UKBackorder - Not Accepting New Public Auctions ??

[Hay]

I think one real key would be user verification, to make bidding as transparent as possible.

@Siusaidh - With the right KYC process in place you could verify the identity of each bidder however if one single entity controls the auction then you have to place your trust that each bidder really has been vetted and in cases like Rob, you have to trust that those bidding against you are real bidders and not fake users specifically created to increase the bids on a domain in order to gain maximum profit.

This would be hard to tackle which is why i suggested multiple Acorn members should have "Moderator" access where they can see the real bidders along with all the auction data because i suspect a single entity is not going to be able to pull the wool over all the "Randomly selected" moderators eyes in order to be biased on their own auctions unless in industry really is that corrupt.

Ultimately we need to know for certain that each and every bid is made from a real user and not a user who is financially benefiting from making bids on the domain by way of pushing the price up or by way of a 50/50 split share on the hammer price

 

[Richard K]

That’s a lovely metaphorical story you’ve told, Richard. But I fail to see how it is relevant here? Nobody has any untoward feelings for Rob because he closed public auctions, in fact personally I think I said I would have paid for auctions or an auction subscription. But of course, you’d rather be right wouldn’t you.

It is a sad world we live in.

Roll on the new contender though, where one man fails another man prospers.

Ben, I think the facts have changed since this conversation began but at one point it looked as though he was going to continue allowing public auctions but only for those sellers who subscribed to UKDroplists for £13.99 a month.

If you don't feel you need Rob's droplist, then surely the natural thing to do is to subscribe to it anyway and treat your monthly payment as a £13.99 subscription to his auction service. You say you would have paid for an auction subscription (and I do also remember your making that point earlier on) so, given that £13.99 would hardly be an exorbitant monthly auction fee, what really is the difference?

 

[Richard K]

Well, I would have probably done that had he given me half a chance as you say, facts changed very quickly. Also it seemed a bit underhanded the way he went about it. And you can say all you want about how it’s his business etc. etc. but when you’re in business with a public facing service, your customers should come first. I wouldn’t have minded paying either fee but it seemed a very large waste to pay for a drop list sub that I wouldn’t have used.

Fair enough.