Namecheap just snaked another domain off me • Hacker News Board

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#11

Post by 40four » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 1:59 PM UTC

People have been claiming this forever about various domain registrars, and I just don't buy it. I think people play a logical trick on themselves, or succumb to paranoia, or similar.

They are in the business of selling domains. That means volume is king. They want to move as many units as possible. The idea that they would 'steal' a domain from you right before you were about to pay them money for it is absurd.

They would only be stealing from themselves, by purposefully denying a sale they were about to make. They receive no value by taking domains and sitting on them, or speculating or whatever. They do receive value by making a sale. Sounds like a good way to lose money.

It's much more likely that 10,000 other people had the same idea to get something as popular as 'dnd.quest', than Namecheap 'stole' if from them while it was in their shopping cart.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#12

Post by donmcronald » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:00 PM UTC

The Namecheap CEO has unequivocally stated they don’t do this. My impression of them is that they’ve bought a lot of goodwill by landing on what I consider to be the right side of a lot of domain related debates.

Losing out in the gold rush on a new TLD doesn’t mean Namecheap cheated you. Right?

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#13

Post by donmcronald » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

detay wrote: post #6

i lost ftuff.com over them (just skip a renewal) and they're trying to sell it back for 10k

You have to miss the renewal and the redemption to lose a domain these days, don’t you?

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#14

Post by paulgb » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

uncletammy wrote: post #10

paulgb wrote: post #7

It's worth noting that this happened on the very day that .quest became generally available[1]. I think it's a case of first-day demand, not somebody picking good domains from Namecheap's logs. [1] https://icannwiki.org/.quest Edit: technically the next day UTC, but the same day where I am.

There are quite a few people in that thread who claim to have experienced the same thing. I hope its not true. I really like namecheap. I would hate to have to dump them.

There are ~750k people in that Reddit community, it wouldn't surprise me if by coincidence it happened to bunch of them the a domain was registered between when they searched it and decided to buy.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#15

Post by 52-6F-62 » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:05 PM UTC

donmcronald wrote: post #13

detay wrote: post #6

i lost ftuff.com over them (just skip a renewal) and they're trying to sell it back for 10k

You have to miss the renewal and the redemption to lose a domain these days, don’t you?

They give a lot of notice about renewals as well—unless you've nixed getting emails them.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#16

Post by remirk » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

40four wrote: post #11

People have been claiming this forever about various domain registrars, and I just don't buy it. I think people play a logical trick on themselves, or succumb to paranoia, or similar. They are in the business of selling domains. That means volume is king. They want to move as many units as possible. The idea that they would 'steal' a domain from you right before you were about to pay them money for it is absurd. They…

> They are in the business of selling domains.

Domains that are taken but in demand typically sell for higher than what the default price is.

> It's much more likely that 10,000 other people had the same idea to get something as popular as 'dnd.quest'

According to the post the registration happened 30 seconds to 1 minute after the poster searched for the domain on the registrar. That is quite a coincidence.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#17

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

40four wrote: post #11

People have been claiming this forever about various domain registrars, and I just don't buy it. I think people play a logical trick on themselves, or succumb to paranoia, or similar. They are in the business of selling domains. That means volume is king. They want to move as many units as possible. The idea that they would 'steal' a domain from you right before you were about to pay them money for it is absurd. They…

[deleted]

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#18

Post by hfjtktkgkgm » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

This never happened to me, and I bought a number of short domains.

That would imply that they only snatch some domains. But in that case, if they had a way to determine which domains are valuable, why would they wait for a search in the first place?

Also, this is the kind of scam that is quick to ruin a company reputation, snatch a few valuable domains, but then lose tens of thousands of registrations because people start avoid you.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#19

Post by paulgb » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

remirk wrote: post #16

40four wrote: post #11

People have been claiming this forever about various domain registrars, and I just don't buy it. I think people play a logical trick on themselves, or succumb to paranoia, or similar. They are in the business of selling domains. That means volume is king. They want to move as many units as possible. The idea that they would 'steal' a domain from you right before you were about to pay them money for it is absurd. They…

> They are in the business of selling domains. Domains that are taken but in demand typically sell for higher than what the default price is. > It's much more likely that 10,000 other people had the same idea to get something as popular as 'dnd.quest' According to the post the registration happened 30 seconds to 1 minute after the poster searched for the domain on the registrar. That is quite a coincidence.

I think it would be a massive coincidence for there not to be an instance of two people trying to register the same domain at the same time on the day that a new tld became available.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#20

Post by emddudley » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 2:35 PM UTC

I just tried to buy wow.quest 2 minutes ago and it feels like the same thing just happened to me. Between me searching and checking out it got registered:

  Registrar URL: https://namecheap.com
  Updated Date: 2021-03-03T14:30:25.0Z
  Creation Date: 2021-03-03T14:30:20.0Z
  Registry Expiry Date: 2022-03-03T23:59:59.0Z

Namecheap gave me a "Oops, looks like the domain was taken by someone else, so we removed the domain from your cart."