.uk Shelved

[websaway]

They have just bought time with there statment I believe Nominet are looking through the options to try to find a way that looks plausable, fair and that they have listened to concerns.

You only have to read the biased interpretation of the .uk policy view of the consultation versus the independant summary of the consultation, to know they have not grasped the basics of .uk.

They will if not stopped just push there version of the way the world should be onto the UK namespace, as there way will be fairer or some such logic.

Remember these were the people who for several months went on, we are not selling the same space twice this is ".uk is a secure space for business" we have not sold that before.

The way to stop it is not by trying to alter the way it's introduced.
It's by saying NO TO COMPETITION TO CO.UK IN THE UK NAMESPACE.

 

[Stephen]

pressure before June

There are so many ways to read one sentence, as the different "bolded" versions in previous posts show.

However, the release mechanism that I put forward in my proposal document doesn't "break" the sentence i.e. it's entirely compatible with it...

Agree your conclusion fits Nominets current statement on .uk, so do many other senerios but Nominet have not exactly followed any traditional course of action so far with .uk and although they may bend their views I dont think it is going to change radically about auctions and trade mark holder rights unless pressure is put on it between now and June.

 

[scottb]

Which do you think is better for the UK namespace with all the many factors you are aware of:

1. 100% pairing of .co.uk and .uk
2. Mixed bag of .co.uk and .uk ownership with release changes to original proposal (favouring UK registrants)
3. No .uk ever

• not what you want
• not what you think is going to happen
• not what you think Nominet is going to do

Simply what would be best for the UK namespace?

I think if you take all the competing interests away, and look at it from a neutral viewpoint, I think most people would agree that it should have been Direct.UK from the start..the same as in almost every other country.

So I would go with #1 as a way to correct that - while giving existing .co.uk registrants the option to remain with that instead, for as long as they wanted. The best of both worlds..

I think the opportunity to achieve what should have been in place from the start, far outweighs any possible disadvantage for a small minority of .org.uk registrants who don't also have the mainstream .co.uk domain.

 

[Edwin]

Agree your conclusion fits Nominets current statement on .uk, so do many other senerios but Nominet have not exactly followed any traditional course of action so far with .uk and although they may bend their views I dont think it is going to change radically about auctions and trade mark holder rights unless pressure is put on it between now and June.

Please bear in mind:
A) Nominet have publicly committed to a new round of consultation IF .uk goes ahead
B) It may be very tricky for them to shelve the idea if it keeps being brought up in public every few days (i.e. there will be pressure for them to been seen to have "done something"). It makes the scenario that they decide in June not to proceed with .uk at all less likely.

Given the above, I won't be doing anything more than perhaps posting in the occasional thread until I see what happens in June, because I still believe there is a chance they will scrap the whole thing.

 

[Stephen]

New thread

Please bear in mind:
A) Nominet have publicly committed to a new round of consultation IF .uk goes ahead
B) It may be very tricky for them to shelve the idea if it keeps being brought up in public every few days (i.e. there will be pressure for them to been seen to have "done something"). It makes the scenario that they decide in June not to proceed with .uk at all less likely.

Given the above, I won't be doing anything more than perhaps posting in the occasional thread until I see what happens in June, because I still believe there is a chance they will scrap the whole thing.

Thank you for your comments and advice.

I'm not trying to bring up .uk future in public but in this forum which provided so many of the aurguments againist the last .uk proposal. I believe it was the effort by you and many on this forum to get those points raised in the media and encouraging as many people to complete the consultation, that produced the result obtained.

However I believe in being proactive in working behind the scenes to get change actioned before it surfaces in a new .uk proposal that Nominet will want to get through as presented next time and I'm sure for those purposes it will have compromises and concessions but who knows how far they will go.

I would like to present some ideas to Nominet before June that they can add to the mix now, whilst they formulate their new plan.

The starting point is the big picture, which you (Edwin) said yourself many times "is there a need for .uk" (not a question I saw in the Nominet release).

I have started a thread "Acorn view on .uk direction" which starts with the big question, do we indeed want a .uk and if so which basic direction should Nominet persue.

Edwin I hope you (and lots of others) contribute to that debate even though we have different view on what is going to happen and what should happen.

 

[websaway]

If anyone was expecting a complete climbdown by nominet at this stage after all the mistakes regarding public opinion on this matter that they have made, then they were over optimistic, the recriminations would have been almighty.

They are naturally going to look at ways of introducing .uk, that is their function and they want the income stream it would provide.
I don't believe it can be achieved with public acceptance and therefore at sometime in the future it will die it's death but unfortunately it has to be a case of put them up and public opinion will knock them down.


SAY NO TO DIRECT COMPETITION TO CO.UK IN THE UK BUSINESS NAMESPACE

 

[websaway]

"Following our Board meeting yesterday, we are not proceeding with our original proposal on ‘direct.uk’"


1-0 to all sensible people who apposed the original proposals.

"The Board plans to review progress at their June meeting, where they would decide whether there is an alternative option that addresses the concerns raised in the consultation. This would be subject to further consultation prior to any final decision being made."


Here we have the board in a reasonable manner saying they will see if they can address objections to their original proposals and saying even if they can ( unlikely ) they will go for further consultation before making a decision.

This is not an offensive position,they know they can't try and introduce it through the back door again, lets all stop fighting shadows.

 

[Brassneck]

"Following our Board meeting yesterday, we are not proceeding with our original proposal on ‘direct.uk’"


1-0 to all sensible people who apposed the original proposals.

"The Board plans to review progress at their June meeting, where they would decide whether there is an alternative option that addresses the concerns raised in the consultation. This would be subject to further consultation prior to any final decision being made."


Here we have the board in a reasonable manner saying they will see if they can address objections to their original proposals and saying even if they can ( unlikely ) they will go for further consultation before making a decision.

This is not an offensive position,they know they can't try and introduce it through the back door again, lets all stop fighting shadows.

100 per cent agree with that.

 

[genericdomainer]

They should introduce this again. Only people gaining for these plans being shelved are domainers.

 

[RobM]

No the only people who *understood* it's implications and were aware of it seemed to be domainers. Sweeping comment from a guy with 2 posts.

 

[Nigel]

No the only people who *understood* it's implications and were aware of it seemed to be domainers. Sweeping comment from a guy with 2 posts.

Agreed - usual protocol on this forum is to at least introduce yourself first - in the intro section - and list your best and worst domain.

 

[Edwin]

They should introduce this again. Only people gaining for these plans being shelved are domainers.

Clearly you can't be bothered to actually READ up on the issue. 100% inaccurate. Waste of time debating this with you further.

 

[jimmc]

Dear *** *******

We think that .uk is A Great Place To Be and we hope you've experienced that with your domain name

***************.co.uk.

You may not have realised, but your domain name registration is about to
expire and you need to renew it in order to keep it active.

Don't worry though, because it's nice and simple for you to renew and secure your domain name for anything up to 10 more years. Your first port of call is to contact your Domain Name Provider (the people who sold you your domain name, sometimes called a registrar) and let them know that you want to renew.

If you've forgotten who they are, don't worry, their details are below:

Domain Name Provider: *******

Never really noticed this before - We think that .uk is A Great Place To Be instead of - - .co.uk A Great Place To Be

In this email they recognise that the domain they refer to is clearly .co.uk - what else could it be, the bloody .uk doesn't exist!

However yet another covert attempt at this rip-off offering?

 

[Systreg]

@ Jimmc, some of those emails were posted by Skinner here:

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/general-board/114660-new-nominet-emails-renewals.html

.co.uk does at least get a mention in one of them where it says:

There are over 10 million different .uk domain names currently registered and research has shown(*) that 4 out of 5 people in the UK prefer to click through to a .co.uk website when they're searching for something on-line. We think that shows that .uk is A Great Place To Be and we hope you agree and renew your registration.

 

[jimmc]

That's the whole point (it doesn't) mention the .co.uk to ANY "registrant" who needs to be informed of their domain renewal!!

It simply says:

There are over 10 million different .uk domain names currently registered and research has shown that 4 out of 5 people in the UK prefer to click through to a .co.uk website when they're searching for something on-line.

Dear *** *******

We think that .uk is A Great Place To Be and we hope you've experienced that with your domain name

***************.co.uk.

We think that shows that .uk is A Great Place To Be and we hope you agree and renew your registration.

***Come-on people don't let them, outside of what is a clearly heavily biased, corporate and money-motivated board, let them sweep this under the carpet only to tell us - WE TOLD YOU SO!!

 

[Systreg]

@ Jimmc, the bit where I said ".co.uk does at least get a mention in one of them where it says", should have been taken in a sarcastic sense, I should have added a roll eyes icon on the end

Just had The Domain Business email from Nominet, read it here: http://db.nominet.org.uk

Lesley Cowley
Chief Executive

Welcome to our latest issue of Domain Business where we look at the domain industry as a whole and focus in on industry developments in the UK. In this issue we’re taking a retrospective look back at 2012, a year which saw the continued growth of the Top Level Domain (TLD) market as global registrations reached over a quarter of a billion.

In our last issue we looked at the strength of the UK internet economy and how we’re leading the way in the G20. This time we’re looking at the domain market and considering how it is changing as we approach the launch of new Top Level Domains.

Globally the future remains bright

The global domain name industry continues to see strong growth, with registrations up +11% year on year. This growth has been driven by ccTLDs and in particular by some of the actively remarketed ‘global’ ccTLDs such as .co, .tk and .me.

The more established domains, meanwhile, such as .co.uk, .com, .net, and .org, are experiencing slowing growth rates and are growing at a slower rate than the overall market.

Promotions and creative initiatives are stimulating change in the UK

The total UK domain name market (all TLDs registered to a UK address) has seen a slowing rate of growth in the past year, most notably over the last three quarters. We have seen differing performance rates across all sections of the market at different times as assorted promotional campaigns have been activated showing that the market is responsive to promotions. Why growth rates are slowing is intriguing and there is much speculation:

Is it the sign of a maturing market?
Is it a symptom of the upcoming launch of new TLDs?
Is it a symptom of prolonged tough global economic uncertainty?
Is it a combination of these or other factors – or something further as yet unknown? (I wonder if it's anything to do with Nominets bloody stupid direct.uk idea, that might be it, hmmm)

Looking specifically at .uk in the UK, since passing the 10m .uk names barrier last year, which was a great achievement for all associated with the industry, we’ve seen an overall slow in the rate of growth of the register. (<< I wonder why)

Register growth is based on two key factors: new registrations and renewal of existing registrations. In recent years we have witnessed a long term trend towards lower growth rates of new registrations and 2012 saw our first decline in new registration levels.

We have seen a similar trend in renewals as previously stable renewal rates have declined in the last year (<< I wonder why). Some of this decline is caused by promotional registrations reaching their first renewal period and experiencing poor renewal rates but this is not the sole reason for the declining renewal rate and we are further examining the underlying causes for non-renewal. More information can be found on our UK Registrar Update page.

What happens next

Overall the market is experiencing changing times and the introduction of new Top Level Domains later this year will stimulate further change. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the changes and keeping you posted of our findings and views.

Looks like it's all written with as view to what changes can be brought in, I wonder what that could mean

 

[foz]

Referencing the global context as Cowley has done is not right.

Nominet and .uk will always be tied to it's populace of the United Kingdom (the same for all ccTLDs). A plateau will always be reached in proportion to the population of the country it represents.

The direct.uk proposal certainly put the brakes on any confidence in the .co.uk extension.

 

[jimmc]

I know you did Kev

Is it the sign of a maturing market? (ermmm)
Is it a symptom of the upcoming launch of new TLDs? (hmmm, let me think)
Is it a symptom of prolonged tough global economic uncertainty? (I need more time to think about it)
Is it a combination of these or other factors – or something further as yet unknown? (I wonder if it's anything to do with Nominets bloody stupid direct.uk idea, that might be it, hmmm)

Looking specifically at .uk in the UK, since passing the 10m .uk names barrier last year, which was a great achievement for all associated with the industry, we’ve seen an overall slow in the rate of growth of the register. (<< I wonder why)

Register growth is based on two key factors: new registrations and renewal of existing registrations. In recent years we have witnessed a long term trend towards lower growth rates of new registrations and 2012 saw our first decline in new registration levels.

We have seen a similar trend in renewals as previously stable renewal rates have declined in the last year (<< I wonder why). Some of this decline is caused by promotional registrations reaching their first renewal period and experiencing poor renewal rates but this is not the sole reason for the declining renewal rate and we are further examining the underlying causes for non-renewal. More information can be found on our UK Registrar Update page.

I think Mr Cowley knows all too well the reason for the decline, its 1001% because of this stupid suggestion, that was so soundly beaten in 2007!

GREED has upset the market; consequently people if they are renewing are doing so for a year instead of two, the rest are dumping a great many .co.uk's, so 'of course' renewals are going to be down (I would suggest quite considerably). It therefore follows that those who may have been in the market for 'new registrations' are not buying! - Why would they when it could transpire that they need to pay another £20 for another version of the UK's best domain? The domain they thought they had already bought, the domain that the vast majority of the industry recognise as the best country-specific web address on the planet, the .co.uk?.

The bottom line Mr Cowley is that people are "not prepared" to be stitched up. Plus existing .co.uk domain owners are not going to buy into something that they consider they already own, so that Nominet aided and abetted by corporate registrars on their board can swell their coffers and cash flow their businesses. The .co.uk IS the UK's premier domain and unless they want to give the .uk to everyone who already owns one, this nonsense should be confined to the dustbin of history!

 

[websaway]

It reminds me of Nixon and Watergate.
Everything but the truth.