I bought a domain name nearly 40 years ago which I renew every 10 years or so. But I consider myself "a beginner" because I haven't done anything except renew that domain name every 10 years and update the website now and then (by hand).
Recently I attempted to buy a currently unowned domain name for a friend, and this has led me to believe the registrar industry is the most dishonest and corrupt industry on planet earth. So my question is two-fold.
#1: Are registrars in fact the most corrupt organizations on planet earth ... as they appear to me?
#2: How can I buy a currently unowned domain name and nothing but the domain name for 10 years (or common period) at the lowest price ... and at the same time follow the KISS principle (KISS == keep it simple, stupid).
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If you are a registrar --- do not reply to this message because I already know I cannot trust anything you say. And if you are someone who just repeats what registrars tell you, also please don't answer. If you have a fair degree of knowledge and experience with domain names and the registration process, then please do answer!
Let me describe a few of my recent experiences so you will understand why I am so angry at registrar entities.
First I checked to find unowned domain names similar to what I wanted. First I checked with the whois app on my linux mint 22 computer. A couple plausible domain names were already taken, but the third one I checked was not yet owned.
So naively I went to a few of the registrar companies that people recommend. And guess what? They asked insane prices (namely thousands of dollars). WTF? As I recall, I was paying $60 for 10 years for my long-held domain name, which I got from network solutions decades ago and renewed ever since. I'm not sure, but network solutions might have been the only place to get domain names way back when I got mine.
Anyway, with whois (and by searching on other websites that I no longer remember), I found the expiry date on the domain that nobody owns was listed as "3 days in the future" and was currently owned by the registrar I tried to buy from. Say what? This implies, if not outright for-sure means the obvious, right? That when I asked about buying the domain name "cheap", the registrar has some fancy way (probably an agreement with ICANN that is only available to registrars) to reserve a domain name for 3 days or so. In that way they can claim "the name is taken" and then RAPE YOU for thousands of dollars per year while they pay $0.16 per year (or whatever ICANN now charges). And if you don't buy ... it returns to the "unowned pool" ???
If this isn't blatant corruption, I don't know what is. Unless, of course, this kind of blatant fraud is now "standard practice". But even if that's true, that just says the entire industry is totally corrupt.
Note that I tried this with a couple other domain names (that I was not interested in, to avoid possibly creating "signs of interest" in the domain name I am interested in) ... and I experienced similar results.
I am also angered by the endless questions and answers I see under google searches that are obviously planted by utterly corrupt registrar owners or employees. Why? Because they do not give honest answers to the question, but instead give answers cleverly crafted to deceive people and mislead them to buy high-priced domain names and other services.
In short, everywhere I look I see nothing but overtly criminal behavior from registrars. Just go read answers to simple questions on google someday if you doubt me (and know anything at all about domain names). And to be clear, I do NOT know much about domain names, I simply have a little experience with them and I'm not stupid. And that is enough to totally scandalize me. I have been an electronics designer and software developer for decades, but haven't much dealt with domain names, servers and websites.
I will appreciate answers to my questions. How can I get a currently unowned domain name cheap ... and explain whether the industry is as utterly corrupt as it seems to me (and how to avoid that corruption).
Recently I attempted to buy a currently unowned domain name for a friend, and this has led me to believe the registrar industry is the most dishonest and corrupt industry on planet earth. So my question is two-fold.
#1: Are registrars in fact the most corrupt organizations on planet earth ... as they appear to me?
#2: How can I buy a currently unowned domain name and nothing but the domain name for 10 years (or common period) at the lowest price ... and at the same time follow the KISS principle (KISS == keep it simple, stupid).
----------
If you are a registrar --- do not reply to this message because I already know I cannot trust anything you say. And if you are someone who just repeats what registrars tell you, also please don't answer. If you have a fair degree of knowledge and experience with domain names and the registration process, then please do answer!
Let me describe a few of my recent experiences so you will understand why I am so angry at registrar entities.
First I checked to find unowned domain names similar to what I wanted. First I checked with the whois app on my linux mint 22 computer. A couple plausible domain names were already taken, but the third one I checked was not yet owned.
So naively I went to a few of the registrar companies that people recommend. And guess what? They asked insane prices (namely thousands of dollars). WTF? As I recall, I was paying $60 for 10 years for my long-held domain name, which I got from network solutions decades ago and renewed ever since. I'm not sure, but network solutions might have been the only place to get domain names way back when I got mine.
Anyway, with whois (and by searching on other websites that I no longer remember), I found the expiry date on the domain that nobody owns was listed as "3 days in the future" and was currently owned by the registrar I tried to buy from. Say what? This implies, if not outright for-sure means the obvious, right? That when I asked about buying the domain name "cheap", the registrar has some fancy way (probably an agreement with ICANN that is only available to registrars) to reserve a domain name for 3 days or so. In that way they can claim "the name is taken" and then RAPE YOU for thousands of dollars per year while they pay $0.16 per year (or whatever ICANN now charges). And if you don't buy ... it returns to the "unowned pool" ???
If this isn't blatant corruption, I don't know what is. Unless, of course, this kind of blatant fraud is now "standard practice". But even if that's true, that just says the entire industry is totally corrupt.
Note that I tried this with a couple other domain names (that I was not interested in, to avoid possibly creating "signs of interest" in the domain name I am interested in) ... and I experienced similar results.
I am also angered by the endless questions and answers I see under google searches that are obviously planted by utterly corrupt registrar owners or employees. Why? Because they do not give honest answers to the question, but instead give answers cleverly crafted to deceive people and mislead them to buy high-priced domain names and other services.
In short, everywhere I look I see nothing but overtly criminal behavior from registrars. Just go read answers to simple questions on google someday if you doubt me (and know anything at all about domain names). And to be clear, I do NOT know much about domain names, I simply have a little experience with them and I'm not stupid. And that is enough to totally scandalize me. I have been an electronics designer and software developer for decades, but haven't much dealt with domain names, servers and websites.
I will appreciate answers to my questions. How can I get a currently unowned domain name cheap ... and explain whether the industry is as utterly corrupt as it seems to me (and how to avoid that corruption).
