DNJournal’s Ron Jackson made the mainstream press again, this time in an interview with ABC News regarding the Toys.com sale to Toys R Us in last week’s bankruptcy auction. It’s good to see mainstream coverage of the domain business, and I am glad news outlets continue to seek out Ron Jackson for his expert opinion.
According to an article appearing in Reuters today, it looks like Democratic lawmakers may be pushing for an end to the ban on Internet gambling to quell anger from the European Union. If this happens, owners of gambling domain names may be more free to monetize them and have higher payouts.
From the article:
“A senior Democratic lawmaker will push legislation this year to repeal a U.S. ban on Internet gambling that has hurt trade ties with the European Union, a congressional aide said.
“The bill introduction should happen in the next month,” a spokesman for House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said.”
There are two new features I really like about Domaining.com. The first is that I can now filter the blogs and domain news sources I want to read from those that I don’t. There seems to be data overload in the domain space, and it’s annoying when I miss a good article from someone I respect because it got pushed down by articles I avoid.
The second feature I like and could probably create on my own (but don’t) is the Twitter feed with “domain” as the keyword. Any time someone posts a Twitter update and it contains the word “domain,” it is featured on Domaining.com.
There have been a few times where people ask simple domain related questions that can be answered by an industry pro. This can open new doors and lead to new introductions. There have also been plenty of times where people are critical of domain owners, calling them squatters and other uninformed comments. This creates a good opportunity to educate.
As far as Twitter goes, I am just a rookie but am quickly learning about the power it has. People across every walk of life use Twitter, and it gives unparalleled access into places you might never have imagined going.
Although they don’t consider themselves domainers, Marchex owns thousands of domain names, and the company is one of the few publicly traded domain-related companies. This morning, Marchex announced that the company is laying off 15 employees, about 4% of its workforce.
They also announced a couple of senior management changes, naming Peter Christothoulou Chief Operating Officer and Matthew Berk Executive Vice President of Product Engineering. In November, Mike Berkens blogged about Marchex and how it’s market cap was just slightly more than the total amount they paid for Yun Yee’s portfolio. While the stock price has increased since Mike’s post, the economy is still taking a toll on the company.
I had the great opportunity to participate in the Bloggers Soapbox on the Domain Masters show on WebmasterRadio.FM. Victor Pitts from Moniker filled in for Monte Cahn as the host, and I was interviewed along with Mike Berkens and Michael Gimour.
A transcript of the show has been posted on WebmasterRadio.FM, and I appreciate the opportunity speak tonight.
I just finished writing up my analysis of the Mystery domain auction that’s been commented upon by just about everyone in the domain space. I didn’t feel like blogging about it, so I just decided to voice my opinion on the domain forum, NamePros. I don’t post there often but visit on occasion and have never had any issues or problems at all.
I wrote out several questions about the mystery auction and then posted some of my own commentary on why I believe it’s going to fail and cause problems for the person who is running this. After returning from walking the dog, I saw that my post was edited by someone named Mark, who removed most of my commentary. Instead of taking out my entire post, he decided to selectively remove my comments.
I am disturbed because I don’t think someone should censor my opinions just because they seem to go against the majority (unless all negative posts were censored and/or removed). In all my time on several domain forums both public and private, I’ve probably had my posts edited once or twice – probably for comments in a sales thread.
I think it’s completely unprofessional to edit someone’s comments on a public forum, especially when it might change the tone or message. I don’t edit what people say here, and I wish the same respect would be held for my comments elsewhere. If someone posts something on my blog that isn’t appropriate, I delete the comment and send the poster a message. I don’t simply edit out the things with which I disagree. Completely un”Pro”fessional in my opinion, and a big reason I will stay away from posting there in the future.
Anyway, the gist of what I said is that people have been comparing this to the Million Dollar homepage project, which raised quite a bit of money. That was a very unique project and received worldwide press, and as a result it raised a considerable amount of money. The domain mystery auction is no revolution and will not receive the same type of buzz. This is a take off on a controversial type of auction with a domain twist.
Additionally, I said that the guy holding the auction should probably have some type of insurance coverage, as any glitch in the bidding could end up in litigation by someone who spent hundreds of dollars on bids but didn’t win.
I also doubt the auction’s mystery domain name is really worth $10,000. Everyone thinks they have a $10,000 domain name, and anyone can post any reserve price for a domain auction, so simply because it had a $10,000 reserve doesn’t mean it’s worth this price. The point of this statement is that if the auction manager is hoping for added buzz when the domain is revealed, that is highly unlikely to happen.
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The moderator just replied to me saying,
“This is the “For Sale / Advertising” section … It is a sales thread …
Legit Questions are always welcome in Sales and Advertising threads. Comments and Conjecture are not.”
Apparently he doesn’t understand the definition of the term “comment” since there are many other comments (positive of course) that were not edited out – including his own.
“Originally Posted by -REECE-
That’s a very neat and creative site you made there John. Has a nice design to go along with it – well done and best of luck!
Originally Posted by drjawed
Fantastic idea and well-designed site. The mechanism is a bit ambiguous (mysterious ) though. It will take some long time to win the confidence of bidders. Wish you good luck.
Originally Posted by Brujah
John is a hardworking clever guy. I think the idea’s great and hope it makes a million.
Originally Posted by Mark
Pretty Innovative ”
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Now it appears that NamePros has closed my account due to my questioning their censoring. No, I am not going to appeal to RJ or whoever else owns the forum. It should just be a lesson for others who post opinions in public domain forums.
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Final update… it seems they have re-activated my account (without a request from me). I will continue to not post there often – unless the thread has some personal involvement.
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