Hello, In a previous post, I've identified at least 8 groups of existing competitors to SnapNames, who make offerings in the deleted names arena. [NameWinner, NicGenie, IARegistry, eNom, AWRegistry, Signature Domains, INWW, OnlineNic, AddressCreation, AllDomains, EastCom, PayCenter, ExpireFish]
Please confirm: 1) Whether clients of these companies and others will have an equal opportunity of purchasing a WLS name, or if in fact existing SnapBack holders will be grandfathered and automatically get the WLS. If the existing SnapBack holder of a premium domain that is currently on hold (i.e. supposed to be deleted) now has a certainty at getting a "Cheerleaders.com" or "Beijing.com" quality name (those are examples of premium names that were caught by competitors of SnapNames in the past) how is this not a windfall for grandfathered SnapBack holders? Won't the above groups of competitors suffer financial loss, due to their inability to secure those premium names, and instead have to settle for a $1 or $2 margin on a WLS subscription, which they may or may not get? 2) If in the alternative SnapBack holders are not being grandfathered, please document when the "Landrush" period will occur, and what mechanism will be used in this Landrush to allocate the WLS positions. Since this is a change of the "rules of the game" in mid-stream, affecting all competitors in the Expired Names community, I presume that there would be a Landrush period, and I would like to begin my preparations for it. 3) Given that there is a flourishing market with consumer choice in the Expired Names industry, how will this proposal promote competition for consumers, many of whom have already voted with their feet and have used non-Snap-Names type models? For instance, some existing models have no fee if a name is not acquired, whereas a consumer under the WLS proposal would not be able to get a refund if that name is renewed. 4) Have you considered applying this "test-bed" only to dot-net names, as proof of concept? Why does the test-bed have to include dot-com names, if only wants to prove that this system may or may not work, and then report back to ICANN? If it's only an experiment, I do not see why it need apply to all both dot-com, as you can get ample empirical data from dot-net alone. 5) Will WLS subscriptions ordered in the final two months of the test bed be honoured for an entire year? (thus making this "experiment" 2 years, instead of 1) 6) Why is data only being sampled in the final 2 months of this proposal (See paragraph 2 of the introduction), where the more interesting data would seem to occur at the beginning of the experiment, when presumably the Land Rush will occur? Sincerely, George Kirikos http://www.kirikos.com/ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/
