Comments (7)

1. Snoopy says:

   March 17, 2020 at 1:04 am

   “For the record, I agree with Allemann: serious domain investors should never attempt to exploit these kinds of crises for financial gain.”
   /////////////////////
   Mostly because there is no money in it. The general public will never be cast domaining in a good light. We are as popular as used car salesmen, lawyers and politicians.
   Nobody is in this industry is here for the good of the world, we are all middlemen trying to add a few dollars more on. Let’s simply accept that rather than trying to paint a picture of domainers wearing halos.

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2. Roger says:

   March 17, 2020 at 2:46 am

   Interesting and well-researched recap.
   But…
   First, so no one can buy a domain name with an intent to make money from reselling it, or put up any content that might make them a few dollars in revenues if it does not meet the approval of the Board of Appropriate Domain Name Usage and Community Standards? Cmon.
   Second, Verisign can scour all the domain registrations for covid-19 and try to uncover abuses and use it to paint a bad picture of domain investors, as it desperately tried to do in the letter it submitted to ICANN. But keep in mind, anyone is free to register a domain name, including the average Joe who knows nothing about trademark laws, and does not know anything about professional standards in the domain industry. It’s not appropriate or fair to equate those uninformed Joe Six-Packs with professionals.
   Besides, who knows if someone related to a registry might just go out and register a contentious domain or a bunch of them, hide behind privacy, and put up offensive content and slap a $50,000 price on it, then they let it leak out just to try to make “domainers” look bad. Unlikely they would stoop to that, but is it not possible when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake to do what you can to undermine your opponent (in this case their customers?)
   On the topic of domainers, anyone who fixates on domainers and calls them derogatory names because they risk their own money to make a living in the Internet age has their head so far up their arse they cant see the rampant corruption and abuse of consumers in the world for the trees. (Not speaking about the writer of this article, just generally speaking)
   Case in point: anyone read the recent New York Times expose on banks and private equity?
   “Hundreds of thousands of single-family homes are now in the hands of giant companies — squeezing renters for revenue and putting the American dream even further out of reach.”
   Now that’s the real abomination in the world today, and those are the real scumbags – the big money corporations. But somehow if you hide behind a big corporation or are part of a venture capital or private equity firm, you are morally beyond reproach and it’s okay for you to rape people financially and evict them from their houses. But those pond scum get a free pass and instead it’s domainers who are such a huge problem in the world? Get real.
   Scumminess, taking advantage of others, and blatant opportunism is the hallmark of modern capitalism and everyone plays the game. And most of it coms from big corporations that strongarm regulatory bodies, compete unfairly (if they have to compete at all), and average consumers have to pay the bill because of the lack of protective regulatory oversight that might mitigate such corporate abuse.
   But it’s not just big corporations. Domainers have a bad reputation? How about lawyers? they have a fairly shite reputation, don’t they? Or that esteemed bank that opens multiple accounts in your name and doesn’t tell you about it? Ever go to that honorable doctors office and the next month find you are hit with thousands in “surprise” charges that somehow the trustworthy insurance you pay thousands to each month doesn’t cover it? The average person is ripped off left and right, and no it’s not by domainers. It’s by upstanding
   Back to abuse of consumers and the corrup…, or rather the multi-stakeholder regulatory system in the domain industry with regard to contract agreements, price hikes, removal of price caps… If you hear any large domain registry trying to distract attention by calling domainer’s names, as is cited at the end of this article, it’s most likely because they are trying desperately to distract attention away from the things they are doing that they don’t want anyone to talk about or debate. No registrants are notified when prices are raised on their domains on purpose so that no one knows when or how to submit opposing comments during the comments period. That way, the price increases can be pushed through with no opposition. When someone makes an effort with their own money to try to notify registrants, then ICANN and their partner registry try to just delegitimize the opposing comments.
   But of course some big powerful companies need to try to do such a thing because they want to get their way, maybe it’s driving up prices on registrants, or maybe it’s selling a registry some have disputed they have the right to sell, and they need a scapegoat to distract everyone with.
   The forest for the trees.
   It’s the big companies with the sharp elbows and teams of lobbyists, inside connections, writing their own contracts, setting their own price increases, running over the average consumer in the pursuit of ore millions, including rightful, rules-abiding domain registrants (who are paying customers of theirs no less).
   So, let’s quit the bullshit and misdirection and admit the truth. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
   And, no, domain investors are not the problem here.

   Reply
3. Frank Wang says:

   March 17, 2020 at 3:35 am

   Just some feedback on the website: covid-19.com, when you open it in China, the data in the left of your screen is the data of COVID-19 cases in different provinces of China and the cases in the rest of the world. the data is about one day behind the WHO’s data; in the right side of the screen, according to the IP address you are using to login in this website, it can tell you the nearst COVID-19 case around you, so you can avoid visit these places. its a very usaful tool for local household to check if there is any case in my neighborhood.

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4. www.whatsapp.com says:

   March 17, 2020 at 8:29 pm

   si

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5. domainers says:

   March 18, 2020 at 12:46 am

   check Covid19.com, they are straight up jack asses

   Reply
6. Emiliano Pasqualetti says:

   March 20, 2020 at 9:59 pm

   What kind of coronavirus websites do you guys think should be taken down and why? Do you have any examples?

   Reply
   • Rubens Kuhl says:

     March 21, 2020 at 8:23 pm

     Sites selling 10-minute coronavirus tests, while there is no such thing, is one example.

     Reply