EGM.uk - Please sign this petition against Nominet's 50% price rise

[jasman]

Very close, I'm sure we will reach 5% soon.
How about changing the thread title to something like
"EGM.uk - please sign the petition against Nominet's 50% price rise". There may be other Nominet members on Acorn who like me nearly didn't click on this thread because it wasn't obvious what the petition was about.

 

[jasman]

Are there any Twitter users who might have a strong following among Nominet members? Or the UK internet community in general? Shouldn't be difficult to get them to tweet a link to the petition as this is against everyone's interest except Nominet.

 

[afx]

Signed.

 

[Admin]

Signed last week. Promoted on Acorn Domains facebook and twitter accounts and my UK Domains social pages. Changed this thread title too.

 

[Systreg]

I wasn't sure which I had to sign, so I've signed both.

 

[Edwin]

If you're a Nominet member, sign both.

If you're only a registrant, then just sign the registrant one

 

[jasman]

Signed last week. Promoted on Acorn Domains facebook and twitter accounts and my UK Domains social pages. Changed this thread title too.

Thanks very much for all that admin. I'm sure it will make a difference.

Do we know if some of the big portfolio owners like anyweb, dropcatcher etc have signed the registrar petition? If not I'm sure they would want to given the implications of the price hike and their voting rights would blow the 5% target out of the water.

 

[RobM]

If you pay for the domains on your tag you'll hate it. If other people pay for the domains on your tag you'll either a) be indifferent if you plan to raise the cost *exactly* the amount of the price hike or b) be rubbing your hands together with glee if you're going to raise the cost *more* than the amount of the price hike and blame it on a registry rise to people who don't know any better.
Guess which category people like godaddy, 123reg, etc will fall into. Look who has the most voting power. Search the net for links between these registrars and people who make the decisions Draw your own conclusions.

 

[atlas]

Godaddy have likely never coded their systems to use the 2-10 year wholesale pricing, instead basing all their retail *.uk pricing on the wholesale 1 year and multiples thereof. Their retail prices clearly aren't just pennies above wholesale, quite the opposite save for promotions, so it may be they decide not to raise their .uk retail prices at all. Equally if they did decide to raise them they could do it for less than the proposed wholesale price increase.

Since you raised it, can you provide the apparent links between Godaddy and "people who make decisions"? I for one would like to see what you're referring to . Thanks.

@invincible are you going to sign the petition?

 

[RobM]

* nevermind there's absolutely no point.

 

[monaghan]

It's unlikely to be in the direct interest of anyone being asked to pay more than they do at the moment. It is in their indirect interest for Nominet to remain a successful and competitive company, although I am aware that some people differ on what Nominet should and should't be, and therefore on what the company requires financially.

As you bought up the subject...

I have no objection to Nominet taking the cash they need to run, even sufficient to provide far more than other registries, perhaps even a decent bonus to staff, but why are they giving so much away to "charity" already and then hike the prices? They can't spend what they collect already, so what will happen to the extra we pay them in registration fees other than giving more to bonus / charity?

 

[monaghan]

I'm not really worried if the trust don't have enough at the moment, as you may have guessed I'm not really a fan of the type of project they support!

So if the bonus and salary are not going up, nothing major has been announced or even hinted at (either that or the rumour mill is going slow), so the only thing left to do with the money is the charity handouts unless you know something we don't.

If they genuinely need the money, then why not just tell us what it will be used for? I'm fairly certain nobody would complain over a technology refresh, new datacenter and so on. All I can see from Nominet is increased piles of cash in the bank, larger bonuses and large donations to charity, so feel free to point me to the communication telling me where my increased registration fee will be going and I can then make informed comment.

 

[diablo]

If they genuinely need the money, then why not just tell us what it will be used for? I'm fairly certain nobody would complain over a technology refresh, new datacenter and so on. All I can see from Nominet is increased piles of cash in the bank, larger bonuses and large donations to charity, so feel free to point me to the communication telling me where my increased registration fee will be going and I can then make informed comment.

This sums up my position too. Nominet has become bloated on what is monopoly money, to the point where domain name revenue is taken for granted (hence the lack of an inquest into the botched launch of .uk).

As it stands, I see no reason for an increase in registration fee given the current financial state of Nominet and the wider financial climate.

 

[diablo]

The Nominet Board wishes to ensure that Nominet continues to be a key player in the worldwide domain name sphere.

This is guaranteed by virtue of their control of the .uk name space.

 

[Lucky Luke]

Is there a way I can put certain posters on ignore?

 

[Skinner]

Is the emboldened part which bothers me. They were there for 1 reason, to run .UK, they shouldn't be in "other spheres" least not using the main spheres money to fund their jollys.

Its kinda like you paying a secretary to do a job, and her taking a part time job, which she does during the time she's in your office.

The Nominet Board wishes to ensure that Nominet continues to be a key player in the worldwide domain name sphere, as well as in other speheres but to much less of an extent.

 

[atlas]

@invincible are you going to sign the petition?

@ invincible - you comment on posts people don't want you to, but you don't comment on one specifically directed at you?

 

[Murray]

Just thinking out loud

.UK was supposedly introduced to make things more current and help compete with the new extensions wasn't it? that was a big reason given (after the security stuff was dropped because that was obvious hooey)

I think one thing that certainly helps uk vs with the new extensions is generally it's much cheaper than a lot of other options

So by making .uk more expensive + making it so you're almost forced to get the co.uk & .uk combination, is there not a worry it will push people to think "oh fudge it, I might as well go for a new extension it's about the same as them two combined"

 

[Edwin]

I received the following from Nominet when I asked whether the T&C changes would affect the price rise if the part about setting fees on a cost-recovery basis ended up not being removed:
"So to address your original questions, the pricing decision had been made, and is not dependent on the outcome of the T&Cs comment period."

In other words, regardless of what anyone feeds back about the proposed changes to the T&C, the price rises are going to go ahead.

 

[Edwin]

I'm not sure that I do the former, however no current plans. I don't think I could sit on a Board if I was also calling for an EGM asking for a member vote on price rises when pricing is now a Board issue. Could any Board member (they're all Nominet members)?

Nominet can't force you to agree with any decision they make. As a NED you're there precisely because you're independent. And since your multiple hats forced you out of the room when the final decision was made, the identical logic should allow you, wearing your portfolio owner/Member hat, to support a motion that you personally agree with. Being a NED doesn't mean you should abrogate your responsibilities to your own businesses!

I don't see that as any sort of conflict so long as you continue to fulfil the obligations of your NED role.

Of course if in fact you agreed with the price rises (from what I could gather of the extended process leading up to the meeting at which the decision was taken, I believe there was no dissent by the end once the matter had been discussed in full) then that's another story entirely...