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Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

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Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#21
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…

A brilliant model - or better yet, feature - for determining domain worth is whether it's been added to a basket. Why sell a valuable domain for £10 when you can "buy" it yourself and sell it later for £100?

AFAIK the practice hasn't been officially proven, but there's overwhelming amounts of anecdata pointing to this being real and endemic in the industry.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#22
post #16
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.

Quite a coincidence indeed, but that doesn't prove anything.

Important to note, to corroborate their claim, the poster tries to say Namecheap 'owns' the domain because they see namecheap.com in the Registrar URL line of the DNS record. That is just wrong. That's not what that means. It means whoever bought the domain got it through Namecheap.

The TLD just was released on Namecheap, so it's a 'gold rush' situation. '.quest' domains are getting snapped up left and right. My suspicion is that it was purchased shortly before the OP searched it.

Maybe a bug in the search feature, or the new purchase just hadn't propagated though the system, and the user was erroneously shown it as being available.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#23
The people in that thread need to loosen their tinfoil hats. Namecheap didn't steal anything. dnd.quest is certainly one of the most wanted among everyone who was buying a .quest domain. Do these people not understand just how many people there are who are thinking the same thing as them?

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#24

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 yo…

Hmm, could it be a system glitch when Namecheap tries to register the domain for you during checkout? This seems less likely to be a coincidence.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#25
post #23

The people in that thread need to loosen their tinfoil hats. Namecheap didn't steal anything. dnd.quest is certainly one of the most wanted among everyone who was buying a .quest domain. Do these people not understand just how many people there are who are thinking the same thing as them?

It really is a great illustration of how dumb people can be in mobs. Now there is a hoard of redditors running around screaming at the top of their lungs, "Did you see the evil Namecheap stole that domain from that guy".

Meanwhile, no critical thinking is happening, they just accept it, and will pass the 'news' on to others. The others won't look into at all, and by next week it will be a 'truth' that Namecheap 'steals' domains.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#26

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 yo…

The registrar is not the registrant, this just means someone bought it on namecheap.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#27
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…

A brilliant model - or better yet, feature - for determining domain worth is whether it's been added to a basket. Why sell a valuable domain for £10 when you can "buy" it yourself and sell it later for £100? AFAIK the practice hasn't been officially proven, but there's overwhelming amounts of anecdata pointing to this being real and endemic in the industry.

When they identify a valuable domain, they make money off it by giving it the 'Premium' tag, and collecting a substantial one time fee up front.

If this 'practice' of stealing domains were real, wouldn't it be somewhat easy to prove by tracing the puclic DNS records? Also, I have to imagine it is probably illegal from the position of the registrar. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to take this to court?

Yes there are lots of anecdotes about this going back a long time. I just don't buy them. I think in these cases folks forget to apply critical thinking, and succumb to logical fallacies or pure paranoia.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#28
post #22
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Quite a coincidence indeed, but that doesn't prove anything. Important to note, to corroborate their claim, the poster tries to say Namecheap 'owns' the domain because they see namecheap.com in the Registrar URL line of the DNS record. That is just wrong. That's not what that means. It means whoever bought the domain got it through Namecheap. The TLD just was released on Namecheap, so it's a 'gold rush' situation. '.…

You are raising good points indeed.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#29
post #25
post #23

The people in that thread need to loosen their tinfoil hats. Namecheap didn't steal anything. dnd.quest is certainly one of the most wanted among everyone who was buying a .quest domain. Do these people not understand just how many people there are who are thinking the same thing as them?

It really is a great illustration of how dumb people can be in mobs. Now there is a hoard of redditors running around screaming at the top of their lungs, "Did you see the evil Namecheap stole that domain from that guy". Meanwhile, no critical thinking is happening, they just accept it, and will pass the 'news' on to others. The others won't look into at all, and by next week it will be a 'truth' that Namecheap 'stea…

This is exactly what I'm afraid of. I have no specific love for namecheap (I can't even remember if I've ever used them) but I don't want to see their name dragged through the mud.

Shit like this is the downside of giving everyone a soapbox and a megaphone. There's no easy answer on how to stop misinformation.

Re: Namecheap just snaked another domain off me

#30
post #28
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a coincidence indeed, but that doesn't prove anything. Important to note, to corroborate their claim, the poster tries to say Namecheap 'owns' the domain because they see namecheap.com in the Registrar URL line of the DNS record. That is just wrong. That's not what that means. It means whoever bought the domain got it through Namecheap. The TLD just was released on Namecheap, so it's a 'gold rush' situation. '.…

You are raising good points indeed.

I mean, I'd be mad like that person too if I thought I was about to get a cool domain like that. It would have definitely been a fun one to own :)

I get it, but in their anger, I don't think they are thinking clearly, and then take to Reddit to 'provoke the masses'.

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