At 1/4/02 5:26 PM, William X Walsh wrote: >Why should a domain that has previously been registered and then >expired be treated as worth any more value than one that has not?
Because any domain that's worth money on the speculation market has already been registered. I'd be all in favor of charging extra for high-profile domains that nobody has yet registered, too, but in practice, there really aren't any (short of new trademarks being created, etc., and in those cases the trademark owners probably do have a legitimate right to them, or will at least register them first, making the point moot). >I say it is not the fact that the domain is being expired and deleted >that gives it value, but the string itself. Of course. However, pretty much all the strings that have value are owned by someone, and your only hope of getting one is that it might expire, so in practice it's the same thing. >If the string is >desirable, it has value, but that is not a judgement call the Registry >or Registrars should be making. Again, I agree -- I don't think the registry or registars should be setting a fixed price. That's why auctions are the way to go; the free market will then decide what the real value of a domain is. Realistically, some domains *are* worth more than others. Why should they be sold all for the same price? Even I can't see the justification, and I'm virtually a socialist. Now, again, I'd like to see that money do some good. For example, it could be used to provide free names to registered nonprofit organizations or something. But that's a separate, distracting argument I won't bother with here. >Domains should stick to FCFS <shrug> We've discussed that before; I don't think a fair implementation of first-come, first-served is possible with expiring names. The unpreventable registry hammering by people with deep pockets effectively guarantees the little guy at his keyboard won't get any valuable ones. Not that auctions would fix that, either. But at least whoever does get the domain will pay what it's worth, the industry will make more money, and the problem of how to handle the drops would be solved (at least the overwhelming load part of it). -- Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies
