TechCrunch.com Crunches Snapnames.com Calling The Domain Business “Dirty”

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Michael Arrington, wrote the story for TechCrunch on the Snapnames.com bidding scandal and the opening paragraph should give you an idea of how the rest of the story reads:

“”Anyone who doesn’t know how dirty the domain name business is, just doesn’t know the domain name business.””

Mr. Arrington says he a consultant to Pool.com years ago when he says it was pulling in over $1 Million dollars a month in revenue from expired domain auctions and concludes about Snapnames:

“It’s inexcusable that they let this happen, and didn’t catch it for years.”

This article has already brought out the domain haters which are quickly filling up the comment section of the TechCrunch post.

Moreover, Michael Arrington is defending his choice of words calling the domain business “dirty” throughout the comment section

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. JS says

    It’s hard to tell why Arrington describes the industry as dirty. He seems bitter for some unclear reason.

    Throughout the comments we can see how opaque the domain industry is to most outsiders. Most of the comments depicted domainers as teenagers trying to sell the michael jackson junk domains on ebay.

    What struck me the most is the following comment : “Yep that really annoys me when you go to a site and all it is is google ads. They should really delete those instantly.” Aren’t these people the reason why parking exists in the first place ?

  2. owen frager says

    Seems ironic that a Snap Names ad is adjacent to this form.
    Arrington has used the words “organized crime” to describe the domain business back in the day, in a very public argument with a famous domainer- then he went zip lock on the mouth.
    I think this is small stuff compared to the PPC shaving and theft that eventually will come out.

  4. Tim Davids says

    agree Owen…I posted this on DNF today.

    “this guy was stupid but it’s the smart people that work for (or own) these companies that worry me”

  5. MHB says

    Owen

    Right all ads are handled by Adam and I’m responsible for the content and I tell it like it is regardless of the dollars involved

  9. Rob Sequin says

    Arrington said he “ran” Pool.com and it was a pretty scumming company back then but I’m sure he never did anything “dirty”.

    What a jerk!

  10. Rob Sequin says

    TechCrunch idiots are beating the hell out of the domain industry with their stupid, uneducated comments.

    Frank left a comment for Arrington:

    Michael. You have a very big microphone so you can say what you want here and the informed (and sometimes uninformed) masses can lap it up. But calling the entire “domain industry” dirty, is quite simply a stretch. Firstly, in this instance it seems to have policed itself. The supposed bad guy (who has not told his side of the story btw) was outed and the parent company offered refunds to all participants (5 figures in my case). Try finding an auction on this planet that doesn’t have insider bidding, primping, competitive-bid-ups etc. My wife and I collect antiques and have had executives at sterling plated auction houses concede that it’s impossible to stamp out the shill bidding which they know goes on. I suppose it just feels a little icky you dumping on everything around this biz when you were once so close to it and it so enriched you. Nobody hates you BUT everyone in America knows somebody who has sold a domain name for a profit. All those entrepreneurs constitute a part of the industry you are dumping on. So you coming out with your swagger tarring the etire space with same brush just feels yucky. Do you understand my (and other’s) view?

    and got this in return from some anonymous joe that didn’t want to link to his site… if he even has one:

    joe – November 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm PST

    Frank,

    You picked up an expired name that I wanted so I had to buy it from you…just a couple months after you picked it up off the drop list. You refused to acknowlege my offer until it reached $20,000!!! I had to pay it even though I knew you only paid a couple hundred for the expired domain. To a layman that is dirty, to a domainer it is business, to the man upstairs its called greed.

    Still trying to pay that off, hope you bought a nice piece of sterling silver with that money. I’m sure its not DIRTY.

    Hope the weather is nice in the Cayman Islands.

    END

    So, I guess all us greedy cybersquatters are going to have to play in our own sandbox for now. Thanks Halvarez and thanks Snapnames for not being able to catch Halvarez after how many years and auctions?

  11. MHB says

    Rob

    Nice pick up on the comment from Frank

    Thanks for reporting it here.

    Frank of course is right.

    You think things are better on mainstream auction houses.

    No.

    This is an instance why companies are reluctant to come clean and fix their messes.

    Those that are brave enough to do so, wind up with the spin that TechCrunch is giving to Oversee.

    This is why most company’s cover up their messes and hope they just go away.

  12. MHB says

    Rob

    Everyone should also note Frank’s response to the buyer of his domain:

    “”How about you sell it back to me? Will it be a 100k or 200 now?

    “”When you use that name to build the next big Wall Street IPO and my kids buy your over-inflated stock so you can get a second yacht to waterski behind I’ll be certain to drop you a similar note. Bottom line is you should have bid more at auction, or found a different name. The weather in Grand Cayman was hot and sunny today. About 88 with a slight chance of sunburn around noon.”””

  13. 100 Domains Club says

    .

    Michael Arrington is developing a Linux based low cost PC tablet called “CrunchPad” that he hope to mass produce and sell soon

    well, I doubt such a product will never hit the shops since there already are (or coming soon) dozens PC tablets based on ARM, Intel, Linux, Windows 7, XP, Android or the upcoming Chrome OS

    but, if he will succeed to become the “new Steven Jobs” and the CrunchPad the “new iComputer” is very probable that he can’t continue to follow and write on TechCrunch, or, maybe, he may NEED to SELL his blog and/or the (very valuable) TechCrunch domains…

    well, if that will happens, and he’ll sell his sites/domains for (e.g.) 200 million dollars… I’m SURE that he will no longer think about the domain’s market as “DIRTY”… 🙂

    .

  14. 100 Domains Club says

    post edit:

    but, if he will succeed to become the “new Steve Jobs” and the CrunchPad the “new iComputer”, it’s very probable that he’ll not have enough time to follow (and write on) TechCrunch, or, maybe, that he will NEED to SELL his blog and/or the (very valuable) TechCrunch domains to FIND ENOUGH FUNDS to start his iComputer company…

    .

  15. 100 Domains Club says

    post edit:

    but, if he will succeed to become the “new Steve Jobs” and the CrunchPad the “new iComputer”, it’s very probable that he’ll not have enough time to follow (and write on) TechCrunch, or, maybe, that he will NEED to SELL his blog and/or the (very valuable) TechCrunch domains to FIND ENOUGH FUNDS to start his iComputer company…

    .
    Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!

  17. Dan says

    Well it looks like I struck a chord with with TechCrunch, as they have removed my comments. I simply stated what I felt after reading the post.

    It’s these kinds of attack that we in domaining are under and it’s being exploited at every bad news that comes out.

    We need to fight fire with fire!

    Here is the comment I posted.

    ” Michael,

    This type of reporting is nothing sensationalism.

    Knowing the domaining industry you expected this type of shock value.

    I’m a bit surprised TechCrunch would even stoop this low, as many of their readers are domain investors.

    It leads me to believe that perhaps this publication is being paid to report in this way.”

  18. pitbullstew says

    NOT DIRTY-low down no good dirty rotten scum bags I say! Disgusting unethical do nothing for the money the rest of us earned the old fashioned way so snapnames could let this happen under theri very noses at our collective expense?
    Laughing all the way to the bank in the Porsche?