Do people STILL think .uk will have its day?

foz · Dec 7, 2014

Have someone wanting to buy a .com.

They have just registered .co.uk.

.uk free to register.

bensd · Dec 7, 2014

foz said:
Have someone wanting to buy a .com.

They have just registered .co.uk.

.uk free to register.

Why hadn't you registered them first

;-)

foz · Dec 7, 2014

bensd said:
Why hadn't you registered them first ;-)

Low rung quality, worthy of only owning the .com really.

Point is, .uk is not even on the radar for end users.

anthony · Dec 7, 2014

Sean said:
That's Nominet's fault or to be more precise, it's Lesley Cowley and the boards fault. I've never much cared what Nominet's management paid themselves, just so long as they did a competent job but Direct.uk is proving to be a huge disaster and someone should pay for that.

I said at the time that the board is there to do a job and they should be judged on results but unless something changes pretty quickly, I think there's a case for calling for a vote of no confidence in any board members that voted for Direct.uk to go ahead.

This a big problem that will eventually become a huge problem and Nominet's new CEO needs to address it as a priority. If the only way to make the public aware of .uk is to spend a LOT of money on marketing and education then he needs to be brave and spend it rather than obsessing over how much is given to the trust.

The problem is, Nominet is a company that likes to make money rather than spend it, this is why LL.co.uk's and .uk's are here now. Your only hope is that the new CEO, realising that the last of the family silver has been flogged off, comes up with something radical that has popular support.

Skinner · Dec 7, 2014

Is it not possible the government could decide nominet isn't fit for the job and put it up for tender ? i'm not 100% sure how nominet came in to power in the beginning but surely the process can be renewed ?

Ed Vasey and current government seem obsessed with online safety and blah blah, after such a monumental balls up, I still wonder if they could step in and see the potential for a cash cow.

Edwin · Dec 7, 2014

Sean said:
As anyone had any dealing with the new CEO?

http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/nominet-names-next-ceo

Russell will join Nominet in January 2015.

julian · Dec 8, 2014

You know, I've just realised what an idiot I am not to see this sooner.

This whole .UK thing is a very clever move by Nominet because the introduction of .UK is obviously designed to kill domainers.. ahem 'domain investors' I mean.

The main reason has already been mentioned in this thread. It's so subtle its almost genius if that was one of their long term goals.

denchomsky · Dec 8, 2014

julian said:
You know, I've just realised what an idiot I am not to see this sooner.

This whole .UK thing is a very clever move by Nominet because the introduction of .UK is obviously designed to kill domainers.. ahem 'domain investors' I mean.

The main reason has already been mentioned in this thread. It's so subtle its almost genius if that was one of their long term goals.

Surely they make a lot of their income form domain investors?

julian · Dec 8, 2014

Its more about muddying the waters from the sellers perspective.

denchomsky said:
Surely they make a lot of their income form domain investors?

markb · Dec 8, 2014

julian said:
Its more about muddying the waters from the sellers perspective.

I don't think that's the case, Domain investors have ended up coming out well from the release of the .UK as they now have 2 domains for every one and 5 years to register them. I think your crediting nominet with being more intelligent than they actually are.