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How many .com domain names are unused?

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Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#111

Post by mathnmusic »

ndnxhs wrote: post #85
AmericanChopper wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that ICANN is either corrupt or useless, but you still have the problem of scarcity to address. Domain names are important assets for businesses, and ‘good’ ones are going to be in high demand. Squatters add essentially no value to the system, but there’s no fair way to determine who gets a domain name that multiple parties want, aside from letting the market take care of it. This is a flaw in the system itse…

Domains already require your real life info. Just give something like 5 free domain names per person and tie it to their ID. There exists more than enough useful domains for everyone its just most go unused

I propose a .pubkey TLD that doesn't need any registration and can be administered by the owner of an associated public key.

The mapping to the nameservers could be maintained on a blockchain (to fund the storage costs).

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#112

Post by darpa_escapee »

BurningFrog wrote: post #78
rafiki6 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. Not sure why the task of operating DNS' isn't the domain of governments the world over. It's kind of like operating a post office. Post office's are the ones who have the routing information and capability to route physical messages and packages. They are still operated on a for profit model, but they are also generally very well regulated. Same thing should apply with registrars

When you scan for uncorrupt institutions, how the hell do you end up on "governments the world over"?

With the government, you get a vote. With other institutions, you have to hope their stakeholders' interests align with yours.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#113

Post by shakna »

ndnxhs wrote: post #84
zanny wrote: post #52

I'm not really well informed about the politics of DNS at the top, but I've always had the impression ICANN has been grossly negligent / corrupted over the last twenty years. At the end of the day there is profound capital interest in making name records unfair and noncompetitive in order to rent seek fortunes off the Internet and I see no indication ICANN is anything but compromised by those interests in the way the…

I wish there was a system where each individual is entitled to a few domain names for no cost on their local cctld. That way real users get the domains they want and hoarders have to pay.

That is part of how FreeNom [0] (ex dot.tk) advertise themselves. They have had serious issues in the past, and most of the domains of the countries involved are automatically treated like spam by a lot of internet services.

> With the free domain model, partner countries can offer their local internet population the tools to get online quickly and at no cost. This proven and innovative model dramatically encourages the creation of local content and stimulates the registrar.

This started out with Tokelau, a New Zealand territory, IIRC.

I love the idea, but it seems the commercial world hates it.

[0] https://www.freenom.com

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#114

Post by zhte415 »

astura wrote: post #103
magic_beans wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're usually the only registrar people are aware of.

I guess those lewd superbowl commercials paid off then.

Compounding superbowl and name recognition: Their referral incentives are also quite transparent and competitive compared to other quite large registrars that have clauses like, and this is paraphrasing, "payouts of $75 dollars must be accrued within 3 months or will be forfeited" or "must refer $300 dollars of signups per month".

I imagine this causes referring 3rd parties that read small print to align their product with GoDaddy than a competitor.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#115

Post by troquerre »

zanny wrote: post #52

I'm not really well informed about the politics of DNS at the top, but I've always had the impression ICANN has been grossly negligent / corrupted over the last twenty years. At the end of the day there is profound capital interest in making name records unfair and noncompetitive in order to rent seek fortunes off the Internet and I see no indication ICANN is anything but compromised by those interests in the way the…

There are grassroots efforts to make DNS more fair springing up. Handshake.org is one example (with backing from A16Z, Sequoia, and SV Angel) — they're aiming to decentralize the root zone and allow anyone to own their own TLD.

Disclaimer: I'm building a registrar for Handshake called namebase.io.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#116

Post by z3t4 »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #76
zanny wrote: post #52

I'm not really well informed about the politics of DNS at the top, but I've always had the impression ICANN has been grossly negligent / corrupted over the last twenty years. At the end of the day there is profound capital interest in making name records unfair and noncompetitive in order to rent seek fortunes off the Internet and I see no indication ICANN is anything but compromised by those interests in the way the…

I agree that ICANN is either corrupt or useless, but you still have the problem of scarcity to address. Domain names are important assets for businesses, and ‘good’ ones are going to be in high demand. Squatters add essentially no value to the system, but there’s no fair way to determine who gets a domain name that multiple parties want, aside from letting the market take care of it. This is a flaw in the system itse…

Domain names could be auctioned, then it would not be allowed to resell them. For example you make a bid on how much you want to pay per year, then you pay that amount until you no longer need the domain name, without the ability to resell it.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#117

Post by zhte415 »

munk-a wrote: post #24
whttheuuu wrote: post #5

Domain renewals should be priced higher. $500/yr, $1000/yr, $5000/yr would prevent squatters.

I absolutely disagree, but I think it is reasonable for domain authorities of various gTLDs to incorporate company names into domain name rights a bit more - if your company is FooBar and foobar.com is taken you may get some legal advantage in any efforts to secure it, this could just shift the domain name squatting issue to a company name squatting issue though. And, I'm also making the assumption that we're fine wi…

nissan.com?

> I think it is reasonable for domain authorities of various gTLDs to incorporate company names into domain name rights a bit more - if your company is FooBar and foobar.com is taken you may get some legal advantage in any efforts to secure

What about Foobar Plubbers? Do they get Foobar.com? And Foobar Restaurant in Dallas? Split it to FoobarPlubmers.com and FoobaRestaurantDallas.com? And FoobarPlubmersOhioLimited, vs FoobarPlumbersTennesseePartners? Mr Foobar for a personal domain, or Ms Foobar for a portfolio of work?

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#118

Post by teddyh »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #74
zanny wrote: post #52

I'm not really well informed about the politics of DNS at the top, but I've always had the impression ICANN has been grossly negligent / corrupted over the last twenty years. At the end of the day there is profound capital interest in making name records unfair and noncompetitive in order to rent seek fortunes off the Internet and I see no indication ICANN is anything but compromised by those interests in the way the…

I've always wondered if they could somehow price domains logorithmically. First domain is cheap and then cost goes up x% per additional domain. Stop people holding swaths of domains at each gTLD level. Would people end up just having a bunch of shelf corps...

> Would people end up just having a bunch of shelf corps...

Yes. They already do something similar when registering in a ccTLD which requires a “local presence” in that country – they simply pay somebody in that country to be a proxy.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#119

Post by TrickyRick »

DKnoll wrote: post #81
Gustomaximus wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wondered if they could somehow price domains logorithmically. First domain is cheap and then cost goes up x% per additional domain. Stop people holding swaths of domains at each gTLD level. Would people end up just having a bunch of shelf corps...

It costs $360 to incorporate at minimum, at least here in Ontario, so that would still be substantially more expensive than it is currently. The CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) at least, probably others, used to give away domains for free but stopped the practise due to squatting.

There are plenty of countries where it's cheaper though.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#120

Post by dwd »

markovbot wrote: post #60

I'm surprised that such a large percentage of domains are registered with GoDaddy. What leads people to pick them? They're such a shitty registrar, every time I have to deal with them it's awful.

The biggest problem with GoDaddy's interface is how they try and hide access to changing nameservers or DNS. I don't want to "Use this domain"!

There are better registrars and some offer reseller accounts which is necessary when you manage a lot of domains and not all your own.

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