Moving away from Namecheap...

[Amaresh]

Hey guys,

I run a free webhosting service and often I receive abuse complaints since people sometimes host phishing and child porn.

I always dealt with the complaints in a timely manner and my hosting company has never had a problem.

However, sometimes the complaints go directly to Namecheap and even after I respond to their complaints by taking action against the offending sites I often find my domain blocked for days until I can get them to unblock it again.

I have explained to them countless times that it is not I who is hosting these materials, as I have no control over the content people upload to their accounts. I have always taken timely action against the offenders.

So, I was just wondering is there any other registrar that would be able to handle my case in a slightly more professional manner ?

I was thinking of moving to Moniker, what do you guys think ?

 

[onewordonly]

I'm not sure what register would be better but I think you should be looking at ways of combating these problems from your end more especially if people are using them for the horrible subjects you describe. In fact I don't blame any register to take that action on sites that are been used for that sort of abuse. I realize it is not your intention to let this happen but you are solely responsible to stop it and to prevent it from happening. Maybe you should include better security checks before letting people register.

 

[Auraka]

I'd take a look at dynadot.com, they have done really well in abuse complaints.

 

[Domagon]

Firstly, I don't feel domain registrars should involve themselves with such matters.

With that said, given all the competition and all the hassles involved, is it worthwhile to offer strangers free webhosting?

As onewordonly suggested, do better user screening and improve security / abuse detection. It's potentially a lot of work, though perhaps not, if you're only getting a handful of new users per day; just manually spot check those accounts, as well as, look at those accounts showing large changes in traffic / hd usage, etc.

Ron

 

[DubDubDubDot]

I'm not sure what register would be better but I think you should be looking at ways of combating these problems from your end more especially if people are using them for the horrible subjects you describe. In fact I don't blame any register to take that action on sites that are been used for that sort of abuse. I realize it is not your intention to let this happen but you are solely responsible to stop it and to prevent it from happening. Maybe you should include better security checks before letting people register.

Standard non-developer rant.

Nobody who calls for tight security and total moderation provides examples of how to accomplish it without crippling the internet.

It would require a total lockdown. You would even have to submit a credit card to post here on NP.

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:17 PM ----------

just manually spot check those accounts, as well as, look at those accounts showing large changes in traffic / hd usage, etc.

A lot of lawyers recommend not doing this since it makes you a producer of the approved content, and thus liable. This is why the large sites don't moderate anything and rely on user flags.

 

[butlimous]

take a look at dynadot.com, they have done really well in abuse complaints.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

I have never heard of NetSol playing the role of big brother. You should also be safe with Register.com, Dotster and Moniker.

---------- Post added at 05:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:23 PM ----------

take a look at dynadot.com, they have done really well in abuse complaints.

With "family guy full episodes" in your sig I'm guessing you are speaking of copyright complaints. Yes?

 

[DomainMOD]

Standard non-developer rant.

How do those comments have anything to do with being a developer? I am developer and I completely agree with what he said. If you're offering a free service and you're getting in trouble with the companies you deal with, obviously the business model needs to be reworked a bit, which may include figuring out ways to tighten security. If you let it be like the wild west and users can do anything they want the problems are going to keep coming, and there's only one person that's responsible for controlling it. You. The bigger you get the more overhead there's going to be, that's just the cost of doing business with certain models.

Nobody who calls for tight security and total moderation provides examples of how to accomplish it without crippling the internet.

How can anyone provide examples when we don't know his current setup and what he's already doing? As someone who seems to fancy themselves a developer, if someone contacted you and said they needed to improve the security on their site but wouldn't tell you what their site was or how it's currently setup, it would be pretty difficult to recommend solutions, would it not?

It would require a total lockdown. You would even have to submit a credit card to post here on NP.

Considering there are moderators here, this example doesn't even remotely apply. The problem is when no moderation or monitoring are taking place at all, which isn't the case on these forums.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

How can anyone provide examples when we don't know his current setup and what he's already doing?

In other words, you don't have any examples to provide and this statement is your way out.

And if you really do have answers, congrats, you are going to be filthy rich overnight because there are thousands of sites that want your services.

Considering there are moderators here, this example doesn't even remotely apply. The problem is when no moderation or monitoring are taking place at all, which isn't the case on these forums.

Forum moderators exist to ban trolls, patrol sigs and stop spam. At any board they have little to no success in protecting members against scammers.

Non-invasive moderating doesn't prevent the act. It only catches it after the fact and puts a stop to it in it's current form. The problem user can return again and again. This is something that nobody really has an answer for due to the open nature of the internet.

The best thing out there is the standard flagging system. The OP said that he receives reports, but idiots also send reports to the registrar. Should YouTube (who moderates nothing that isn't flagged by the way) be taken offline if I flag a video and also report it to their registrar?

 

[DomainMOD]

Am I on candid camera?

DubDubDubDot, I think you need to re-read this thread and think about what's been said.

 

[abdussamad]

Hey guys,

I run a free webhosting service and often I receive abuse complaints since people sometimes host phishing and child porn.

I always dealt with the complaints in a timely manner and my hosting company has never had a problem.

However, sometimes the complaints go directly to Namecheap and even after I respond to their complaints by taking action against the offending sites I often find my domain blocked for days until I can get them to unblock it again.

I have explained to them countless times that it is not I who is hosting these materials, as I have no control over the content people upload to their accounts. I have always taken timely action against the offenders.

So, I was just wondering is there any other registrar that would be able to handle my case in a slightly more professional manner ?

I was thinking of moving to Moniker, what do you guys think ?

First up I can't answer your question . What I can tell you is that you are lucky you still have access to your domain at namecheap. Godaddy for instance suspends the domain and makes you pay a restore fee before you get to use it again. So there are worse registrars out there

My suggestion is to ask people who are in the same or similar situation as you. The file/image upload webmasters, free hosting providers and torrent site owners etc. Rapidshare for instance uses some registrar called psi-usa. Rlslog.net uses domainsite.com . Anyway I would appreciate it if you would share what you learn. Also what about your hosting provider. Which tolerant provider are you using?

 

[Domagon]

A lot of lawyers recommend not doing this since it makes you a producer of the approved content, and thus liable. This is why the large sites don't moderate anything and rely on user flags.

Moderation, as in content deletion / user suspension, does NOT equate to production. Though editing such content (text, images, etc), especially if extensive, potentially could.

With that said, the attorneys have a point ... automated scanning / 3rd party flagging may be better than manually viewing / moderating content of webhosting accounts yourself in regards to liability exposure.

However, laws / regulations / policies and their implementation is rarely clear-cut, especially when it comes to emotional issues, such as child porn and hacking.

More to the point, your free webhosting service is not operated by some big multibillion dollar company, but rather by you / small company - that's an important distinction.

So while there's potentially increased liability exposure manually scanning publicly posted user data, the liability exposure of not doing it may be even larger, since you, presumably, don't have the resources / reputation of that of a large company, such as say, Yahoo or Google.

Bottom line, in my view, you'd do better, from a liability standpoint, to regularly review accounts, scan data, usage patterns, etc to proactively reduce the number of complaints.

Ron

 

[HappyBunny]

Should YouTube (who moderates nothing that isn't flagged by the way) be taken offline if I flag a video and also report it to their registrar?

That's spot on. OP runs a free webhosting service. Youtube hosts videos for free. Content on both websites are created by users, not the service owner.

OP's domain gets blocked because of abuse complaints. Can you imagine the same thing happening to Youtube? Will Youtube.com be blocked because someone uploaded child porn and someone else complained to the registrar? If it shouldn't happen to Youtube's domain, why should it happen to OP's domain?

 

[labrocca]

You do need to move away asap from NameCheap if they are blocking you for days. That's completely unacceptable. Dynadot seems like the popular choice.

 

[jrzeygirl]

Hey guys,

I run a free webhosting service and often I receive abuse complaints since people sometimes host phishing and child porn.

I always dealt with the complaints in a timely manner and my hosting company has never had a problem.

However, sometimes the complaints go directly to Namecheap and even after I respond to their complaints by taking action against the offending sites I often find my domain blocked for days until I can get them to unblock it again.

I have explained to them countless times that it is not I who is hosting these materials, as I have no control over the content people upload to their accounts. I have always taken timely action against the offenders.

So, I was just wondering is there any other registrar that would be able to handle my case in a slightly more professional manner ?

I was thinking of moving to Moniker, what do you guys think ?

Hey Amaresh - feel free to hit me up directly if you have any questions about Moniker!