I made a post in this thread and was going to move on but after reading all the comments on page 3&4 (including yours), I felt that I had to say something. This is not meant to be a flame or an insult to you (I am a professional & avoid these trivial things) so please take this with a grain of salt.
I agree with you on some parts of your rants but not all. If a person used these type of domains to run a blatant scam, then yes, they are bad people who should be struck by lightning. But are those who reg these types of domins bad? That depends on your definition of 'bad' and how your moral comscience works.
I've read that there are ppl in this world who will reg these type of domains, whether we do it or sit back & watch somebody el;se do it. I posted a link in here (page 4) that shows a NP thread made after the VA tragedy. Basically: A guy regged a bunch of "VA Tragedy" domains & tried to sell them on eBay for thousands of dollars. They never sold, of course, but the guy lived his domaining life with a terrible rep.
I won't act holier-than-thou here. I currently own RussianPreteen.com that was given to me. It has a decade or so of history, although it dropped and was picked up by the person I got it from. I wanted it because of its history but after trying to sell it, I really stepped back to look at the domain. I let my ethics die away temporarily. I regret it as it was in basd taste and I think I hurt my reputation a bit. The domain is just sitting there and I plan on letting it drop.
That's the thing though: Most (but not all) domainers have a conscience. We do not profit from certain things. In most cases, the 3 biggies are tragedies, sexual exploitation of children & animals, and religion.
This isn't to say, however, that everyone uses an ethical mind. I'm a big Spider-Man fan (call me a geek. I know that I am one) & with the movies, J Jonah Jameson is among the most fun things about them. But his thinking process is sad: Doc Ock went on the loose and Jameson boasted about public reaction and how much news it'd make. And he speaks pretty fondly of it, as he knows it'll gelp him sell more newspapers. It's funny seeing this in the movies because we know that it's just that: a silly character in a fictional film (and comics). But alas, it's not really finny at all when you consider that there reallt are J Jonah Jamesons in this world.
Yes, people are going to profit from these things. The defining this is: Will it be you? Ethics come into play. If a domain carrying a red flag is sitting around, waiting to be registered, will you reg it? Some will, some won't. If you had a credit/debit card (or Paypal with some registrars), you'll be perfectly capable of registering it. But just because it's there doesn't mean that you should take it. We all have the ability of mudering people or raping women. But again: Some do it while others don't. I know that if I ever approached a man who had forced sex on a woman, I'd think of him as an asshole. And tell me, ppl -- everyone in this thread, tell me -- wouldn't you think of him as an asshole, too? I think ethics plays into this with domaining, too: You CAN register domains of this nature but many ppl will see you as an asshole, too.
I am not calling you one and I'm not saying that you are a bad person. But your ideas of business seem rather flawed to me. I've made thousands of dollars ethicly. Many others had, as well. Historically, current-news domains tend to lose traffic after interest wanes. They retain some, dependsing on the levity of the tragedy. But many ppl simply do not see your business model as legit. I know that I could become a hitman. Easy money -- pull a trigger, end a life, cash a $100,000 check. I could. And it'd be easy, assuming I could live with that being on my conscience 24/7/til the day I die. But many would see me as an asshole. That's a keyword in this post: Asshole. It's however you look at it. Sure, you may see nothing wrng with it but many others do. And money is money, true, but many think newspapers and magazines are run by assholes, too. I've seen victims crying their eyes out on TV while cameramen & reporters were fighting tooth-and-nail to get a word with them for the 6 o'clock nws. These ppl are assholes to me and I'm sure many share my sentiments.
Do whatever YOU believe you should. Don't listen to others, just yourself. But if you think that this is the best or the only way to profit in domaining, than it's YOU who is in the wrong business.
I don't see any problem with registering this domain, whether you're an individual, business or charity. I would only ever see a problem with it if they were to "fake" donations, or exploit the situation and trick people into handing over money. For example, if I registered the domain and parked it, what have I done wrong? It's business, someone else is going to do it so why shouldn't I?
The entire domaining business revolves around taking something before someone else then selling it to them at a premium, that's just as unethical as registering this domain, it's exploiting people for money. I have no problem with it, those that say you do are in the wrong business.
Personally, if I'd known about this 'tragedy' as soon as the news broke I'd have registered the domain, put up a link to some latest news articles, status of the search and an explanation of what happened. What's bad about this?
