Trials & Tribulations with auDA

[robert]

My new Trials & Tribulations with auDA blog over at Domainer.com.au today talks about auDA's misspellings list, Netfleet's continued double-dipping of names that repeatedly enter policy delete, scammers receiving refunds and Vanessa Stanford as the sole judge, jury and executioner of auDA complaints.

 

[Erwin]

A very, very interesting read that!!

 

[DomainNames]

Interesting and once again fairly disturbing reading.

It would be good to have some comments from auDA staff or auDA board members in response on that domainer forum post or on this website.

 

[robert]

An interesting post from a drop-catcher continues over at the Domainer blog post

We are not a life jacket that protects you from jumping in the water if you don’t know how to swim. It’s your (the buyers) responsibility to comply with auDA policy.
​

I respect Cam's drop service but I can't agree with this, as I stated.

 

[ErezY]

Hi Robert,
I think it needs to be blocked with auDA. They are the ones who are double-dipping on the registration fees.

Example:
Say the drop services removed these from their list. Within a short amount of time, a new domainer will come and hand-reg the domain with another registrar. It will be dropped, auDA will get their fees again and so it will continue. It needs to be blocked from all registrars, not just the drop service.

I can see your point that it has to start somewhere, and I guess the drop service would be first port of call as these domains stand out and are sometimes too tempting not to bid on. However auDA maintain the misspellings list and should block these at the source from being registered as they will never pass the auDA policy while the name is still on the list. Its entrapment and if I was a lawyer would probably find a legal issue with it. If you are taking money from someone knowing they are not in policy, its at least not ethical.

 

[robert]

Hi Erezy,
I never said the drop services had to remove them from their lists. That would be a good idea though. And of course it would be great if auDA blocked them at the AusRegistry end... But in the meantime, all I (and others) are suggesting is, the drop-platforms should be HIGHLIGHTING the names so people are aware of what they're doing. It seems that they don't want to highlight these names, because they enjoy taking the money. auDA will be slow to implement anything about this (if at all) so for now, a quick fix is for the drop-platforms to do something about it. Why won't they? Well, that raises the main question we're asking here...
It's like my tub of yoghurt from a supermarket example over at the Domainer blog...

 

[ErezY]

Fair point. The drop services are catering to a particular market, mainly, with a specific service and their systems could easily(?) be altered to avoid these issues as part of the service to its loyal customers. I see the light!

 

[neddy]

Fair point. The drop services are catering to a particular market, mainly, with a specific service and their systems could easily(?) be altered to avoid these issues as part of the service to its loyal customers. I see the light!

These issues were discussed and fixed way back. Netfleet agreed to do a MS symbol - and it worked well. https://www.dntrade.com.au/threads/utube-com-au.2984/#post-35061

Then it disappeared in a subsequent revamp of their platform, and despite being asked on numerous occasions to put it back, they never did.

(By the way, in above thread, for some reason my old "Admin" identity has been ascribed to Soj).

 

[robert]

I think the drop-catchers need more than just a symbol for these types of names. I believe we need a new column featuring the date the name last appeared on the drops.

Plus...

When someone clicks on a name that has appeared on the drops in the past 3 months A MASSIVE FLUORESCENT GREEN BANNER should take up 3/4 of the potential-buyers screen, stating in bold and FLASHING LETTERS:

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS NAME IS BEING RIPPED FROM PEOPLE EVERY FEW WEEKS BY auDA???!?!?!?!?!!??!!?!?! ASK YOURSELF ----> ARE YOU ALLOWED TO OWN THIS NAME ?!?!?!?!??! It is your responsibility to do more research before committing to buying this name!!!!!!! because we do not [[[[[ I REPEAT ]]]]] WE DO NOT OFFER REFUNDS!!!!!!

 

[neddy]

There is another policy trap that people need to look out for. Similar ramifications.

It's the auDA Reserved List Policy.

I wrote two separate stories about this on Domainer last year.

"Danger Ahead" and "Prohibited Domain Names".