One of the things that gives a bad name to people who invest in domain names are those who buy tragedy or terrorism related domain names with the goal of profitably reselling them. Even though it’s a very small minority of people who register these types of domain names in the wake of a major incident (and likely not even people active in the business of domain investing) it’s an easy story for the mainstream press to jump on shortly after other stories run cold.
Yesterday afternoon, Theo from DomainGang.com issued a call to action to the major domain name marketplaces regarding the sale of certain tragedy/terrorism-related domain names:
“Domain marketplaces such as Sedo, GoDaddy, Flippa, Afternic, Domain Name Sales and others take notice: “Omar Mateen” domains should not be allowed to be listed for sale on your venues.”
It looks like Sedo was the first to respond affirmatively to this suggestion:
@DomainGang @GoDaddy We've blocked that word string already – please let us know if any combination slips through. #PrayForOrlando
— Sedo (@Sedo) June 13, 2016
I think it could be difficult for marketplaces to police these types of listings. Not only are there many possible permutations of related keywords, but there may be some domain names that could conceivably be legitimate. For instance, some people might not feel that September 11th related domain names are appropriate to sell given the amount of commerce surrounding the tragedies that occurred on 9/11/01.
Although it might be difficult to police these types of listings, I am glad to see Sedo is taking a step in the right direction.
Good on them slightly different thread but about being ethical in approach albeit late in the day for the long tail effects
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36355497
Excellent move by Sedo.
Great move, i hope others follow suit. People registering these names should be publicly flogged 😛
“should be publicly flogged” strange sad comment.
how about publicly shamed? is that better? trying to profit off such tragedy is extremely low.
That is way too aggressive for registering conflicting domains. Where is your mind right now? SMH.