Photos of Alleged SnapNames Shill Bidder Nelson Brady & Our Thoughts on the Scandal

[Ron Jackson]

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Exclusive photos of alleged SnapNames shill bidder Nelson Brady and our thoughts on the scandal that is rocking the domain industry. The company's former VP of Engineering has been fired but the fallout is far from over.
Photos of Alleged SnapNames Shill Bidder Nelson Brady and Our Thoughts on a Scandal That is Rocking the Domain Industry

 

[HeyNow]

Hey Ron, I notice you didn't give a crap about Adam Dicker screwing clueless TDNAM bidders by actually bidding against those clueless bidders while he was working for Godaddy. In fact, I understand that he was a Vice President at Godaddy while he was driving up auction prices. He procured spyware.us in that fashion, and still owns it. You didn't give a crap then, why do you care about Snapnames pulling the same BS now? Because it's on a larger scale? We'll never know the true scale of Dicker's ethical shortcomings, but you seemed to kiss his ass instead of highlighting how he screwed your fellow domainers.

Great work uncovering and reporting the Snapnames story, Ron. You waited until Snapnames dropped the confession in your lap before even acknowledging there was a problem in the industry. Great journalism Ron. Well done.

Anyone who truly believes these types of shenanigans are only part of Snapnames' history is naive.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Any payout system where transparency is left out opens the window for greed. That may even be true of the big players such as Google with Adsense etc. These things tend to take time to unfold. We have seen so much unravel of the old sweater this past year with the unwinding of the economy millionaires will be made just writting books about the crooked deals, the cooked books, the passing off of bad sub-prime loans to countries around the world, the price fixing and constant Federal Reserve shorting gold to manipulate the U.S. dollar that nothing will surprise me for a very long time.

In the end domainers fair play is what makes any segment of the marketplace grow. Hinder that and after a while it will blow up or fizzle out. For a while (some short prosperous years) we were excited to be part of domaining as parking profits drove their abiltiy to register and monetize domains. Now it seems the wall has been built and tons of effort to monetize are rewarded with a pittance of revenue. Thats the black eye for domainers and the short term future is more of the same. Names are dropping like old fruit on a tree since the orchard has been exploited and not cared for by gardeners with heart and soul.

Why go forward like we did in the past until as a united group we have a solid foundation built that rewards those who pay the price with hard work their intelligence and experience. Seems the shakers and makers block the partnership needed with things like lack of transparency. How does this relate to Snap. It relates in the same way. No transparency no growth as greed will pop its head up and scare the worker bees to another field.

 

[HeyNow]

In regards to the Parking Companies. To my knowledge (correct me if I am wrong) Most Parkign Companies never tell you WHAT percentage they are passing onto you, do they? I mean does Sedo say 40% of the payout goes to the domain publisher? no.

They are offering a service and they can charge whatever they want....

Yes, you are probably correct. In my experience, they don't make it easy for you to ascertain what % they are passing on to you. In some (perhaps most) cases they purposely make it impossible.

Domainers better wise-up and quit depending on other companies like parking companies for income, honesty, and transparency. Domainers better wise-up and figure that most (if not all) auctions are fixed or rigged to the advantage of the auctioneer, as recent history has proven for Snapnames and Godaddy (at least Godaddy employees, including Godaddy VP Adam Dicker, who won SPYWARE.US at a TDNAM auction while he was a Godaddy employee Vice President).

This industry is full of pond-scum waiting to screw you out of a substantial $. Keep your domains, don't park them with any parking company, don't jeopardize your registrant rights by parking which provides TM infringing search results, don't trust registrars, auctioneers, and domain "news" sites which are owned by dick-sucking dweebs whose main goal is to inflate the value of their respecitve domain portfolios.

 

[wellmanneredsquirrel]

great article

 

[Corey]

thanks Duke for posting the article

Cheers
Corey

 

[Michelle]

Nice read. I would like to hear his side.. Did they out him before he outed them ?

 

[RogueWriter]

Great article, Duke, interesting read and thanks for posting it.

 

[maxeaus]

Hey Ron, I notice you didn't give a crap about Adam Dicker screwing clueless TDNAM bidders by actually bidding against those clueless bidders while he was working for Godaddy. In fact, I understand that he was a Vice President at Godaddy while he was driving up auction prices. He procured spyware.us in that fashion, and still owns it. You didn't give a crap then, why do you care about Snapnames pulling the same BS now? Because it's on a larger scale? We'll never know the true scale of Dicker's ethical shortcomings, but you seemed to kiss his ass instead of highlighting how he screwed your fellow domainers.

Great work uncovering and reporting the Snapnames story, Ron. You waited until Snapnames dropped the confession in your lap before even acknowledging there was a problem in the industry. Great journalism Ron. Well done.

Anyone who truly believes these types of shenanigans are only part of Snapnames' history is naive.

Now THAT's a Slapdown! :lala:

 

[TT]

This news just goes to show that dealing with "Any Auction Site" that is not regulated can be and most times is fraudulent, However with that being said my personal opinion about Snapnames is about the same as that other company that screwed us all a few years back "Registerfly" I would not be surprised to find out that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Lets face it we all in this business have a bad aura about us when it comes to the general public and if thats not bad enough the new perception is going to be even worse when you factor in the criminal element within the industry.

I do not feel that Snapnames compensation offer is even close to the settlement in civil cases that will be awarded by a judge ( but by time that happens Snapnames will be defunct and operating under another name).

Personally I hope the fed's act on this news swiftly and prosecute any and all individuals involved, There is no way this could have gone on for so long without the entire board knowing it was happening and most probably encouraged it. Nelson Brady is probably just the fall guy.

Someone higher up than Nelson had to have known this was going on, Lets face it we are not stupid people, we have seen this and reported it many times but where do those reports go? To the guys operating the business and they are there to make $$$$$. Once they no longer needed or trusted Nelson all of the sudden out of no-where the company comes out and makes this announcement, That in itself looks fishy to me.

Just my opinion

 

[RogueWriter]

maxeaus- Yeah, a pretty pathetic thank you to Duke for making a nice post. HeyNow could have phrased his post in a manner that did not insult Duke, but is obviously a hater that is going to find a way to toss insults regardless of the topic of conversation.

A diversion from what the true topic should be, the fact that a Snapnames employee apparently bid on up to 50,000 domains.



The first mention of halvarez at namepros:

http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/112865-gdd-com-latest.html

 

[globegenius]

Well my thoughts on this being a new domainer is screw the auctions and put a buy now price on my domains. Buy now or best offer. It will drop the domain prices big time but at least any potential buyers know they are not getting shafted.

 

[thebutler]

trust them?

I'd been in tons of auctions with Hank and I think I remeber a few where it was only him and me. Unfortunately I stopped trusting them several months ago and I let my CC details expire so now I can't even log into my account to see my history without submitting an updated CC. You know what? I don't trust them with my CC details. So I can't see if this Mr. I'm Smarter Than Everyone cost me some money in the past.

 

[HeyNow]

maxeaus- Yeah, a pretty pathetic thank you to Duke for making a nice post. HeyNow could have phrased his post in a manner that did not insult Duke, but is obviously a hater that is going to find a way to toss insults regardless of the topic of conversation.

Yes, I am a hater, a hater of rigged auctions in which domainers like me have cluelessly participated, sheared like a sheep by insiders who work for the auctioneer driving up prices at my expense. I also hate the domain "journalists" who look the other way and show the perpetrator attending a domainer function dining on steak dinner, mentioning that perpetrator in the photo caption, while mentioning nothing of the ass-screwing received by TDNAM bidders by the guy eating the steak.

 

[RogueWriter]

And you felt it necessary to insult Duke because you hate someone else...?

 

[HeyNow]

And you felt it necessary to insult Duke because you hate someone else...?

The truth is the truth. You can call it something else ("hate", "insult") if that pleases you, but it's still the truth. You don't seem insulted when the bottom-feeders in the domain industry are highlighted as gods at DNjournal, but I am.

 

[Ms Domainer]

The truth is the truth. You can call it something else ("hate", "insult") if that pleases you, but it's still the truth. You don't seem insulted when the bottom-feeders in the domain industry are highlighted as gods at DNjournal, but I am.

*

You know, I've always liked Ron and enjoy his writing and sales pages, but I have noticed that his articles are usually more PR than journalism.

It would be good to see a real domain journalist (maybe some of the scrappy domain bloggers who broke this story).

Unfortunately, there's no money in journalism, so domain reporting becomes more a "I'll-scratch- your-back-if-you-scratch mine" scenario.

I still like Ron, but, let's face it: he's one of the big players, not a journalist in the truest sense.

*

 

[HeyNow]

*

You know, I've always liked Ron and enjoy his writing and sales pages, but I have noticed that his articles are usually more PR than journalism.

It would be good to see a real domain journalist (maybe some of the scrappy domain bloggers who broke this story).

Unfortunately, there's no money in journalism, so domain reporting becomes more a "I'll-scratch- your-back-if-you-scratch mine" scenario.

I still like Ron, but, let's face it: he's one of the big players, not a journalist in the truest sense.

*

Yes, Ron is a likeable guy. You're right, it WOULD be a good to see a real journalist cover the domain business, not someone with a vested interest in keeping his/her portfolio's value inflated.

You're wrong about one thing: Ron isn't one of the "big players." He got in too late. He's got lots of domains, including lots of nice LLL.us. But what he's done, IMHO, is grease and hang with the "big players", highlighting them in a positive light in DNjournal. As a result, they include him on their panels, let him speak at the domainer conventions, etc. For instance, IMHO, if Ron wrote a story about how Adam Dicker screwed other domainers (Ron's readers) by bidding at TDNAM auction(s) while working within Godaddy, I'm not so sure he'd have his own dedicated thread at DNF, which is owned by Dicker.

It's all so incestuous and nauseating. I take offense because DNjournal's readers include lots of regular domainers, like me, and here HE is apparently kissing the asses of those who demonstrate bold ethical shortcomings, while turning a blind eye to those shortcomings.

We are not stupid, but we continue to learn. IMHO, we've been played for suckers by domain industry insiders.

 

[discovernow]

Ron Jackson who I personally know and have had lunch with him and his wife at the domain conferences is one of the best and most honest guys in the industry. Ron is what gives this industry a good name. If I had a vote for domainer of the year, it would be Ron.

Thanks, Jim

 

[HeyNow]

Ron Jackson who I personally know and have had lunch with him and his wife at the domain conferences is one of the best and most honest guys in the industry. Ron is what gives this industry a good name. If I had a vote for domainer of the year, it would be Ron.

Thanks, Jim

IMHO, being "one of the best and most honest guys in the industry" isn't saying much. The reality is that you've not met most of the people in the industry, nor dealt with them.

 

[discovernow]

IMHO, being "one of the best and most honest guys in the industry" isn't saying much. The reality is that you've not met most of the people in the industry, nor dealt with them.

Been in the domain industry since 1998 and met many people in this industry. Most are good, some are bad, like any industry. Just like your 5 wives you have had, 4 of them were bad, and now you have 1 who's not so bad

Thanks, Jim

 

[MicroGuy]

New photo of Nelson Brady as young child emerges.

 

[HeyNow]

Been in the domain industry since 1998 and met many people in this industry. Most are good, some are bad, like any industry. Just like your 5 wives you have had, 4 of them were bad, and now you have 1 who's not so bad

Thanks, Jim

If a guy has had 5 wives, maybe it's not the wives that are bad.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Trust us

look, whenever big money is being made in a new field ( domaining is a new frontier) greed will get its foot in the door. I am surprised that much more dishonesty has not surfaced over the years. For instance parking payouts may have some surprises surfacing in the coming years that may not be pleasant to domainers. Am I saying I know this for fact. No, but I would not rule it out either.

I have always wondered how as ppc profits go down parking companies have been growing and spending money with all the frills of mega profit companies at conventions etc. Transparency is something they cannot offer.. more like them telling us this or that is behind the curtain, but you will just have to trust us.

This may get worse, who knows if it was just him who knew or did this.

 

[wwwweb]

What happend to the domain names this person won, into their personal inventory?

I don't see how employees can be on the payroll, and sit and bid on their platforms auction domains at the same time, essentially they are being paid to bid on company time? Double Dipping

It doesn't matter what company you work for, or how nice of a person you are, greed can make us all do terrible things, look at Bernie Madoff, everyone says he was a nice guy, and all the other CEOS in jail, most of them had more than enough money to never work again, they always wanted more, at whose expense, the little guys.... nothing different here, when mainstream media hears these stories, they want nothing to do with domains, or domainers, set everyone back many many years, everyone double thinks prices that were paid, sold prices, valuations get messed up, I think TDNAM and others should change their policies asap. It is obvious this nerdy little dude, wasn't in on it himself, hes that guy that gets hung out to dry, bigger fish at play here as well.