discuss Idea: GoDaddy Expiring Domains - Take One For Free, Give One Away

[MapleDots]

GoDaddy Expiring Domains - Take One For Free, Give One Away - Support your fellow domainers

Do you have any domain names sitting at GoDaddy that you will not be renewing?

Why let HugeDomains and the likes suck them up

Why let GoDaddy profit on your domains

GoDaddy makes money on the domains when they go to expiring auctions and we as the domainers bid against each other to get them back. Companies like Huge Domains suck them up and the whole domaining industry suffers.

If you have no use for the domain, why not eliminate the middle man and give the domain to your fellow domainer.

Maybe we can use a central topic like this where anyone can post their expiring godaddy domains and allow other members to claim them for free.

I understand we can each make a topic for this but it would be nice to have a centralized area where we could keep track of all of them.

Additionally it would be nice if a mod could put this topic into a section where everyone can update their post at any time when the domains get claimed.

Thoughts about this by anyone?

 

[tonyk2000]

Yes, I though of suggesting the same last year

A few issues: should be first come - first served obviously, but without side effects (such as not giving the domains to those who are posting threads like "I will buy your expireds for $1" and will use them for spam). How can this be done is a big question. Moreover, in case of my portfolio for example, I set "liquidation" prices such a min. price allowed on a marketplace like ~$100 or so (Sedo), and if it is not sold even with this price - giving it away may be a disservice for a fellow domainer as he'll pay at least for the renewal, let HD spend $$$ instead. The last but not the least, some non-HD auction bots _may_ be run by members here who might never identify themselves as such. Finally, not all members may be willing to publicly link their whois and forum handles due to privacy and related issues (which by itself would prevent these members from publishing their expireds lists).

All the above of course can be formalized in one way or another. An outcome might be even better should one account be set to temporary receive all domains, managed by a trusted member who has time to do so, possibly with mods involved. It might be more practical just to push domains to such an account and let the (semi)automation run for further distribution. Something extra may be added - such as "play $$$", membership upgrades or anything similar for giving the domains away (which _is_ community support), so cc @Eric Lyon - maybe he can comment

 

[MapleDots]

You make some valid points tony but remember I am talking about the domains where you have exhausted all possibilities. You did not sell them and you have already made the decision to let them expire.

If they sit at GoDaddy you add to their monopolistic horde of domain names. They automatically get all the auction profits and in more cases than ever they sell the domains to the one company (Huge Domains) who is the biggest competition to legitimate domainers.

In other words.... godaddy profits numerous times and we are feeding the dragon until one day we are all gobbled up and have no way of selling our domains.

Godaddy gobbled up afternic, they are also a registrar, and they run the auction.

Is it just me or is there something wrong with a registrar running the auction. It is in godaddy's best interest if we let as many domains as possible expire because they profit on them.

Then lets talk about the massive 20% commission we all give them on every sale through the auction. It is like a massive monoploy and we THE DOMAINERS keep feeding it so that eventually we can have the honor of putting ourselves out of business.

So @tonyk2000 when you have exhausted all use for your domain and you truly intend to let it drop you will be helping all the independents by just giving it away and keeping it out of godaddy hands.

 

[MapleDots]

We could say one domain per member, chances are the ones of value will go.

or

We could also say the person has to have been a member for 1 year or a feedback score of 5.

It would be easy enough to set some boundaries and we all have a good feeling on who is legit and not. Remember you would be under no obligation to release the names. Simply say if I like your profile you get it, if I don't recognize you you don't.

There would be no preset rule that says you have to give them away. You can say, I have the 10 who wants them? Five people respond and you could decide to give all 10 to the person you feel the most comfortable with. Nobody has a right to these domain names and as a gift the owner decides who to give them to.

I see the topics where people say post "claim to claim the domain"

I would post "Free to qualifying member"

In other words, a member I know, trust and has contributed to the community.

 

[tonyk2000]

and you could decide

For me it is the most complicated part of a puzzle Being a jury so to say

 

[MapleDots]

No different from handing out free $10 dollar bills. You give them to the people you feel could benefit from them the most.

 

[MapleDots]

Why not just sell for 1-5 dollars? If someone like the domain, 1-5 dollars won’t be an issue, comparing to what Godaddy charges.

You're missing my point a bit @bluemeteor

Remember I am talking about domains you have already decided to drop which means all this has been tried and you have made the decision to drop the domain.

All I am saying is please don't drop them because it hands profits to godaddy and hugedomains. Give the domains back to the community and let another domainer make an attempt to profit on those domains instead of surrendering them to godaddy.

If only one member hits a homerun and sells one of those domains for 10k then we kept those funds out of the godaddy/afternic monopoly and allowed a fellow domainer to have a good year.

 

[tonyk2000]

Besides, pasting the names, following the threads, logining to push, all these actions take time.

Exactly, which is why I'd personally prefer to push them all and once to some temporary account from which namepros members could request what they need, and with some reasonable automation this may work... And not bothering about collecting $1

 

[MapleDots]

OK everyone,

I have been contacted by namepros to see if we can implement this NO COST giveaway of expiring domains.

It is completely voluntary and I would like to get feedback on how we should proceed.

As a bonus, our techs increased the active thread limits in all Domain Lists sections to 3 active threads in each forum (9 total), so that creating a thread like this won't prevent you from creating other threads in the section in the future. Also, "active" means that you can always open and close threads to have more than 3 threads in the section, but only 3 can be open at a single time.

As you can see above namepros has made changes for to accommodate us and at this point the topic has changed to discuss how we can best implement this.

 

[BRANDERX]

PS: My free GoDaddy domain which I advertised in the Free Domain Names forum (see link above). Was snaffled up in just 9 minutes. How long has this thread been running?

One thing I learned about that transaction, which I would amend the next time. Would be to insist the recipient changed the domain whois info to themselves within 24hrs.

Its done automatically, you need to click "use contact details from receiving account" something like that

 

[MapleDots]

I'm at fault here too, I just let a .com expire and godaddy values the domain at $1028.

Now that may or may not be a realistic value but I can almost guarantee the domain will be picked up by HugeDomains and GoDaddy will profit from it.

I should have given it to a fellow domainer who would have had a use for it.

A lot of times my portfolio gets too big and I let some pretty decent names drop.

From here on forward I will offer them to my friends here first.

 

[tonyk2000]

Correct, but... if I simply post a list of domains. With no pre-established rules. And the next post would be from a member who registered today and replied "I will take them all". Should the push happen? Probably no, as it is not what the whole scheme is intended for. So we need more community input to develop better "rules".

 

[MapleDots]

Exactly, which is why I'd prefer to push them all and once to some temporary account from which namepros members could request what they need, and with some reasonable automation this may work... And not bothering about collecting $1

What a great suggestion

 

[tonyk2000]

What a great suggestion

... and some specific setup will be requred from namepros anyway, in aspects of related posts. Domain should probably disappear from public list as soon it is gone (or dropped)

 

[golan]

Actually i'm already doing that, i list my soon-drops here on $1 auctions. No GD though, so far.

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

This thread turned into a discussion about the idea, so we've moved it to the feedback forum. Please feel free to create a new thread for this idea once you work out the details.

Additionally it would be nice if a mod could put this topic into a section where everyone can update their post at any time when the domains get claimed.

As long as the thread is created with the rules in mind, the best place for it to appear would be under Free Domain Names, which does not have a time limit on edits.

Another option would be in the Advertising Board, which also does not have a time limit on edits.

However, Free Domain Names would receive more visibility.

Learn more about edit times.

We hope that helps.

 

[tonyk2000]

We hope that helps

Due to nature of the idea in question (_expiring_ domains), in any case the result would be incompatible with the following rule from "Free Domans" section:
"Include at least one domain name (from the domain list) in the title of the thread"

I am also wondering what (if any) extra possibilites (such as integrated shop with $0 pricing for example) can the forum software or its addons provide for better setup and management of these specific domain lists. For example it might be more practical to have just one thread and one list inside, which would show accumulated "portfolio" of free expiring domains from all members who wished to include their expireds... and updated from time to time. Or, maybe, various threads - one per registrar.

It would also be interesting to understand would NamePros itself (on ownership / mods / etc. level ) be willing to participate in any aspect, for example by rewarding members who are giving the domains for free to other members - with stars/points, membership upgrades or anything similar, etc., etc.

The idea imho is very good if we think about it - forum members giving something for free to other members. I'd personally consider it like this "as is", not against GoDaddy/Enom/Netsol/Tucows or any other registrar that is selling expireds as pre-release.

.

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

Due to nature of the idea in question (_expiring_ domains)

Expired and expiring domain names can often be given away for free in the same way as domains with other statuses. Free Domain Names is the section designated for them to be given away for free. Ideally, the title will be worded in a way that avoids confusion if it is limited to expiring/expired domains.

"Include at least one domain name (from the domain list) in the title of the thread"

In this scenario, the thread starter can begin the thread with a domain name of their own that they are giving away and include it in the title. The example domain name in the title doesn't have to be updated, but it could be updated as often as the thread creator wants to edit it.

I am also wondering what (if any) extra possibilites (such as integrated shop with $0 pricing for example) can the forum software or its addons provide for better setup and management of these specific domain lists. For example it might be more practical to have just one thread and one list inside, which would show accumulated "portfolio" of free expiring domains from all members who wished to include their expireds... and updated from time to time. Or, maybe, various threads - one per registrar.

That's an excellent question. We're open to ideas, and yours sound good.

It would also be interesting to understand would NamePros itself (on ownership / mods / etc. level ) be willing to participate in any aspect, for example by rewarding members who are giving the domains for free to other members - with stars/points, membership upgrades or anything similar, etc., etc.

That's another good idea. We'd likely need to automate it if we were going to add it, because we wouldn't have time to add more manual work to our plate, but we can look into it.

 

[BrandMart]

I'm at fault here too, I just let a .com expire and godaddy values the domain at $1028.

Now that may or may not be a realistic value but I can almost guarantee the domain will be picked up by HugeDomains and GoDaddy will profit from it.

I should have given it to a fellow domainer who would have had a use for it.

A lot of times my portfolio gets too big and I let some pretty decent names drop.

From here on forward I will offer them to my friends here first.

I had a couple at GD. Never liked GD. The domains were about to expire, gave some to fellow domainers here. Had 1 more, but no one claimed so it got expired.

Remember, not all domains that you give for free will be taken here. Since all of us want something that has a fast return value, many unclaimed free domains will expire and go to GD auctions or get snatched by HD.

 

[Name Trader]

Is there a thread for this to post already? Typically I don't have any domains at GoDaddy except for domains awaiting transfer to my preferred registrar. But I have 1 "sticky mouse" error that I won't be transferring. Which I'd like to post.

In my opinion you should probably keep the rules to a minimum. And let the poster decide, about their TR rating and length of time the buyer has been a member. I probably would let the poster also decide if free or not. But personally, I cannot see this proposal getting by the NP staff, with or without any rules. The NP staff will just tell you to post in the appropriate forum already available (free or paid).

 

[namemarket]

...They are a runaway train and we have to be careful to hand them too much power.

They already have immense power and dominate the market. Almost every end user wants a transfer to godaddy and very rarely will accept a push to the current registrar, if not GD. Even if this idea gets traction I don't see how it could put much of a dent in GDs business.

 

[MapleDots]

** Deleted my opinion of GoDaddy, as being irrelevant to the topic in hand **, ** too many cusswords **

HeHe...... made me laugh

 

[MapleDots]

In case you ad a dozen domains and you can update as claimed. No need to repost and you could have your own permanent post or topic.

Giveaway by stub as a title

 

[Name Trader]

Yup exactly, or you can post the domain with code to anyone that wants it. You could pick the end user or offer a first come first serve by posting the codes.

And whoever picked it up can transfer it to GoDaddy, even if it is already with GoDaddy?

I don't favor posting the auth code openly. I think you should only give the auth code to whoever wins the domain. You might have 30 people trying to use the authcode to transfer the domain. Causing mass confusion when the authcode doesn't work any more. I think this should be an orderly process. So I would be opposed to openly posting the auth code, for more than 1 person to try to use.

 

[bluemeteor]

Why not just sell for 1-5 dollars? If someone like the domain, 1-5 dollars won’t be an issue, comparing to what Godaddy charges.