[conspire] Help starve a domain squatter, today

[Rick Moen]

Quoting William Lazar (bill at billsaysthis.com):

> I understand the sentiment here but not quite how this script  
> achieves the purpose, can you explain?
> 
> thanks.

No problem.

Domain expirations tend to happen through mishap:  The people assigned
to watch for expirations (i.e., the typically _sole_ party listed as the
domain's Billing Contact) either have left the group/firm, or aren't 
monitoring their e-mail, or have ceased to care, or have died, or are no
longer receiving e-mail sent to the listed billing address, or never
receive the registrar's warning notices for various technical reasons,
or never receive those notices because the registrar failed to send
them.

It is sometimes suspected that _some_ registrars do a sloppy job with
those notices in part because they make a lot of money from "redemption
fees".  E.g.:

https://joker.com/faq/index.php?num=4&f_id=1&s_id=15&q_id=138&a_id=160&c=1


In any of those failure scenarios and probably many others, the
consequence is that a domain suddenly goes into expired status before
anyone _else_ can take preventative action, and suddenly _everyone_ 
relying on that domain is facing a crisis, which then becomes expensive 
to cure -- if it's possible at all.

What does the script and my monitoring accomplish?

If I see that a domain I care about is getting dangerously close to
expiration (and, in my view, 90 days is too close), I can take active 
measures to get in touch with the _right_ people, the ones who are
motivated to act and send the renewal right away, even if the Billing
Contact party (if any) isn't on the ball.  If e-mailing doesn't work
because the whois contacts are no good (which is frequently the case), 
I can try to figure out a correct, new address.  I can also pick up the
telephone. 

All of that costs me very little, and I can save the affected
individuals and communities a _huge_ amount of hassle and expense.