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A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

floverfelt.org

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Re: A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

#3
>I know HackerNews thinks gail.com is really clever/cool, but imagine if every single domain was like this.

Most domains already are. If it's not one lucky Gail, it's a random sub-sub-brand of a corporate behemoth who got there first, and all the content served from the domain amounts to nothing more than an advertisement flyer (or a 302 to the parent company). In the grand scheme of things, Gail's domain is probably the preferable allocation.

But these conversations are boring. I don't think there's any method for good allocation of the domain space. And anyone who defines commercial activity as a proxy for measuring good use of a domain has already decided the allocation scheme they prefer.

Re: A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

#4
post #3

>I know HackerNews thinks gail.com is really clever/cool, but imagine if every single domain was like this. Most domains already are. If it's not one lucky Gail, it's a random sub-sub-brand of a corporate behemoth who got there first, and all the content served from the domain amounts to nothing more than an advertisement flyer (or a 302 to the parent company). In the grand scheme of things, Gail's domain is probably…

What's the alternative if not based on commercial activity? Lottery?

Re: A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

#5
post #3

>I know HackerNews thinks gail.com is really clever/cool, but imagine if every single domain was like this. Most domains already are. If it's not one lucky Gail, it's a random sub-sub-brand of a corporate behemoth who got there first, and all the content served from the domain amounts to nothing more than an advertisement flyer (or a 302 to the parent company). In the grand scheme of things, Gail's domain is probably…

What's the alternative if not based on commercial activity? Lottery?

Not what I’m saying. There’s two separate ideas in that paragraph. 1) allocation strategy and 2) measuring success of an allocation strategy.

Our first-come with modest renewal + transferable + UDRP is a strategy. Complaining that someone ought not to have a certain domain based on their use is based, at least implicitly, on a measurement.

Re: A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

#6

Whenever you register a domain you should be asked what you would sell it for. That would increase the amount of domains available for sale and lower prices. It would also be a good business for domain registrars.

Nah I get "domain brokers" reaching out to me sometimes for selling domains that I'm just sitting on and when they ask I usually tell em I'll sell it for $300,000 because I have no intention of selling them.

Re: A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

#7

Whenever you register a domain you should be asked what you would sell it for. That would increase the amount of domains available for sale and lower prices. It would also be a good business for domain registrars.

I don't follow. Why would being asked/answering this question result in that?

Re: A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

#8

Whenever you register a domain you should be asked what you would sell it for. That would increase the amount of domains available for sale and lower prices. It would also be a good business for domain registrars.

Why wouldn't everyone answer a million dollars?

How does this account for domain value changing over time, as you depend on it more?

Re: A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

#9

Whenever you register a domain you should be asked what you would sell it for. That would increase the amount of domains available for sale and lower prices. It would also be a good business for domain registrars.

Why wouldn't everyone answer a million dollars? How does this account for domain value changing over time, as you depend on it more?

A fairly straightforward mechanism to deal with this is to make the price that you have to pay proportional to your reserve price. It's an established theoretical concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harberger_Tax but afaik there are no notable real-world implementations so far. I'm not deeply familiar with it btw, and not advocating for or against it, just fyi

Re: A Hand Wavy Defense of Domaining

#10
post #7

Whenever you register a domain you should be asked what you would sell it for. That would increase the amount of domains available for sale and lower prices. It would also be a good business for domain registrars.

I don't follow. Why would being asked/answering this question result in that?

I think it needs to be tied to a consequence for it to all fit together. The stated price would be effectively a binding offer to sell at any time.

It reminds me of the "24 Hours of Lemons" joke racing series. The rules require participants to send in a car worth less than $500. To enforce this, the operators reserve the right to buy any participating vehicle for $501. If you act in bad faith and under-price your entry, you get it bought out from under you.

The problem is that works well for enforcing an upper bound on price. You need a different model for enforcing a lower bound. Maybe the renewal fees are scaled according to the stated price to provide a reason not to claim everything is worth millions.

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