I think I saw you at NamesCon but didn’t get a chance to meet.
I did read those comments, and whilst it was an official Verisign post that was likely approved by someone else before publishing, I don’t think her comments reflect Verisign staff as a whole since I’ve spoken to a couple of people at Verisign who were very receptive and fascinating to talk to.
It’s unfortunate that a public figure such as Jeannie would choose to air these views, especially with those views being aired just a day or two after Verisign was given permission to raise .com prices.
It’s also a sobering thought that such a powerful company would sanction an official blog post calling the likes of Frank Schilling (who owns hundreds of thousands of .com names) a hoarder!
Domain investment is a legitimate venture that Verisign has indirectly profited from for many years. There are, of course, cases of cybersquatting that the industry should (and usually do) educate against.
I hope that there are no adverse reactions from higher up in Verisign in the wake of this.
James, thanks for your response. So you're the UKGUY
....btw, ukguy.com isn't available to register, but UKGUY.uk is
As for Frank Schilling of Uniregistry holding
"Hundreds of Thousands of .com names" and selling off just 2% of his inventory annually, if that isn't the perfect definition of
hoarding I don't know what is. I don't necessarily blame Frank, but rather the
"NATURE OF THE BEAST", the beast being the domain industry. And as for
"cybersquatting", I barely knew what that was when two members of NP
falsely accused me of cybersquatting due to a case of mistaken identity. I've already named names here, but one of them is a lawyer from Philadelphia.
James, I own a domain that I just hand registered in February
DomainEthics.com. You can check HosterStats to see that it had been continually registered for almost 20 years until it was just dropped in December 2018.....well, I own it now much to the chagrin of critics who have been stalking, harassing and berating me for the last 12 months. James, can you possibly imagine why I may have searched for the name "Domain Ethics"? Just for the record, I know a little about "ethics" in that I've been chairman of the Ethics Awards committee for the Virginia Beach Kiwanis Club where we give special recognition to kids from K-12 deserving of the award. Does this make me an expert on ethics? NO, remember I said I know "a little about ethics".
Finally, it wasn't until I had a run in with a local registry/registrar that I had actually done a favor for that led me to search for and register the name
DomainEthics.com. Fortunately for me I have a pretty good reputation in my hometown, and I'm outspoken enough that I'm developing a
controversial reputation in the domain industry. btw, Verisign also happens to be headquartered in the state of Virginia, and they only confirmed my first impressions and suspicions about the domain industry.
There's a lot more to come from this tenacious but charming Bulldog James. Thanks for allowing me to post and comment