In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Ken Schafer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> was claimed to have wrote:
>Hi Bill, > >On Nov 19, 2008, at 5:01 PM, Bill Gerrard wrote: > >> I think activity on this list is a direct result of the state of the >> domain reg industry. In it's infancy, there was a lot to talk >> about, but in the last few years there hasn't been much to get >> excited about.... > >Really? Wow, can't say I agree with you there! I'm going to go off on a rant here, anyone not interested can tune out now. To me, the problem is that domains are no longer a new product, nor even a business model on their own, domains are just another commodity now. We're paying more wholesale with OpenSRS then our end users can pay retail elsewhere. This really scares off the little guy, and the big guys out there don't usually participate in online discussions, their corporate PR departments don't allow it, so these guys just call their sales guy and get whatever they want. Me? I might have a sales guy, I have no idea, I've certainly never talked to one, nor am I particularly interested in changing that. I prefer public discussions whenever possible. Certificates are another prime example, OpenSRS' wholesale price is $69, I can buy retail for $14.95 elsewhere (Single root, IE5.01+, Netscape 4.7+, Mozilla 1.0+) -- I was really excited when certificates showed up, but there isn't anything to discuss because the price simply rules out any possibility of a sale. The only advantage I can find to present to my customer is that I can get an OpenSRS certificate reissued, but for the price difference I can "reissue" the other one four times before learning to backup the certificate and still come out ahead. Adding a new TLD was interesting and possibly even innovative the first couple times, but at this point I literally can't even give away .info and .biz domains, nor even .org in most cases. Unless I missed something critical, and my last post went unanswered so maybe I did, at this point .tel is going to be another giant waste of time. The idea of adding phone information to DNS is somewhat interesting, especially in the mindset of encouraging convergence (think web+PSTN+VoIP integration. Being able to "call example.com" is neat and potentially useful), but making up a new TLD rather then integrating this into existing domains just stinks of a cash grab, adding user inconvenience and confusion into the market without adding value. I've been here since the 90s and it's a different world now. OpenSRS was one innovative, offering services we couldn't get anywhere else, or at a fraction of the price, with fantastic service to back it up. Skip ahead several years and we have a disjointed collection of various systems which all look like they're from the 90s, don't quite talk to each other or integrate except to share common annoyances, various promises of an updated or revamping RWI and API or client code have disappeared, and we pay a premium for it. So after all of that, why am I still here? Well, laziness is a big part of it. The support is good in the odd case where I need it, although sometimes only because I know which buttons to push to escalate an issue. Mostly I justify staying because Tucows/OpenSRS has been a force for good improving CIRA and ICANN, or at least trying to fight some of the more abusive practices out there. So no, there really isn't a lot to talk about, and moving to an even more difficult communication method certainly won't improve anything. -- Dave Warren, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Office: (403) 775-1700 / (888) 300-3480 _______________________________________________ domains-gen mailing list [email protected] http://discuss.tucows.com/mailman/listinfo/domains-gen
