domain warehouses: your thoughts

It's regretable that you failed to register a deleting domain you were interested in but most of us have had the same experience more than once. I understand your frustration and desire to vent. However, decrying the registration of domains for any reason other than building websites, is a tired, old issue that is only reinvigorated by a newcomer's failure to grab a desirable domain. Welcome to the club. :)

At best this thread is an invitation to rehash an issue that has been publicly flogged to death hundreds of times since at least 1999. However, since 1999 that which was once was viewed as cybersquatting gave birth to an era of profitable domain speculation which has now evolved into the direct navigation business, supported by no less a company than Google.

At worst this type of post - about the wrongs of registering domains but not building "honest" websites - is flame bait and I won't allow such threads to run.

These days, with a reinvigorated domain aftermarket, it's widely known that if you want to grab a good domain you need to register your interest with every available drop catching service and then be prepared to bid to whatever level the interested parties are willing to take the bidding.

I invite you to examine the Domain Forum's Library and past threads discussion how to acquire a decent domain.

I certainly concur that most deleting domains are fair game and are worth, well, whatever people are willing to pay for them.

However the fact remains that in certain cases the registration of deleting domains is cybersquatting (or at least attempted cybersquatting). I would say that this is the second most prevalent form of abusive registration (after typosquatting).

Some of the big players in typosquatting have also been heavily involved in deleting domain name speculation, usually exploiting the domain names via pay-per-click advertising.

I wonder if there would be any difference when the internet was controled not only by America but by eg the UN? I am not very familiar with some practices in America but would it eg be allowed to buy all tickets of the superbowl and resell them? Are these practices comparable, since one might argue at least some domain names will always be available?

There still are good names with .com endings out there that are yet to be found. Admittedly all the good ones under eight letters are probably long gone but for each letter above nine the chances of quality names being left increses.

Personally I find .net endings just as good or should I say classic. The .org endings I allways associate with organizations.

Before long there will be no restrictons on domain endings and that will be when the real race for names starts, who would not like to own for instance: money.matters, virtual.reality, cyber.space, cheapest.prices etc. etc.

yeah, if the internet was controlled by the UN that would work just great.

There would be NO fraud whatsoever, and I'm sure countries like China probably wouldn't try to throw their weight around and have some control of the content of the Internet...and I'm sure the guy in charge of the program probably wouldn't be bribed - nah, that would never happen.

(not saying the current system is without faults, but to put it in control of a bureacratic organization like the UN would be pure silliness).

The superbowl analogy is completely off base - ICANN isn't setting up a sweetheart deal with the "warehouses" and giving them these names that you don't have access to. You have the same right to buy 1,000 domains and do nothing with them that the domain warehouses do....

(and this is coming from someone who loses several domains per week to "the big guys"...)

Folks, let's keep the focus on education for the professional webmaster.

That doesn't include political science education either. :)

Bottom line is this: no matter what industry you're in, there are certain practices some people
(especially newbies) just won't agree with. They don't have to, but if that's how things are
then that's it.

People are always welcome to try a change. But do give it a long and hard logical thought lest
you might regret what you wish for.