Expiring Domain Auctions (was Re: NSI-- What Arrogance!)

From: Russ Goodwin (rglists@x23.com)
Date: Tue Mar 08 2005 - 11:23:55 EST


Thanks, James.

This is good news as it sounds like everyone will be treated fairly.

Will this be a reseller product for us to front-end on our websites?

If not, this question is moot, however if so, then when an old registrant
decides he still wants his domain during the escrow (after it's been
auctioned) and goes through the steps to reclaim it from RGP, who sends the
auction winner his refund? Tucows as the escrow provider or me as the
reseller? Chargebacks might become an issue here and it would be great if
contracts and the records in refund cases were designed to protect the
reseller.

And of course there's the question: When will it be released? :)

-Russ

At 07:14 AM 3/8/2005, James M Woods wrote:
>Hi Chuck,
>
>We will require winning bidders to commit funds on the domain they won. We
>will not interpret the registrar grace period as the grace redemption
>period. The 70~75 days past a domains expiry will still be honored.
>
>I owe you folks some info as Russ pointed out (BTW stop holding your breath
>we don't want you turning blue ;)
>
>Here are some time line examples that we are playing with.
>
>Day 0 (expiry) domain goes dark, current state (AKA Registrar Grace Period)
>Day -15 (95% of domains that will be renewed do get renewed by this date)
>Day -35 Auction! (2 to 5 day auction) (lots of other things are going to
>happen at this stage as well
>Day -40~45 Names with no bid get deleted and go into true Grace Redemption
>(Current state)
>Day -40~45 Names with a bid get explicitly renewed (Old registrants data
>stored in escrow, escrow contact info is in the whois
>
>Bake for 30 days (AKA fake redemption period AKA Escrow period)
>-During this time the previous registrant can still "redeem" their name
>-Secure funds from winning bidder
>-advise old registrant how much they get from the sale of the name
>
>At the end of the 30 day period the winning bidders info will be inserted
>into the whois as authoritative, they get the keys to the place the name is
>theirs.
>
>This scenario is the one that gets played out if the previous registrant is
>AWOL during the renewal process and has not explicitly asked for the name to
>be auctioned. There is another possible scenarios in which the previous
>registrant will give us the rights to list the name on their behalf (known
>as free and clear) in which there is a shorter escrow period and the name
>changes hands more quickly.
>
> > (I'm just guessing here because of the apparent unwillingness of anyone at
> > Tucows to spell out exactly what the plans are.)
>
>Its not unwillingness Chuck, if there's a question that I can answer that
>doesn't give away the farm too soon I'm happy to answer it.
>
> > "honoring the redemption grace period is mandatory",
> > and that whatever you do will "comply with existing policy", yet your
> > comments imply that names will be sold without being deleted. So does
> > allowing the registrant the same time period as the current redemption
> grace
> > period, without allowing the names to actually enter the redemption grace
> > period, actually comply with existing policy?
>
>We believe it does yes.
>
> > If it does, NSI is doing
> > nothing wrong
>
>Under the current state, no we do not believe that they are doing anything
>"wrong"
>
>I'm going to go get coffee now I have a feeling the this post is going to
>make this a discuss-list day ;-)
>
>Cheers,
>
>James
>
>
>
>On 3/7/05 5:56 PM, "Chuck Hatcher" <chatcher@ashland-ky.net> wrote:
>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: James M Woods [mailto:jwoods@tucows.com]
> >>
> >> Chuck,
> >>
> >> Don't think about the mechanical bits:
> >>
> >>> to enter redemption grace period, a domain name must be deleted by the
> >>> current registrar.
> >>
> >> Think instead about the timeline (30 days) that Redemption offers
> >> the original registrant (which we do still plan on honoring for those
> >> who have not explicitly requested the name be auctioned...its all part
> >> of escrow)
> >>
> >> I hope to be able to offer more details soon (like a launch date!)
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >>
> >> James
> >
> > Does that mean you will be requiring bidders to commit funds to purchase
> > names that may later be redeemed by the previous registrants (as does
> > Dotster/Namewinner)? Or interpreting the registrar grace period as
> > fulfilling the spirit of the 30-day registry redemption period (as
> > apparently does NSI)? Those "mechanical bits" go a long way toward
> > providing the new registrant a "clear title" to an expired name.
> >
> > (I'm just guessing here because of the apparent unwillingness of anyone at
> > Tucows to spell out exactly what the plans are.)
> >
> > I mean, Ross has said "honoring the redemption grace period is mandatory",
> > and that whatever you do will "comply with existing policy", yet your
> > comments imply that names will be sold without being deleted. So does
> > allowing the registrant the same time period as the current redemption
> grace
> > period, without allowing the names to actually enter the redemption grace
> > period, actually comply with existing policy? If it does, NSI is doing
> > nothing wrong, since because there is no policy preventing registrars from
> > deleting names the day after expiry, and in fact at least one does so, and
> > since the redemption policy only adds 30 days during which a registrant can
> > recover an expired name, then 36 days would "comply".
> >
> >
> >
>
>James M Woods
>Product Manager - TLD's
>Tucows Inc.
>416.538.5453
>Check out my blog at www.warpjam.com



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