At 1/2/02 4:20 PM, Mark Jeftovic wrote: >Well I'm still digesting this. > >They compare this system to snapnames, there is a big difference. > >Other parties (read: people like me) still have a shot at domains >that are snapnames subscribed. > >This goes away under this proposal as far as I can tell. The registry >is doing an end run around everybody and basically locks the post-expiry >market on names subscribed. > >In short, there will be no competition for a given name. It will be >first come, first served. Maybe this is not a bad thing, since its >similar to domains now. But the cost is pretty steep.
I agree that a major qualm is the steep wholesale price. In order for registrars and resellers to make a profit, the retail price would end up around $79-99, I think. That's high, and I certainly don't want to see Verisign getting most of the money from this. The question of "who owns the name" and "why should Verisign think they own it when it expires" also comes up again, just as with the OpenSRS experiment. It feels slightly less evil because at least there is a level playing field across the registrar/reseller/registrant end of the business, although that playing field slopes sharply at the registry (Verisign) end, if I may extend the metaphor. Yes, it sucks that Verisign has a monopoly on the .com registry, but they do have it, and since I'm in favor of demand-based pricing, I guess I have to recognize that if people are going to pay a premium for desirable names (as I think they should to lessen the speculation mania that keeps bringing the system to its knees), the company holding the monopoly on the supply is going to do well from it. I'd rather see all the windfall profits dedicated to decreasing wholesale prices for less desirable names, or wiring schools for the Internet, or feeding homeless kittens or something, but I guess ideas like that are non-starters. Hmmm. At least such a system would (partially) codify the rules for domain drops at the registry level, which is needed, although I note they don't commit to dropping the non-wait-listed names promptly. The whole scheme is a scam, really. By definition the most desirable names won't be dropped anyway. Most people who sign up for this service would therefore be throwing their money away, and Verisign would make money selling vapor (a database entry). $40 wholesale when the strong odds are you get nothing! Sheesh. At least .biz lottery ticket buyers knew that the domain was going to be awarded to one of them. And here I am actually providing services to people in exchange for their money... what a sucker. Actually, I wonder if the proposed system would really change anything about the domain drop mania. Why wouldn't people just hammer registrars every day in the hope that they could grab a WLS subscription for sex.com that may be about to expire? -- Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies
