.io IO is transitioning to Affilias - Is this good or bad?

OK I sent support tickets to a few registrars and nic.io direct, here's some replies

The lack of information and/or decision in these replies is rather weak for me, given the timeline that this is only about three weeks away

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nic.io
Hi there - I just found out you are transitioning to the Afilias Back End June 10th, 2017
Can you share any more details about this? Like what the prices will be, if there will still be a tiered discount, what happens to the backorder system and what happens to RGP?
What happens to my direct account here also? Thank you - have a super day!
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Thanks for contacting us
The prices (and discounts) will be the same.
NEW backorders are likely to stop although pre-existing backorders will he honoured
Direct accounts will move to 101domains (Afilias' retail arm)
Have a great w/end
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NameCheap
I just found out that the dot IO registry is transitioning to the Afilias Back End and it is scheduled for June 10th, 2017
Your price for dot IO registration renewal and transfer right now is $32.88. Do you know if the change to Affilias will also be affecting the prices of IO? Hopefully they decrease : smile :
https://www.namepros.com/threads/io-is-transitioning-to-affilias-is-this-good-or-bad.1019079/
https://www.internetnews.me/2017/04/12/afilias-wins-contract-run-backend-registry-services-io-ac-sh/
Thank you - have a super day!
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Thank you for contacting Namecheap Customer Support!
Indeed, we are aware of this transition. Regretfully, though, we have not received any details in regards to price change.
Still, please rest assured that once we receive any news, we will make sure to announce it via our Newsletter.
Should you have any other questions or require help, please do not hesitate to let us know.
We are here for you 24/7/365.
Regards, Namecheap Customer Support
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Moniker
[same inquiry as NC above with Monikers prices]
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thank you for contacting Moniker Support.
At this moment we do not have any information about any price changes. You could revised this pdf were we keep all of our current prices. If there are any changes we will update this document.
https://www.moniker.com/files/moniker-pricing-aug-2016_mk4.pdf
Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards,Your Team @ Moniker.com

I'm surprised moniker support did actually reply. It was a nightmare to get in touch with them.

usernamex said:

MAYBE this means normal people will be able to beat out park.io on drops

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All park.io needs to do is a standard drop-catch over EPP - "normal" people can beat them by buying a back-order. If back-orders are going to get dropped, then this will likely help park.io, unless Afilias randomise their delete times.

nic.io batch delete at 00:30 - so all Park would have to do is fire-off 100s of purchase request around that time - if the name hadn't yet been deleted they would get a "failed" reply. The first request after the delete would them get a "success" reply - that's how all drop-catch works.

You normally need a registrar account to use EPP.

Update:

The transition happened and so far it's annoying. Nic.io no longer appears to be publishing a drop list and the dates for every domain that was expired / in RGP at the date of transition is now kinda of in limbo, if it was already over the new expiry dates it is pushed to Redemption. For fun I left one domain at nic.io that I am on the fence about as a test. I will attempt to transfer and see if I get hit with redemption or it just transfers without issue.

Too bad, I love ccTLDs that have free transfer without renewal.

They removed the contact form on nic.io and basicly show nadda in the whois. This is going to hurt the resell market!!

I hope it does ease the reg & renewal prices...I use a .io for my main blog and another one for a commerce site. Will definitely keep tabs on this.

My hope is that the whois will improve as the registrars adjust to the change. A few places offered privacy before and a few did not, now it appears that is adjusted already - Moniker used to show "Whois Privacy Service not supported" and that has become "Whois Privacy Service inactive" (By my choice - I don't want privacy on domains I have for sale)

Even a whois lookup from command line is not showing actual owners though, that better change. GoDaddy typically shows all non-private info if you use their whois direct, they yield nothing under "See Underlying Registry Data" either, so this is a core registry issue.

The wholesale prices haven't changed, according to the reply above. The bulk discount that direct nic.io resellers had before the transition seems to be the same, so the standard wholesale cost is $45 and the cheapest wholesale cost is $22.50 for huge resellers, from past invoices I know Moniker/Key-Systems and NameCheap were at that level. My guess would be GD also by common sense.

NameCheap continues to have the best price at $32.88 Reg/Renew/Transfer

OK so the big drop happened over the past few days. Pre-Existing nic.io back orders will show as "Not Found" and then update to show ICB as the owner. It appears they are then awarded to the new owner, who has the option to transfer to another registrar, rather than the default ICB/101domain

My guess is that there are members here sitting on backorders that will eventually be awarded if the original owners drop

WhoIs is still not showing Owner details, so be certain to point your IO to a lander with contact info if your IO are for sale.

One very nice result is you can now get less expensive backorders at http://names.plus ( @Nick V ) So the transition has leveled the playing field a bit, whereas before you either had a $130ish with renewal with zero refund chance at nic.io or starting from $100 park io. Will be experimenting with using Desktop Catcher as well, judiciously, the IO costs add up fast!

The single IO for experiment I had at nic.io I just let go and it dropped and so far not re-registered - at least I know I made the right choice : grin :

ReggyStar said:

They removed the contact form on nic.io and basicly show nadda in the whois. This is going to hurt the resell market!!

Click to expand...

Has anyone got any info about this and when it may be fixed? .IO contact information is no longer being shown and offers to my .IO domains have essential stopped coming in since late June. Only offers are those who key in the domain and see the "may be for sale" link at the parked page. Most of my offers were via the WHOIS.

AGAME said:

Has anyone got any info about this and when it may be fixed? .IO contact information is no longer being shown and offers to my .IO domains have essential stopped coming in since late June. Only offers are those who key in the domain and see the "may be for sale" link at the parked page. Most of my offers were via the WHOIS.

Click to expand...

Right now, the only option is to get the full WHOIS directly from the holding registrar if they've set up WHOIS properly:


Example 1 (from the registrar's website):


Example 2 (from the command line):

Nick V said:

Right now, the only option is to get the full WHOIS directly from the holding registrar if they've set up WHOIS properly:

Click to expand...

Thanks for that info. The average Joe though? I doubt they'll know where to find the info. If they do not type in the domain name then they wont see the lander or for-sale link, etc. Ugh.

Your site looks good! I think I am going to give it a shot for auctions...

Did anyone ever figure out a way to backorder .io's without park.io? Is it even possible?