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.tv A Decade of Craziness

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equity78

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TLDInvestors.com
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Wednesday was the 10 year anniversary of this place, I feel like I have aged 30 years in that time. The thread that 6 people were interested in, that turned into the first of its kind a sub forum dedicated to one extension for like minded individuals. Here is a look at the first mention back on Nov 2005

There has been so much craziness I thought about writing the story, first as non-fiction but some things so outlandish maybe fiction. Who would believe some of the stuff that happened here ?

From the time Mindwrecker called me at Midnight and was like hey it's Jack, I never knew his first name, we talked til 9 am about .tv, that is a lot of talking about one tiny island nation's cctld.

The time when someone pmmed me "Hey Eq I am hopping on a plane tomorrow to punch that SOB in the face"
That dispute was over an appraisal, it was the first of two times that I talked one member out of boarding a plane to punch another member in the face.

From the fun with DemandMedia and their attempt to pump energy into .TV to the great landrush/goldrush of 2010 when those pesky premium renewals were going away, to Frank Schilling giving his names back, to Allthings.tv and Everything.tv being born out of this place.

Verisign taking Pets.tv from our member Fleaking and I spent Christmas eve trying to get an answer. Entertainment Studios has gone to build a tv show around Pets.tv. It helped people understand T.O.S. and that any name for any reason in any extension can be taken back in the first 30 days of domain registration.

A special Rest In Peace to Brett Moffitt and James Barclay who were active members back in the glory days. Igal Lichtman passed as well and while Mrs.Jello did not post here he is one of the two greatest .tv investors of all time and helped keep the extension afloat long before anyone here was involved. We messaged on Skype everyday for close to 18 months and he always asked for big money and believed in the extension.

Thanks to @RJ who without him going along with my crazy idea, this would have never happened. Thanks to the first guys that were the reason for forming this place, @Badger @Amcy.org @LanceBlock @Argos @johntv @fleaking

To the next rung of people who came in and really got the place active:
@RPK
@SKG
@Ammudamus
@jeffoverman
@Makis
@domainacrobat
@Finster
@localexperts
@montechristos
@the dot stop
@CateTV
@freedom30
@RogueWriter
@JimboJimbo
@RonnieMckenna
@StoneRoses
@yesonline
@Hire.Domains
@Australia
@dr manos
@MrRhee
@discovernow
@claudedauman
@antonis12
@mindwrecker
@HotDomainsTV
@DU
@elequa
@eyedomainous

And many more, things have changed a lot and some of the things that people hoped back in 2010 have not come to fruition, to keep it straight forward, the 2010 excitement tapered off, the backorders being held by a few caused some to leave the extension.

I do believe .tv is one extension that has been affected by the new gtld program, I think .tv still makes sense for the right names, short names especially as LL.tv continues to have a market if you buy right. The things that I think have changed except for an outlier sale are names we saw sell for $500 to $1,000 that didn't go with the extension 100%, a name like CurrencyTrading which I sold for $600 probably gets no interest here.

The other negative effect of the 2010 Landrush was on the secondary market, .tv was a complicated market, the drops happened at 4am, Verisign had glitches back in the day, premium pricing on one, but then a gem slips through, I remember back in 2004 thinking my browser was screwed when I saw LCD.tv for $30 when names like WoW.tv and GOL.tv were $50,000 a year not just one time fee for the domain. I regged it emailed John Berryhill can Verisign take it back ? The name is what launched my whole .tv career which started with $90 and never another non .tv dollar invested.

That kind of stuff changed being on top of the extension didn't matter as much, there were backorders, and a lot more people got good names, in 2005, you came to the table and you either paid a big premium/renewal or bought from someone who had no premium renewal names. After 2010 everyone had good names and the domainer to domainer market fizzled for the most part.

It is funny we used to do live chat auctions in our own .TV chatroom where people were regging names while the auction was going on, private message me to include and they sold, not for big money but for a quick profit.

I want to thank those over the years who have sent gifts,emails and phone calls thanking me for this place and that without it they would not have ever gotten involved. As far as domaining goes this was the best, organic thing I have seen in all my years, there were a few trolls, and some craziness but people shared here in a specific niche more info in public not through email or text than anywhere else I have ever seen. There were people who came late to domains who made six figures with .TV.

Thank you to every .tver there is debate about most things in domaining, there is no debate that this place created and fostered the conversation on that tiny island cctld that SUCKED!

Thanks
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Love this post and folks who take a moment to show appreciation for the valued contributions of others.

While I'm new to NamePros, it's easy to see why this community has thrived for 10 years.

Wonderful group of domainers here, and I'm quite happy to be a member.

Kudos to the crew who makes it all happen and many thanks,

Eriq

P.S. Just saw your TLDInvestors.com tag - I follow you on Twitter, as well as your blog. I enjoy your morning newsletter with my cereal, along with GoldNames and a couple of others. Thanks again and cheers.
 
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Love this post and folks who take a moment to show appreciation for the valued contributions of others.

While I'm new to NamePros, it's easy to see why this community has thrived for 10 years.

Wonderful group of domainers here, and I'm quite happy to be a member.

Kudos to the crew who makes it all happen and many thanks,

Eriq

P.S. Just saw your TLDInvestors.com tag - I follow you on Twitter, as well as your blog. I enjoy your morning newsletter with my cereal, along with GoldNames and a couple of others. Thanks again and cheers.

Thank you Eriq
 
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Ray

I didn't join the fun of .tv until a few years after the start.

I came as a developer and my first deal was with TLDInvestors, who was nice enough to explain 'how' to change a name from one account to another. It was indeed an exciting start and .tv did have all the allure as we tried to persuade the world that the internet was going to be about the televisual, not just words and pictures.

If it wasn't for this place I doubt i would have been able to acquire the knowledge and end up with the portfolio I have today.

I've played my part in some of the drama, had moments, good and bad, with most other members here over the years. We've all had 'popcorn' moments but most of the 'old guys' are now settled with their investments/developments and are happy with the results.

Of course, we've lost many members, a small number died, some just joined the carousel for a while and jumped off after not making enough or not quite getting what .tv was all about. Some got stung by making bad decisions, one or two got took to court, and I'm sure there were a few bankruptcies along the way. But most just tried to acquire names for their own development use or as investments for the future.

We've even had some of the more committed anti-TV group the internet can find - Snoop, JEFF, heynow, who seemed to be there to tell us every step of the way how dumb we were. I occasionally think of them when I conclude a sale ….. (who am I kidding? I actually NEVER think of them!)

But, who can forget the big fun - especially the March 2010 madness? When in a 48 hour period, mostly without any sleep, many ended up owning some of the best digital real estate possible during the .tv premium changes.

Sadly, we showed our weakness as a group in the weeks after by not working together to end legacy premiums. Some (including me) benefitted from the changes, but a few were left with a horrible taste in their mouths at the unfairness of it all.

Good times, but now, after ten years we know where .tv stands. Great for top end stuff like two-letter names or generic one-words, but not so great an investment for lesser quality names.

Personally, I wish I'd bought just a few dozen rather than hundreds. I'd have saved a lot of money and lot of eye strain. That said, I occasionally have quick look at a few of my names and can't believe on a planet of 7.3 billion I got to own 'that one' and 'that one' and wow, 'that one'.

Thanks ray for setting this place up. We may not always have seen eye to eye, but I've never once doubted your sincerity, your honesty, and your love for the craziest extension ever to exist. Many here have a lot to thank you for.



Let's hope the next ten years are about making the best of what we have.
 
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Good post @equity78

I still check in here occasionally and keep up with some people in the group. I was never a central investor/figure so it was an odd place for me to be but I got to see and learn a lot about the dynamics of groups around a limited available set of resources as well as the deep knowledge and capabilities a few had. Also the value of proper risk v reward evaluation.

These are all things you can't really learn from .com in the same way as the group is so much larger, the investment grade names so much larger.

.TV was like learning the habits of goldfish by simply living in the fishbowl.

It seems that AllThings.TV also went away in the last 2 months. I would say end of an era but that era ended a few years ago.

I do wish that I had the time to develop something out "properly" but I think it's an expensive venture that I'm not yet seeing the reward vs risk :)

I don't think general gTLDs have much of an impact on .TV as the markets are certainly different. I don't see .video as an impact at all because video is not an industry. I am surprised that .media hasn't had more acceptance as that would be an envelope branding to the .TV. It's one of the lowest invested gTLDs and yet one of the few that I actually think has real merit as it's a real industry niche with real online industry presence.

But still - .TV has a specific niche that will always (for the near future) have a market.

Maybe I need to learn more :)
 
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Well I still hold some .tv names but as renewals come around and no offers to speak of, I have to consider dropping them, I did enjoy the future that many envisaged but no like most here just didn't have the big budget that perhaps something like a quality .tv would need to really take off. Can't say I have had an offer for years on any .tv names. I think one day historians might very well say "those guys were way ahead of their time" or perhaps they will simply say ,,,, "wow those guys and gals really were nuts" Just looked up wet .tv and discovered it is now a premium name with a price tag of $2760 which I guess is a one off but can't help but think no much changes in the world of .Tv Ray put a lot of effort into this and for I do say a big THANKS
 
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