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Namecheap now offer .io domains

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Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#91

Post by larrys »

crisnoble wrote: post #83
larrys wrote: post #33

Competitor to namecheap here. [1] [2] We don't offer .io domains. Nor do we offer any of the TLD's that seem to be popular with some startups. Even though we could make money selling them. Like our competitors do. Although popular (with startups) they aren't mainstream with the public. If you become successful you will just end up buying (at a much higher price) the .com equivalent. Or end up having misdirected mail…

>My strong advice is to stay away from anything but .com for your startup. If you make it big enough to have to buy the .com from the current owner, then you are probably going to be able to buy it. When I discovered that new domains cost about 2 packs of cigarettes, I became a compulsive domain buyer. If the .com for my crazy idea isn't available, then I try .co, then basically whatever I can find. I use a combinati…

"If you make it big enough to have to buy the .com from the current owner, then you are probably going to be able to buy it. "

Let me address that specifically. First, you get people who are unreasonable and perhaps would think that because you are valued at a billion you will pay them 500 million or something stupid like that. They are wrong but their irrationality is not going to make it easy for you to get the domain when you want it.

I have a case right now where a startup is willing to pay, say, $100,000 for a domain. But the domain (not being used) is owned by a company in Europe. And they aren't interested in selling at any price near that. And the domain is not worth $100,000.

Second, your thoughts assume either "make it or don't".

There is an in between state. Where you appear successful and profitable but you don't have unlimited google resources. And actually I think it's quite obvious that there are a few companies that fall into this category. Since of course most people are not going to be "big enough" to buy what they want "at any price".

Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#92

Post by larrys »

pbreit wrote: post #63
larrys wrote: post #33

Competitor to namecheap here. [1] [2] We don't offer .io domains. Nor do we offer any of the TLD's that seem to be popular with some startups. Even though we could make money selling them. Like our competitors do. Although popular (with startups) they aren't mainstream with the public. If you become successful you will just end up buying (at a much higher price) the .com equivalent. Or end up having misdirected mail…

Better to pay a lot for a domain name when you can than when you cannot.

What I sometimes suggest to people is to get an option on a name before they become so successful that the prices increases. So you hedge. That way they pay an amount of money to be able to buy the domain later at a reasonable price from the owner. Other variations of this are renting the domain and likewise which has it's advantages and disadvantages.

What is that amount? All depends on the domain, the owner of the domain and a host of other factors.

Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#93

Post by ogreyonder »

dangrossman wrote: post #43
dlss wrote: post #9

I've never heard of namecheap, but given their name I'm surprised they charge so much more than gandi.net ($39). Is it normal for a company branded as the low cost provider to charge above market for rare goods?

Maybe that's the price of free speech. Namecheap doesn't have any unusual restrictions on what you do with your domain after you buy it. Gandi does. You have to uphold their ethical code and affirmatively fight "deviant uses of the internet" to register domains through them. Hacker News would violate that code, and under the terms of Gandi's service agreement, they could revoke service and cancel this domain if it we…

I really appreciate you posting this information. I had considered Gandi in the past and would not have read their ToS; I'll stay away now.

As for our friend jjblue, you can safely ignore his citation trolling. The rest of us appreciate the warning. There's no point in waiting for victim #1 before telling your friends about danger. Thanks again!

Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#94

Post by bnycum »

joeblau wrote: post #39

I'm using http://iwantmyname.com for http://gitignore.io and they have been great. They update their DNS records very quickly and I haven't had any problems with their service and right now they are $49.

I was actually looking at building a site like that a few weeks back. Discovered the .io was taken and was what I wanted to build. Thanks.

Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#95

Post by sigkill »

zokier wrote: post #88

Bleh. My personal domain renewal is coming up and Namecheap has gotten lots of recommendations here at HN. But on the other hand I'm bit reluctant to move domains from (my current) Swiss registar to US one, even if they all ultimately are based on ICANN.

- Out of curiosity, who's your current registrar?

- I don't know if you're talking about a ccTLD or a com/net/org but if it's the latter I don't think a non-US registrar can help you since those TLDs are directly under US control.

Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#96

Post by tlrobinson »

larrys wrote: post #33

Competitor to namecheap here. [1] [2] We don't offer .io domains. Nor do we offer any of the TLD's that seem to be popular with some startups. Even though we could make money selling them. Like our competitors do. Although popular (with startups) they aren't mainstream with the public. If you become successful you will just end up buying (at a much higher price) the .com equivalent. Or end up having misdirected mail…

Challenge accepted.

domainregistry.com - not cheap ($30/year), no .io (.com .net .org and .info only), run by a guy name Larry.

Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#97

Post by crisnoble »

larrys wrote: post #91
crisnoble wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My strong advice is to stay away from anything but .com for your startup. If you make it big enough to have to buy the .com from the current owner, then you are probably going to be able to buy it. When I discovered that new domains cost about 2 packs of cigarettes, I became a compulsive domain buyer. If the .com for my crazy idea isn't available, then I try .co, then basically whatever I can find. I use a combinati…

"If you make it big enough to have to buy the .com from the current owner, then you are probably going to be able to buy it. " Let me address that specifically. First, you get people who are unreasonable and perhaps would think that because you are valued at a billion you will pay them 500 million or something stupid like that. They are wrong but their irrationality is not going to make it easy for you to get the dom…

I agree that squatters can be unreasonable or downright insane. I think that my main argument is that owning a ".com" neither helps nor hinders a startup and its quest for eyes. I could never remember how to spell del.icio.us, but it didn't matter, I bookmarked it. If I was on another computer, I googled it.

Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#99

Post by mindslight »

dangrossman wrote: post #56
jjblue wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've posted this msg at least twice in the thread (at least one was deleted). Seems you're using the thread in a way that doesn't help HN as much as yourself. Can you post some examples of this policy being used unfairly? Surely some real-world, verifiable examples would help your case. (And what if the examples are nonexistent... what then?)

Domain registration is a commodity service, where all but one company selling this commodity does so without any strange contract terms. Even if the chance that Gandi acts on their contractual rights is slim, there's no reason to give them that right in the first place. A company's brand, good will and years of backlinks are tied to their domain -- it's not something to put at risk lightly. I deleted the copy of my c…

Don't pretend that Gandi is unique. Even if such specific language isn't in their legalese blob, Godaddy has arbitrarily yanked domains many times. And I'm betting that most low margin registrars would simply turn tail if threatened with expensive lawsuits.

Re: Namecheap now offer .io domains

#100

Post by smtddr »

crisnoble wrote: post #97
larrys wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you make it big enough to have to buy the .com from the current owner, then you are probably going to be able to buy it. " Let me address that specifically. First, you get people who are unreasonable and perhaps would think that because you are valued at a billion you will pay them 500 million or something stupid like that. They are wrong but their irrationality is not going to make it easy for you to get the dom…

I agree that squatters can be unreasonable or downright insane. I think that my main argument is that owning a ".com" neither helps nor hinders a startup and its quest for eyes. I could never remember how to spell del.icio.us, but it didn't matter, I bookmarked it. If I was on another computer, I googled it.

>I agree that squatters can be unreasonable or downright insane.

There use to be a company called songbirdnest.com that made something that could be described as an open-source version of iTunes(but they preferred it wasn't thought of that way). The person who owns songbird.com refused to sell. Apparently a very hansom offer was made too...

http://songbird.com/ site looks the same as it did back in 2008. Considering that the site doesn't look like anything that's generating revenue, I don't understand why that person refused to sell...

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