Whois Privacy: What's your Take
 

Howdy NPer's. Let's get down to brass tacks...

What's your take on Domain Name Whois Privacy?


Please post:
How much would you pay and for what services?

All the best.

-Steve

I voted "No, but would use free services" for me, privacy is not an issue, almost everyday people come to our house, I have nothing to hide, am very transparent person, also online, I like broadcasting my name, info, it's the way people to contact me, why would I make it difficult for them? I should have voted "no" but if given a free whois privacy of course I will use it, I like freebies as well, but that's just it.

I too voted for "No, but would use free services", but for some very precious domains i would prefer whois privacy.

I already get it free so why would i want to pay for it.

*cough*best*cough*domain*cough*registar*cough*Name *cough*.*cough*com*cough*
Ohh man that was nasty!

I agree with Weblord, except I would not even take privacy for free. Most of my domain sales come from my "who is".

if you familiar with regfly story, you would not use privacy service, many people lost their domains because of using false whois information, and privacy whois service

hmm, depends on what you want to pay, seems like they get your money/info one way or another...
NETFIRMS.com has FREE privacy with a domain purchase but godaddy charges 8 bucks a year- fn ripoff.

Originally Posted by wikes82

if you familiar with regfly story, you would not use privacy service, many people lost their domains because of using false whois information, and privacy whois service

To add a bit of detail:

When the feces hit the rotary device concerning registerfly, a registrar that was taking people's money but not buying/renewing/transfering the domains, after a great deal of stalling and blame shifting, ICANN(t) tried to get the master list of domains held by Registerfly. Apparently some domain owners who used privacy were not listed and lost their domains.

BTW Registerfly is still in business, last time I checked.

Whois is spam bait, but I am surprised how little I get from that source. I occasionally get a excited snail mail letter telling me that I need to renew and that this company will kindly do the honor for me for $60. - -I do not see how they can afford the stamps. I even got one spam letter that used the graphics from my little town's city hall envelopes - return address was different, they just stole the picture!

What an interesting read

i only preffer in free services

I use a private box address, which costs about $10 usd a month. So I do and I don't use privacy.

I decided to stop using registrar privacy services due to cost and concerns about their reliability with regards to forwarding all communications to me.

Originally Posted by goodkarmaco

I agree with Weblord, except I would not even take privacy for free. Most of my domain sales come from my "who is".

I totally agree. I would hate to lose a sale because I could not be contacted.

Originally Posted by Len

I totally agree. I would hate to lose a sale because I could not be contacted.

Agreed

Some great answers. Keep them coming!

:tu:

-Steve

would be nice if domain owners had the option of using the privacy email or one of their own.

I would never use private registration because I want to be contacted about my domains.

I have a freebie hotmail account strictly for domaining listed in the whois of most of my domains... If someone wants to spam that, they can go ahead.

Will be getting a second phone number soon as I have been getting a bit of spam that way lately...

All in all though, I don't mind having my info listed. I've sold many domains in the past because people have contacted me via my whois info, some of which have actually asked for a domain list after seeing several domains they were interested in owned by me. I might not have ever made some of these sales if I was using whois privacy.

I guess there is 2 ways to look at this.

From a development stand point: Do you want people contacting you through your whois info?

From a domainer stand point: Most would not mind being contacted this way. As most of us have seen this can be a great way to sell a domain.

I guess now that i have thought about this. If i were to develop a major site or even a personal site and it was important to me. I dont think i would mind paying for the service if it kept that info out of the public eye.

Now from the domainer stand point im pretty sure most of us dont mind people contacting us through this form of "advertisement". The spam is quite minimal to be honest. I think the only thing to worry about here is the your safety but that can be handled through a PO box or business address.

Conclusion:
Development: Possibly
Domainer: Nope

i preffer with free survicess

I choose no.

For my parked domain names I don't want privacy, I want people to be able to contact me if they want to buy the name.

For my developed sites, only if I think there will be controversy or alot of people spamming me will I opt for privacy.

This is such an important topic.
One one hand, I don't want to lose a sale because of not being able to be contacted, but damn...I hate spam.

I voted :

• Yes, Free Service => for my developed names. I got this free service from my local hosting.
• Yes, Paid Service => for my developed name about local politician here. I use GoDaddy service.

For my parked names, i don't use whois privacy.

Personally I think it's a waste of money. If you want to stay private, call yourself 'Private Name', use a PO box, your own private email (very important for getting 'any' related emails), and go use the $7-8 or whatever you saved, to go buy another name. The important thing here is that you the domain owner have control and accessibility over any related correspondence regarding the domain, be it email, snail mail, or phone. Leaving your assets and information (especially domains) in the hands of others that one 'hopes' will always be 'there and fair', is just too risky IMO.

For newbies,

Godadd- and others who talk about having your information private are only interested in your money.

If you get a offer for a name you can sell it yourself. If you keep getting spammed by a certain party, most emails, even Aol have a "block unwanted sender" feature. All I do is if I get a spam, I block the sender and never hear from them again. In the mean while the names I sell for $1,000 come in thru a contact thru the "who is" I pay no fees to Sed- or After--- or any other auction house.

It can pay big to have the who is show your contact.

I voted i would use it, If it were free, I really don't care though, I get solicitors calling daily, some times i screw with their minds-LOL, I figure it a mixture of whois, and just about anything i sign up for, that requires my phone number.