Re: [ga] The facts about professional registrants (domainers)

["Prophet Partners Inc." <Domains@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Karl,

1) When we refer to domainers, we are referring to people or organizations
who predominantly register and hold large numbers of domains for the long
term. We do not consider people who are traffic tasting to be domainers.
Domainers should not be wrongly associated with domain tasters and
cybersquatters, just as landlords should not be wrongly associated with
slumlords. Like yourself, we pay for our domains in full for the complete
length of the registration. During the past year, we have only had only 2
credits for domains that we registered by mistake. That represents less than
0.06% of the nearly 3,500 new domains that we registered over that period
for the full registration term. It would not make a difference to us or most
domainers if the 5-day grace period was rescinded.
2) We are personally in full agreement with you regarding domain tasters and
would also like to see that 5-day grace period closed. A 2 or 3-hour window
to correct mistakes in registrations would be more than adequate and would
eliminate the vast majority of domain tasting. An alternative would be to
not issue credits from domain cancellations for a week. If someone decides
to cancel a registration, they cannot immediately use those funds to
register another name and must wait a full week. Another alternative is to
institute a non-refundable fee for every domain that is cancelled within the
5-day grace period. An amount as little as $0.25 would probably be effective
in putting an end to domain tasting.
3) Palage's comments were about the launch of new TLDs.We're referring to
the higher risk of speculating in new and unproven TLDs, not typographical
and spelling errors of existing sites and popular keywords in legacy TLDs.
And again, we're talking about domainers, not traffic tasters or
cybersquatters. Domain parking, as you imply causes pop-ups and pop-unders.
We do not believe that pop-ups and pop-unders represent responsible
marketing and do not participate in such activities ourselves. Saying that
domain parking is inherently wrong is the equivalent of saying that driving
an automobile is wrong or sending email is wrong. It all depends on how it
is used. There is nothing wrong with driving a car, but driving a car under
the influence of alcohol or drugs is wrong. There is also nothing wrong with
sending email, but sending unsolicited bulk commercial email or
intentionally sending malware is wrong.
4) Again, our comments were in the context of Palage's argument concerning
the launch of new TLDs. We are talking about an identical product, namely
that of a registration in the new TLD. Your plan to block certain traffic
sounds like censorship. Don't you think allowing users to make a choice is a
better alternative?  From your comments, real users should be lining up to
buy domains in TLDs like .pro because there is little domainer interest. Why
is that not the case?
7) Actually, bacteria that causes milk to spoil also creates some delicious
cheese, so it really depends on your perspective, as to whether you believe
the glass is half empty or half full? (pun not intended)

Sincerely,
Ted
Prophet Partners Inc.
http://www.ProphetPartners.com
http://www.Premium-Domain-Names.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Auerbach" <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Prophet Partners Inc." <Domains@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: [ga] The facts about professional registrants (domainers)


> Prophet Partners Inc. wrote:
>
> > We'd like to dispel some misperceptions and point out some facts using
your
> > analogy of launching a new TLD compared to building a city.
> >
> > 1) Professional registrants (hereinafter referred to as domainers) do
not
> > TAKE all the prime real estate of a new TLD. Domainers PAY for it via
annual
> > registration and renewal fees.
>
> Might I begin with by noting that I completely disagree with you
> (hereinafter referred to as "you".)
>
> Because I actually pay for my domain renewals I pay for the costs of
> those 200 speculative short-term registrations that your euphemistically
> called "domainers" get nearly for free.
>
> > 2) These annual registration and renewal fees are paid in advance.
>
> Sure, they put up an amount of money equal to the fees for some number
> of names.  Of course that money is refundable or can be carried forward
> for another year, so that the registry only gets to book the interest.
> And since the money that is put up can be borrowed, the cost to the
> speculator is only the marginal difference between the rate of return on
> the money and the interest cost of the money - a few pennies on the
> dollar every year.
>
> I've cranked the numbers, even assuming a very high (20%) return rate
> above the cost of the money.  The result comes out that the speculators
> are getting a massive discount as compared to those of us who acquire
> full-term registrations.
>
> I was on the board when the board unknowingly adopted the various 5-day
> "grace" provisions.  And I believe that the ICANN board should move to
> eliminate these provisions so that those who engage in speculation have
> to participate on exactly the same terms as do the rest of us.
>
> It would be very interesting to know from the various registries how
> much of an infrastructure buildout that had to do to support this
> speculative fever.
>
> > 3) Domainers take on higher degrees of risk by being among the first to
buy
> > into an unproven investment. It's the same as when American pioneers
settled
> > into the wilderness. Many died along the way,
>
> Higher risk?  At what?  "Unproven investment"?  In what, a character
> string, in the ability of people to make typos and spelling errors?!
> That's bubble mentality, whether it be tulip bulbs, south seas stocks,
> or an internet store for cat litter.
>
> Pioneers?  Not in the mold of Lewis and Clark or of Willa Cather's
> characters.  Perhaps more in the mold of pioneering used car salesmen or
> the original JC Whitney Catalog (where, if you believed the promises,
> could use the add-ons sold in the catalog to beef up a VW bug to over
> 3000 horsepower and 1500 miles/gallon.)
>
> Regarding your final phrase in the quote above:  Wow, I really would
> like to see you say that to someone who, in the future, during an
> emergency, mistypes "ambulence" rather than "ambulance" and finds their
> browser, not to mention their network access path (which may be carrying
> their VOIP phone service) rendered temporarily inoperable as their web
> page is filled with advertisements and pop-overs and pop-unders.
>
> > 4) Domainers POSITIVELY impact the ability to attract new registrants by
> > creating the perception that there is demand and a bright future for the
new
> > TLD.
>
> Sheesh, I am so tired of the "buzz" theory of sales.
>
> I tend to believe that better products will attract customers.  Thats
> why in my .ewe TLD I will offer a signficantly different domain name
> product than is found today -
> http://www.cavebear.com/cbblog-archives/000159.html
>
> In .ewe you are perfectly free to buy names on speculation.  But you'd
> have to pay the full freight for a permanent registration just like
> everybody else.
>
> Moreover, what is likely to occur is that those of us who have our
> fingers on the filters will simply block traffic from TLDs that prove to
> be mainly empty bags filled with nothing but the vacuum of "domainer"
> names.  And real users will tend to acquire domain names in TLD
> neighborhoods that are less tainted - Reverse osmosis - a TLD that is
> filled with speculative names will drive away full-term buyers.
>
> And although nobody knows Google's "page rank" algorithm, but it would
> not surprise me if it evolved so that it gave a significant negative
> ding to any search result that lives in a speculation-infested TLD.
>
>
> > 7) The bottom line is domainers do not COMPROMISE the launch of a new
TLD,
> > but instead STIMULATE its growth.
>
> In the same way that the bacteria that spoil milk stimulate the cow to
> make more?
>
> --karl--
>
>
>