November 2009 the scandal that rocked domaining – A look back

What a scandal it was... has anything changed eversince?

Soofi said:

What scandal it was... has anything changed eversince?

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Bots replaced employees?

equity78 said:

Bots replaced employees?

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..and auction platforms removing "unknown to public" bids without any accountability

I've never placed a bid again in an auction since that scandal.

donnied79 said:

I've never placed a bid again in an auction since that scandal.

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Anywhere or just Snapnames?

equity78 said:

Anywhere or just Snapnames?

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Anywhere. At Snap they have been caught but I lost trust in all the auctions.

Thanks @equity78 for sharing the links to the articles that those of us who were not active in domains back then probably have never read.

I find the comment of @donnied79 interesting, and wonder how many others were turned off domain auctions so that they have largely turned away from auctions because of lack of trust.

That the situation went on so long, for so many different domain auctions, would be concerting. There was talk of refunds, did people who had won auctions that were bid up by the individual later get compensates?

Does any domain auction platform offer full identity of the bidders while the auction is going on? I guess NamePros does but only for those who use their recognizable identity either via username or signature to site that shows identity.

Thanks again.

Bob

Wow...ten years.

I haven't thought about that site in years...is it even still running?

Mister Funsky said:

Wow...ten years.

I haven't thought about that site in years...is it even still running?

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Snapnames? Yes

That event forever changed the domain name aftermarket but it didn’t scare me away from the auctions, it just made me smarter in the aftermarket actually. The hit to the industry was tremendous at that time, the domain name economy was booming and name flippers were pretty devastated by the shill bidding news, it put about a 6 to 10 month damper on the industry, but recovery was fairly fast with minimal casualties after all was said and done.