siusaidh · Oct 20, 2019

Gill, while that might render scripts running constant EPP Creates almost useless (who would run many of them for 60 days), and might therefore ease pressure in that area, it wouldn't be convenient to the internet public. No way do I want to have to scour for a dropping domain for 60 days. And I think it's the wide general public and ordinary internet users who should be put first in the administration of the UK namespace.

Surely it's more helpful to everyone to simply release a list of names dropping, and affording the opportunity for anyone to bid for any given name that becomes available? No EPP creates (so the same positive outcome as your approach on that score). But far clearer information on when you can get access to the domain.

Say I have a cat called Kitty and I want to register Kitty.org.uk which I see has not been renewed.

Under your proposed system, I must log in many times a day for 60 days in the hope that I'm the first to spot it has dropped. Hugely inconvenient.

If you take my approach, and list all the names, with a 10-day period when you can bid for the name, I can go online once, make my bid, and if needs be, engage in final bidding in the last half hour. Open access to people in the whole country, regardless of whether they are Nominet members or registrars or anything else. The ease of a simple system.

Being devil's advocate, sure, a porn empire person may step in and outbid me for Kitty.org.uk - that's just market forces.

On the other hand, what actually happens with the present status quo is that name catchers (like myself) end up grabbing whatever good names they can, then in many cases cybersquatting on them, while they sit for years on Sedo with exorbitant prices, taken out of the namespace for years, on the basis that you grab 1000 good names, and 10 sales will get you a profit - 990 other names just hanging vacant and unavailable.

I 'get' the whole drop-catching business because I use it myself, but it's so obvious that an immediate auction, at point of drop, would be fairer to everyone, more convenient, and would reduce cybersquatting because at auction prices more names would end up actually used and developed, not hanging unused on sites like Sedo.

People say that Nominet running auctions for names where multiple people want the same name would mean they are acting as registrars. No. Nominet already has a monopoly on selling every single .uk related domains at registration point. But selling a few of those names at whatever price the market dictates would not have to end the Registry/Registrar set up.

As part of the preconditions for bidding on a Nominet auction, all bidders could be required to designate a Registrar/tag they want a winning name to be managed by. And those registrars would get the benefit of future renewals.

In addition, if Nominet does not want to be seen to be making profit from an auction system, they could create a not-for-profit auction site, where all revenues in excess of £3-75p a domain name go to charity. Brilliant outcome! In that situation, Nominet would simply be selling the registration for the same basic price as all Nominet names, so in their function as Registry their income would be consistent. The Registrars would still be involved as obligatory parties in the name, once released. There would be no more or less monopoly than under the present system. It would be far easier for the public.

Now people say Nominet cannot do that, and it would be anti-competitive. That's spurious.

They can do it, if they choose to. It's no less competitive as a process, because bidders compete against each other, like they end up doing anyway if the names ever get placed on auction under the present system. The registrar competition would be involved in who people choose to nominate for their designated registrar when they bid.

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If the Nominet auction system came in, I might lose out, because I might well be outbid for a domain I want (just like I am on auction sites under the present system. That's simply market forces).

But it would be far more convenient. No wondering when domains will drop. No drop-catching process. No EPP creates on the Nominet system. Just: these are the domains. They are dropping on yy/yy/yyyy. Any bid from zz/zz/zzzz will trigger an auction. All the rest will drop as usual, at a specific time.

Although I might lose out under the system I suggest, I believe the UK namespace should be run in the best interests of the widest possible number of the UK public (or even the worldwide public, but that's a different issue).

And to distance Nominet from charges that they are profiteering, the bulk of all bid money could go to charities.

Gill · Oct 20, 2019

Siusaidh said:
Gill, while that might render scripts running constant EPP Creates almost useless (who would run many of them for 60 days), and might therefore ease pressure in that area, it wouldn't be convenient to the internet public. No way do I want to have to scour for a dropping domain for 60 days. And I think it's the wide general public and ordinary internet users who should be put first in the administration of the UK namespace.

The "internet public" don't get a look in at the moment. Assuming Nominet won't auction domains themselves, increasing the randomness of the drop is the only practical way to stop the cheats.

The ideal scenario for me is that Nominet nominate a number of charities, auction any valuable names that aren't renewed and donate the proceeds to those charities.

Siusaidh · Oct 20, 2019

But why should we 'assume' Nominet won't auction domains themselves.

I agree Gill, as a pragmatist, I think you are right.

But since in ideal principle you agree that in-demand names should be auctioned, should we not be asking: if not, why not?

And I think the decision whether to auction a name should not be down to Nominet - it should simply be triggered by the first person willing to bid on any particular dropping domain name.

As you say, all this is academic unless Nominet believe they should do it, but frankly I believe they should.

Does Nominet, does the registrar system, exist for Nominet and the registrars, or for the best interests of the UK public?

Auctioning dropping domains makes them more accessible to the wider public, albeit in a market place which determines price just like everything else we buy.

The registrar system is not jettisoned in the model of auction I propose, because the bidder would have to designate a receiving registrar as part of the bidding process. It's just that everybody could participate and purchase, instead of a small number of people (in practice dominated by about 20 most regular catchers), at the point that a domain becomes available.

An Nominet auction system would not harm Nominet or the registrar model. Indeed, if Nominet chose to, channelling proceeds to charity beyond the basic £3-75 they regularly charge for a domain, would earn Nominet spin and PR.

The real question is why this obvious course of action isn't implemented.