Deleting.co.uk RIP

[Whois-Search]

Hmm visitors from Romania starting from March...

On second thoughts i've removed that data too.

Oh well, that's my whole .uk drop catching operation fucked – thanks Nominet.

They'll be losing me as a member unless a comparable service is started or deleting gets a reprieve.

Anyone help me out getting hold of drop lists for .uk, even if it's a paid service?

- Rob

P.S - Thanks Andrew for starting/maintaining deleting.co.uk over the past years – much appreciated.

Thanks Rob i'm not sure what i'm going to do with my memberhsip either now other than vote! However i'm going to the registrar information day on the 7th June to learn how to be a EPP registrar

 

[eetc]

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

eetc

 

[retired_member6]

It's easy to be cynical about this, but it does make you wonder about Nominet's objectives.

Personally, i imagine they would like to remove any 3rd party function which provides an equal or better service than theirs.

It was afterall 'public' data, but mearly presented in a way which the domaining sector (and by that i mean only the domaining sector) found of use!

Not only domainers but developers, businesses, ip lawyers, they've all been done. Nominet done a boo boo, they will have to let deleting return minus the rules it broke, the dates and tags, there's no reason it can't. Nominet over reacted and I should think after today they know that all too well.

There's no point them shutting one site down, four more will pop up, they shut them down for no reason, ten more will appear and so on until the whole uk is mapped over several sites. Deleting did two things wrong, so tell him, they knew about the site, lesson learned, move on, open up again within the rules this time.

Estimated loss of income to Nominet from this decision, at a guess £200,000 plus a year. Also loss of transfer revenue and drs revenue, which I doubt the independents will be happy about. Also sedo has lost business, namedrive, google... there's the knock on.

The lawyers Nominet hired got it wrong as well and left them open to a law suit for telling someone to delete data they didn't need to. There's so many problems with this, who exactly authorised the suspension? they need a kick up the harris.

 

[retired_member6]

And FAO theregister, you're slacking, no article on sedo and domcollect and nothing on this yet either?

I wish I was still running a blog, I'm having so many things to talk about lately, I could be rich. I might start it again.

 

[Johnp]

Thanks Andrew, sorry to see your service close, it has been a great help to me over the last few months.

Someone out there anwer be a techy question, nominet have a publicly available whois lookup via port 43. If you had a large enough network of anonomous proxy servers, say about 1000, which is available - then you could do about 1M whois lookups a day before hitting the current 1K a day limit per IP address, you would not need a DAC and if you ran it offshore then other than moaning what could Nominet do ? Would that be enough lookup to build the database ?

Just thinking outside the box, or am I being totally silly - Nominet clearly are !

JohnP

 

[Fold]

If you had a large enough network of anonomous proxy servers, say about 1000

Is that easy to get?

 

[jonno]

i'm pretty sure nominet would notice a 1 million lookup increase

 

[Johnp]

I won't openly explain how to do this, but yes it is.

I already use such a service on a small scale to do bulk OVT lookups - OK only about 30K a day from a single a machine (which I do everything else on) - but works OK for me. Hence why I feel it can be scaled easily to 1M lookups a day.

Cheers


JohnP

 

[Johnp]

Well perhaps if Nominet saw their public Whois service being hammered, they would think again and allow Andrew Bennett's service back online with certain restrictions as to the online data.

Just a thought - but perhaps a technical way to apply pressure to what appears a 'technical breach' of Nominet rules !

Cheers


JohnP

 

[dhscott]

Changing the subject slightly, will the new system put you in direct competition with a certain odditysoftware?

 

[Whois-Search]

Changing the subject slightly, will the new system put you in direct competition with a certain odditysoftware?

Well competition is better than any monopoly

Dwayne Rowland is the grandad of drop lists:
http://www.dnjournal.com/columns/coverstory7.htm

 

[retired_member3]

Well nominet has lost my money. I was all set to start drop catching but not without deleting telling me what was dropping tomorrow. So no membership money, dac, etc.... swelling their coffers.

Just have to concentrate on developing my existing domains and not buy any new ones.

Bad business move nominet, but then you make a lot of piss poor decisions.

 

[Jixi]

Sorry to repeat what's already been said but I was a regular user of deleting and found it to be a great service. I always wondered why you didn't charge for it but I guess I know now!

We voted for you btw - I wouldn't blame you if you told 'em to stick it tbh.

I think if enough people got together there's a chance this could be sorted - IE 50+ complaints about it being taken down as opposed to 1 (?) about it being available.

Surely the majority have a right? I imagine the overall DAC usage will go up now as well 'cos people will be using their own quota to do something similar.

 

[retired_member6]

In an hour or so it will have been 24 hours and no response, we have a few options, approach a solicitor and see if we can't defend an action and sue Nominet for closing down parts of all our businesses overnight or set up a new service within the regulations with combined efforts and tags and maybe pool our resources and become number one catchers or less of the dreaming and just sort ourselves out with lists so we can continue.

If Nominet's plan is to take deleting in house and get people to pay for it, I aint signing up, I'd rather find the funding and start deleting 2 myself with others. But I'll wait and see what Nominet's response is first. Let's hope they see common sense and see they've done everyone an injustice, made a wrong decision and employed solicitors that haven't a clue what they were doing.

Is it better to make a formal complaint through some channel rather than just a letter? What's their guideline time for a response? and is there any articles on this announcement yet? theregister? anything? hopeless aint they.

 

[retired_member6]

If you have a favourite news resource for internet related topics, please send this in to their news desk. I've just sent this in to theregister.co.uk and the BBC.

Cheers
Lee

Nominet Shut Down Deleting.co.uk Sending Shockwaves Around The World

Dear Editor,

I don't know if you've seen yet but Nominet have closed down Deleting.co.uk, this has literally shut down smaller domainer operations in the uk and restricted catching to the elite for the time being. This has affected domainers, businesses, ip lawyers, developers, a wide spectrum of uk domain users and buyers.

Overnight nominet have lost £200,000 a year by this one decision alone, that includes lost DRS fighting funds which independents won't be happy about, domain purchases and also loss of domain transfer income. The knock on also affects Google, Sedo and Namedrive and in the long term, the affiliate market industry.

More behind the story, the owner Andrew Bennet was selected to run for the PAB, it would seem one person complained about the service breaking Nominet rules, although the majority ran within the scope of lists.

Many domainers are stuck now (not that all would feel sorry for them) and are busy either dropping one half of their business or looking for new ways to fund deleting part two or partnering with others to find a way forward and see if Nominet can't be sued and their decision overturned.

Many complaints have been received by Nominet, in the hundreds I suspect from a wide variety of people in the internet industry, please highlight this on your site, for further comment please view ttp://www.acorndomains.co.uk/drop-catching-domain-names/18389-deleting-co-uk-rip.html It's been over 24 hours since news broke and complaints were sent, Nominet are yet to respond.

Cheers
Lee Owen
Contact email: your own or domaini @ hotmail.co.uk or simply ask for opinion on acorndomains.co.uk

 

[mattonline]

This thread has caught alot of attention.. 2600+ views and 115+ posts in 2 days

shows how much people depended on this service

 

[retired_member6]

Please get the below release emailed around, posted on other domain and related forums, the majority don't know it's been closed, some are only just finding out after reading what I posted below, get emailing and posting, urge people to complain to [email protected] with a reasoned arguement.

Cheers
Lee

 

[Nigel]

The workday certainly seems a little bit duller without deleting

-here goes - I'm just about to remove the 'deleting' incon from my toolbar favourites :cry:

 

[Edwin]

Lee, while your intent may be good, your email to The Register liberally mixes a few facts with a lot of unfounded speculation. There's literally no way you can quantify the monetary loss to Nominet nor the knock-on effects on Google et al, nor what most domainers are doing or plan to do. It really removes a good deal of credibility from what you're trying to say.

Best to stick to the facts, and exclusively to the facts. The press will dig deeper, speculate etc. That's what they're best at!

The facts in this case:-

- Deleting.co.uk was used by about 1,000 people a day, many of whom are in the domain drop-catching industry.
- There is currently no similar public-facing drop list service provider for the .co.uk market
- Domainers will have to make private lists, or find other arrangements, to derive the lists of domains that are dropping every day (doesn't mean they're "shut down" themselves - I'm sure many of the folks on here have their own private word lists too)
- (perhaps) The service was shut down with little or no advance warning, under pressure from Nominet

Beyond that, everything else is purest speculation.

 

[jonno]

Agreed with Edwin.

In addition, it's probably your own fault anyway basing your business on a free online service that could be closed down at any time anyway.