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Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson. |
![](http://www.dnjournal.com/images/gossip.gif)
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As
Phantom .XYZ Registrations Continue to Pile Up at
Network Solutions a Stats Reporting Service Plans
to Subtract Artificially Inflated Numbers
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Well
I had hoped
for better in the
ongoing .XYZ/Network Solutions
registration fiasco but apparently its
not going to happen. Network
Solutions continues to show
contempt for their own customers by
stuffing their accounts with .XYZ
domains they never asked for (and
that could even subject them to some
legal
risk). Even
more disappointing .XYZ's founder,
Daniel Negari, claims on one
hand the registry had nothing to do
with what NetSol is doing while on
the other
pretending all of those registrations are real people
adopting the extension. Unless 2 + 2
now equals 5, those conflicting
positions don't add up.
As
of today, the zone files reported by
NTLDStats.com
shows 80,904 of the 96,246 .xyz
registrations (over 84% of
them) are registered at NetSol
(a registrar that normally has well under
5% of new gTLD registrations).
Though
.XYZ is using the bogus numbers to
claim they are #1 in new gTLD
circles,
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![](../../../../images/lowdown/bigstock2014/bigstock-ballot-box-320.jpg)
Will
stuffing the ballot box prove
to be a good use of marketing
dollars?
Ballot
Box image
from Bigstock
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they actually
aren't even in the Top 10 when the
ghosts are eliminated. This has not
escaped the attention of the other
major new gTLD stats reporting
service - NameStat.org.
Their founder, Andy Brier,
like many others, is offended by the
mockery that the .XYZ/NetSol
tandem has made of their rankings -
effectively trashing any credibility
they had as a new gTLD measuring
stick (an interesting one, even
though it is not the most important
one - actual user adoption and
development).
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Brier
said he will address the issue by
adding a new feature that
will let you toggle between what the
zone files numbers are and what the
real numbers are (at least as
close to that figure as can be
reasonably calculated) when the
bogus registration air is taken of
the balloon. In
the meantime, I remain dumbfounded
that Network Solutions and the .XYZ
Registry chose to go down this path.
With NetSol you have a registrar
that is three times more expensive
than other registrars making
themselves an even less attractive
option by telling customers we
will decide what domains are put in your
account instead of you! (you had to
personally request the domains be
removed if you didn't want them
there - the kind of perversion the colloquialism
"bass ackwards" was coined
for).
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![](../../../../images/lowdown/bigstock2014/bigstock-Swearing-an-oath-with-fingers--320.jpg)
Fingers
crossed image from
Bigstock |
With
.XYZ you have a registry that
has proclaimed themselves the
next .com but instead are
proving themselves not to be
an alternate .com but an alternate
reality based on fictional
numbers of real registrants. Instead of becoming the next
.com they are in danger of becoming the
next .tk - the ccTLD for
the obscure Pacific Ocean
territory of Tokelau
that gives away its domains
for free. Is
deception
really the business plan
a registry expects to succeed
with? While declaring oneself
the winner based on a
blatantly stuffed ballot
box still happens in
places like Syria it is
generally regarded as poor
form in the rest of the world
(and is certainly not a good
calling card for any
business).
Of
course, new gTLD skeptics are loving
this, saying that it
proves the new |
extensions
are already on the ropes,
having so little of value to
sell that they have to resort
to giving the product away
(and not just giving it away,
but forcing it upon people who
never asked for it) and then trumpeting inflated numbers. As
you would expect registries
that are doing it the right
way hate that they are being
unfairly painted with the same
brush. I've seen key
executives from at least three
other new gTLD registries
publicly post their dismay
over how this is tarnishing
the entire new GTLD
program. |
So
now I guess it will be up to the
market to decide what approach
it is going to reward. Having
expected that the events of the past
few days would play out differently
than they did, I will decline to
speculate on how much further some
operators will test their apparent
theory that everyone else is
stupid but them. |
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(Posted
June 10, 2014)
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example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
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