Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
circleid.com
Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
1–10 of 316 posts
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#2Even if Ethos’ ‘intentions’ are to be taken at face value, $26 is still a ridiculous price for basically no service. But these intentions are essentially worthless or they’d be put in writing.
Why would there be no non-profit willing to do this ‘work’ providing this ‘service’ for whatever price you want? You should know, your organization provides much more service for no money at all.
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#3I wonder if he really believes this when he was typing it. I find it difficult to understand the rationale of selling ORG to private equity and the justify it as good for the internet. I hope this line of BS turns out to be true, but giving ORG over to a bunch of MBAs with experience in day trading does not a confident nerd make.
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#4> limiting price increases to no more than 10% per year
Oh, well. That's okay then.
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#5What it comes down to is the board wanted a large pile of cash so they could do more of whatever it is they like doing, which apparently is not what many of us think their core mission should be.
I look forward to reading how much the board members are being paid now, and how much they will be paid in a years time.
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#6> limiting price increases to no more than 10% per year Oh, well. That's okay then.
I.e. expect to see prices increase by 10% a year for the foreseeable future...
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#7What it comes down to is the board wanted a large pile of cash so they could do more of whatever it is they like doing, which apparently is not what many of us think their core mission should be. I look forward to reading how much the board members are being paid now, and how much they will be paid in a years time.
Most non-profit boards pay $0. The Internet Society is one of them, with Barnes taking $0 from the organization (as board members, they also have to disclose if a related organization pays them):
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/54165...
There are a few exceptions to the boards-get-paid-$0, but they're rare and doubt personal financial motivations are part of the decision.
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#8> limiting price increases to no more than 10% per year Oh, well. That's okay then.
well, that's their 'intention'. I don't even know what that means for a business. Very little or simply nothing at all?
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#9The simplified timeline (as I understand it, willing to be corrected if I'm wrong);
1. PIR, or someone very close, seems to have lobbied to have price restriction of .org removed. My understanding is that PIR made the argument that they're a non-profit, they have no reason to raise pricing extortionately
2. This was passed, despite a large number of comments against the idea, Ethos was incorporated the following day
3. PIR sold itself to Ethos, a for profit company
The people involved seem to be moving between ICANN, PIR and private firms.
Given all these things I don't think it's unreasonable that people are deeply sceptical. Especially with the ambiguity of "no more than 10% per year" being throw around.
Re: Why I Voted to Sell .ORG
#10This author is just outright naive.
>Even in the worst case, if Ethos considers dramatically increasing prices (which, to be clear, we do not expect them to do!), the Registry Agreement for .org requires a 6-month notice period during which domain owners can lock in a 10-year registration at pre-increase rates. This should seriously discourage Ethos from doing this, because it would take 10 years for the new high rate to even take effect for existing registrants, and new registrations would likely fall off right away.
No, the worst case scenario is that they jack up prices and then run a massive campaign FUD campaign about non-profits without .org addresses. Or they start selling of Oxfam.org to competitors. Or hell, they start doing differential pricing, gouging the people they think can pay.
>We're all trying to make the Internet a better place
No we're not. Don't be an idiot. Private equity companies are making money from investments they have no interest in making anything a better place and it's insulting to expect people to believe that.