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How a domain registrar can kill your business

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Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#231

Post by pmlnr »

ahje wrote: post #230

I work for a domain registrar, albeit not the one mentioned in the article. Obviously, we see a lot of expired domains on a daily basis, mainly because customer's forget to renew despite us reminding them repeatedly during the three months before the domains expire. General advice: 1) Make sure there is more than one single contact person for invoicing. All too often, the problem is that a single employee is unavaila…

They payed for the renewal in time. The registrar didn't forward it "in time", which is apparently a requirement from .io.

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#232

Post by ahje »

pmlnr wrote: post #231
ahje wrote: post #230

I work for a domain registrar, albeit not the one mentioned in the article. Obviously, we see a lot of expired domains on a daily basis, mainly because customer's forget to renew despite us reminding them repeatedly during the three months before the domains expire. General advice: 1) Make sure there is more than one single contact person for invoicing. All too often, the problem is that a single employee is unavaila…

They payed for the renewal in time. The registrar didn't forward it "in time", which is apparently a requirement from .io.

In this case, the registrar obviously screwed up. Still, if the domain had been renewed for an additional year already, the domain would not have been expired.

As sad as it may seem, you need to take other people's incompetence into account when you're dealing with business-critical things like domain names.

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#233

Post by pmlnr »

ahje wrote: post #232
pmlnr wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They payed for the renewal in time. The registrar didn't forward it "in time", which is apparently a requirement from .io.

In this case, the registrar obviously screwed up. Still, if the domain had been renewed for an additional year already, the domain would not have been expired. As sad as it may seem, you need to take other people's incompetence into account when you're dealing with business-critical things like domain names.

The domain was paid, the registrar took the money, but .io didn't renew it, because they need the renewal notice at least 3 days prior to expiry.

It was a registrar screw up, but my main take away is: avoid .io like plague.

See also: https://hackernoon.com/stop-using-io-domain-names-for-produc...

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#234

Post by stef25 »

pmlnr wrote: post #233
ahje wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, the registrar obviously screwed up. Still, if the domain had been renewed for an additional year already, the domain would not have been expired. As sad as it may seem, you need to take other people's incompetence into account when you're dealing with business-critical things like domain names.

The domain was paid, the registrar took the money, but .io didn't renew it, because they need the renewal notice at least 3 days prior to expiry. It was a registrar screw up, but my main take away is: avoid .io like plague. See also: https://hackernoon.com/stop-using-io-domain-names-for-produc...

> avoid .io like plague

How else am I supposed to automatically add a layer of cool to my startup

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#235

Post by stef25 »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #179
matte_black wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They got lucky, because if it were me and I left on mild terms I would be invoicing them $50k a year to renew their domain.

Yep, great ransom plan! 1. They do not need to pay you. You have zero chance of getting paid. 2. They can easily identify you as a suspect (even with foreign company or whatever) and the police can investigate further. So you risk going to jail, with no upside.

To be fair, unless you're a big company I'm pretty confident this could work. I don't know what police entity I'd have to turn to here in Belgium to complain about someone in the US running off with my startup's domain name. You'd need serious lawyers to go after this.

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#236

Post by maephisto »

stef25 wrote: post #234
pmlnr wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The domain was paid, the registrar took the money, but .io didn't renew it, because they need the renewal notice at least 3 days prior to expiry. It was a registrar screw up, but my main take away is: avoid .io like plague. See also: https://hackernoon.com/stop-using-io-domain-names-for-produc...

> avoid .io like plague How else am I supposed to automatically add a layer of cool to my startup

Name it something that ends in *-fy. That's still cool, right?

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#237

Post by kuschku »

stef25 wrote: post #234
pmlnr wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The domain was paid, the registrar took the money, but .io didn't renew it, because they need the renewal notice at least 3 days prior to expiry. It was a registrar screw up, but my main take away is: avoid .io like plague. See also: https://hackernoon.com/stop-using-io-domain-names-for-produc...

> avoid .io like plague How else am I supposed to automatically add a layer of cool to my startup

Make the startup name something ending in .de and use a .de domain. The "TLD is part of the name" is also cool, and .de is reliable. e.g.: starma.de

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#238

Post by kuschku »

kijin wrote: post #224
davewasthere wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy 10 years of registration initially, then each year set yourself a reminder to extend this by one year. It's not automagical. That said, with Gandi, you can just set it to auto-renew, which works pretty well.

The problem with relying on auto-renew is that, sooner or later, your credit card will expire (or the employee who was in charge of the domain will be gone) and the renewal will fail. The account needs maintenance one way or another.

If you’re in SEPA, use SEPA direct debit instead. As long as the bank account exists it’ll run on forever.

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#239

Post by stef25 »

kuschku wrote: post #237
stef25 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> avoid .io like plague How else am I supposed to automatically add a layer of cool to my startup

Make the startup name something ending in .de and use a .de domain. The "TLD is part of the name" is also cool, and .de is reliable. e.g.: starma.de

For English words that would work I guess. Here in EU a .de would also obviously point to something German which wouldn't be the intention.

Re: How a domain registrar can kill your business

#240

Post by sebst »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #173
sebst wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's a joke, okay, 70% might hurt. .sexy is about 60-100$ per year. If you've build a business on it, paying double the amount should not hurt. For me the most important thing about this new gTLDs is more about reputation of the gTLD registry. What if these go out of service? I'm pretty sure that there exist a protocol for that case, but I'm also sure that domains in a less popular new gTLD space might get far les…

> sexy is about 60-100$ per year. If you've build a business on it, paying double the amount should not hurt I feel the issue is the lack of transparency and control. Who is to say some registrar won't start charging people per visit or % revenue in the future?

Sure, I hear you. If it's a registrar, it's okay, simply change it. For a registry, I believe that they would risk their mass market business cases, but I'm also very sceptical about those ngTLDs for that reason.
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