A decade ago it was the scandal that rocked the domain industry, the Snapnames Halvarez bidding scandal.
Mike wrote The 5 Most Surprising Things That Came Out Of The SnapNames Scandal
Michael Arrington wrote at TechCrunch: SnapNames: Apologies Shouldn’t Be Conditional, Especially When You Steal From Customers
Mike again posted 12,000 Auctions, 8,900 Bidders and 350,000 Bids: We Conclude Halvarez Was The Only Shill Bidder At Snapnames
In 2017 Mike reflected back to his Snapnames commentary when NameJet was having it’s own bidding problems.
The comments had a fair bit of back and forth from the likes of Mike, John Berryhill and Rick Schwartz.
So a decade later what are your thoughts on the state of the domain aftermarket and it’s participants?
we could use a Halvarez in 2019 to goose prices.
Very interesting and worth remembering.
But also keep in mind that there are scandals playing out in real-time this past week and The Domains hasn’t covered them. The Dot org acquisition by private equity following removal of price constraints impacts millions of registrants. That is very questionable. And now, the very real prospect of much higher reg and renewal fees, withholding of premium inventory by the registry, and premium reg and renewal fees on those higher value domains. That same scenario is likely coming to dot Com soon.
So, isn’t it worth tuning in to what is going on now and try to influence the outcome in a direction that is more beneficial to the blog’s readers.
No you think a blog is changing PIR being sold? Are you 10? This is big business baby and the registries and ICANN don’t care what Silver, Berkens or Allemann think. But it’s cute you think they do.
The Berryhill vs Schwartz stuff was well worth reading that old post. Thank you for posting.
The HD bot nonsense makes me just as mad as halvarez to be honest with you.
Ahh the golden age of domaining, now it’s just new gtlds are innovation vs new gtlds suck. GoDaddy and Verisign will eventually own the whole industry, with Rob Monster taking their scraps.
I remember this clearly, think I was offered $20 by snapnames to settle. Ahhhh what $20 could buy in 2009, memories. Candy was 5 cents, cars were $200, houses $3500…
Seriously though, never followed up on what happened to that guy, any update on his current career choices? Shocked he never saw a prison cell.
Year 2009 , we were young and stupid and now we are old and still stupid…never learn from the new dot whatever.
The “Wild West” of domaining has been carefully and systematically modified to a largely Google controlled internet, with ongoing implications for further Orwellian domination.
” Regarding .New domain name registrations; at first Google plans to operate a Limited Registration Period under ICANN rules, during which only hand-vetted registrants will be able to grab domains. ”
” What it means is that registrants will have to commit to use their .new domains in much the same way as Google itself is using its own batch of proof-of-concept names.”
GOOGLE, not monster fraud by domainers is the REAL THREAT!
Google, through ICANN has fundamentally changed domaining with ngtlds and along with killing, or at least seriously limiting domain parking and killing organic search, is the REAL THREAT!
The problem is that Google is too big, and too much control over the internet now.
Google dictates what and very soon who gets to play.
There were a LOT of SCUM involved in this scandal and they all got away with it!
Domainers got hosed and had $$$ STOLEN from them!
Most still in the industry like nothing happened.
But I don’t forget these THIEVES just because people like them or protect them!
When people ask me in private for my opinion on them, I UNLOAD!
NFG!
#CrimeSyndicate
i heard in the early days TRAFFIC shows you were involed shill bidding…
https://dsad.com/should-rick-schwartz-be-able-to-bid-on-domains-at-his-own-auction/
Shaney from DSAD doesn’t know anything and writes nonsense.
Thanks for always being true/consistent throughout the yrs, and never being afraid to voice your opinion
Despite all of the bluster about rejecting settling with Oversee, exactly two civil lawsuits were filed in federal court over this affair:
1. Stewart Resmer v. Oversee.net, Inc. (2:09-cv-08497), District Court, C.D. California – This was a proposed class action suit that was filed on November 18, 2009, and dismissed three months later on February 25, 2010. This document filed by Oversee is interesting:
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.459347.21.1.pdf
2. Oversee.net v. Brady (3:10-cv-00518), District Court, D. Oregon – This was Oversee’s own suit against Nelson Brady, which was filed in May 2010 and settled in October 2010:
https://www.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2010/10/snapnames_settles_lawsuit_agai.html