.UK Announced

[websaway]

At the Nominet meeting one of the panel trid to get a show of hands, if .uk was wanted but glossed over that Nominet would have to sort out the detail!

I did not want that vote, as the results would be very misleading, as we do not know which details they are going to change and to what!

I tried in instead to ask for a vote (show of hands) on who would take the proposal which is Nominet's best effort to introduce .uk exactly as it is.
There was no support from the chair for such a vote, as they know after hearing only some of the feedback their plans are flawed
and I doubt if anybody from Nominet would have even voted for it, as is.

The .uk proposal is simply "NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE"

Unfortunately as Nominet may go for some tweaks and a launch of .uk without further consulation,
then I hope all concerned will redouble their efforts to get Nominet to change the proposal (whatever your changes maybe)
rather than give in and accept that Nominet have already decided.

Was there any talk among attendees about the effect these proposals have had on the UK domain market since they were released ?

 

[Stephen]

uk domain market

Was there any talk among attendees about the effect these proposals have had on the UK domain market since they were released ?

I did not personally have any such conversations.

I have asked Nominet for some information about the recent renewal rates and registration data
as their figures are lagging behind but I'm constantly told this is outside the scope of the consultation.

However I will be requesting again that Nominet makes public the recent data.

I do not think that many people still know about it, to effect end user prices or non domainer renewals and new registrations.
Plus even if they did, they have probably not have thought through the
possible consequences on uk domains, as they are not aware of the pros and cons
of such a launch in its current state.

I did have it confirmed any .co.uk & .org.uk domains registered after 30th June 2012
would not qualify as "unregistered rights" under the current proposals.

 

[Stephen]

2004 Nominet PAB uk proposal

Can anybody please help?

I have lost my copy of the 2004 Nominet PAB uk proposal and cannot find a link to download it again.

Thanks.

 

[Edwin]

Can anybody please help?

I have lost my copy of the 2004 Nominet PAB uk proposal and cannot find a link to download it again.

Thanks.

http://www.mydomainnames.co.uk/3257_dotukrevisited.pdf

 

[Ging]

Omnishambles. Voted word of the year, just in time for this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20309441

 

[Edwin]

Here are the renewal rates for the last 6 months (from inside the Nominet Business Intelligence interface):

May 2012: 66.06%
June 2012: 65.70%
July 2012: 65.21%
August 2012: 64.79%
September 2012: 64.46%
October 2012: 64.39%

Will be very interesting to see the November figure in a week or so.

 

[websaway]

Someone outlined the problems of planning at yesterdays meeting but I don't think received an opinion from the chair. Three months is a long time in business all the actions in that period have an effect six and nine months down the line, so the effects this is having on uk business may not be measurable for some time.
Do Nominet go ahead causing unseen damage and if not is it even possible for them to retreat on this issue without conceding that the .uk will not be used in the future. Another phase of consultation will only compound the problems it's causing for some businesses.

Have Nominet painted themselves into a corner ?

 

[Edwin]

http://econsultancy.com/nz/blog/11161-is-nominet-s-uk-proposal-a-tax-on-the-digital-economy

Worth re-reading several times, then setting Twitter on fire with tweets about it.

 

[websaway]

http://econsultancy.com/nz/blog/11161-is-nominet-s-uk-proposal-a-tax-on-the-digital-economy

Worth re-reading several times, then setting Twitter on fire with tweets about it.

Yes, an excellent read, thanks for that.

In case people think they are going round in circles debating this issue, it is interesting to see just how the arguement gradually begins to stack up higher and higher.

 

[Edwin]

The problem is that you're all thinking of Nominet as a machine but its not, its a group of personalities who in the recent past have shown a propensity to decide a strategy in private and then push ahead regardless of opposition and often by discrediting and even attempting destroy those who dare to question it .

I know people like Edwin and Angie think it shouldn't become personal but for goodness sake, look at what happened with Angus Hanton, Jim Davies, Emily Taylor, Jay Dayley. Look at what was said when questions were asked about the CEOs input into the independent governance review. Does no one see a pattern and if you do then why are we letting history repeat itself.

In order to have a reasoned debate you need reasonable people and at what point will we wake up and see that we're not just dealing with unreasonable people but that they also have an agenda.

Sean, what do you propose as an alternative?

I agree with most of what you posted, btw. I have already made it extremely clear just how frustrating the whole process has felt because you basically feel like you're trying to land punches on thin air.

However, from a pragmatic, practical perspective, I can't really see that turning one's fire on a specific bogeyman or group of bogeymen is going to improve the situation - the only hope that I can see is to continue to kick and scrabble to get PUBLIC attention to the issue and its flaws i.e. media coverage.

Surely it gets a little tiny bit harder for (the people pulling the strings at) Nominet to get away with their ludicrous plans with every article that points out, IN ADVANCE of anything actually being decided, just how ridiculous, unworkable, unfair, business-destructive their proposal is?

Yes, it can feel like chipping away at a tree with a nail file, but every flake of wood that peels off is one little step closer to bringing that tree down.

 

[Brassneck]

Here are the renewal rates for the last 6 months (from inside the Nominet Business Intelligence interface):

May 2012: 66.06%
June 2012: 65.70%
July 2012: 65.21%
August 2012: 64.79%
September 2012: 64.46%
October 2012: 64.39%

Will be very interesting to see the November figure in a week or so.

For completeness, can you quote the figures for earlier in the year - from memory there was a significant drop.

Stephen.

 

[websaway]

The problem is that you're all thinking of Nominet as a machine but its not, its a group of personalities who in the recent past have shown a propensity to decide a strategy in private and then push ahead regardless of opposition and often by discrediting and even attempting destroy those who dare to question it .

I know people like Edwin and Angie think it shouldn't become personal but for goodness sake, look at what happened with Angus Hanton, Jim Davies, Emily Taylor, Jay Dayley. Look at what was said when questions were asked about the CEOs input into the independent governance review. Does no one see a pattern and if you do then why are we letting history repeat itself.

In order to have a reasoned debate you need reasonable people and at what point will we wake up and see that we're not just dealing with unreasonable people but that they also have an agenda.

Do you think that they are on the brink of losing the necessary credibility they require to function. Have they gambled and played their cards badly?

 

[Stephen]

Nominet credibility?

Do you think that they are on the brink of losing the necessary credibility they require to function. Have they gambled and played their cards badly?

At the moment Nominet can say they have the support of the big registrars who see this as more stock to sell, and I don't thing they thought it through fully even from their perspective, although they have expressed that changes to the .uk proposal are required to Nominet

But if the big registrars see the writing on the wall and the flaws and potential downsides effecting them, as businesses they could quickly change direction, I think it would then start to leave Nominet looking very vunerable.

But Nominet will always play the card what's all the fuss about it "it was only a proposal" - the answer to that would be that they put it together as their best plan and if implemented as is, would have the potential to set the uk namespace back 20 years!

 

[Brassneck]

Here are the renewal rates for the last 6 months (from inside the Nominet Business Intelligence interface):

May 2012: 66.06%
June 2012: 65.70%
July 2012: 65.21%
August 2012: 64.79%
September 2012: 64.46%
October 2012: 64.39%

Will be very interesting to see the November figure in a week or so.

Actually just looked the pdf report I get every month from Nominet - the figures in that are lower and different to yours. Do you get the pdfs also to compare whether there is a difference?

The figures I have seen indicate the decline has been continuous throught 2012 so unless the rate drops one or two per cent in November it will be difficult to say it is other than the recent trend. I also have a feeling there is a lag (i.e. some renewals are recorded late) so it may take a while to get a clear picture. Might explain why my figures appear to be lower than those from live system.

Stephen.

 

[Edwin]

Actually just looked the pdf report I get every month from Nominet - the figures in that are lower and different to yours. Do you get the pdfs also to compare whether there is a difference?

The figures I have seen indicate the decline has been continuous throught 2012 so unless the rate drops one or two per cent in November it will be difficult to say it is other than the recent trend. I also have a feeling there is a lag (i.e. some renewals are recorded late) so it may take a while to get a clear picture. Might explain why my figures appear to be lower than those from live system.

Stephen.

I don't have the PDFs you're talking about unfortunately. I looked inside the Business Intelligence interface and noticed there are a few tabs which purport to show data for the whole market as well as one's own tags (especially in data rather than graph mode) and that's where I found those numbers.

 

[Brassneck]

I don't have the PDFs you're talking about unfortunately. I looked inside the Business Intelligence interface and noticed there are a few tabs which purport to show data for the whole market as well as one's own tags (especially in data rather than graph mode) and that's where I found those numbers.

OK - did you know you can sign up for the monthly reports?

Does the interface show data for the first part of the year also?


Stephen.

 

[Stephen]

Independent Experts

http://econsultancy.com/nz/blog/11161-is-nominet-s-uk-proposal-a-tax-on-the-digital-economy

Worth re-reading several times, then setting Twitter on fire with tweets about it.

Great post, well worth the read and then again!

Independent experts make it all the more true, that Nominet have created a bad proposal!

 

[Stephen]

quite the opposite!

No because their ace card is the ease at which they can vilify the secondary market.

But quite the opposite, Cyber squatting (intentional and unintentional) would happen on an enourmous scale, if you don't let genuine website holders who use .co.uk know about the action of .uk several times, convince them its a good thing not a scam and them get them to act in their millions before a certain date, a varity of others will register the .uk equivalent.

The only thing you cannot quantify is the numbers but I would estimate 1,000,000 (25% of used .co.uk domains) .uk domains will be owned by people who do not own the equivalent .co.uk (which is used for a genuine website).

Domainers will take of the unsold generics and quality names they own in the .co.uk space by registering the equivalent .uk (except for the ones taken in auctions) once the .uk registration price is sorted to a more acceptable level.

The new owners of .uk would not run the risk of DRS and would be waiting for the buy request to role in.

The numbers of .uk problem disputes would drawf the number of inequities currently in the .co.uk space.

 

[Paullas]

So more DRS = Even more revenue for Nominet

 

[anthony]

So more DRS = Even more revenue for Nominet

'Dame' has such a nice ring to it, don't you think!