[conspire] Domain expirations, domain speculators

[Rick Moen]

Here's a follow-up.  I hope I'm being over-pessimistic, but this seems
like a classic case-study in how domains slip away.  Steven thinks
everything's fine because Dotster changed the expiration date to 2010,
but I had just tried to specifically warn him and Raph that this is
misleading information and is the very opposite of reassuring.

Formal expiration was last Monday, so five days would have been
Saturday.  They can probably save the domain if they call Dotster ASAP,
but I fear Steven and Raph will not do so.

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:24:46 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: "R. Steven Rainwater" <srainwater at ncc.com>
Cc: raph.levien at gmail.com
Subject: Re: advogato.org domain registration
Organization: Dis-

Quoting R. Steven Rainwater (srainwater at ncc.com):

> Thanks for keeping an eye on this. I'm showing the expiration has
> changed to 22 Sep 2010, so maybe we're ok now.

No, actually, that was a key part of my point:  This is something that
registrars do when a domain expires, and it's misleading.  They add a
year to the expiration during the ~40 day (I said 45, but it's actually
about 40[0]) period following formal expiration.

On the evidence, I'd speculate that the domain account at Dotster was
set to autorenew[1], but, for some reason, the renewal payment was not
processed, which could be for a variety of reasons, e.g., the linked
credit card being out of date.  So, the ~40 day grace period is still
running.

Of course, (1) it's possible I'm misreading the external information,
and, (2) even if I'm completely correct, the data in the public WHOIS
records is sometimes as much as 24 hours out of date.

It is possible that Raph is just about to lose the domain completely.
If either of you wants to ensure that that does not happen, it would be
a really, _really_ good idea to get on the telephone to Dotster Customer
Service ASAP and ensure that the renewal gets paid.


[0] It is 40 at _most_ registrars, but I belatedly notice that Dotster
seems to have a far harsher policy, of only a _5_ day grace period,
after which "it will be deactivated and placed into a 30-day
Redemption Period (Note - Some domains may not make it to the redemption
period if they are purchased by a third party."  (See:  "What happens if
I don't renew my domains?" on
http://www.dotster.com/products/domains/renewals )   Essentially, Dotster
has a deal with a domain-speculation firm to pass them expiring domains
with high page rank.  Such as, well, probably Advogato.org.

[1] http://www.dotster.com/products/domains/renewals

----- End forwarded message -----