[sf-lug] renewed: Re: sf-lug.com - renew in 2018? (or not?)

[Rick Moen]

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

> Changing registrars generally also involves some cost (e.g. typically
> something around $10.00 USD per domain) to transfer domain.

Not _really_.  I've never heard of a 'transfer fee' as such:  Instead,
you pay a fee that buys you a one-year addition to the existing runtime
of your domain.  That is, the new registrar gives you time credit for
the unexpired domain runtime at your incumbent registrar and adds a year
to it.  The time credit is intended as an incentive to transfer, and the
fee buys a one-year extension.

Thus, it's simply not true that you 'lose' $10 in this transaction.

For commercially understandable (if annoying) reasons, most registrars
also significantly discount a domain's first-year registration.  This
results, in effect, in loyal customers subsidising switching.

> Also, I believe joker.com allows anyone to pay to renew any non-expired
> domain (or at least .com domains).  That's not necessarily the case with
> other registrars (though many(/most?) allow that.

I've been unpleasantly surprised by how many do not -- and you often
find this out in at worst possible time.

> Want to keep sf-lug.com?

Seems like a waste, to me, unless the perceived value lies merely in
preventing someone else from registering and using it.  I'm a little
doubtful that domain names with hyphens in them are that attractive for
domain squatting, though.



BTW, I was unaware of the 2018 continuation of this thread for a long
time, because you launched it by replying to a June 2017 posting.  For
me and other people using threaded MUAs, all this traffic was waaaaay 
down deep in my mailing lists mbox -- messages #1816 and later.

For that reason, I suggest launching new threads in the future rather
than reviving ones that have been dead for a year.