Registrant Type

[Admin]

I have received an email from Nominet telling me "It has been brought to our attention that the following domain names are not correctly registered."

Thanks whoever that was

All of these domain names are registered with the registrant type 'individual' with the following in the 'trading as' field = 'Domain for sale - contact [email protected]'

I have seen a lot of people doing this so I joined the party. I don't think it has ever sold me a name though so I am not that bothered.

I have been told to ensure that no further registrations are made that "misuse the 'trading as' field".

So I just whoised a domain that has this in the registrant type field:
"Registrant type: Not supplied" with an advert in the "trading as" field.
So if I dont declare the registrant type does that then become acceptable?

I have also seen names registered to "AB" not even putting a proper name.

Is this a general Nominet clean up or do Nominet only change things if someone "brings it to their attention" ??

Admin

 

[retired_member6]

I think they're targetting Acorn members as it's an easy bust.

It has been brought to our attention that you do not meet the criteria
to use the opt out service. The reason for this is that we believe that the registrant of the domain name as recorded on the register database (**) is not the full legal name of a living individual.

Please note that we have removed the opt out, and that the address details that we hold for you will be published on the WHOIS without further notice.

 

[domaingenius]

There surely cannot be anything wrong with putting " admin t/a [email protected]" as there is no legal restriction on having such a trading name.

DG

 

[Admin]

There surely cannot be anything wrong with putting " admin t/a [email protected]" as there is no legal restriction on having such a trading name.

DG

That was my perception, apparently Nominet see it differently.

I have just seen another WHOIS record where the email sales ad is appended to the end of registrant name - is this allowed then?

 

[texidriver]

They can bust you if you put in a bogus phone# like 000-000-0000

 

[texidriver]

Why would someone go to the trouble of doing as I described and *then* putting a false phone number? Since it's an "unofficial" way of showing a phone number, I don't think anyone's going to "bust you".

sorry In, can I call you in ?

I was responding to admin's post

"What you must do

4 You have various responsibilities set out generally in this contract. You must also:

4.1 give and keep us notified of your correct name, postal address and any phone, "

http://www.nic.uk/registrants/legal/terms/

 

[Jay Daley]

If you really, really are t/a "domain for sale" then you can put that in the t/a field, however in all of these cases that is obviously not the case.

Putting "domain for sale" etc in the legal registrant field is also not acceptable - and, I should warn you, very dodgy since it can lead to the name being cancelled for false details.

The nameserver trick is cute and I've seen it say

if.you.are.the.registrant.then.contact.your.tagholder

but again this is a misuse and we will ask for it is to be removed.

Just to be clear this is a general sweep, of the type we do regularly, no individuals tag holders/registrants are being singled out. We did one last year on people putting N/A in the registrant field.

The good news is that we are going to provide a "WHOIS for tags" later this year, where all of the data shown will be provided by tag holders and one of the fields is specifically designed to allow you to put that sort of thing in:

http://www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAssets/2989_WhoisForTagHoldersDec.pdf

 

[Jay Daley]

I forgot to say, I do have some sympathy with the notion that we should allow some form of free text to appear on the domain but there are obvious concerns that it will be badly abused - offensive material, political statements etc. If anyone has a practical mechanism whereby they think this can be achieved without allowing it all to go pear-shaped then please let me know.

 

[Jay Daley]

So I just whoised a domain that has this in the registrant type field:
"Registrant type: Not supplied" with an advert in the "trading as" field.
So if I dont declare the registrant type does that then become acceptable?

I have also seen names registered to "AB" not even putting a proper name.

Is this a general Nominet clean up or do Nominet only change things if someone "brings it to their attention" ??

Currently the registrant type is not mandatory.

This is a general clean up, but like most general clean ups starts with a complaint about a specific misuse.

If you want to make a complaint about the names with "AB"....

 

[FC Domains]

If anyone has a practical mechanism whereby they think this can be achieved without allowing it all to go pear-shaped then please let me know.

How about being able to submit text, which will then be added to database and a reference number given to each one. Then you could select which message you want to display.

 

[Admin]

Nice idea Colin.

Even something as simple as showing the Administrative Contact email like on .COM whois records would be an improvement, especially as Nominet already has this information.

 

[Jay Daley]

How about being able to submit text, which will then be added to database and a reference number given to each one. Then you could select which message you want to display.

No that's not what I mean. Displaying additional info is easy. My question is how, practically, could we provide a service that was not wide open to all sorts of abuse?

 

[Jay Daley]

Even something as simple as showing the Administrative Contact email like on .COM whois records would be an improvement, especially as Nominet already has this information.

Email addresses are just another way of contacting someone. Currently you have can send a snail mail to the address or, better still, visit the web site and see what that says.

The point is using the WHOIS to indicate the availability of the domain. Once someone knows it is available then the contact will generally be quite easy.

 

[FC Domains]

No that's not what I mean. Displaying additional info is easy. My question is how, practically, could we provide a service that was not wide open to all sorts of abuse?

The idea was that you could only display messages that you had requested and had been appoved.
For example I email Nominet and request a message that says:
"This domain name is for sale at http://www.blogsdomains.co.uk"
You email back to say that it's been added to the database and is available as M00234.
I put M00234 in the a message field and up it pops on WHOIS.

 

[Jay Daley]

The idea was that you could only display messages that you had requested and had been appoved.

See what you mean. However the approval bit is a job creation scheme. Unless you mean there is a pre-approved list, from which you can select one?

 

[FC Domains]

See what you mean. However the approval bit is a job creation scheme. Unless you mean there is a pre-approved list, from which you can select one?

You could have a standard list, plus a charge for adding custom ones.

 

[retired_member6]

If you want to give an option for a sale sign etc. then use a pre-selected drop down box. Job done.

'For Sale, Contact Via Domain'
'Not For Sale'
'Another Predetermined Selection'
'Yet Another Predetermined Selection'

There's no need to moderate anything then.

Personally I think all domain whois should have 'this domain might be for sale' as a must not an option, that way that's one less stroke against fair use and making people realise everything in the world is for sale, bar people against their permission and the Sun which is needed to power this galaxy.

 

[Jay Daley]

What is it actually an abuse of if the name servers are valid and resolve the domain name?

In this example they didn't. (says he dodging the question)

Did you delete the names without warning or attempt to make contact first?

No

If the latter, how did you establish the owner of the domain name?

Dunno.

I've seen this talked about. Will "most" users know about it?

We might well make our website whois (not the main whois, just the one you access from our front page) into a more 'HTML' version which has a link the output for that TAG. Our taglist will also contain links to that system, rather than the details of all tags in static form.

 

[rob]

We might well make our website whois (not the main whois, just the one you access from our front page) into a more 'HTML' version which has a link the output for that TAG. Our taglist will also contain links to that system, rather than the details of all tags in static form.

I think this would be a good idea as the current public facing WHOIS from nominet.org.uk is very technical from a user point of view.

ie. The WHOIS box on the bottom right has no guideance to use just "WHOIS: " and terms of use

Likewise a user is chucked from a nice info laden site (the main nominet page) to plaintext output.

Just from useability point of view it could be improved for the user accessing from Nom's site.

As for extra information in WHOIS results... not sure if 'adverts' have a place there

Cheers,
Rob.

 

[SF]

What gets me about Nominet site since there new updated site and the whois limit being reduced to 1000 look ups is the constant scrolling down the page to imput the domain to check.

It was much better before when the site fitted the page!

Am I just being lazy? :mrgreen: