For Sale This Just In From Snapnames!!

[Digital Address]

Dear SnapNames Customer:

Since our founding in 2000, SnapNames® has worked to provide reliable, easy-to-use and affordable services for securing valuable domain names. Through our SnapBack® domain name back-order service, we have helped tens of thousands of customers around the world find their identities on the Web.

For more than two years, we have also endeavored to make our technology available in a way that will benefit all end-users, no matter their levels of sophistication or technical capability. This effort has now come to fruition with the upcoming release of VeriSign's Wait-Listing System (WLS), a centralized, universal system that will improve the effectiveness of domain name back-ordering.

The launch of WLS will have an impact on your SnapBack subscription. The most critical piece of information for you is this:

In accordance with the rules set forth by ICANN, SnapNames will attempt to convert existing SnapBack subscriptions for COM and NET domain names to WLS subscriptions at the time WLS goes into effect. We will do so at no additional cost to you.

To help you understand what to expect before and during the transition to the WLS system, SnapNames has created an FAQ page that will address, in detail, the steps we're preparing to take on your behalf.

SnapNames will continue to serve your domain name back-order needs with SnapBack subscriptions for ORG names and, soon, other top-level domains. We will notify you about these services as they become ready.

As always, thank you for your business.

Best regards,

Ray King
President / CEO

 

[ToastyX]

Here is the FAQ page: http://www.snapnames.com/faqs_wls.html

 

[actnow]

Under WLS, when will it take effect? On domains that drop after 10-27-03? Or, names that expire after that date?

What about the 45 day wait period? I assume that will still be in effect.

So, in that 45 day wait period, people should not answer their telephone if they want the name to go away. Because, the boiler room operations will be working the phones.

Will the offers rise as the domain gets closer to expiration?

What about the fraud by people selling ownership to perspective buyers? Ouch.com all over. again.

If you want to make money on WLS. It will be in the escrow part of the biz.

 

[NexSite]

What Network solutions has managed to do is up the price that IT recieves for every domain name re-registered after drop. No more $8.75ers . Didn't I read somewhere that Every register will have to pay a $25 fee to netsol for every dropped name that is re-registered, regardless if it is a WLS registration or not? Not new names, just expired deleted names. They wanted something like $45 ad Icann made it $25 or something like that. OK. That really works for netsols bankroll. Gone, perhaps will be huge bids at pool, namewiener. And gone will be every chance you ever had to get the name if you didn't get the wls slot, except to say, purchase it outright from the wls winner. They have really pulled a good one on us. Now we all will be competing for the "spot" to get the name, instead of competing for the name directly. So, say 15 registrars offer you one chance each for a slot, you have a lot of work to do. The more services you use to try and acquire the slot the better your chances. The catch, if you get the WLS slot, you pay for the slot even if the name doesn't drop. If the name does drop and you get it, you better be aware of what your new registrar is going to tack on folks. It's not going to be $8 or $10 . It will be much more than that, and that is over, and above your WLS slot.
Notice that nobody is talking about it. They want us all to rush in and suck up the available slots at $40 or so a pop. ANd from netsols point, most are already gone as it appears that any name with a snap is reserved already there. They will supposedly only charge you if you get the slot, netsol that is, if you went through NRR. Snapnames will attempt to convert your snaps, but don't even think you will get a nickel back if they don't get you the slot. Other registrars will surely offer varying prices for a chance for their slot. Wait. Can they auction chances for one slot, and if they get it it goes to the highest bidder? I havent read ICanns Rules but this will all be intersting. Im not sure that everything I said is correct, so feel free to correct me. Interesting thing here. If 15 registrars are competing at a fixed price for a slot, how do the ones that don't have a decent success ratio pay for all the programming, bandwidth etc... I see many of these companies are gonna tack on high fees when they register a deleted name on your behalf or they will cease to exist. I am going to enjoy watching this joke unfold. Whats really funny is this. This was all supposed to help poor ole innocent joe mom and pop business get a name. What a huge joke has been played on ICANN. I guarantee you will see the same companies, BD, ULT, FMA, Caymen etc... getting the majority of the names. I honestly dont think there is an effective way to help John Q Public get a good .com at wholesale anymore. It's over.

 

[dvdrip]

This can't be right!

Originally posted by NexSite
Didn't I read somewhere that Every register will have to pay a $25 fee to netsol for every dropped name that is re-registered, regardless if it is a WLS registration or not? Not new names, just expired deleted names.

 

[NexSite]

This from Buydomains website.

The WLS:
The Waiting List Service (WLS) is a scheme unilaterally proposed by Verisign in order to enable it to receive $20-$30 per WLS subscription, instead of a maximum of $6 for an actual domain registration, pursuant to the Commerce approved contract. This fee merely places a prospective registrant on a completely useless waiting list (see below) and does not even include the domain name registration fee.

 

[NexSite]

If your WLS subscription results in your registration of your targeted name, you would be responsible for any additional fees to the registrar. Any additional fees? Over and above the WLS subscription.

 

[Steen]

Cry me a river.


The monopoly has decided to change the idustry again.

So start a lawsuit if you dont like it.

 

[Beachie]

The little guy will have no chance from now on. In the lead up to WLS, expect auctions for pre-WLS subscriptions where the bids go beyond your grasp. After WLS, expect immense difficulty getting any good subscriptions because BD, Ult and the few other big players will buy them in bulk, months before the drop.

The pro-WLS people will realize the terrible mistake they made, and it will all be too late.

The worst monopoly is coming on October 27th.

 

[mole]

Originally posted by Beachie
The pro-WLS people will realize the terrible mistake they made, and it will all be too late.

Wacha talkin' bout willis? Its never too late when you are early in.

 

[Nexus]

Originally posted by Beachie
The pro-WLS people will realize the terrible mistake they made, and it will all be too late.

It will be interesting to see how much this is or isn't the case. The "pro-WLS" people with unrealistic expectations aren't worth talking about though.

~ Nexus

 

[hiOsilver]

The sky is falling!!! The sky is falling!!!

 

[ToastyX]

Originally posted by Beachie
The pro-WLS people will realize the terrible mistake they made, and it will all be too late.

The worst monopoly is coming on October 27th.

There's always .org domains. :-D

 

[Beachie]

Originally posted by hiOsilver
The sky is falling!!! The sky is falling!!!

No - For those of us who want to reach the sky, it's getting further away.

 

[Beachie]

Originally posted by ToastyX
There's always .org domains. :-D

Probably not for long - So far, PIR have mimicked everything that has happened in the COM/NET namespace.

RGP was the first step to WLS - the registry taking back control of how drops occur.

 

[mole]

What about .INFO and .BIZ drops? :approve:

 

[affordablehosting]

Look, WLS probably isn't gonna be the end of the world.

-Verisign has already created a human verification scheme. Several CS professors at Carnegie Mellon proved that these pictures cannot be read by programs or scripts. So, unless BD has some U of I folks working for them, they're screwed. It will be impossible to use a script and register 100,000 WLSs in the first 20 milliseconds. For the matter, Verisign will also require registrars to verify humans as well. That means we won't have lots of $3,000 auctions. We'll have a very small number $100,000 auctions for websites like altavista.com and sex.com. Simply put, someone will have to hand type those names in and verify that they're a human.

-Verisign is running a public trust, and it's responsible to the folks who run the internet. If we think they're too sleazy to run a registry, ICANN should think the same thing, and we'll have Microsoft run it. HEY, WAIT A SECOND!

-If things keep up, let's say you're right, and it will be the end of the world (wide web). Big Deal! Microsoft is gonna come along, and introduce keywords that run through their browser monopoly. UltSearch and BD are gonna be stuck with 200,000 worthless domains, and all the small players might have a slightly better chance at getting decent internet real-estate.

If WLS succeeds, that's great. If it fails, it will probably be the end of the world wide web like anti-WLS folks say, and that's not a big problem if you don't own $10,000 worth of domain names. Internet Keywords are inevitable, and Microsoft is slightly less horrible at managing a monopoly than Verisign.

 

[mole]

Originally posted by affordablehosting
Internet Keywords are inevitable, and Microsoft is slightly less horrible at managing a monopoly than Verisign.

What about email? :huh: Keywords are good if you have 70 people in this world. It may be a stretch if you have 7 billion.

ICANN decided many years ago that it was time the DNS and gTLDs will evolve beyond .OOM, .NET and .ORG.

All this drop feeding frenzy would not be happening if someday, someone realises that life on the Internet isn't just confined to .COM.

That day is happening, not radically like a bubonic plague, but slowly and surely.

As a developer, I have no doubts that I could, if I tried hard, make a say .tv domain successful. Lazy thinking and the choice not to develop names because it is too much work, is what is making .COM where it is.

 

[affordablehosting]

Why doesn't .US launch a huge PR campaign?

The last time we saw patriotic commercials for a business was when Lee Iacocca was begging folks to buy Chryslers. Seriously, though, a carefully planned series of ads for .US would increase interest in the TLD dramatically. Maybe .us would sound almost as natural as .com.

Either way, if Verisign screws this up, the worst that happens is that everybody who owns a valuable .com and .net gets screwed, and keywords or other TLDs take the place of .com

 

[mole]

Originally posted by affordablehosting
Either way, if Verisign screws this up, the worst that happens is that everybody who owns a valuable .com and .net gets screwed, and keywords or other TLDs take the place of .com

Keywords are already being used to huge effectiveness by the search engine giants like Google. URLs per se are getting less and less effective for navigation when overall user experiences conclude that typing in some of the best .COM names blind only lead to Popup hell, a for-sale page, or brain dead crappy PPC.

Having said that, a URL is also a brand name of sorts eg Amazon.com.

Beyond navigation, a good URL is your calling card to the world, your identifier on whether a person will receive your email, or delete it as spam. Sometimes in the heat of things, we do forget the basics of Internet experience.