RE: [ga] [ncdnhc-discuss] Re: WLS proposal

["John Berryhill" <john@johnberryhill.com>]

> I don't care about "average registrants" seeking to register the
> domain, but it does make sense to create a system that (a) protects the
> original domain holder if a mistake was made,

That is not a function of WLS as proposed.  The last person anyone on the
WLS wants to know about an expiring domain name is the registrant.  That, in
fact, was my objection to registrar participation in SnapNames many moons
ago - it provides an incentive for registrars to fail to notify their own
registrants of domain expiration.

Grace period or not, mistakes will continue to be made.  How many people
look at the grace period of various of their bills as constituting the
"real" deadline.  I, for one, do.  In my case, failure to obtain a dial tone
is the usual method by which I am apprised of the amount and deadline of my
telephone bill.  That's just me, but I am surely representative of some
population of domain name registrants.

Oops, no cable TV tonight...

> (b) does't require
> people to
> speed dial to "win" the expired domains,

That's right, with WLS as proposed, the race is to get on the WLS.  Same
race, different finish line.

http://www.dnso.com/comics/2002/Apr/3/


> If there is going to be a
> bidding system
> going on, they can bid directly with the old domain holder,
> rather than with
> the registrars.

Why is it preferable to have the old domain holder conduct an auction, as
opposed to the registrars, or anyone else.  Why does a technical
coordination system care who gets paid the same money?  The question is, is
something broken and in need of fixing?

> Giving domains to those who are good at "being
> first" when
> domains expire seems a bit weird to me,

RFC1591 may be weird, but it remains RFC1591.


>  A brief period to express interest followed by
> a lottery
> allows people to get a good night's sleep.

That's more or less what is going on now - nobody knows who is going to get
an expiring domain names, and everyone who wants one takes their chances
with one system or another.

>     Well, if it comes to that, who cares?

Whatever it comes to, it will come to another set of rules upon which clever
people will construct clever strategies.  The only difference is that all of
the money will go into one pocket instead of several.  That much is a
certainty.

Sort of like the byzantine rules for .museum names, which prudently allocate
swiss.frog.museum to the Swiss Frog Museum, rather than
frog.swiss.museum....




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