Isn't the refund thing to help people who mis-type their desired domain name in? Domains are cheap enough these days, and if someone is silly enough to not check the spelling before buying it's hardly going to bankrupt them to have to buy the right one. It's their own silly fault for not checking before buying anyway.

When practically every other registrar is cheaper.

Their trick is to hold domains after they are released if people have searched on those domains. It's not frontrunning, they hold the domain, they notice people querying those domains, they make a note as to the value of the domain and when it expires they don't release it.

..Well unless you *bid* on it at a hugely inflated fee.

If they have mystery people able to monitor searches performed on their site, then it means that either their site or network (likely), or one of their upstream providers' networks (much less likely) has been compromised. But hey, front-running is a great way to make money, and it's much more profitable than actually finding the hole and patching it.

Buying/Selling Virtual Space is Nothing for Something Artificial but it is not sustainable as a Constructive Model with Currency Banked and out of Spend Circulation ....... Accumulated Wealth invariably Creates Despotic Tendencies in the Easily ControlLed but it is easily Removed and "Lost" Electronically, as we know.

1) Open mouth

2) Tell brazen lie

3) ???

4) Profit!

What 5 day return policy? Last month I registered a domain for a client, only to find out later that day that he made an error when he gave it to me. The very next day, I contacted my registrar and informed them of it and that I needed to canel that one and register it again with the correct spelling. I was told too bad, I was stuck with the incorrect one and had to register and pay again for the second and correct domain.

If you are not going to hold the original misspeller to account, well it is only a few quid, but you should have charged again.

The misspell domains can be useful though, so I would flog it to him on the basis that people may misspell the domain name just as he did and tie that domain to the top domain.

Domains are two a penny nowadays, and Google is not bad at avoiding the domains with no content and are really just link farms.

The .com domain is not all the big really, sure it gets the default in an American browser, but really each country should be able to knock out a browser.

That's what I would like to see more of, more country orientated software production; I want to spell colour, colour without the red squiggly line underneath, I want to go to a .co.uk domain if I just type a word into the address bar.

The T&C's of various registrars varies, but at the end of the day ICANN is the decision maker and you are entitled to a refund - well, you were but you've waited too long and now your screwed. If your transaction was conducted electronically then you should contact ICANN and forward them the info.

By the way, who was the registrar?

I work at Network Solutions, and wanted to clarify a couple of points.

Tasters and Front Runners deal in registering and deleting millions of domains within the 5 day grace period while they test them to see if they would be profitable to keep. Network Solutions does not engage in this practice.

We have an opt-in reservation for our customers in order to help protect their interests against Tasters and Front Runners. Applying a non-refundable $.20 fee in the 5 day AGP will make the Tasters' monetizing efforts during the 5 day window unprofitable.

We made this statement as we feel next week’s ICANN conference is a critical moment for domain registration and issues of tasting, kiting and front running. We encourage your readers to write directly to ICANN and urge them to pass this provision too.

Thanks,

Shashi

"I would like to see more ... country orientated software production"

I know what you mean. Microsoft have made it possible to pick English (UK) as a language on the OS, but insist on their crappy browser saying "Favorites" instead of "Favourites". As far as I'm aware, you can't change it, but I'd be happy to be told how.

Firefox and Opera get around it by calling it "Bookmarks", but I really don't see why it's so difficult to detect the language setting. Just another reason not to use IE, I suppose.

Shashi,

You may want to correct the 'Domain Name Front Running' article on Wikipedia, if that's the case. These misleading statements could harm Wikipedia's integrity.

According to Wikipedia on Domain Name Front Running:

"Although the practice forces users to register the searched-for domains from Network Solution, Network Solutions defends the practice, claiming that "This protection measure provides our customers the opportunity to register domains they have previously searched without the fear that the name will be already taken through Front Running." However, during the 4 day period the domain is still up for sale to the general public solely through Network Solutions and is not, in fact, reserved for a specific person at all."

I want to go to a .co.uk domain if I just type a word into the address bar.

Tools | Preferences | Advanced | Network | Server Name Completion.

I want to spell colour, colour without the red squiggly line underneath

Tools | Preferences | General | Language

It's there if you look Monseuir Coward.

The registrar was 1cheapdomains out of Australia. The domain only cost me $9.00 Canadian, so I am not overly concerned, it was just the principle of the thing. If there was a 5 day return policy and I had requested it within that time period, I should have got it. It was all done electronically and I still have all the emails back and forth, but for $9.00, it's probably not worth it.

"but for $9.00, it's probably not worth it."

and that, my friend, is what they count on.

If "It was all done electronically" then there wouldn't be any e-mails back and forth for you to still have. If you had to involved a person, then they've probably spent more than the $9 you paid, just in labour costs dealing with your request. It definitely cost more than the .20c that's it's proposed be made "non refundable".

There's no obvious reason why the non-refundable part shouldn't be $1 or even $5. The number of people who are genuinely inconvenienced by an error in their $15 domain registration must be tiny, compared to the waste of what are essentially "community resources" by domain tasters.

The registration itself was done electronically, however, the computer handling the requests and registrations sent out confirmation emails as well as a receipt for payment. The request for a refund went through a person via email, who was already being paid to be at work to answer emails, so it didn't cost them any extra to handle my request.