Hi Tony,

--- Tony <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Forgive me for being out of the loop... but what's WLS?

WLS is a "Waiting List Service" for expired domain names that Verisign
has proposed. Verisign would charge registrars $35/yr wholesale to be
first in line for a name. If the name expires, the WLS holder would pay
standard registration fees as well. If you're familiar with SnapNames,
it's the same concept as a SnapBack, however no others would be able to
attempt to get the name (i.e. like NameWinner, and other expired domain
name services). Also, if the name is renewed, the $35/yr wholesale is
non-refundable. 

At one time, WLS was proposed as a solution to high registry load, but
Verisign has since admitted that the current system (where registrars
compete for expired names in a "batch-pool") has completely solved all
issues of registry load. Now, WLS is being positioned a new revenue
source for Verisign.

You can read some of the background here:

http://www.byte.org/rc-deletes/

Verisign's official WLS documents are at:

http://www.verisign-grs.com/wls.html

A lot of discussion has taken place on the DNSO GA and DNSO Registrar
mailing lists. Archives of those are on the web, at:

http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/registrars/Arc01/maillist.html
http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/maillist.html

(discussions on WLS take place beginning in early January 2002)

Also, there are discussions on the OpenSRS mailing lists, starting in
late December 2001. They're archived at:

http://www.opensrs.org/archives/discuss-list/

One registrar described WLS as a "bottom of the barrel" proposal, in
comparison with all the rest of the proposals out there. That sums it
up quite well.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.kirikos.com/

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