UKBackorder - Not Accepting New Public Auctions ??

[Johnp]

Dear All

In case I have missed something can anybody tell me what has happened? also noticed no 'caught' auction seem to be currently running.

Thanks


JohnP

 

[Johnp]

Dear All

Anybody got any updates or thoughts about what has happened?

Thanks


JohnP

 

[stitchbob]

Message has changed:

"To create free public auctions you must have linked your account to a valid ukdroplists subscription"

 

[lazarus]

Just linked it and it is now allowing me to create one.

 

[super-whois]

And what if i don’t want a UKdroplist subscription?

Maybe consider it a subscription to an auction service instead?

There is no such thing as a free lunch (including Nominet ones).

 

[super-whois]

Maybe public auctions need to be renamed
MELITAWEB auctions... There are currently three auctions, all on said tag.

 

[super-whois]

But just simply forcing people to buy a new subscription is a bit duplicitous.

And doing so without any advance notification, or replying to queries regarding this. There is probably an opportunity for a new auction service...

 

[dee]

Seems strange Rob isnt replying to contact. Anytime ive had a question about anything he's back to you straight away. Hope he's alright wth all this stuff flying about.

 

[Johnp]

Looks like things have moved on again - all the public auctions have now vanished and the following is on the FAQ page:

Are you not running any more public auctions?
Running free public auctions was costing money in time for support, queries, refereeing disputes, time taken to verify statistics etc. As such public auctions have been discontinued.

Nice service whilst it lasted.


JohnP

 

[lazarus]

What an odd thing to do. Surely that was driving traffic to his business?

Yes it was. I wonder whats going to happen when and if nominet releases its own drop list. Personally I would have kept the public auctions going but charge an entry fee.

Its a shame because it takes time to get an auction site established, and to just end it, seems a bit rash.

 

[Hay]

i suspect its because it was having a negative impact on their caught auctions... meaning they wasn't getting the bids they had hoped for... After all they did make the bids hidden because i suspect they didnt want the public seeing how low people are bidding on their caught auctions.

 

[super-whois]

LMFTFY

i suspect its because it was having a negative impact on his caught auctions... meaning he wasn't getting the bids he had hoped for... After all he did make the bids hidden because i suspect he didnt want the public seeing how low people are bidding on his caught auctions.

 

[Hay]

 

[Hay]

I find it hard to find "How high" as the quality of domains have not been that great, not just for Rob but in general.

As for auction, like i said before, we need a community run auction with blockchain technology for full transparency and let it be "Free" for everyone with randomly selected acorn members as auction moderators to manually approve the domains to prevent spam domains being posted on it.. Several "Random" moderators would be able to vouch for bids, max bids and auction transparency rather than 1 person running the entire thing.

 

[Hay]

Once you realise how much of your own personal time it consumes on development alone, but then factor in how ungrateful the community is for your efforts, let's see how long you are happy to continue developing the platform.

I understand the logistical challenge the build such a platform, i write code on a daily basis and it wouldn't be a two minute project. It would need a lot of time and effort which i why i referred to a "community" solution because if the community is behind the project and perhaps even several developers from the community then it becomes a manageable project however there are a lot of hurdles but i do believe there is a need in the market for something the community could control with as much transparency as possible without becoming a security issue.

 

[Murray]

Yes it was. I wonder whats going to happen when and if nominet releases its own drop list.

It shouldn't hurt droplist subscriptions

Same as people bought filtered lists for the .UK drops, knowing what's dropping doesn't help much unless you have tools to filter them

 

[Richard K]

I used to give free bars of chocolate away to anyone in my neighbourhood who wanted them. But it became very expensive after a while, so I stopped.

Now everyone hates me.

 

[lazarus]

It shouldn't hurt droplist subscriptions

Same as people bought filtered lists for the .UK drops, knowing what's dropping doesn't help much unless you have tools to filter them

True that, for the more advanced filters that require a resource.

 

[lazarus]

I understand the logistical challenge the build such a platform, i write code on a daily basis and it wouldn't be a two minute project. It would need a lot of time and effort which i why i referred to a "community" solution because if the community is behind the project and perhaps even several developers from the community then it becomes a manageable project however there are a lot of hurdles but i do believe there is a need in the market for something the community could control with as much transparency as possible without becoming a security issue.

I would be interested in a transparent community led "not for profit or free to use" auction site. I believe it has to be by the community for the community.

I have the knowledge and time to contribute to such a project if we can get a few more that are willing to commit then lets go for it.

Also maybe a poll to gauge interest in who will be willing to use it, so its not a wasted effort.

 

[Siusaidh]

I think one real key would be user verification, to make bidding as transparent as possible. I've already been messed up once this week because of a fake bidder. There may be reasons why a bidder wants to protect anonymity at the surface level of what is shown on an auction web page, but it would be great if a core group were very strict about identity verification of anyone who wants the right to use the auction site. I think those running an auction site should know precisely who participants are, including contact details, all verified before they can take part.

Further thoughts: I personally like the idea of a deposit that gets forfeited if a domain doesn't sell. (A variant could be, that the deposit is lost if that happens three times.) Otherwise you get people posting vast lists of absolute rubbish, which makes the site unclassy, and obscures the clear listing of decent domains.