With a million unwanted .uk domains expiring this week, Nominet again sends punters pushy emails to pay up
- Reference: 1599116530
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/03/nominet_million_dot_uk_domains/
- Source link:
Despite [1]being caught in June pushing for the renewal of domain names that were foisted on netizens, the company that oversees the UK’s top-level domain has again contacted people and stated their domains are “due for renewal.”
The strong-arm tactic has again caused confusion, with one punter neatly [2]summarizing the situation to Nominet: “You've now sent me a bunch of emails telling me my domain names (which aren't due for renewal until 2021) are about to be deleted. There's something gone wrong with your system.”
But nothing had gone wrong. Nominet is fully aware that the .uk names it is pushing were never ordered by people in the first place. When dot-uk was opened up several years ago so that you could register things like mycompany.uk as well as mycompany.co.uk, domain registrars had a brainwave: if a customer owned, say, blablahblah.co.uk, blablahblah.uk would be registered automatically for them. Now those freebie domains are expiring, and no one's renewing them – because people didn't want them in the first place, hence this latest pressure campaign.
Nominet is also well aware no one wants the new names. It spent years and millions of pounds marketing the idea of .uk yet the facts speak louder. Of the top ten British brands – Cadbury, Aston Martin, BBC, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Land Rover, Marks & Spencer, Twinings and Mini – not a single one even uses their .uk domain name.
Two (Rolls-Royce and Bentley) automatically redirect their .uk names to their main sites (.coms), and another two (Cadbury and BBC) own their .uk name yet don’t use them (a visit to bbc.uk goes nowhere). The remainder don’t even have their own name in the .uk space, such is the lack of interest.
Told you so
That reality is exactly what critics of the .uk plan [3]told Nominet at the time when it decided it was necessary to open up the second-level address space as a way to respond to growing competition in the domain name market. The registry operator simply ignored them. Even registrars whose business is to sell co.uk, org.uk, and so on, pushed back on the plan. Eventually, the industry reached a compromise where the current owner of any .co.uk domain would get first rights to their .uk name and could register it – for free – for several years.
That compromise has created the current problem. Registrars were keen to sell more domains but existing domain holders by and large didn't want to pay for them: why pay double? So registrars simply added those .uk domain names to people’s accounts without asking them in hope it would be renewed later on for a fee. It cost the registrars nothing to do this because Nominet had made it all free, and registrars creatively interpreted Nominet’s rules to allow them to do so automatically, daring the .uk overlord to tell them otherwise.
Nominet turned a blind eye to the practice. And then, when the free period ran out, Nominet again turned a blind eye when registrars started pressuring customers to renew names that many of them didn’t even know were on the account. People reading the messages might think their .co.uk was suddenly expiring, not their .uk, and renew it.
In the worst cases, registrars automatically invoiced customers for the unwanted names. When we ran a [4]story exposing the behavior, the companies – some of whose representatives sit on the Nominet board – claimed it was a mistake. And then a few months later, they started doing it all over [5]again . Each time Nominet did nothing.
Then, in June, Nominet itself started pushing the names that had been dropped by registrars, emailing people directly to say their domains were due to expire and had to be renewed – domains that, again, people had never asked for, and don’t want.
Money talks
The sheer scale of indifference to .uk names will become apparent this month when another one million unwanted .uk domain names will lapse and with it Nominet’s registration figures and income.
And it is the money that explains how and why the company that is supposed to be overseeing the .uk registry as a public trust has failed to clamp down on dodgy behavior by those it is supposed to oversee and why it is pushing unwanted names itself: because it needs or wants the cash.
Since January 2015, Nominet has been run by former acquisitions and ventures specialist who has pushed the non-profit member organization into behaving more like a for-profit company, using the UK internet registry as a cash cow to fund a series of failed entries into commercial markets.
The company is burning through money, prompting Nominet to increase .uk prices and [6]shut down its charitable arm , the Nominet Trust, and pull the roughly £5m it gave in excess revenue to the trust in-house. With Nominet’s commercial efforts continuing to lose money, the organization has repeatedly [7]milked more dosh from the registry, while continuing to pay inflation-busting raises and bonuses to the executive team and board.
Most recently, Nominet proposed [8]taking over the most profitable part of the .uk registry; the aftermarket sales of expired .co.uk names – a move that would have given it several millions of pounds a year in additional income. It was [9]forced to backtrack after a member rebellion.
Now Nominet has found itself in the position of turning the screws on its own domain name holders by sending them emails telling them to renew domains they never ordered and don’t want, because it needs that £4 a domain revenue to keep the whole sorry show on the road. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/16/nominet_dot_uk_renewals/
[2] https://twitter.com/youlooklovely/status/1301167516966965249
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/14/123reg_customers_outraged_at_automatic_uk_domain_registration/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/16/123reg_namesco_uk_domains/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/05/123reg_at_it_again/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/19/nominet_abandons_charitable_trust/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/02/nominet_uk_registry/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/22/nominet_uk_addresses/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/01/nominet_uk_domain_expiration/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
We've had dozens so far, and they've only got as far as the 'e's
But E's are good, E's are good.
Plymouth Argyle fans about 20 years ago:-
"He's a cunt, he's a cunt. The referee's a cunt."
Abuse of the officials shouldn't be tolerated. Shamen on them.
Competence? We've heard of it.
Well if Nominet is that incompetent and has to turn to what almost amounts to fraud in order to keep the lights on, then it may well be time for the government to take it out the back of the barn and shoot it.
I know that Nominet is supposed to be a non-profit but from what I can gather they have been taking that a bit too far. Still, I suppose that could be one metric that the board could use to justify their pay awards. "Look, we really are running as a non-profit organisation. Look at all the losses we have!"
Re: Competence? We've heard of it.
Oooh, good point. So Uber are also a not-for-profit enterprise then...
Re: Competence? We've heard of it.
When Nominet was first created it was a paragon of rectitude in an otherwise lawless landscape.
While its moral decline is regrettable, I can't help be amused that the current "business" regime have a licence to print money and yet can't make that work for them.
Classic case of [1]their eyes being bigger than their stomach.
[1] https://jobs.nominet.uk/job/Project-Implementation-Manager-Canberra%2C-Australia/616692701/
Re: Competence? We've heard of it.
"it may well be time for the government to take it out the back of the barn and shoot it."
Yes - and Nominet seems to have forgotten that it IS the UK government that owns .uk when push comes to shove in a court of law
Time for the DTI and or Competition and Markets authority to intervene?
Re: Competence? We've heard of it.
Time for the DTI and or Competition and Markets authority to intervene?
It is probably moot, since I don't suppose the Government cares in the slightest about reforming Nominet, but the Department for Trade and Industry no longer exists.
They were replaced by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in 2007.
Don't feel bad - I don't think anyone else noticed either.
I feel left out
I won't be getting any emails from Nominet despite letting my .UK domain lapse. I recently updated several of my email addresses and went through my list of people/organisations to update. Discovered that the email address Nominet have for me is 15 years out of date! Apparently I can't update it either as my domains are held by 123-reg and it is up to them to update Nominet - a process that apparently is supposed to be automatic. Seems like someone has dropped the ball. Can't help wondering (.UK domain issue aside) if Nominet ever has any legitimate reason to try to contact me directly?
Re: I feel left out
>Apparently I can't update it either as my domains are held by 123-reg and it is up to them to update Nominet - a process that apparently is supposed to be automatic.
No, the process isn't totally automatic, 123-reg as a result of GDPR don't automatically pass what could be PII data to Nominet. You need to call 123-Reg and ask them explicitly to remove the privacy flag from your 123-reg registration records to enable the automatic data exchange with Nominet, then wait a few hours.
Don't remember seeing it documented on 123-Reg website, but Nominet UK support told me what the problem was when I encountered it last year.
Re: I feel left out
Thanks for the info. Do you know if removing the privacy flag is global though, i.e. so anyone can have access to my contact info or just Nominet?
Re: I feel left out
"123-reg as a result of GDPR don't automatically pass what could be PII data to Nominet."
As a result of yet another cock-eyed misinterpretation of the GDPR. Relying once again (erroneously) on consent as the lawful basis where legitimate interest (or quite possibly contractual necessity) would be entirely appropriate.
One day someone will actually read the GDPR before attempting to "comply" with it.
Nominet used to be a shining light above the cesspit of the domain registry business.
Not any more. It's a tragedy.
But
The person targeted with increasing the number of registrations held by Nominet a few years ago got their bonus, so what's the problem?
Re: But
The problem is that the person wants another bonus.
The problem is that the person wants another bonus
No problem - if it can be negative.
"Nominet has been run by former acquisitions and ventures specialist"
Now I get it. Somehow this bottom-feeder with large amounts of cash saw fit to weasel his way into the Board and is now calling the shots as if he was running a capitalist enterprise.
How did his nomination get approved ? And by who ?
They have some explaining to do.
@"They have some explaining to do."
such as what proof said person had that anyone wanted anything other than ".co.uk", perhaps this person will be repaying all the money spent on the inept force feeding of ".*.uk" along with the cost of repairing the damage to the reputation of the registrar that their stupidity has done.
IMHO the board members that supported this have lost any credibility they might once have had and need to step down along with giving up any benefits such as pensions to repay the damage they have done
There's something gone wrong with your system
there's nothing new about that, they must have taken a leaf from godaddy. I got such a ridiculous email several years ago, and I panicked for a moment. Next moment I was very, very angry, and this was my lightbulb moment (they're not a cuddly domain provider as they made me believe, lol). But I was still stupid enough and got involved in a pointless e-mail exchange with their support about this (it was those prehistoric times when you could email and get a response, even though it was already pointless). From then on, I treat them as they deserve, ignore their junk mails about "urgent action required! Domain about to expire!" and renew a day before expiry or so.
racketeering
"hey we invented a new way of someone to impersonate your company, it'd be a real shame if that domain was up for sale..."
Five Nominet emails yesterday - all ignored.
Looking at them it is easy to see how busy people could make the mistake of paying up after misreading the content.