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.UK and .CO.UK Sedo

Nominet announces new policy consultation for expiring .UK domains

mcrick said:
Yes, but domain drop times would also be published and the theory is this wouldn’t really be worthwhile unless perhaps everything dropped at the same time rather than unique times per domain name.

Alternatively, as I keep reminding, it’s registry (not registrar) auctions. What do you prefer?
Click to expand...

I'd miss the adrenaline rush of catching if it went to an auction model, that would be me ducking out of domaining completely if it went that route. So I would absolutely prefer the timed drops and would consider the £6000 to still get an edge with additional EPP connections.
 
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I'm not even sure if i care too much anymore. There's too many tags now and the same small group of people catching the contested stuff I'm not sure how much it bothers me personally. You've got the same person often catching multiple contested domains each and every day it makes me question why i bother paying for my membership. Maybe not a bad thing?
 
There are two variations proposed within the auction option (1) ascending bid and (2) sealed bid. The first option with a £10 non refundable entry fee to be able to bid in any single auction. That means people can’t jump in on a particular auction later, if they didn’t pay the £10 non refundable fee during the specified time frame. The fee likely deters someone designing a service to enter every auction during the specified entry time frame, which someone would surely do if it were free to enter, and then selling access to someone else that didn’t enter but later realised they wished they had.
 
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Murray said:
They said " auction model – two variation"

Is that not registry and registrar options? or is it stated somewhere else exactly what those are
Click to expand...

No and yes. In the document. Pages 15 and 16.
 
Presumably in the pooled EPP scenario, Nominet see themselves as selling tickets to a lottery that would be held once a day at the same time. Each £600 EPP connection is in effect one entry, and no entity can purchase more than 10 entries. (In theory, wink wink, etc.)

From Nominet's POV they have to build a system that can absorb a phenomenal surge once a day but which wouldn't be overly taxed the rest of the time. Assuming that the drops really did go on a schedule, and that Nominet stuck to it, there would be little call to do lookups any other time of day except to check Whois/ownership, see what had been taken in the drop that day, etc.
 
I've voiced my opinion to Nominet and suggest everyone else does the same.

The option of auctions will eradicate cheating at the cost of destroying the drop-catch industry for hundreds of members. Nominet should not be in a position of determining the value of specific domains when their policy is that of a fixed registration fee. I could count perhaps 20 investors that would take part in auctions; those that buy regularly on Domainlore and through backorder companies; it would benefit only those with the deepest pockets, not those that invest at reg fee and enjoy the thrill of the chase (waking up each day to see who got what).

General public already have the option to register domains through registrars or backorder services; they have no disadvantage. We as members pay fees on the basis of expected returns; we take more risks than they do.

Improved vetting is needed for membership, KYC, photo identification, interview process (in person?).

If load on the servers is a big problem for Nominet, then sure, set a 2pm drop each day and remove the DAC. We will end up in the same situation as ROR where timing of the EPP creates was everything but it is perhaps more a lottery then. They need to remove the ability to have 6 connections per TAG and instead make it per membership. They suggested we pay for EPP connections but 10 batches of 6 would not offer an advantage because the time is known; of course it will, 60 creates is better than 6 creates, no matter what process is in place.

One things for sure, there is no 'one size fits all' solution to this; and I fear Nominet will make determination based upon profits, as they always have, at the cost of their small members. I'm actually surprised large registrars have not been proposed as beneficiaries in all of this.
 
You can also assume that whatever they come up with will disproportionately favour the big players. Just like allowing them to go behind the backs of millions of customers and grab "their" .uk domains did.

Nominet remains an exemplar of customer service - even now, I'm hard pressed to think of an organisation that handles issues better. But they have become a thoroughly "evil" organisation, a trend that has been growing for years, but really snowballed with the .uk release and the gigantic price hike.

That's why, with the exception of reaching out if I need help (and getting excellent service) I refuse to embroil myself in their infernal games any longer.
 
Two final thoughts...

- One benefit of an auction (there are MANY disadvantages) is that it may help to promote the "good domains are worth paying for" narrative, which could help sellers.

- Once you've established a mechanism to extract the "real value" of a dropped domain via an auction, it's only a hop, skip and a jump away from making every domain owner pay the "actual worth" of the domain name over to Nominet in some way. Beware the sharpened pencil!
 
One could speculate that Nominet ignored rule breaking to make people fed up with dropcatching so that an auction style system didn't seem so bad

I'm not sure if it has a name but it's done in politics isn't it

  • You have an objective people would oppose
  • You create/allow a problem
  • You present your original objective as the solution with much less objection
 
How will nominet determine what a contested domain will be if nobody is able to contest for it? Are they also going to be flogging the hugely contested SEO domains? I can't imagine that would look good for them. What about less contested domains, will they still be able to be drop caught..?

It's pretty sad it's got to this stage but it has been clear for a while this was on it's way.

And we all know by now Nominet always press ahead and get what they want regardless of consultation or not. That's just a front.
 
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Murray said:
One could speculate that Nominet ignored rule breaking to make people fed up with dropcatching so that an auction style system didn't seem so bad

I'm not sure if it has a name but it's done in politics isn't it

  • You have an objective people would oppose
  • You create/allow a problem
  • You present your original objective as the solution with much less objection
Click to expand...

You're spot on with this analysis. Let's face it - Nominet run their operations, hand in hand, with the large registrars. They've pretty much sown up every loophole. They introduced the .uk with the backing (and promotion) of these registrars - they can increase reg fees, and ramp up pay and bonuses way beyond inflation. But there was still this little irritation....dropcatching. The small operator being able to catch an expired domain for reg fee. Get that sorted and it's game, set and match to Nominet.
 
Murray said:
One could speculate that Nominet ignored rule breaking to make people fed up with dropcatching so that an auction style system didn't seem so bad

I'm not sure if it has a name but it's done in politics isn't it

  • You have an objective people would oppose
  • You create/allow a problem
  • You present your original objective as the solution with much less objection
Click to expand...

I've suspected as much for a while. All the while they were happy to keep lining their pockets with all these new tag applications to allow the chaos unfold to give them the situation they wanted. They've profited from this mess and they fine well know it.
 
It looks like some posts have been deleted, but the person suggesting a lottery doesn't really have a workable solution with that.

How can you have a fair lottery when if I played legit I'll have 1 entry and I'll be competing against an entire Bulgarian village?
 
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