registries Tucows Stops Support on 9 of Uniregistry's New gTLDs...

[DanBingham]

If you own any of these new Gtlds, you might want to read this -

This is another hit to the Uniregistry New gTLD extensions. Tucows/OpenSRS will stop offering 9 of the Uniregistry extensions on September 8th, 2017 because of price increases.

Registrants will not be able to register or renew these 9 extensions after September 8. But they can renew them now for up to 10 years.

OpenSRS is suggesting to its resellers to proactively encourage their customers to consider alternative TLDs.

OpenSRS is the domain name reseller program of Tucows. I assume that the same changes will apply to Hover that is the retail registrar. And of course this suspension will probably spread to Enom that was recently acquired by Tucows.

This is another huge blow to Uniregistry after the GoDaddy suspended all Uniregistry extensions after the price increases were announced,...

https://onlinedomain.com/2017/05/26/domain-name-news/tucows-stops-support-9-uniregistry-new-gtlds/

 

[Acroplex]

You can also read this, and get a better picture of why OpenSRS/Tucows made a bad decision.

 

[dordomai]

i think the motivation for doing so is to avoid possible damage to their brand. customers do not understand the difference between a registry and a registar.

if a TLD is $50 one year and $500 the next years the customer will feel the registrar ripped him off not the registry. the word could spread that tucows is ripping off their clients. not worth it if you make only little money from these strings.

 

[Acroplex]

Except that, Uniregistry grandfathered pricing for the 9 gTLDs that OpenSRS dropped. Most likely because OpenSRS didn't want to modify their code to accommodate that. The rest is fluff. They also retracted a statement about "disrupting business." That alone speaks volumes.

 

[brindle123]

none of this looks good to an enduser. Why would they invest in a gtld that isn't grandfathered but could see a huge price hike at their next renewal?

Is the grandfather pricing transferable to a new owner who buys the domain in the aftermarket?
I just noticed that the pricing does go along with the domain to the new owner. So now you have to ask if the domain has "Premium" pricing and if it is protected under the grandfather clause. This is way to complex for the industry, domainer, and enduser.

$118.88 for a .blackfriday is crazy. There is one .blackfriday that is listed on namebio and it only sold for $250!

Most of the gtlds are bad enough to begin with. Now they are worse with prices going to $300+ per yr=crazy!

No domain investor in their right mind would/could invest in these ridiculous gtlds. The sales in the aftermarket are terrible and the pricing/policies make no sense.

Just like their stupid tiered pricing schemes, this price hike/grandfather policy hurts the industry, the domain investor, and the enduser.

Is the grandfather pricing in their user agreement or can they change those prices on a whim too?

Uniregistry=RIPOFF

 

[Acroplex]

brindle123 - So if you have zero vesting in gTLDs you are here just to call people "crazy" ?

Grandfathering means: pricing for existing domains won't change.

The new prices for new domains in the grandfathered gTLDs won't change until September. Anything you register between now and then is grandfathered, for the 9 gTLDs at Uniregistry that receive this price advantage.

Price grandfathering (renewals) remain unchanged even if the domain changes hands - it depends on the registration date.

Meanwhile, the real ripoff is at GoDaddy, because they upped their prices already.

 

[brindle123]

brindle123 - So if you have zero vesting in gTLDs you are here just to call people "crazy" ?

Where in my post did I say I wasn't invested in the gtld market?
Where in my post did I say that people on here are "Crazy"

I said the pricing is crazy! Get off your high horse

Meanwhile, the real ripoff is at GoDaddy, because they upped their prices already.

So Godaddy is the only ripoff for raising prices.

Hmmmm, Uniregistry raised prices on .juegos from $13.88 to $338.88 and that's not a ripoff?

Are you vested in Uniregistry, because you seem to be standing up for them so much?

 

[Acroplex]

I stand up for the facts vs. hand-picked arguments. When I blog, I post disclaimers.

Or are you here just to complain about prices and "consumers" in general?

The facts are: Uniregistry - the Registry - re-evaluated its domain pricing. After the initial uproar in March, it grandfathered all the gTLDs that received excessive price increases.

Except, GoDaddy doesn't allow you to do that until prices go up in September.

And OpenSRS dropped the ball completely, because most likely they thought implementing grandfathered pricing in an ancient back-end system would cost too much to update.

So who is the "ripoff" here?

Registrars received a 6 month "heads up" from the Registry, per ICANN rules.

If you must complain, tell it to ICANN that requires no price capping for gTLDs. Any Registry (Donuts, XYZ, MMX etc.) can up their prices as high as the Empire State building.

 

[offthehandle]

"Are you vested in Uniregistry, because you seem to be standing up for them so much?"

Whateveregistry advertises all over with many people who have blogs about domaining. I hate seeing people being oversold and hyped, and question the entire nGtld thing. Especially when .Net and .org, which are very established, old, trusted not com extensions represent only 5% each of all the millions of domains.

 

[Shianna-EBN]

I think the sudden price jump is a bit much. It really does make it unrealistic to register any of those gtld from an investment point of view. However, based on what the head honcho from Uniregistry said, it does make sense as to why it is going up, especially the vast amount it is going up on some of the gtld's. There is significant cost related to operating a tld of any sorts and the goal in business is to not just break even, but actually turn a profit.

 

[brindle123]

If you must complain, tell it to ICANN that requires no price capping for gTLDs. Any Registry (Donuts, XYZ, MMX etc.) can up their prices as high as the Empire State building.

I have emailed ICANN about pricing policies. I don't give them enough money for them to give in to my "complaints". Now if I was Uniregistry, who pays them millions, I could actually have a say in pricing policies in regards to ICANN.

The facts are: Uniregistry - the Registry - re-evaluated its domain pricing. After the initial uproar in March, it grandfathered all the gTLDs that received excessive price increases.

I'm not sure what happened in March. Been out of the domain scene. Are you saying that Uniregistry tried to screw people over in March, but then had a change of heart and re-evaluated their pricing, only after there was an uproar over their gtlds that had excessive price increases? It sounds to me like Uniregistry tried to RIP people OFF in March, people complained, then and only then did Uniregistry grandfather domains!

I'm not on here to bitch or complain. I'm on here to warn people about shady pricing and shady policies by both registries and registrars.

I can understand you protecting uniregistry over the average joe on NP, because uniregistry gives you money over at domaingang.

Who are you to say someone can't get on here and complain about pricing anyway? or call people crazy for that matter?
Keep taking that money from uniregistry. I know where your loyalty is

 

[tonyk2000]

With tons of new extensions in place, I think any registrar should somehow limit their offerings. No need to spend time and money to try to offer each and every extension approved by icann (which will only mislead the customer). So it does not appear that there is anything "personal" in 2cows decision. They simply did their job of selecting (or improving previous selection) tlds they support in accordance with their business model as they see it.

As a side note, Uniregistry, imho, made the right decision to become expensive. At least their extensions will not be used in spam campaigns like .top or .bid (which are now blocked as gtlds in many antispam filters, in particular private-corporates ones) which is better in a long run. Somebody who really wants a domain in a particular extension (dot hiphop or whatever) will pay currrent price and will have no issues with finding a registrar.

 

[Acroplex]

I've no problem disclosing existing sponsorships - it's part of presenting news and information about a rather small industry. If you think the world spins around domainers, you need to get out more often.

A disclaimer exists right there on the post I shared. Apparently, you only read it after I stood up to providing facts, because you edited your original post pretending you didn't understand how grandfathering works, and if it applies to sold domains. I shared all that info on the blog post I linked to.

Incidentally, this thread is about OpenSRS and their douche move to claim that Uniregistry "disrupted business" - completely untrue per my followup post.

I get it - some people don't like Uniregistry, and that's fine. But facts are facts, and when ICANN allows Registries to raise prices with a 6 month window, one needs to be aware of that.

 

[brindle123]

gtlds in general are a great idea.

The pricing and fishy policies are what people complain about, and that is what hurts the business.

Now we have premium pricing, grandfather pricing, what's next? Why would any enduser buy a gtld that has different pricing based on when it was originally purchased or what the string is before the dot.

 

[Acroplex]

gtlds in general are a great idea.

The pricing and fishy policies are what people complain about, and that is what hurts the business.

Now we have premium pricing, grandfather pricing, what's next? Why would any enduser buy a gtld that has different pricing based on when it was originally purchased or what the string is before the dot.

I'm all for flat pricing, like .com. But I don't run ICANN, or the Registries, and even the Registrars make more money - only to complain in the end (GoDaddy & OpenSRS)

At the end of the day, it'll take years before new gTLDs become mainstream. Until then, mistakes will happen, and lessons will be learned.

 

[forge]

Warning: OnlineDomain.com has pop-up spam that resembles malware.

 

[brindle123]

A disclaimer exists right there on the post I shared. Apparently, you only read it after I stood up to providing facts, because you edited your original post pretending you didn't understand how grandfathering works, and if it applies to sold domains. I shared all that info on the blog post I linked to.

Your post was 13min after my post! I'm not sure of the time limit to edit a post, I'm sure you do. I don't think it will allow you to edit after 13mins. I edited my post before you posted after me. gesh

Why would I pretend to not know what grandfathering is?
I didn't know if it was transferable. I just read that after I posted and went back and edited it to let people know. That's why I put it in bold. I guess you only want people to go to your website to get that info.

Complaining about pricing is what got uniregistry to grandfather domains, but you don't want people to complain about that kind of thing!

Acroplex says for everyone to stop complaining about pricing, because acroplex can't deal with it apparently.

Anyway back to uniregistry sucking and ripping people off. Godaddy too. They all do it.

 

[Acroplex]

Nah, you can complain all you need, bro, if it makes you feel better. Let it all out!

Sorry if I posted too fast for you.

I don't condone price hikes or endorse services I don't use. I use Uniregistry as my primary domain registrar. I own new gTLDs but have none of the price increased/grandfathered ones.

However, when OpenSRS posted bullshit, I made sure it's identified as such.

Back to our regular broadcasting.

 

[brindle123]

Sorry to OP for getting off topic. I will get back on topic at the end of my rant.

Nah, you can complain all you need, bro, if it makes you feel better. Let it all out!

Many people don't know and neither did I, that acroplex was my brother.

I can complain all day long about bad pricing and bad policies bro. You should too, if you're not under contract to only say good things about companies that pay you bro.

If it makes you money and makes you feel better, bro, to put down people that "complain" about shitty companies and their shitty policies, then have at it bro.

Insulting me will get you nowhere. I've got some thickass skin bro.

When unireg or any company has some BS policy or pricing scheme, I make sure I identify it as such, bro.

Here's My Disclaimer:
I do own some gtlds. I do own .property and will drop it like swamp property.
I don't take money from unireg or any other registry/registrar. I will complain when and where I feel like it. I will be honest with people on NP. I will not stick up for people or companies that ripoff domainers. I've got the guts and nuts to call it like I see it.

If someone on here uses unireg as their primary registar and they get money from unireg as their major sponsor, you have to wonder what their motive is, especially, if they defend their policies and crappy pricing no matter how bad and unjust they are.

Back to our regular broadcasting.
Tucows and Godaddy didn't like the pricing put forward by unireg so they did something about it. If no one complains about pricing and policy, then nothing will change and we all will get ripped off constantly. If prices went up 1 penny, we can complain if we want.
If you like to get ripped off, then just sit back and do nothing or if you do like to get ripped off, you can bash people who do complain about pricing, like some people on here.

 

[Acroplex]

Too long, I didn't read it.

Actually, I did. It misses the point: That OpenSRS became too lazy to cut into their chunks of code and change it so that Uniregistry gTLD pricing for grandfathered domains would be tidy. So they shifted the blame onto Uniregistry instead - same approach as yours: blaming the messenger for the message.

If you just want to dish out stuff, or test your skin's alleged thickness, NamePros might work. Then again it might not. They also sponsor my blog, bro.

 

[brindle123]

can unireg do no wrong?
opensrs has nothing to do with the pricing do they?
they dropped the junk and unireg scooped it up and jacked the prices, is that the point?
what does opensrs have to do with unireg"s pricing?

 

[Acroplex]

can unireg do no wrong?
opensrs has nothing to do with the pricing do they?
they dropped the junk and unireg scooped it up and jacked the prices, is that the point

The 9 gTLDs OpenSRS dropped are all grandfathered in pricing. They only dropped them because they didn't want to implement the grandfathering changes to their back-end. There is no other explanation.

I'm not justifying the price increases, just explaining what OpenSRS did that wasn't what they said it was about.

 

[brindle123]

so the 9 gtlds that they dropped weren't profitable enough for them to deal with some code changes?
That seems like a stretch.

Or...were the gtlds just very poor performers and opensrs could see the light at the end of the tunnel and unloaded them onto the next sucker/unireg.

Doesn't make any sense that they would drop profitable gltds just because they are to lazy to change some code.

please enlighten me

 

[Acroplex]

please enlighten me

Despite what you believe, that was my intention all along. Smart alec comments or not, it's my style.

Sticking to the facts:

1. Uniregistry - the Registry - announced in March the raising of prices, with implementation date 6+ months later, per ICANN rules.
2. All hell broke loose. Domainers were in shock. GoDaddy pulled out of supporting Uniregistry gTLDs. So they grandfathered the hefty price increases for 9 gTLDs of the 16 that were priced higher. I vouched for grandfathering across the board.
3. Uniregistry lowered the initial price increases. GoDaddy came back to support the Uniregistry gTLDs. But...
   
4. GoDaddy changed pricing effective late in April, as opposed to September 8th. By doing so, they deprive their customers of registering and grandfathering new domains, in the current, lower prices. GoDaddy jacked the prices for all Uniregistry gTLDs.
   
5. OpenSRS claimed Uniregistry price hikes were "disrupting business" (they changed that tune eventually). All 9 gTLDs that OpenSRS dropped were the grandfathered ones. Not a single "regular price" increase gTLD was dropped.

So right now, Uniregistry - the Registrar - has some great prices, AND grandfathering (9 gTLDs), of all of the gTLDs offered by Uniregistry - the Registry.

Regarding your question: Uniregistry owns those 9 gTLDs that OpenSRS won't support from September 8th.

OpenSRS didn't unload anything to anyone. They are not a Registry. They are like eNom, Name.com, GoDaddy.

But they operate with a vast reseller network, for years. They also own eNom - more aged back-end code there.

Dropping those grandfathered gTLDs makes no sense for the reason they quoted, blaming high prices by Uniregistry. OpenSRS simply didn't want to run two pricing systems for domains, one before / one after September 8th. All this while Uniregistry offers an API - but yes, the registrar has to be willing to do their part of the job.

All Registrars make good money - dollars, not cents - off every new gTLD that they support. It's part of the game.