Ethics and profit-making in domaining (Opinions wanted)

[mcaricofe]

I was just browsing through my favorite dropped name tool (JustDropped.com) and was searching for Christmas domains. As I sometimes do, I shortened the search term to include other forms I don't think of, and I was searching on "Christ" -- and I was amazed at the number of domains available.

I'm a Recovering Christian (I only mention that as background -- I'm certainly not looking for any religious debate) so I do have quite a bit of knowledge in the area, so I could certainly market domains such as these to end-users.

My question is, do churches/religious organizations/etc. purchase domain names? Have any of you had experience selling to a spiritual market? Would there be any ethical considerations in selling domain names to Christian end-users seeing as how I'm no longer Christian?

My other question is this: I bought www.WhatChristmasMeansToMe.com with the intent of building a forum or message board in time for this holiday (2006) -- is it hypocritical/bad/unethical of me to have bought it with commercial intent in mind?

Am I overthinking this?

 

[Midano]

Am I overthinking this?

Yes.

 

[bluestripes]

I was just browsing through my favorite dropped name tool (JustDropped.com) and was searching for Christmas domains. As I sometimes do, I shortened the search term to include other forms I don't think of, and I was searching on "Christ" -- and I was amazed at the number of domains available.

I'm a Recovering Christian (I only mention that as background -- I'm certainly not looking for any religious debate) so I do have quite a bit of knowledge in the area, so I could certainly market domains such as these to end-users.

My question is, do churches/religious organizations/etc. purchase domain names? Have any of you had experience selling to a spiritual market? Would there be any ethical considerations in selling domain names to Christian end-users seeing as how I'm no longer Christian?

My other question is this: I bought www.WhatChristmasMeansToMe.com with the intent of building a forum or message board in time for this holiday (2006) -- is it hypocritical/bad/unethical of me to have bought it with commercial intent in mind?

Am I overthinking this?

well for your first question i think that churches and religious organizations do buy domain names. a lot of churches put up websites now to help keep track of everything and also use as a means of communication for members to members or between the church and its members. why would there be 'ethical considerations' in selling domain names to christians if youre not longer christian? why would it even matter , its just business.

if i found a bible that i really liked in a store i dont think id go and make sure the owner was a christian before i bought it. that has nothing to do with it.

its not unethical or whatever for you to try to put up a forum with the intent of building a community for anyone to make some money. a lot of people put up webmaster forums to create a community to help people, and at the same time of course tohelp themselves with the possible income. does this mean that people who order bibles to sell are unethical because they bought them with the intent of gaining income ??

you are overthinking this, dont worry about it and do what you wanna do. good luck with those ideas.

 

[Jammer]

There are others who specialize in Christian domains.There is a market for good ones.
Nothing unethical about providing a service to others.

 

[WhiteWebServices]

Certainly nothing wrong with your forum idea. More generally, there's no reason why you can't make money for providing information or a service related to religion (consider religious studies teachers, for example).

(For what it's worth, this is my opinion as a Christian.)

 

[fonzie_007]

I believe that intent carries a lot of weight when it comes to the determination of whether something is ethical or not.

 

[Dannoth]

I think it was a good idea, but there are many better Christian domains.

 

[RogueWriter]

If making money off of Xmas is unethical, then 99.9999% of the U.S. population is headed for warmer climes when they pass, as our service oriented economy is based on selling product of one form or another during/related to the Xmas season.