.NAME at a Crossroads

An anonymous reader writes "It seems the .NAME registry is at a crossroads. They say that things are going far from well, and so they have started their own registrar that is going to try to market .NAME domains to individuals, unlike all other registrars. If they don't manage, this will be the first gTLD to go bankrupt. I guess that will put a damper on any plans to introduce more new TLDs."

Comments

Here's my karma whoring for today

[Doctor Sbaitso]

A Whois Lookup for the .NAME domain can be found here. Apparently common names like john.name aren't even taken.

Re:Who wants anything but .com?

[LordWoody]

Me. Some of us still follow the distinction that the original tlds had (.edu for schools, .com for commercial, .net for networks, ISPs, etc..., .org for organizations such as community orgs, non-profits, etc..., and so forth).

While I think the whole tld was a terrible idea applied in an even worse fashion, I still register my domains based on what general tld they best fit. I have no interest in leading people to believe that our LUG is a commercial interest or that my business is some community group or non-profit. Although I am not above availing myself of the .us tld if that is the only non-misleading tld left for a given name.

With the advent of search engines like Google, the whole "what cool FQDN is your site?" is becoming irrelevant anyway.

They do (sorta)

[kikta]

The current scheme appears to be that they aren't selling domains, per se. After visting the link (which gives you a list of registrars), I found that no one will sell me "kikta.name". However, all seem to let you buy something in the form of "jason.kikta.name" (which comes with an email address of "jason@kikta.name"). So they're not really selling personal domains, just "firstname.lastname.name". If anyone can find anything different, please say so, but I tried 5 of them before I gave up.

FYI, "scream.my.name", "whats.my.name", and "say.my.name" are all taken already. ;-)

Re:They do (sorta)

[vidarh]

No second level names can be bought under .name from anyone. So yes, you do get a domain, but it will be on the third level, just as it is for for instance .co.uk, and in a lot of other cases. It's no less a domain name than something at the second level, and it is regulated by ICANN just as any second level .com.

(Disclaimer: I work for Personal Names)

Re:They do (sorta)

[vidarh]

Yes, you get full control over the third level domain, with the ability to create usernames at will and change the nameserver etc. Currently Personal Names Ltd. handle that functionality via e-mail to customer service, as most of our users prefer to just use the web forwarding we provide.

You're right that someone buying john@smith.name doesn't get control over smith.name, but yes, you would own john.smith.name, just as you'd own johnsmith.com.

As for adding additional addresses - you either need to do so under the third level name, or buy another e-mail forwarding. That's how .name is structured in order to give more people a chance at their lastname (try getting a common lastname under .com, for instance)

As for less value, if you can get your firstname@.com, sure, go ahead. For most people, that is not an option, as their lastname was registered years ago. We're giving people another chance at that a reasonable address. If they don't think it's worth it, then that is obviously their right. So far, however, our research indicate that people aren't particularly bothered about the price - either they want it and the price isn't an object, or they don't.

(Disclaimer: I work for Personal Names Ltd.)

Re:.NAME and owership rights?

[vidarh]

.name uses a dispute resolution method that give you automatic right of ownership to the name you have registered if it is your own name, the name of a deceased person that you have the right to control (for instance as the executor of an estate) or the legitimate trademark owner of a fictional name.

So if you really are John Smith, and registered john.smith.name, noone else named John Smith could take it away from you.

(Disclaimer: I work for Personal Names Ltd)

Re:Does anyone have one?

[vidarh]

Try searching google for "site:name -dfgdfgadfgaagdfg", and you'll find lots of .name site. Nowhere near the other major TLD's, but growing at a reasonable rate.

(Disclaimer: I work for Personal Names)

Register.com

[Anonymous Coward]

I registered my .name right after they came available from register.com. Their management tools are crap, you have to wait weeks if you make any changes for example to the redirection email address.

Because it's against the rules

[magicianuk]

You can't have john.name (the same way I can't buy magician.uk, I can only buy magician.co.uk (which I did))

It's firstname.lastname.name and basically that's all they allow. In theory it has to be your real name too, but somehow I managed to get the.magician.name as well as my real name, but it does leave me with an email address of
the @ magician.name which isn't terribly good.

Re:Free the namespace!

[Anonymous Coward]

The first thing that'd happen would be that pepsi.com, pepsi.net, and pepsi.org would be obsolete since .pepsi would be run by PepsiCo.

Errr... But how would you find the IP address of PepsiCo's nameserver? This sounds like a boot strapping problem.

A BIG warning

[Gudlyf]

I signed up for a .NAME domain, stupidly through Network Solutions, for a fairly high price. This was because other registries such as Go Daddy weren't registering domains under .NAME at the time (I hear they do now). I was being all hasty about things, and decided to nab my .NAME ASAP with NetSol.

The price NetSol charges, like with anything else, is outrageous, but that's not the worst of it. When I tried to have the domain transferred to Go Daddy (much, much cheaper), I found that I can't! In fact, what I believe happens is that once you apply for your .NAME domain (i.e., john.smith.name), NetSol takes ownership of "smith.name", and you're given the right to use the "john" subdomain -- it can't be transferred! (or, at least, they're not allowing it)

NetSol also makes you purchase email hosting with the domain, and tries to tack on some web hosting. Simply put, DO NOT go through NetSol for this service. (I can hear the collective, "Well DUH!" now)

This is why I'm letting my .NAME domain dry up and die, and will continue to handle my email the way I always have. There's no way in hell I'm paying NetSol's outrageous prices until I'm able to transfer to some other registry.

Re:A BIG warning

[vidarh]

Luckily, you're wrong. The second level (smith.name) is NOT delegated from the registry. You have a right to transfer your name, unless your contract with Netsol says something else.

I suggest you contact GNR (the registry) and talk to their customer service people to get help in getting it resolved.

(Disclaimer: I work for Personal Names, the registrar mentioned, and we're a competitor to Network Solutions)

Re:Selling to individuals is good

[vidarh]

Exactly, and that's the focus of Personal Names: To let you set up a .name without anything except for an existing e-mail address and (if you choose) and existing web page somewhere (whether on it's own server or on a free webhosting service). When you register, you get to enter your forwarding addresses, and you can log in and change that at any point afterwards.

It's meant to be incredibly simple, and it seems to work - we're seeing a good amount of registrations (and btw. <shameless-plug>we have an affiliate program</shameless-plug>)

(Disclaimer: I work for Personal Names)

This has been tried before

[madstork2000]

I worked for a startup that was selling "third-level" domains to doctors under the .md domain. The company purchased severalthousand .md domains that represented "surnames". So we owned "smith.md", "wilson.md", etc.

We provided web hosting (http://www.john.smith.md), email (john@smith.md), easy to use templates, for non tech savvy doctors.

Several issues worked against us. First the company controlling the second level domains (i.e. the "surnames") that we had to purchase, charged too much for the business model (upwards of $300 /per year for a single second level .md domain).

The other issue was we couldnever have all the names. so we could not do large "instatutional sales" effectively.

these first two issues shouldnot effect .name, but the other issues we had problems with would:

1. Name Overlap -names are not unique, we never achieved a large enough user base for this to be much of an issue, but it did come up occasionally.

2. SPAM- the addresses are pretty easy to guess, since first@last is pretty easy to guess. the other SPAM issue was that more and more ISPs require the outgoing mail address to be on their network, and sothe users needed to configure the IMAP/POP accounts to use our sevrers, rather than their local ones.

3. User ignorance, the way the email was/is built of the second level domain (john@smith.md) and the website is off the third level - john.smith.md confused the users, the sales people, and management. We never effectively explained the subtle difference to non savvy users.

4. Long names. http://www.john.smith.md is an ok sized domain name,but if you had a long orhyphenated name, the email address and domain name become excessively long, and awkward to work with in "real world" applications,likeputting on business cards and letterhead.

In short it sees the .name folks are making some of the same mistakes, and not addressesing the inherent problems needed to overcome the issues.
In retrospect there are several more trouble issues that both our .md plan and .name share,
but no sense in beating a dead horse, they definately need some help, some luck, and cash if they expect to succeed.

I wish 'emluck cause I think they will need it...
-MS2k

Re:I use .name domain and e-mail...

[SparklesMalone]

I too use .name, and frankly I couldn't care less about people figuring out who I am. I only give my .name address to friends and associates and use a throw-away Hotmail account (or nothing) for more public spaces. If I want to post anonymously I deserve to be labelled "anonymous coward". If I have the guts of my convictions I should have the guts to put my name on it too. The print press has it right; if you want mass readership (letters to the editor) you've got to fess up to who you are.

Democracy demands it. Gov't of the anonymous, by the anonymous, and for the anonymous? How do you know 50,000 "Invade Iraq" posts to the Washingon Times aren't generated by Haliburton?

Re:They aren't doing it right.

[FTL]

> They don't offer traditional DNS services, where someone types in a name and the resolver returns the IP address of your name server, they are offering only email and web redirecting services. Nothing else.

I'm sorry, but Slashdot really needs a '-1 Wrong' mod point.

The .name TLD will sell you any third-level domain that you want. Just like *.co.uk or *.ny.us does. The DNS lookups are perfectly normal. The email is perfectly normal. What more can I say ... what you stated is completely untrue.

And yes, I do know what I'm talking about. I'm a sysadmin, and owner of my own .name website. Go ping it.