31–40 of 74 posts
Is there a legitimate reason why a .com TLd would increase the business value over .io?
If someone saw that .com doesn't exist, they might think your company doesn't exist or is a scam
I like this a lot. Spending a lot on a domain seems to say a few things about your business - you're big enough to have money to spend, which reassures people that you're not about to disappear; you value the brand enough to 'invest' which gives people confidence that you're in it for the long haul; and you're being intelligent about SEO and domain trust to know that a .com is preferred by people over a .io (outside…
Not wanting to point fingers or start conspiracy theories, but what guarantee is there that GoDaddy didn't squat this domain? They had an employee act as "broker", and it seems there was little information about the original owner revealed. I ask because, years ago, I had a few friends tell me that they searched a domain name on a few registrars, found them available, then upon trying to buy them found that they were…
Not wanting to point fingers or start conspiracy theories, but what guarantee is there that GoDaddy didn't squat this domain? They had an employee act as "broker", and it seems there was little information about the original owner revealed. I ask because, years ago, I had a few friends tell me that they searched a domain name on a few registrars, found them available, then upon trying to buy them found that they were…
It's called domain name front running. GoDaddy in particular has been accused of this in the past here on HN and have responded to it[0]. Use a trustworthy registrar when you can, avoid GoDaddy or Namecheap. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24506303
There are posts all the way back to 2011[2] and probably further showing GoDaddy doing this for some time, and even I spotted it when using Network Solutions back in the day [3].
ICANN introduced charges (from the Wiki article) to try and reduce the Domain Tasting element, so I a guessing it is better now), but I (my personal opinion) think that it is still out there, just not as obvious as it once was!
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting
I like this a lot. Spending a lot on a domain seems to say a few things about your business - you're big enough to have money to spend, which reassures people that you're not about to disappear; you value the brand enough to 'invest' which gives people confidence that you're in it for the long haul; and you're being intelligent about SEO and domain trust to know that a .com is preferred by people over a .io (outside…
The reality is that you can expect your business parters, especially the ones that matter the most like equity investors and lenders, to be able to see right through that and expect you to exercise poor stewartship over their money.
The reason it's so widespread is because it's great for cognitive dissonance reduction. Say you leave a well-paid job as a middle manager in a factory to set up as a self-employed management consultant working for other factory managers. Your well-paid management job is a significant element of your identity, and leaving the job will create cognitive dissonance. On one hand you continue to think of yourself as deserving of the same financial status you had yesterday when you were employed and you think of the people who you hope will become your clients as your peers in terms of financial status. This implies you should be driving a brand new BMW. On the other hand you realize that you're taking a huge risk, and are asking the people who you hope will become your clients to take a huge risk on you, and it would be prudent financial risk management to make do with a used Volkswagen.
So there are two voices inside your head, one that says "Get a brand new BMW", another one that says "Get a used Volkswagen". Cognitive dissonance reduction sets in. The latter is the voice you're going to try to silence. You tell yourself: I am not shallow. But those people are shallow, and they will never hire me as a consultant if I drive a used Volkswagen. So, whether I like it or not, it has to be the BMW. Mission accomplished in terms of cognitive dissonance reduction. Whether or not it's the truth is a whole other matter.
It’s just not that hard to come up with a unique name that still has an available .com, I do it regularly for clients and have done for 20 odd years. Yes it’s gotten harder, but it’s still absolutely possible. Even short (sub-10 char) pronounceable names are still available if you just spend some time looking. There’s NO reason to pay 5 figures for a .com unless you can drop that amount of money without even thinking…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's called domain name front running. GoDaddy in particular has been accused of this in the past here on HN and have responded to it[0]. Use a trustworthy registrar when you can, avoid GoDaddy or Namecheap. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24506303
What is wrong with Namecheap?
Do a WHOIS the next time you come across a phishing website or receive an SMS with an odd link. And then disappoint yourself with the complete lack of care when trying to report it to Namecheap's support.
Their CTO or whoever considers this form of enabling crime to be 'free speech' or suggesting registrars shouldn't 'police' or something equally as stupid when it was raised on HN a few times.
This is a "cool factor" splurge. Spending ~100k cash for a bootstrapped startup on something rather superficial is enough to question their future decision making. To me this shows a bit of immaturity and irresponsibility. What future shinny objects will they splurge on instead of focusing on investments that have more substance?
This is a "cool factor" splurge. Spending ~100k cash for a bootstrapped startup on something rather superficial is enough to question their future decision making. To me this shows a bit of immaturity and irresponsibility. What future shinny objects will they splurge on instead of focusing on investments that have more substance?