@Ben Thomas
Please lets move on from these Rob and Ben(Hay) is catching everything. For the last 10 years Rob, Denys and few other have dominate the scene, in fact you could bet that any premium name will fall into either of these guys and now we have Ben Hay.
Just to add, I think all the names caught by Rob are pre-booked, so all those names listed are for probably 30 to 50 people and not for Rob to sat on. These domains would be sold on for profit by the people that back-order it and money get moved around to others. Off cause not the same with Ben (Hay) I assume.
There might be loopholes in the system, that's not for these guys to fix, that's for Nominet who claimed to be a Security company to sort out. Even if they fix current flaws, there will be new ones in the future which will be exploited, these are common in every business, loopholes are there to be exploited until its fixed. Some Loophole could be illegal because it breaks laws some don't, some are just carelessness of the system or service providers. Some service provider will put it in their terms that any loophole must be reported to them. All these is down to Nominet not these guys. We all remember when Gordon Brown makes it illegal for accountant to use any tax loophole without telling the treasury first. Did this stop accountant using loopholes? No, reduces it but not stop it.
Also, it not all loopholes that give these guys advantages, its hours spent on understanding the system and create an edge over competitors. We all cant agree on what is to be ethical or wrong but we can all agree on one thing that, Rob, Denys or Ben or others did not design Nominet system but they spend hours upon hours to understand it and create an edge for themselves.
There will always be new comers into this business and they will come up with better system than Ben, Rob and Denys and this is the reason why Rob and Denys and now Ben have to continue the development of their script to stay on top of the game.
Do I have the time to put into script to be as good as them? No, hence I don't expect to catch as many as they do. I know how hard Rob and Denys works, I cant count how many middle of the night replies I get to my emails over the last 10 years from Rob and Denys, they work hard, day and night and they deserve success that comes to them.
Now we have Ben(Hay), I don't know him, but he must be doing something better than a lot of us hence he's in the league of Rob and Denys.
As per Rob, Denys and few others, especially these two guys have use their skills and time to benefit others, I don't have to agree with everything they do but I cannot ignore the fact that they have helped a lot of people in the last 10 years that I have known these two guys.
I know you did not mentioned Denys, I deliberately mentioned him because he is top dog just like Rob and Ben Hay is now looking to join them. Another person will come in the future too as long as this line of business continue to exist. Also, a lot of us will get tired of this business and move one to be replaced by young energetic hungry people, I just hope Nominet will not make financial requirements to be higher and discourage/disadvantaged people with little resources.
We have issue with TAGS colluding, now we have domainers taking control of domains before it drops, claiming they are testing the loophole but already listed the domains for-sale. Is this against Nominet terms, some might think it is but lets Nominet tells us. I'm just glad that I am able to catch a couple over the last two weeks.
If this is allowed, whats the point of trying to catch a .UK domain?
