CircleID

The Techno-Pinkos , sounds like a band name. Anyway, I think there are plenty of them around; not just the trolls of the forums and sites you mentioned, but also in decision making positions within the domain space.  I think you might want to point out some of these examples in your next piece :) If you need help start by looking at the recent ALAC comments.

btw it's Garry Chernoff.

The problem I have with the kind of domaining you describe is just the same as John Levine has with it.  There's a previous post on circleid where he compared this with setting up a condiments business by grabbing the free ketchup and mustard packets from restaurant tables.

Domains (usable domains anyway) are a finite resource.  And any business model that's built on salami profits created using a single loophole (add grace) really isnt sustainable.

Billion dollar "portfolios" would vanish - and the next T.R.A.F.F.I.C conference would probably be held at the Days Inn in Peoria rather than at a beach resort in Vegas.

Would I lose sleep over it?  Quite likely not.

s/d
John Q Technopinko

Darn, where'd that last line go?  T.R.A.F.F.I.C would have to move to the peoria days inn (oh, and food from the Wendy's next door) if icann abolished add grace.

Levine's http://www.circleid.com/posts/domain_in_bad_taste/ is well worth reading.

Suresh,

Please explain the mechanism by which portfolios of registered and paid for domain names would "vanish" if the add grace provision were eliminated.  I wouldn't lose any sleep over that either, but I'm trying to figure out what you believe to be the connection between add grace, and domain collections that people have held for years.

IMHO domain tasting probably has a fairly marginal return at best, but do you seriously believe there are hundreds of people who have anything to do with the activity?

Building up a portfolio of carefully selected domains over years .. you have naturally dropped the domains you dont need and actually paid for the rest.  And most of the random typosquats / randomly named domains go right away.  That's different.

I'm talking about an entirely different market, one that grabs thousands of domains indiscriminately, for a cent or two of PPC revenue, and based on the add grace period to avoid paying all that much (yes, I am aware of the escrowed money held with the registrar, and the profits there, given the revenue model, leads to a fraction of a cent per domain..).  Those, and the kiters, catch, drop and catch a domain again, ad nauseam.  Without paying for it.

For that segment, all it takes is one of two or three things:

1. Add grace to go away
2. Yahoo Overture / Google Ads suddenly gets tough on this

the bottom will drop out of the market. 

What's going on there is not speculation .. it is hoarding / cornering the market.  And that is a strategy that can very easily backfire, besides not being the most brilliant thing to allow when usable domain names are a scarce resource.

That’s different.

I agree with you.  It is different. I'm just curious about your comment above which suggests that the majority of domain conference attendees were domain tasters.  I really had no idea that many people were doing it.

How many people or organizations do you suppose are doing domain tasting?

Those, and the kiters, catch, drop and catch a domain again, ad nauseam.  Without paying for it.

I'd like to know who one of these kiters is, and see an example of this in action.  Can you identify one domain that this is being done with, so I can see this being done?

But, my main question is, how do "billion dollar portfolios vanish" if domain tasting is eliminated, as you said above?

But, my main question is, how do “billion dollar portfolios vanish” if domain tasting is eliminated, as you said above?

You mean a billion dollars worth of domains at $10 a pop?  Or a bunch of fewer domains with a highly inflated notional value of a billion?  Dont tell me you get a billion dollars worth of PPC revenue out of parked pages.

If the bottom drops out of the domaining industry thanks to the widespread interest in kiting that governments / law enforcement are starting to take, believe me, legitimate domainers are going to be affected just as badly or worse, because the actual kiters have little or no actual money in the process, while you do have substantial money invested (though certainly not worth a billion)

Do read up on the tulip craze / the south sea bubble while you're at it