RETARDED.COM - Should this domain be auctioned in the largest domain industry convention?

[Internet.Domains]

Retarded.com - Should this domain be auctioned in the largest domain industry convention?

The term RETARDED is defined as "offensive" on Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.com, Vocabulary.com and Wikipedia.org. The latter one describes it: "The word retard was widely accepted in the late-1900s to refer to people with mental disabilities; however it is now more commonly used as an INSULT. The word has gained notoriety for causing a growing number of mentally disabled people to feel unfairly stereotyped."...

This insulting and offensive domain should not be part of the the largest domain industry convention. This reflects on sponsors and attendees alike. The auction has been advertised as "Super Premium" and there is nothing "SUPER PREMIUM" about offending and insulting mentally and physically challenged individuals. As a person who knows and works with autistic children I kindly ask for this domain to be removed from the sponsored industry event immediately. This domain does not and should not reflect on the entire domain industry, but at this point it does reflect, and it is insulting.... Here is a list of of the top sponsors for the convention that is promoting the auction with the offensive and insulting term to those that are physically and mentally challenged, through no fault of their own.

Uniregistry
RightOfTheDot
Namejet
Rightside
Verisign
Radix
InternetX
Affilias
GoDaddy
Escrow.com
101Domain
DomainSponsor
.WS
Donuts
CentralNic
.Blog

 

[mad409]

LOL!
1. How would I insult "Millions" of people who have no idea who I am, what I'm doing or what I am buying?

Oh OK, now you're showing either your age, or intelligence. You can't even reply to my question correctly.

I understand now, waste of time with you..

Later Albert

 

[slader23]

Oh OK, now you're showing either your age, or intelligence. You can't even reply to my question correctly.

I understand now, waste of time with you..

Ok let me rephrase that. How could You, insult millions of people who have no idea what your doing, buying or your intentions? This isn't prime time TV and no one other than domainers/end users knows or cares about the Namescon or the ROTD auction.

I don't appreciate the fact that your questioning my intelligence. I believe your previous comments say more about your demeanor and attitude than my age/intelligence. The fact your also making disrespectful comments towards me says even more. I never questioned your age or intelligence and you doing that to me shows a lack of respect and decorum.Your only retort is pointing out a small issue in my interpretation of your question. I've now fully answered your question. The real waste of time was trying to make people like you think pragmatically, you're clearly well set on speaking without any real critical thinking.

To end lets finish with the current tally of votes.

Guess I'm not the only person who thinks your wrong

 

[mad409]

@slader23

Ha, polls mean nothing Trump won.

Just like I thought couldn't answer what this domain would be good for and at a 10K reserve.

As for what you think of me, sorry ya feel that way but when people speak out of the wrong end when quoted I reply.

This one is a dud, you'll see, bad for ROTD and NameJet for allowing it. BJMO as always..

 

[slader23]

@slader23

Ha, polls mean nothing Trump won.

Just like I thought couldn't answer what this domain would be good for and at a 10K reserve.

As for what you think of me, sorry ya feel that way but when people speak out of the wrong end when quoted I reply.

This one is a dud, you'll see, bad for ROTD and NameJet for allowing it. BJMO as always..

Are you serious? I answered you directly lol....

 

[CraigAK]

All this thread is doing is giving the domain in question more publicity. Hmmm

 

[Elon Swift]

look there are 2 things to look here, first being moral and understanding that these terms are derogatory and second being professional. so there are both aspects to this and hence forth decision should be taken

 

[Dun]

 

[offthehandle]

If you have the money to buy Retarded.com then you should be able to pay a developer and content writer to create a relevant website discussing and educating others regarding intellectual disabilities and then sell your own white label ebooks on different kinds of intellectual disabilities, with a % your proceeds going to relevant charitable organizations. Its a win-win.

Exactly, and that is a positive use I referred to on one of my earlier posts. The site could be used to promote free education to donate to the cause of the inane expensive legislation. However, a redirect to a database site of all the politicians around the world might be more appropriate. lol.

 

[Addison]

The only acceptable use of this domain is to redirect it to http://www.r-word.org/

Is it likely that a buyer will pay thousands of dollars to do that? No.

All uses of this word can be replaced with a politically correct synonym or described with more words. The word is unneeded and by choosing to use it anywise, you're tormenting people who are less fortunate than you and causing them unneeded agony, suffering, and distress, both emotionally and physically. That's cruel and heartless.

We all have a choice. Choose to do the right thing.

 

[slader23]

The only acceptable use of this domain is to redirect it to http://www.r-word.org/

Is it likely that a buyer will pay thousands of dollars to do that? No.

All uses of this word can be replaced with a politically correct synonym or described with more words. The word is unneeded and by choosing to use it anywise, you're tormenting people who are less fortunate than you and causing them unneeded agony, suffering, and distress, both emotionally and physically. That's cruel and heartless.

We all have a choice. Choose to do the right thing.

Since when do you decide what the acceptable/unacceptable use of the word is? This isn't a debate. The right to do anything is in the hands of the people.

 

[Addison]

Since when do you decide what the acceptable/unacceptable use of the word is?

It's called common courtesy and common sense. Keyword being common.

The right to do anything is in the hands of the people.

Did you miss the word "choice" in my post? If you want to be a bully and choose to support the use of this unneeded word, then that's your choice and you'll lose respect from some/many of your peers.

I wouldn't do business with a bully. Neither would my wealthy friends. You have the ability to choose and so do I.

Your choices will affect who will choose to do business with you. That's how social injustice is handled in a moral and ethical society. It's called social punishment.

 

[wormfood]

If you vote No in this poll, you might just be voting because you think the domain's not worth much, not because you think it's too offensive. So I think some people that voted Yes may have just done it because they didn't want to seem to be agreeing with you (about leaving the name out of the auction because it's often used negatively). I wonder how many people would vote only "No, Its value is too low" if the options were:
- No, it's too offensive
- No, its value is too low
- Both of the above
- Yes
But maybe they would still want it in the auction to try and show others that it isn't a big deal.

Imagine if there was a word like retarded that had the same history of becoming derogatory but was also a popular term in at least one large industry. (or even imagine if the word retarded had another good use that made it valuable in .com).
Either this thread wouldn't exist or my guess is most people would vote Yes in the poll. Just because the word retarded does not seem to have a very good alternative use right now does not mean it should be kept from the auction simply because it has a derogatory use.

If you want to argue about the value of the domain (and if it qualifies based on its value, completely ignoring if it's offensive or not), I don't think there's much question.

If you want to argue that it's too offensive, there doesn't seem to be much point anymore since no one here can change the others' minds. Might as well agree that it's not worth much and move on. I doubt they're going to remove it for either reason.

Calling people cruel and heartless or accusing them of supporting use of the word is extreme when they have simply argued that it has no context while it is alone in a .com domain, and so it is not harming anyone or spreading any negativity until it is used.

 

[wormfood]

One of the better counterarguments I can think of is that since "premium domains" implies they have very high monetary value for whatever reason (or that since retarded.com is among other 'commercial' domains, even if not all are commercial), some people might wonder 'what is the commercial value here?'
The most lucrative development option most people people can probably come up with for this domain is to make it into a video / insult / joke site that could go viral among the right group (immature middle schoolers?).
So if they do come up with something like that, they might also subconsciously feel that NamesCon and the sponsors are supporting such a negative use of this domain, even if it would seem pretty far-fetched when they thought it through.

To me, the very best argument on the other side, which other people probably mentioned, seems to be:
Would you really want this transaction done completely in private? What if the WHOIS was private, and it started to be developed into a horrible site? You wouldn't know who is doing it. You can send all the hate mail you want, but it seems like a better idea to auction it in public. Then you have 'social accountability', if I can call it that (related to social punishment that was mentioned earlier).

Do you really think anyone who bids on this at a major convention is going to go home and make plans to develop it into a nasty site? Even if they believe the word is funny or fine to use (or even have a few friends that approve), they're probably going to lose a lot of reputation since people know they own it.
If they put it under privacy after the auction, claim that they sold it and that someone else developed it, some people will probably still berate them for being so careless and not simply forwarding it to r-word.org or another site (or they won't believe them).
You could have a private sale or auction where the details are still disclosed to domain investors and the public, but if it's done at a large convention, the pressure is even higher on the person afterwards, in my opinion.

If it's sold in private with no details released, it could be developed by someone you would normally respect, and you'll never know.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

The only acceptable use of this domain is to redirect it to http://www.r-word.org/

Is it likely that a buyer will pay thousands of dollars to do that? No.

All uses of this word can be replaced with a politically correct synonym or described with more words. The word is unneeded and by choosing to use it anywise, you're tormenting people who are less fortunate than you and causing them unneeded agony, suffering, and distress, both emotionally and physically. That's cruel and heartless.

We all have a choice. Choose to do the right thing.

 

[Joe Styler]

Here is what GoDaddy, the new convention owners, say on its website.

"We’re changing our world for the better.

From Boston to California, GoDaddy employees pitch in to benefit under privileged children, schools and aspiring entrepreneurs and many other vital causes. Because when our communities flourish, so do we."

As the new owners of the convention will they continue their philosophy, will they stand with those that are spreading the word to end the word for under privileged children? @Joe Styler

Sorry for the delay. I took a couple days off for New Years. GoDaddy doesn't own the conference yet. We don't take control of the Hosting Company in Europe who is the parent of World hosting days until sometime later this year. At this point we are normal attendees like anyone else.

 

[tonecas]

it always puzzles me how the country of free speech and civil liberties is so puritan with so many silly matters.

niger, retard, nazi, def, etc. who cares?? its only a word. no one is using it to describe/refer to a specific individual. what you do with it defines the limits. the question should be if this domain is good for a premium event like this? the morality of it is a ludicrous issue.

this is like showing deaths and violence all over the TV but showing a nipple oh no, that is shameful and the kids, poor kids, seeing private things in such a tender age...

this puritanism makes me sick.

 

[tldboss]

it always puzzles me how the country of free speech and civil liberties is so puritan with so many silly matters.

niger, retard, nazi, def, etc. who cares?? its only a word. no one is using it to describe/refer to a specific individual. what you do with it defines the limits. the question should be if this domain is good for a premium event like this? the morality of it is a ludicrous issue.

this is like showing deaths and violence all over the TV but showing a nipple oh no, that is shameful and the kids, poor kids, seeing private things in such a tender age...

this puritanism makes me sick.

^ wow shocking, do you say such things in public?

Thread is about the domain retarded.com only, if it should be auctioned at namescon or not

I care. Discrimination exists worldwide in 2017, its a huge issue.

Exists in America and in other countries.

Note: some NP members are outside of America "the country of free speech and civil liberties"
Living in a bubble is dangerous to everyone in the world.

Treat others as you want to be treated, with kindness and respect

 

[Dun]

it always puzzles me how the country of free speech and civil liberties is so puritan with so many silly matters.

niger, retard, nazi, def, etc. who cares?? its only a word. no one is using it to describe/refer to a specific individual. what you do with it defines the limits. the question should be if this domain is good for a premium event like this? the morality of it is a ludicrous issue.

this is like showing deaths and violence all over the TV but showing a nipple oh no, that is shameful and the kids, poor kids, seeing private things in such a tender age...

this puritanism makes me sick.

It's the power of words that can ignite wars between nations. And it's the same power that can set a barrier between our fellow humans.

I wish I could think without words, maybe then I could see and feel the world in a different sense and never care : )

 

[offthehandle]

The current auction price is at $555. and is high bid and only 11 days left.

 

[Jv1999]

Just never ever name your children Dick just because you think it's unfair the name is no longer a name. You'll only bring them more hardship than what's normally in storefor tthem

I totally agree that when the word is used in that context then yes it is highly offensive and should not at all be tolerated.

The thing is tough the actual word itself is not solely in reference to any particular group of people, I get that it is commonly used by insensitive and uneducated idiots to refer to autistic people. However, the word itself can be used for many other uses...

For Example:

Physics and engineering

• Retardation factor, in chromatography, the fraction of an analyte in the mobile phase of a chromatographic system
• Retarded potential, in electrodynamics, electromagnetic potentials generated by time-varying electric current or charge distributions in the past
• Retarded time, time when an electromagnetic field began to propagate from a point in a charge distribution to an observer
• Retardation time

I guess it's almost like a domain like FAG.com (this is an offensive term for Gay people in many countries however in the UK it's a slang for a cigarette)

Even a name like Dick.com (It's offensive because we all know what it can mean but it's also a popular first name)

I think if there is merit to show that the domain name can be used for other purposes other than the blatant offensive purpose then it should be allowed...

Just my 2 cents though....