[sf-lug] More on the whois data from March (and domain lifecycle)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

> Yes, that's quite what I recall seeing for at least the most critical
> email addresses in the whois data (registrant and/or admin).  The data
> did also have Jim's name on it, may or may not have had his email in some
> of the other email address fields, but not for registrant and/or admin.

Names are nice, but it's the e-mail address that actually matters, as to
receiving timely critical notices such as 'You are x days away from expiration.'

> I did also notice at the time that it had apparently been renewed, with
> expiration of 2016-07-02 - but it at least did have Jim's name on it, and
> I think it also had "renewal period" or something like that on status -
> which would usually be the case for something around 30 to 60 days (I forget
> exactly how long) after a domain is renewed.

Status of 'Renewal period' (or similar) strongly suggests _not_ an
actual renewal, but rather a registrar playing expiration-time games.

[snip]
> Anyway, wee bit more detail and hopefully at least partial correction (and
> sorry if I don't have all the terminology precisely correct - doing this
> from single source wetware extraction) ... essentially once domain hits
> initial expiration - practice can vary by registrars, and also different
> TLDs may have slightly different policies/procedures/regulations, etc.,
> but what happens in most cases with most registrars and most TLDs,
> if customer/registrant doesn't renew it, registrar does ... but it's a funky
> kind'a conditional renewal.  Registrar has to pay to renew it ... kind of.
> But ... I forget if they don't have to pay right away, or they can reverse it
> later after the fact and then not have to pay, or get refunded.  In either
> case, the registrar does this (presuming customer/registrant didn't renew).
> Then, essentially, the registrar gets to leverage their cash cow.  They get
> an essentially "free ride" for a while - they've got it exclusively, and can
> sell it off to the highest bidder, or stuff like that, or charge the
> customer / earlier registrant ransom, er, uhm, "restoral" fees to get it
> back ... there's some regulations around this, but basically the
> registrar is handed a nice big fat advantage over the domain, which they all
> (or most all) take advantage of.
[snip]

Yes, this is the sort of thing I was trying to allude to without getting
into lots of detail not immediately relevant to the present situation.
E.g., NetSol is one of the registrars with an ethically questionable
side-business of auctioning off expired domains.  I have views on that, 
that I will not vent in full, partially because I don't want to court a
defamation lawsuit.  Suffice it to say, I have particular reasons to 
specifically eschew certain registrars because of specific business
practices they are known to indulge.

The present case of sf-lug.com/org are domains newly expired that NetSol 
is highly likely to offer to restore at this early stage after
expiration (5 days) with either no surchage above their regular slightly
extortionate annual renewal fee or with only a modest surcharge.  Wait
any significant number of days, and it's likely to be either completely
unavailable for renewal or only with a whopping fee.


> if nobody jumps at the domain, it gets released after
> some time (60 days? 90 days?  95 days?  I forget exactly, and also varies by
> TLD and registrar).

The total is always 75 days.

How that gets divided up into subperiods, e.g., grace period without
extra fee, then 'redemption period' where you pay a lot more, then
preparing to drop into the public pool (typically the final five days)
differs by registrar.

Often the grace period is 30 days.  Sometimes 40.  Sometimes 35.  But
the total until the drop to the public pool is always 75.


Anyway, look, I've spoken repeatedly, for years, about the virtue of
keeping any domain one cares about a long distance away from expiration
(preferably years).  There are always people who choose not to listen. 
Now, y'all know the general shape of what tends to happen when people
ignore that advice.

Me, I try to learn from observing catastrophe without having to
experience it personally.  I hope some folks are learning from this.