[registrars] domain delete proposal guidelines

[Rick H Wesson <wessorh@ar.com>]

Problem Statement
The procedure implemented by the VeriSign Registry to batch delete domains
is being gamed by a few registrars that have created a market for domain
names due to be deleted. I the registrars attempt to re-register these
deleted domains they have been consuming more than normal system resources
at the registry thus preventing other registrar from performing normal
business during the "landrush" for the deleted domains.

The registry has implemented a short term policy of not deleting domains
until a new procedure has been developed to allievate the contention for
connections and lower the load of check requests to a normal level. Until
this situation is resolved all deleted domains will be on "Delete
Pending."

Below are several proposals from registrars, and one from the GA on how to
resolve the problem. I encourage everyone to review these and post their
thoughts or additional proposals to the registrars list. I'll maintain a
list of the ideas and any other information I can gather from the
registry.

Some guidelines for proposals:

   o The proposal MUST be fair to all ICANN Accredited Registrars
   o The proposal SHOULD work within the current RRP 1.1 protocol.
   o the proposal SHOULD NOT encourage the use of the CHECK DOMAIN
     command to find out available names in the pool of names to
     be deleted.
   o The proposal SHOULD NOT give a greater benefit to a registrar
     that uses more RRP Connections over a registrar with a single
     RRP Connection.

I'm sure that there are more requirements, the above were just off the
top of my head.


-rick


Larry Erlich <erlich@domainregistry.com>

   As has been mentioned, why not an auction where Registrars take
   bids for desirable names from customers?

   1) The REGISTRY gets a fee per name for developing and implementing
   the systems to allow registrars to submit bids on behalf of
   customers.

   2) The REGISTRARS get a fee for accepting the bids from potential
   customers.

   3) The registrar who is RELEASING (has deleted or about to delete)
   the name gets a % of the name sale to insure that it is in their
   best interest to release the name, and not sell it or retain it
   themselves.  This would take care of names that are within the 5
   and 45 day windows that don't even go on registry hold (by
   providing an incentive to the registrars of those names to have
   them handled in the same way). It would also take care of
   registrars monitoring expiration dates of those names trying to
   grab them by engineering abusive systems.

   3a) The other % gets split among ICANN and other ICANN accredited
   registrars according to some formula that would have to be
   developed.

   4) Bids can be submitted for any name, even if it is not
   expired. That way customers don't have to constantly monitor the
   process. The bids will remain private, only being known by the
   registrar who collects the bid and the registry.  We get many cases
   of people who would like names that haven't even expired yet, and
   I'm sure they would pay a nominal fee to be able to bid for the
   name if it ever was available.

   IANAL, but with the auction approach (unlike the "application"
   process) it's legal since the winner is not picked randomly.

   And, it is fair for consumers, since one small fee, paid to the
   registrar of your choice, covers your bid for a given name.  With
   applications, you have to submit multiple applications with no
   guarantee even if you submit the most applications, only a better
   chance.  And you lose all the application money.  (And as we know
   the legality of that system is currently being questioned.)


   One final thought. People wanting to register expired names will
   complain about the fact that they have to bid on expiring
   names. But let's face it. They don't stand a chance of getting the
   desirable names right now, unless they buy them from the person who
   knows how to work the current system.


A proposal from the GA by Russ Smith

  The solution is rather straighforward.  You isolate the "grabbing"
  system from the rest of registry system so normal business is not
  affected.  Then you implement a landrush system similar to what is
  being used for some of the new TLD's.  Of course it would have been
  much cheaper to implement this at the start of the shared registry
  system.  To go back and try to fix it now will be much more
  expensive.

  Among most of the average domain buyers I believe a "consensus"
  existed years ago that the system should be corrected.  However, the
  people at Verisign are only concerned with the "consensus" of their
  shareholders.  Since there was no profit motive for doing this it
  never was done.

Kevin C. Ranck <kcr@addresscreation.com>

   One possible implementation:

   On Sunday, Verisign GRS would randomize the pool of expired names
   from the previous week and distribute a list to each accredited
   registrar (number of names registrar would receive = pool
   total/accredited registrars).

   The registrar has until the following Saturday to claim (and pay
   for) those domains they want.  All unclaimed names go into a 'Once
   rejected' pool.  Those names are then returned to the pool to be
   redistributed on Sunday.  Once a name is rejected two times it is
   deemed not be valuable and is simply released according to the drop
   procedures that are in place now.


Chris Moore [mailto:seymour@itsyourdomain.com]

   1. Offer a 'grab bag' (for lack a better term) for the expiring
   domains.  The registry should publish the list of domains to be
   released. Then the registrars should put in requests based upon
   their client's desires. The names should then be randomly handed
   out amongst the registrars who put in requests.

   2. Maintain the ability to have all registrars hitting the registry
   full-force with the maximum number of connections simultaneously.

   3. Offer an isolated rrp server that only offers registration of
   expired domains (which stay taken in the regular registry until an
   hour or so after drop time).



Bruce Tonkin <Bruce.Tonkin@melbourneit.com.au>

   There is a relatively simple solution to this, and that is to
   separate out the market for expired domains from the normal market
   for new domains.

   This can be done in a similar manner to that for ".biz" and ".info"
   to handle landrush.

   (1) Registry queue up expired domains for a period (e.g 1
   month) and advertise a list of expired domains available

   (2) Registry accepts pre-registrations for these expired domains
   for a period (e.g 1 week)

   (3) Registry executes a random selection from the pre-registrations

   (4) Repeat cycle for ever

   There definitely needs to be a fairer system for allocating expired
   domains.