Comments Disparaging Domain Industry Practices: The domain name industry encompasses a variety of business operations or practices. Some business practices, such as typosquatting of famous marks, will never gain legitimacy. Other business operations, such as domain monetization by domain parking have established their viability and legitimacy - despite an absence of universal acceptance or praise. Disparaging remarks or grievances posted in threads discussing common domain business operations that are neither unlawful nor prohibited by ICANN will be deemed "flame bait" or a "thread hijacking comment" and will therefore be removed or edited.
Thread titles are subject to editing by the moderator, for reasons including improving clarity or to bring the thread's focus into conformity with this Charter and the Domain Forum educational mission.
POSTING DOMAIN NAMES IN THE FORUM IS NOT ALLOWED: The posting of specific domain names is not allowed in the Domain Forum. Limited Exceptions to the Rule: 1) Non-promotional posts about significant domain transactions mentioned in the mainstream media; 2) Threads initiated by the Moderators (Webwork, Buckworks) that specifically invite the posting of domain names or website data for a specific educational purpose.
Discussions of domain related issues, where mentioning an example domain may be helpful, should use Example.com not Widget.com, nor MyDomain.com. Saying "this is a made up domain" or a "fictious domain" does not make the posting of any domain acceptable. Just stick to using Example.com. EXAMPLE.com is a "registry reserved" domain. That means Example.com cannot be owned by anyone. No website is hosted at Example.com. One cannot spam a forum using Example.com.
The other acceptable exemplified domain format, for discussing domain issues, is Word1Word2.tld or Word1-Word2.tld.
DOMAIN SERVICE PROVIDERS:
Discussions about service provider should address general criteria for decisionmaking, not whether you like or dislike a company.
Please post your issues in general terms, avoiding mention of specific service providers, domain registrars or hosting companies. For example: "My registrar won't do this" is acceptable. "XYZRegistrar won't do this" is NOT acceptable. The latter statement will usually be deleted or edited.
On rare occassion we may allow a thread concerning a specific provider due to the scale of the problem, i.e., larger provider + tens of thousands affected + many WebmasterWorld members affected.
Most posts that either ask for reviews or that make endorsements of tools, products or services will be edited or deleted. For example: "Is X Product or X Company good or bad?" will usually be edited or deleted. Why? Because such posts are often thinly disguised promotional spam OR set ups for company bashing, that then leads to flame wars or promo wars since many companies have employees who are members here.
Occasionally, product or service review threads will be allowed IF they are initiated by a longstanding member (lowered likelihood of promotional intent), well crafted or thoughtful, relate to a new or recently released product or service of clear utility or value, isn't a tool site littered with ads, and if the issue has not been previously discussed. Also, a moderator may initiate either an industry review thread or a product review thread that will call for detailed, factual analysis by members of products and services, not simplistic yea or nay vote posts.
CUSTOMER SERVICE OR SUPPORT ISSUES:
If you are dissatisfied with a registrar or other service provider, or have other issues about which you are annoyed, please file your grievance with the Better Business Bureau, the local government Consumer Advocate or other similar agency. Posts that consist of or contain complaints, grievances, allegations of shoddy customer service or business practices are subject to removal, deletion or editing.
Please first attempt to resolve all transactional and tech suport issues with your service provider before posting about your issue here. Help Desk, tech support or customer support type issues should be brought, in the first instance, to the attention of your service provider. Posts should detail all efforts taken - without naming service provider names or inserting email contents - to save responding members from advising you to do what has already been done.
"Doing business" in the forum, openly or by suggestion, whether as seller or buyer / user or vendor, is prohibited. For example:
