Top Domains - a joke

[feKIX]

Am I the only person suprised by some of Sedos supposed 'top domains'??

Im beginning to think many of them belong to Sedo staff!

Come on......restlessleg.com ???? little-caymen.com???? madbusy.co.uk???

I dont mean to offend anyone if these are your names, thats not what Im trying to do, I am trying to understand the logic behind it all.
Sedo say 'we have experts'....yea, ok. So why are non english spelling co.uk domains making the cut and my single word generic correctly spelt domains arent?

....maybe 'cos many of them belong to staff? Feel free to prove me wrong here people.

I am more and more disheartened with Sedo as time go's by, purely due to this and other things. Even my domains classed as top domains are not being allowed into auction. My traffic stats are a tenth of what they were a year ago...even with more domains in my account. I have a very high ratio of non-payers regarding sales, some even pay then wont accept the transferral of the domain...meaning the get their money back and Im left with the associated costs of getting that far.

Now one thing I am sure of is this; Shaun will reply and do his best to mediate a situation like this even though its not down to him to choose the TD's, because Shaun is a decent individual who always tries to help.
It's a shame the rest aren't as willing.

I will wait to see what response I get to this thread before abandoning Sedo and taking my business elsewhere....but as for now my official comment is;

PANTS!

 

[rob]

....maybe 'cos many of them belong to staff? Feel free to prove me wrong here people.

Any examples of that?

 

[stevebrowne]

restless leg syndrome is a huge health/well-being area with 6,600 exact match searches last month

Little cayman is a holiday destination for US people, and is a .com, so suitable for dev. Like having brighton-beach.co.uk or something I guess.

 

[bb99]

Any examples of that?

PRSS "Frank Spencer" and see if any of the results are on the SEDO tag

 

[feKIX]

Any examples of that?

Hi Rob,
If you mean 'do I know who owns the top domains?', obviously the answer is no. I am not about to whois the list either! This thread is asking that question, which I think is valid. What percentage of top domains are owned by sedo staff?

Steve - would you class brighton-beach.co.uk as a top domain? I wouldnt!..even as a dotcom...but then I am not the one puporting to have an array of experts to decide.

bb99 - does Frank do parking?, if so I'll give him a try!!

I think the system is too lax, I am not expecting my names to get in all the time, I am just confused at the ones that do.

 

[stevebrowne]

no, I guess brighton-beach isn't top, top, top, but I was fishing for something vaguely similar in scope. I tend to agree that some of the top domain names can be a bit pants at times, but then I think some of mine are good (!)

 

[feKIX]

..and I dont mean to come across the same, I risk looking like a spurned lover!

I just think it undermines us all if below par names are getting in. If little-caymen is in then surely littlecaymen (without hypen) should be too if available, so how does that work...are they both top domains?

Experts.....

Yea....Just as I can call myself a professional at something just by doing it everyday...it doesnt mean I have to be any good an it.:?

 

[sedo]

Hi Guys,

First of all, how many of the domains belong to Sedo staff? Absolutely, categorically NONE.

Hi feKIX, could you PM me a couple of examples of your domains that were rejected? Maybe I can then have a look and compare them to what did get in.

I realise this is a topic of some contention to a lot of you and I understand that. Although we do stand by our judgement on picking the domains, of course it is not an exact science and there will always be differing opinions on what should get in and what shouldn't, even among Sedo members of staff. Also, the enormous amount of applications we get makes sifting through them a difficult task, and obviously there are only so many domains that can be accepted.

As always (now I'm back of my holidays and recovered from the jet lag), please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Regards,

Shaun

[email protected]

 

[bensd]

My traffic stats are a tenth of what they were a year ago...

How has this got anything to do with sedo????


Shaun - is there any way to submit a domain(s) to be considered for the "top domains" section, or are they just hand picked?


-Ben

 

[bluerock]

Part of the reason that top domains were missing lies in sedos reserve prices.
I tried to list Jukebox/co/uk but was told by sedo they would only list it if I put a reserve of £4995 on the domain nothing higher.

If Jukebox/co/uk was sold for £5001 I would be looking for the nearest cliff !

 

[bb99]

I would be looking for the nearest cliff !

Sorry, couldn't help myself...

 

[rob]

I guess the top names is not 'these are top names on sedo' but more 'these are ones that can be sold'

No point listing Great.co.uk for £25million if it will never sell otherwise Shaun would be out of a job!

From their point of view they want to sell names, so a group that will go with higher prominance is better for them. I agree the phrase 'Top Names' is abit iffy but it does make some form of sense

 

[feKIX]

Hi Guys,

Hi feKIX, could you PM me a couple of examples of your domains that were rejected? Maybe I can then have a look and compare them to what did get in.


[email protected]

Like I mentioned previously its not whats not in, its what is getting in. No Sedo staff own any domains?...that seems a bit strange to me as its their line of business. But if thats what the man says then I go with that.

Shaun, can you see then that 'bad' top domains undermines the whole process and makes someone like me think this way? Like I mentioned before, none of this is aimed at you or anyone personally, but when I find my own business colleagues looking at Sedos homepage whilst laughing and calling out particularly bad-top domains....it undermines the other good names on the list and makes me think twice about what makes a top domain. For instance my unsettle.co.uk is classed as a top domain....and come on, even I dont think its thats great!! That may seem weird but I want consistency...and that includes with ALL names (mine as well).

Shaun, you have told me personally in an email that little-caymen shouldnt be there.....so why is it still there?

I nderstand its not an exact science, but who exactly are these experts deciding the top ones? Are they independent to sedo? .

 

[nnh]

I dont have any top domains in sedo, I stopped submitting when they turned down one they had requested earlier for a european auction, at that time they had wanted to put a reserve of £10k on it!! A one work .uk generic term!

I understand where you are coming from!

I nderstand its not an exact science, but who exactly are these experts deciding the top ones? Are they independent to sedo? .

 

[sedo]

Hi,

No Sedo staff own any domains?...that seems a bit strange to me as its their line of business.

Auctions such as this are a good example of the conflict of interest that would arise with us owning domains and using our marketplace to buy/sell them.

Shaun, you have told me personally in an email that little-caymen shouldnt be there.....so why is it still there?

I gave you my personal opinion on that, but I didn't know for example that it is a holiday destination. The people who choose the domains are Sedo employees like myself, but as it is their job to do so, whoever accepted that name will have researched it first.

NNH - Could you please let me know which domain you are referring to? I would be very interested in that.

Regards,

Shaun

[email protected]

 

[feKIX]

Hi,

Auctions such as this are a good example of the conflict of interest that would arise with us owning domains and using our marketplace to buy/sell them.

I gave you my personal opinion on that, but I didn't know for example that it is a holiday destination. The people who choose the domains are Sedo employees like myself, but as it is their job to do so, whoever accepted that name will have researched it first.

Regards,

Shaun

[email protected]

Fair enough Shaun, for the record I value your personal opinion. I knew it was a holiday destination, but cant see how the hyphenated version is 'Top'. What happens if the unhypenated version is offered for sale through sedo (if it isnt already)?? Does it make the unhyhpened one a 'Great domain'?

How much research goes into classing a domain? If you have massive amounts to get through, surely there is a high possibility of 'getting it wrong', yet it seems you cant put it through again once its been refused.
What qualifications does a researcher have to have?

I think these are all valid questions Shaun (Im not just trying to give you more work to do!)...prove me wrong that its not just an educated guess, because if thats all it is I/we could all get away with having that sort of 'gimmick' on our sites, undermining sedo even more.

Its obvious I am not the only one who thinks this about sedo's top domains (according to this thread alone).

nnh - I too had a .com domain valued by sedo at £4800, classed as a great domain, yet refused to auction??? Although lets be honest...if it really was great, it would surely be worth a lot me than that!

 

[stender]

I submitted 2 domains which were accepted with a reserve of £250. They finished with bids of £150. I submitted for the following auction with reserves of £150 and they were turned down????

I also enquired about submitting a prime lll with a reserve of £15k and it was declined. Surely they should accept theres a chance it could sell for £15k+ and they get a nice cut for doing nothing. But no, so they get 100% commission of nothing. Also they wanted me to submit it to their german live auction, is that really a good market for a lll.co.uk???? i think not.

 

[retired_member16]

Shaun, you have told me personally in an email that little-caymen shouldnt be there.....so why is it still there?

Remind me never to send you an email.

 

[feKIX]

Remind me never to send you an email.

Firestars, thats not really fair, is it? Its not a question of breaking confidentiality, which is what I assume you mean.
If you do send me an email, just highlight the bits you want censored.

 

[sedo]

If you have massive amounts to get through, surely there is a high possibility of 'getting it wrong'

Without wishing to sound glib, there is no mathematical formula for determining the value of a domain and 'getting it wrong' is relative. However, you are quite right that a high amount of applications might lead to rushed research, and I have spoken to various members of our team stressing the importance of checking for anything that might increase the value of a seemingly worthless domain.

I can also tell you that after a chat with the Director of our Customer Service department here, there are plans afoot to revamp our system a bit with regard to Top Domains, and to make it much more stringent what gets in. In the meantime, again, please contact me with any questions/queries.

Regards,

Shaun

[email protected]