[conspire] (forw) 1268808 Re: (forw) Hoping for help with an IWantMyName support problem

[Michael Paoli]

On 2023-02-06 15:40, Rick Moen wrote:
> We're almost there.  I replied:
> 
> I appreciate the progress on this matter.  This has resulted in
> Registrant data now being shown (once again) in public WHOIS for 
> domains
> linuxmafia.com and unixmercenary.net .
> 
> To complete my request, please also make Admin Contact and Tech Contact
> data become shown (once again) in public WHOIS for domains
> linuxmafia.com and unixmercenary.net.  I gather that this requires
> setting those fields to be "disclose on" at the registrar, as well.
<BIG SNIP>

Well ... forward progress at least.  I've certainly also seen worse,
on at least some registrar matters.

Anyway, I offer, by way of comparison ...
Gandi.net ...
What's the interface on that look like, about this dead simple:

[disable/enable toggle switch] Email address privacy

Hide email address in Gandi's public WHOIS database as well as the 
registry's.
We take care of forwarding email to your address. Learn more[1].
If you deactivate this option, you agree to your real email address 
being displayed in the public whois.


[disable/enable toggle switch] Personal data privacy

Hide personal data in Gandi's public WHOIS database.
Some extensions protect data at the registry level. See which ones[1].
If you deactivate the option, you agree to make all your data public. 
Learn more[1].

1. 
https://docs.gandi.net/en/domain_names/common_operations/whois_privacy.html

Basically a pair of items to optionally toggle, and a [SAVE] 
button/click or the like.

When I also look and compare, e.g. gandi.net and their rock solid 
competence and reliability to, e.g.
other registrars, and look at maybe a price difference of a buck or two 
or so per year ... I think how
much is my time (and peace of mind, comfort, security, etc.) worth ... 
and the decision is easy.

Likewise, let's see ... what registrar was it I was helping someone deal 
with last year ...
Ah yes ...
< Namecheap.com - sucky interface, and not so competent staff.  Ugh, 
2022
< and they still can't do IPv6 for glue records on their interface ...
< even though they have support tickets open to do that for more than a
< decade!  So, have to do support request for that ... ugh, really, in
< 2022 ... and they're not very competent about handing it at that - 
much
< of the information their support staff provides is incorrect ... ugh.

Yeah, what a pain/inconvenience/delay that was dealing with that
registrar on that one.  Sure, did get it done ... but caused
days of delay, and between myself and registrant, probably sucked
up a good 2 hours or more total human time getting all that squared 
away.
So, e.g. Namecheap.com ... is it really all that cheap when one
considers total operating costs - including what people's (e.g.
mine/yours/registrant's) time is worth?

And, by way of comparison, Gandi.net's interface for setting/changing IP
addreses of glue records:
Edit glue record
* Required fields
Enter the name of your record (without the domain):
ns0              .balug.org
Name (ex. ns1)

IP address(es)*
2001:470:1f05:19e::2
96.86.170.229
Please enter one IP address per line.
[Cancel] [Save]

That's basically it - the name is selected/added (or deleted) on
earlier page, then on this one, it's a text box that'll take multiple
lines (seems one can expand it relatively arbitrarily - though it likely
has some sane limits like maybe 7 or 13 lines or so, and perhaps 39
characters in width for longest fully qualified IPv6 notation?).
That's basically it - paste/type the data in - IPv4 and/or IPv6 IPs,
one per line, click [Save] and it's done (though I'm sure it must sanity
check the data, and likely throws an error and returns to same if it
detects a problem).
None of the have to open a support ticket for IPv6 of Namecheap.com
(IPv6 is a thing now ... has quite been for well over a decade now,
but at least as of last year Namecheap.com isn't there yet, and they
had outstanding request to fix that ... in their queue for over a
decade!).

Or, egad, even worse ... Joker.com (not the only problem there, but that
was the straw (or additional 2x4) that broke the camel's back:

< Joker.com
<   Need to change glue records?  They were absolutely completely 
utterly
< incompetent at that - not only could their interface not do it, but 
the
< information they provided was incorrect, and even with numerous 
support
< tickets, they couldn't manage to to it.  It wasn't that hard, change
< some IP address(es) on the glue record - they just couldn't manage to 
do
< it at all.

Or, something slightly more topical - GDPR and how various registrars
did and/or didn't handle that.  Gandi.net handled it highly well,
and in very timely manner.  Many registrars basically went and hid
the information from whois - with no option to opt out of that,
some only added the option later, or could only be done via a
manual support request or the like - some still don't offer the
option to opt out.  And ... gandi.net?  Well, handled it pretty
darn well.  Digging back through my email archives, I find:

> From: information at gandi.net
> Subject: [GANDI] Important information regarding GDPR
> Date: Thu, 24 May 2018 07:10:09 -0000
> 
> Dear Gandi customer,
> 
> The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), goes into effect this
> Friday, May 25, 2018. This new European regulation grants new rights to
> individuals related to the treatment of their personal data and 
> involves
> changes in the manner with which we collect, save, and share your data,
> notably your personal data as displayed in the "whois"
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHOIS).
> 
> As a consequence of this new regulation, we have modified our "whois"
> tool (the Gandi whois is available here: https://www.gandi.net/whois) 
> in
> order to obfuscate all personal data, especially the first and last 
> name
> of the owner of a domain name.
> 
> Generally, for generic TLDs (that is, those like .COM and .NET that are
> not country-code TLDs like .FR, or .UK for example), these changes will
> involve the following modifications:
> 
> When you have our (free) private Whois service activated:
> 
>  . For the owner (also called the "registrant") of a domain name: we
>    will hide the first and last name and instead we will display 
> "REDACTED
>    FOR PRIVACY". We will continue to display the name of the 
> organization
>    (company, association, etc.) and an anonymized alias email address
>    (produced by our free "anti-spam protection" service) however. We 
> will
>    also replace the postal address and telephone number with Gandi's
>    "private Whois" information.
> 
>  . For other domain contacts (admin, technical, billing): from here on
>    out, we will replace all personal information (first name, last 
> name,
>    company name, postal address, telephone number, and fax) with 
> "REDACTED
>    FOR PRIVACY" except for the anonymized alias email address our free
>    "anti-spam protection" service produces.
> 
> When you do not have the "protected Whois" option activated:
> 
>  . For the owner (also called the "registrant") of a domain name: we
>    will hide the first and last name and instead we will display 
> "REDACTED
>    FOR PRIVACY". We will continue to display the name of the 
> organization
>    (company, association, etc.) and an anonymized alias email address
>    (produced by our free "anti-spam protection" service) however. We 
> will
>    also replace the postal address and telephone number with "REDACTED 
> FOR
>    PRIVACY."
> 
>  . For other domain contacts (admin, technical, billing): from here on
>    out, we will replace all personal information (first name, last 
> name,
>    company name, postal address, telephone number, and fax) with 
> "REDACTED
>    FOR PRIVACY" except for the anonymized alias email address our free
>    "anti-spam protection" service produces.
> 
> For geographic TLDs (i.e. ccTLDs that correspond to individual country
> codes, like .FR and .UK), we will display the data provided by the
> registry when they conform to the GDPR requirements. Otherwise, we'll
> use the same information (see above) we'll be using for generic TLDs
> like .com and .net, until the registry in question makes the necessary
> changes.
> 
> We will also be providing you with the option to make your personal 
> data
> public from your Gandi control panel shortly.
> 
> At Gandi we have always taken data privacy very seriously. GDPR
> represents a major reform in that area. The updates that this reform
> will entail, especially those related to the Whois, bring us further
> down the path of improving the collection of personal data and its
> subsequent treatment in relation to domain name registration.
> 
> We will continue to keep you up to date on all the actions we take to
> conform with this new regulation and we are of course available to
> answer your questions, whatever they may be, on this subject.
> 
> If you'd like to reach us, please do not hesitate to contact our
> Customer care team:
> 
> http://help.gandi.net/
> 
> Thanks again for choosing Gandi for your domain name registration and
> management. We appreciate your continued business.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Gandi.net