.uk V2.0 Questions to Nominet & their Answers

[Stephen]

Transparency - it doesn't look like it!

At the Roundtable meeting (2 weeks ago) Nominet made a specific comment at the end of the meeting that they would be transparent over .uk and look to reply to my 30 questions that I have asked them.

My email recent to Nominet :

I have been away for the last 2 weeks and cannot find another email from Nominet about .uk about my many questions that I have asked.

I was at the London roundtable meeting 2 weeks ago when I was advised Nominet would be more transparent has any progress been made or do you require clarification on any area/question?

Nominet reply:

Thank you for your email.

On the Nominet website the Q & A section for the second level domain registration consultation has recently been updated. For further details please visit http://www.nominet.org.uk/how-parti...licy-discussions-and-consultations/SLDR-qanda

That does not like transparency or assistance in getting the whole .uk picture out there to me.

It saddens me that it looks like that instead on engaging in a fruitful .uk debate with Nominet supplied information which is for the good of the UK namespace,
that I will have to bring out the obstructive nature of Nominet in this process,
which by inference will incorrectly show all Nominet staff are just in it for the bonus!

 

[GreyWing]

The lawyer from the Independent was also quite shocked mate, in fact I think he used the usually harsh term for legal people "That's a load of Crap" when referring to their legal advice about the consultation not being promoted due to spam laws.

I nearly fell off my chair laughing.....

 

[addz123]

I am interested in a .co.uk domain name for my business. Should I wait?
There’s no reason to wait or not to register a .co.uk domain- they are trusted and popular, and our proposal is not to replace, but to complement the registrations that already exist.

If you buy a domain name now, you may find that in addition to the domain name, you will also have a right of refusal on the corresponding second level domain. If this is important to you, and you would wish to take up a second level registration if available in future, you can check the status of your proposed domain by looking on the WHOIS - remembering to check all of the options under the .uk family.

http://www.nominet.org.uk/how-parti...licy-discussions-and-consultations/SLDR-qanda

This is a joke. Funny how they don't show this on the AGreatPlaceToBe website.

 

[Paullas]

Nominet staff are just in it for the bonus!

Alot of people have thought that from the start.

 

[Stephen]

UK registrant .uk email?

The lawyer from the Independent was also quite shocked mate, in fact I think he used the usually harsh term for legal people "That's a load of Crap" when referring to their legal advice about the consultation not being promoted due to spam laws.

I nearly fell off my chair laughing.....

At the last round table did Nominet really answer why have you not contacted all the UK registrants about .uk with the answer
"it is not possible to contact all UK registrants by email due to spam laws"?

If that is the case, does that mean if they were provided with a legal opinion it would not be spam but in the interest of the registrant, that they would send it?

 

[Alien]

"We want to introduce second level domain names..."

'We want' obviously gets!

 

[foz]

Response from Association of New Zealand Advertisers Inc to .nz resonates.

http://dnc.org.nz/content/registrations_second_level_2_anza.pdf

 

[Stephen]

Flawed approach to V2

http://www.nominet.org.uk/how-parti...licy-discussions-and-consultations/SLDR-qanda

This is a joke. Funny how they don't show this on the AGreatPlaceToBe website.

Although I know I mentioned that in my V1 .uk consultation document,
that they should use the agreatplacetobe.co.uk website to promote the consultation (as others may have done so),
I cannot find reference in the V1 feedback documents (over 150 pages) about this failure of Nominet in the consultation process.

There are only two reasons why this would be omitted as a point either it was the only comment (they specifically state if only one comment it will be disregarded) or was considered outside the scope of the proposal as considered by the writers of the reports.
As many know here they refused to publish the feedback in full for V1.

However as they have used the V1 feedback as the basis for V2 .uk,
I consider it gross negligence not to take those views into account
or at the very least for Nominet to be transparent and explain why they have not included the information about .uk
on the agreatplacetobe.co.uk website.

I'm currently studying the V1 feedback reports again in detail and finding that they omit a lot of useful points provided in V1 that would be applicable for the path they have chosen and in general about the approach taken by Nominet about the consultation.
For instance they specifically excluded feedback for the various V1 round table and meet Nominet meetings that many domainers attended in the V1 feedback.

 

[Lucien Taylor]

Response from Association of New Zealand Advertisers Inc to .nz resonates.

http://dnc.org.nz/content/registrations_second_level_2_anza.pdf

Wow, very interesting. This says it all really:

ANZA remains opposed to the proposal for which the benefits are relatively weak. We believe there is sufficient flexibility in current registration options and while we do recognise that if this was a “clean sheet” exercise, the use of anyname.nz vs. anyname.co.nz would be logical, the reality is the system is what it is. Business owners have invested in third level domain names and the public are familiar with these.

We are concerned that the revised proposal continues to favour future registrants over existing registrants who have invested in the .nz space. The revised proposal does mitigate the protection of brand IP by reserving second-level domain names for an extended period, but in reality this merely
moves the point at which businesses will be required to secure second level domain names (often multiples) to protect their brand and corporate IP and legal entities for no apparent benefit.

Further, the change to anyname.nz from anyname.co.nz will come at a cost to business in terms of upgrading communication collateral both on and off-line.

.. and then they talk about confusion

 

[Stephen]

2nd repsonse - no better?

Due to poor response about questions raised, I did sent Nominet a further request for them to do more.

Thank you for getting back to me.

If this is your final answer to all my questions raised to date, I’m disappointed and I do not believe you are engaging in a transparent process.

Please confirm whether you will be dealing with each question or simply directing me to Q & A?

Their reply just received:

Thank you for your email.

Most of the questions you have raised have been addressed in the updated Q & As and in the recent blog post by our CEO Lesley Cowley which can be found at:http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/blog/time-change. The balance of the questions you raised were outside the scope of the consultation as they were based on an assumption that the proposal is a foregone conclusion and the nature of the question focused on what are implementation or operational aspects. A number of the points you raised are helpful pieces of feedback and if you would like to expand further on them please submit a formal response to the consultation.

When I read the frequently asked questions, I do believe Nominet are trying to get this through whatever the price.

Q. Are you going ahead with this?

We want to introduce second level domain names, as we believe that it is important to offer a trusted space that is attractive to registrants, and is able to compete with other suffixes, e.g .com or over 1,000 new GTLDS that will soon be available. But we will only do this if and when we have established the most practical and fair way to proceed.

We want anyone with a view on this to take part in our consultation.

In the blog it mentions:

However, our research tells us that second level domains are desirable

Please publish this .uk research!!!

 

[Lucien Taylor]

Please publish this .uk research!!!

Hmmm! .. yes this does suggest forgone conclusion. I see no mention of 'if people want it!' - at the last two roundtables I attended the overwhelming call seemed to be 'no'.

Agree we need to see their data.

 

[Stephen]

Please post comment

Hmmm! .. yes this does suggest forgone conclusion. I see no mention of 'if people want it!' - at the last two roundtables I attended the overwhelming call seemed to be 'no'.

Agree we need to see their data.

Suggest readers here consider posting on the Nominet CEO blog comments,
I just have and it is with the moderator.

http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/blog/time-change#comment-8723

"However, our research tells us that second level domains are desirable"

Please publish this research and make the case for .uk, not just a guess that with new GTLD competition there will be problems and Nominet should do something.
Growth is not everything as every true business knows.

I feel that Nominet are not being transparent in this process.


p.s. they have accepted my posting - please add your comment on the Nominet site.

 

[Nigel]

Suggest readers here consider posting on the Nominet CEO blog comments,
I just have and it is with the moderator.

http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/blog/time-change#comment-8723


p.s. they have accepted my posting - please add your comment on the Nominet site.

Well done Stephen - I've just added a comment which is awaiting moderation. Last time I did this on a nominet blog my comment did not appear. Let's hope I'm successful this time. I've also kept a copy this time.

 

[Marcoose]

Well done Stephen - I've just added a comment which is awaiting moderation. Last time I did this on a nominet blog my comment did not appear. Let's hope I'm successful this time. I've also kept a copy this time.

Same!

 

[Lucien Taylor]

submitted

 

[monaghan]

My contribution - still awaiting moderation!

The changes between the first & second proposals all seem to be around how the second level will be implemented, not whether there is actually a requirement.

I find it strange that the message from Nominet is that second level domains are required, but nothing on paper to the membership to support this. If there is a genuine public demand for these names, please publish your research to members to allow us all to be approaching the debate from the same informed position.

Experience seems to suggest that many registrants will register the .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk along with gTLD's for brand protection or to get multiple occurrences of a desired keyword visible in search engines, adding a .uk to the mix simply adds to the list of domains that need to be registered.

The impression given by Nominet is that the financial gains to both Nominet and to the members with the top 20 voting rights come above the benefits of the domain owners. If this is not the case, please publish sufficient information to allow the wider membership (who don't get direct access to the board) to see the same picture as the board and perhaps the membership and board can move forward together for the ongoing benefit of the UK Internet rather than repeat the hostile scenes of the recent AGM.

 

[Nigel]

My contribution - still awaiting moderation!

Great comment - I added mine nearly two hours ago - still not appearing - perhaps the moderator is having a long lunch!

Here's what I said:

"I think it is a travesty that you will not email all existing registrants and invite them to contribute to the second consultation you have started. Most existing registrants are completely in the dark about your proposals to introduce domains at the second level. During the first consultation many of us were told - both verbally (I.e. at your roundtable meetings) and in writing (I exchanged emails with a nominet executive on this subject) that you had received legal advice which prevented you from sending emails to existing registrants. You advised that emailing your existing registrants could be construed as spam.
Yet you routinely email existing registrants with renewal reminders, and I understand that you intend emailing existing registrants to sell them the new shorter .uk domain if you proceed.

So my question to you Mrs Cowley is:
Why is it considered spam to consult existing registrants but not spam if you wish to sell them the new extension in the future?"

 

[Stephen]

Being moderated

Great comment - I added mine nearly two hours ago - still not appearing - perhaps the moderator is having a long lunch!

Some quality comments being posted at Nominet blog, pity nobody can see them.

Yes to the long lunch, I posted another comment about the opening quote:

"We are now two weeks into our consultation on second level registrations, which proposes the biggest change to the .uk namespace since it began"

of why there is not a better link from home page to the proposal itself and why no mention of .uk at agreatplacetobe.co.uk.

I wish I would have also added your comment about the email to all UK registrants.

But no new posts have been added in the last few hours!

I wonder if they will have somebody look at moderating over the weekend?

 

[Stephen]

millions of businesses?

Almost every sentence in the blog post, begs a question.

Have just posted another:

"launch of new gTLDs also represents a huge opportunity for the millions of businesses who are not currently online and want to secure their own domain name for the first time"

Can you please provide the proof and research behind this stated fact?

 

[Nigel]

well its 3 hours since I submitted mine. They didn't post my comment last time I submitted one - but I've got a copy this time and think I'll give them a call to find out who the moderator is and chase them up.