TLD Registrar Wants To Charge $300 For .Pro Names 422
dipfan writes: "The commercialization of the net continues: RegistryPro, the ICANN-approved registrar of the new TLD name, wants to charge up to $300 for .Pro addresses - or about 10 times the price of a .com address. The company says it will restrict .Pro to doctors, lawyers or accountants: 'qualified professionals in good standing ... .pro will be a premium brand, enabling effective, secure communication between professionals and users for the first time in the history of the Internet.' The Washington Post quotes RegistryPro's chief executive: 'The goal of RegistryPro is to build out a gated community for professionals on the Internet.' Is this what happens when you give one company a license to print money?"
So I guess... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So I guess... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So I guess... (Score:3, Funny)
Just like the Lawyers.
Re:So I guess... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So I guess... (Score:3, Funny)
NewbieSpaz guesses:
Sure they will. Didn't you read the article? Just as long as the registrars can verify their credentials.
Uh-huh (Score:2, Funny)
10 times? (Score:2)
Let the market decide (Score:5, Insightful)
If people want to pay, that's fine. No one is forcing anyone to have a
I don't think there is really anything wrong with allowing people to pay for what is, in effect, a premium brand. (I won't be buying one.)
Re:Let the market decide (Score:2, Insightful)
The competition is the other domains. Yes,
Let the Service Providers decide (Score:3, Insightful)
Except that upper class boys club uses my network and my customers to make it of any value. As a Internet service provider, they need my subscribers eyeballs and my infrastructure for
Sounds like I want $10.00 per month per subscriber to enable
*scoove*
Re:Let the market decide (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would a professional in a third world country want an uncommon TLD that is just part of an *English* word? There are lots of other domain names possible, no-one at all is forced to use
And while $300 does seem a little stiff as domain registration fees go, its still pretty cheap compared to other means of creating name awareness - that's the equivalent of a couple of boxes of business cards, some letterhead, and a small sign over the door. Not a big ticket item for a company looking to improve their image.
Re:Let the market decide (Score:2)
The trouble is creating artificial scarcity of TLDs, and then for those few new ones that are created giving exclusive control to a private monopoly.
It would be better to just generate all sequences of ASCII characters, and auction each one (that isn't already taken) on Ebay as a TLD.
Or phase out the top-level TLDs altogether and switch to exclusively national ones -
Re:Let the market decide (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if that is how it would really turn out. If .pro did become popular, and then other countries started offering .pro.au and .pro.us then I bet the .pro people would sue over some perceived brand dilution.
Re:Let the market decide (Score:3, Insightful)
When are people gonna realize that DNS does NOT scale well to the business world?
When is a system going to arrive where joe schmoe just types in the name of the company he wants into his browser, it resolves to an ip, and away he goes. Or if there's multiple matches, the browser fetches the full company name, perhaps their market (eg "computers" or "vacuum cleaners"), a street address, and maybe a phone number. Joe user goes through the list, selects the company he wants, and again, away he goes.
No clever domains, this asinine "domain name" market dissapears, and every company gets represented the way they want to be.. by their very own, human readable name.
DNS for more than basic name->ip translation is a joke, and the fact an entire industry has sprung up about it only proves that.
DNS names should NOT be a method of brand recognition.
If it were a free market your argument would stand (Score:2, Insightful)
The problem is that the entire marketplace for domain names is unfree at several levels. ICANN enjoys an effective stranglehold on who is and is not allowed to join the domain name cartel and "compete." So while there are other names available, no one is free to start up a competing
The other TLDs (including some country-specific ones like
This does not a free market make, and until there is a truly free market (which would probably require the dismantling of ICANN to achieve) it is a fallacy, and a mistake, to assume that market forces will even be able to function in an unfettered fashion, with anything approaching the results one would normally expect and require from a market (lower prices and better quality, in short service of the public good).
Re:Let the market decide (Score:2, Funny)
Wow, you wouldn't want to be in Belgium, would you?
Re:Let the market decide (Score:5, Informative)
Spanish: Profesional
French: Professionnel
Italian: Professionista
Portuguese: Profissional
Re:Let the market decide (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Let the market decide (Score:3, Informative)
And sure, other languages (particularly Romance languages) have cognates of professional beginning with the same three letters, but I doubt that many of them commonly use pro as a short form of the word. (The only saving grace of annoying pedantry is precision. Without that, one is merely being annoying.) Let's acknowledge that
And I think it's great that Moldova and Tuvalu and the like got a great windfall from random chance giving them a good name. (Though I wish Cocos Islands had hit ClearChannel communications up for more money for
Re:Let the market decide (Score:4, Informative)
Let's see how well off these countries in the first place and weigh that with their TLD "fortune" (based off of figures from the CIA World Factbook):
- Moldova has just over 4 million people, has no significant natural mineral or hydrocarbon resources (it has to import 100% of its oil, natural gas, and coal) and their only significant export is agricultural, but much of their lands are contaminated by chemicals and pesticides while they were under Soviet rule. They import $761 million and export $500 million.
- Tonga has only around 100,000 people. They export mainly agriculture and fish, which accounts for 30% of their GDP, but their primary source of income is tourism. They export $8 million and import $69 million. They rely on external aid from Tongan communities overseas to make up for their trade deficit. Their inflation (7%) is higher than their GDP growth rate (5%). 100% of the electricity is generated from fossil fuels, which they probably import all of.
- Tuvalu: 11,000 people strong. Inflation higher than GDP growth. Import $4.4 million and export $165,000. Merchandise exports are falling.
For these countries, their TLD behaves much like a new natural resource that they can export. In the case of Tuvalu, their revenue is enhanced greatly by their exploits with theIn contrast, other countries are blessed with lucrative resources such as oil, gold and diamonds. Are all these fortunes unfair while other countries suffer with lack of their own resources they can export? Sure. But I fail to see how one can complain against Tuvalu for their .tv domain because of unfairness, when we see countries like Saudi Arabia using its wealth acquired from oil by spoiling their royal family members and leaving the rest of its citizens in poverty. Or countries like the various African countries blessed with some of the biggest diamond deposits in the world, yet their own citizens don't get to see any of the wealth, and are in fact killed by their own governments, all for the benefit of the diamond industry corporations. You can't say that the .tv or .to domains have resulted in the slaughter of children and women.
Good for Tuvalu, Moldova, and Tonga! I say. Let them take advantage of their tech resource to help them live better. They were smart enough to exploit it without harming anyone.
Re:Let the market decide (Score:2)
It sounds too strange or
And lastely, just who IS a professional? It's not like they have
What's the big deal? (Score:2)
In fact, I wish there was a little more of a barrier to entry, just think where spam would be if free e-mail sites didn't exist... (Yes, I know it would still be around, but at least they wouldn't be able to hide behind a throw away e-mail account.)
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:2)
If it weren't for
graspee
Ridiculous (Score:3, Insightful)
"enabling effective, secure communication between professionals and users for the first time in the history of the Internet"
Um, no, it won' t be secure nor effective by default. LOL, this is not the first time secure and effective communication has taken place between "pros and users". Who do these people think they are? God?
Re:Ridiculous (Score:2)
next time they will call them... (Score:2)
and of course those unbreakable will be
PRO - FIT! (Score:2, Funny)
Secure? (Score:2, Insightful)
Getting my .pro (Score:2, Funny)
.pro here i come.
In good standing ?? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm an engineer, and after 5 years of school, and 5 more being a professional i can't even apply for a
What is Good Standing ? why is it limited to those 3 professions ? who decided this ? and why ??
Re:In good standing ?? (Score:2)
Re:In good standing ?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Doctors and Lawyers have 8 year programs and such. I would agree with your argument if you had received a PhD and spent 9 years in school but you can't expect every guy who gets an engineering degree (and man, there's a lot of them) to be considered a "professional" in the good-ole-boy sense that they are pushing for.
Re:In good standing ?? (Score:3, Informative)
However, in BC and I believe most (if not all) of the other provinces, you must have been working as an engineer for at least four years before you can apply to get your P.Eng (Professional Engineer).
So we can't just call ourselves Professional Engineers upon graduation, it takes about nine years.
I don't think this is a whole lot different. Just a different set of hoops to jump through to be called a professional. I think engineers are just as professional as doctors, etc.
Of course there are a hell of a lot of other careers that would need to be included in that list as well.
On topic again,
What bothers me the most is how they're charging for the extension. Sure have criteria, that's fine and dandy, but to charge like that? It makes me think of the frequency spectrum, somehow the right to use parts of something that just exists can be sold and no one else is allowed to use it. I understand the theory but sometimes when I'm thinking the right way, it bothers me.
Re:In good standing ?? (Score:3, Informative)
Incidentally, in some countries in mainland Europe the word "engineer" has the same status as the word "doctor". You actually call yourself "Engineer Smith" the same way as you'd call an MD or PhD "Doctor Jones". To avoid this getting diluted, there's high standards for getting your "Engineer" title. And as a result of that, engineers have a high status in society and engineering is seen as a top career.
A junior doctor doesn't spend all those 8 years in school - most of it is spent working and learning how to apply the knowledge they've got from their course. Which is the same as any engineer does when they get out of school.
Grab.
Re:In good standing ?? (Score:2)
Re:In good standing ?? (Score:5, Insightful)
.phd (which I'd like to get, but first I have to get grad schools to accept me) .engr (the people who *really* run the world.)
The narrowly-defined "professionals in good standing" can have all theA license to print money? Hardly! (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't understand why so many fools think that domain names are still a gold rush. That was a bubble effect, and it's gone now. You can charge all you want. You'll get some uptake, but running a registry costs money, and I don't see how any of these new alternate domains are going to pull in enough $$ to make a huge net profit. People want
Big Deal, It would moderate itself.... (Score:3, Insightful)
People are comfortable with .com and you can have .pro, .whatever, and for the most part, .com is what people will be most inclined to trust and go to. If you're balking at the price, don't buy it--given the overwhelming (note: sarcasm) success of .tv you're throwing your money away if you do. Let it regulate and moderate itself and it'll just fade away.
Once again... (Score:2, Insightful)
Good plan (Score:3, Insightful)
Current # of porn sites: 17,623,620
Current # of
Do ya think someone might find $300 to be a fair trade for entering a brand new market for deception?
I am a little disturbed (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyhow, the idea of paying 300 bucks for a
Scott Adams had a term for people like this. In his section on Market Segmentation, Adams remarked that the "most important market segment is known as the 'Stupid Rich', so named because of their tendency to buy anything that's new regardless of cost or usefulness."
These
Disclaimer: most doctors, lawyers, and accountants are not all that stupid, except when it comes to internet technology.
No need to be disturbed (Score:2)
Re:true but... (Score:2)
Regardless of "professional" status, the mere idea of claiming one group as professional is disturbingly elitist, but not necessarily a bad business desicion.
Re:I am a little disturbed (Score:2)
I think that RegistryPro know that doctors, lawyers, and accountants are often status symbols within any given community who would pay the $300 to have something a cut above the rest just to keep up with Dr. Jones and his wife. I do not intend to pass judgement on ALL people in these professions, but they are constantly being target marketed for this sort of thing...
Re:I am a little disturbed (Score:2)
I think the point was that of certification - doctors, lawyers and accountants are the obvious groups of professionals that are certified for their profession.
What about teachers?
"Secure communcation" which isn't... (Score:3, Funny)
And of course, as we all know, everyone with a
Oh please...
Like
supply and demand (Score:4, Insightful)
Take me to your leader! (Score:3, Insightful)
Cool! A smart population! Where did you find them? These aren't the population that was smart enough to invest in the dot com hype, make Bill Gates rich, and love Britney Spears and the Spice Girls are they?
Just let me know where these smart people live and I'm there! Even if it's a gated community...
Price Gouging may increase competition. (Score:4, Interesting)
it will be before Microsoft (and possibly AOL) offer their own
competing DNS services. (Indeed MS could well have this in
mind as a future part of their
(Yes, I know about some of the other alternative registrars
but they are small and (unfortunately) don't have the brand
recognition for the non tech-savvy to use them.)
Perfectly suitable price (Score:5, Insightful)
it is completely understandable that the price is similar, as they are supposed to go into similar actions to verify the authentity of the registrant - or atleast this is what their marketing speach makes you think - that they only give this domain name for fully qualified registrants, this they can verify only by same procedures, as Thawte or Verisign. They sell different product, but need to do similar procedures to deliver the product
What is not understandable, is if their price for renewals is as high - as the work involved in renewal is minimal compared to first time granting. This is also the case with Thawte and Verisign, they charge way too much for the renewals too (Thawte, $300 Verisign $249 )
Gated Communities (Score:2, Interesting)
Let these asswipes manage their own root server. When the thing is 0wn3d by some teenager from Singapore, I'll be the first one in line to laugh.
Re:Gated Communities (Score:2)
I fail to see how this is "just like" "public infrastructure paid for with my taxes." This has nothing to do with your taxes - this is a commercial venture, not a public venture. If you are not involved, than it does not involve you.
I'm with the poster a few threads up who says "let the market decide." That's usually the best way to do things, and really, why not?
Go for it
Are they providing a warranty? (Score:2, Insightful)
Is it just me... (Score:2, Insightful)
Or does "gated community" have nothing but negative connotations?
I mean, unless you're one of those stuck-up, afraid-of-the-world, protect-my-possesions at-the-cost-of-community, keep-me-away-from-the unwashed-masses type of person who lives in one, I can't imagine anyone using these words in a good way...
-Russ
Re:Is it just me... (Score:3, Offtopic)
My girlfriend and I used to think that, too. We live in a fairly big city-- one of the top 10 in the US, although that's as specific as I want to get-- with its share of upper class and lower class neighborhoods. While we were students we lived in some pretty cruddy parts of town because that's all we could afford, and we laughed at those idiots in their snobby gated communities. Every day we talked about how much we loved the character of our neighborhood, and how sterile those other places are.
Then some things happened. A car got broken into on our street. We noticed the police coming at all hours of the day and night to break up the domestic fights at our neighbor's house. And, most importantly, we got out of school and got real jobs.
Next month we're closing on a house in an expensive, gated community. Last year it was cold and sterile; today it's clean and pleasant. I can't describe how nice it is not to overhear anybody else's screaming in the middle of the afternoon, and to see clean sidewalks instead of uncollected trash and cars up on blocks in various states of disassembly.
Does that make me an elitist? Maybe. If so, I can live with that.
All I'm saying is, your opinion may change before you realize it.
Re:Hello Moron (Score:3, Funny)
Economic discrimination? That's a new one--"BigCorp. refused to sell me their product just because I didn't have any money to pay them! I'm being discriminated against!"
And this type of discrimination usually takes into account all other types of discrimination including racism, sexism, elitism, etc.
Sexism? There probably is an all-male gated community somewhere, but I'm not sure sexism is the motivation...
I don't mind people being rich. I mind when they think they are special or better because of it.
So it's okay for people to be rich, as long as they don't buy things that other people can't afford.
--
Benjamin Coates
I have a strange feeling this won't work.... (Score:2, Interesting)
That said, it IS a good way of screwing laywers out of their hard-earned cash ($1000 for a letter??? I'll give you 4 for free!!!)
It can be argued.... (Score:2)
Re:It can be argued.... (Score:2)
Right, because the most reputable doctors and lawyers are the ones with the biggest ads in the yellow pages.
Oh, no, wait...
Whatever (Score:2)
Hmmmmm .TV part two? (Score:2, Interesting)
dot.whocares? (Score:2)
.pro or the famous cred-con? Scam within a scam. (Score:2, Interesting)
Professionals are the demographic who least need a web presence. Is this just a scam to attract other scam artists who want to present their own facade of credibility.
un déception par jour maintient le docteur parti
Compare it to Business Cards (Score:5, Interesting)
Reading this, I couldn't help but think of the lead character's obsession with business cards [mediacircus.net] in American Psycho. For professionals, a personal website today serves much of the role that business cards served in the 1980s.
Any website or businesscard will contain your contact information. But some people want more than that. They want to shell out extra money to make a statement. The extra $280 that they pay for a .Pro domain serves a purpose--it distinguishes them from the .Com rabble.
I hate to admite it, but what this company is doing with .Pro domains is innovative. If they market it well to people who want to make a statement, it'll sell. After all, we live in a world where loads of people spend $250 extra to get a gold plated nameplate on their Toyotas. Never underestimate the number of insecure people with money to spend.
Re:Compare it to Business Cards (Score:3, Funny)
Seperating stupid people from their money by offering to sell symbols of success is not innovative. Read "The Emperor's New Clothes" for prior art. 8*)
Re:Compare it to Business Cards (Score:2)
dot prom (Score:2)
They have no license to "print money". Where is the rush to sign up for this TLD? They will have to market the hell out of it (spend money) to get people to plunk down that kind of money. And then they are only marketing to a small group of people, so thier potential market share will be even smaller. It might, nay, probably will end up being a money loser.
Is it too soon to call it the "dot prom"?
~Sean
the sad part is (Score:2)
maybe I should start my own "non-accredited professional tutoring service"?
it'll be just like a business card- just because you have one, doesn't mean your legit.
anyone here ever see bordello of blood?:) dennis miller was a private eye with a business card... ONE business card.
Now announcing... (Score:2)
Seriously. I know the web has a lot of crap, but is this the best way to deal with it? The point should be educating people about how to find the high-quality services by comparing rates, credentials, standing among community organizations, etc. This essentially places the work in the hands of the
I guess my biggest concern is that someone can just buy the "premium" nametag as such. I mean, think about how you look for doctors, for example. You want to make damn sure they have "MD" after their names, but you want it to be backed up by a diploma on the wall, which at least ensures they've gone to an accreditted med school. This
OT: even more TLD's we have to cope with.. (Score:2)
Jeez, let me see I need to keep my
My company needs to keep
Am I getting stiffed here or what?
About the only thing left of the dot com bubble that hasn't burst are domain registras.
:-(
Bwwwahahahaaaa (Score:2)
Its nice to see greed still reigns supreme in the human spirit.
Doctors, Lawyers, "qualified professionals in good standing"........Well that eliminates about 75% of the doctors I know, and has to be at least 90% of the layers I know.
The funny thing is these supposed "qualified professionals" are in general, A) Just dumb enough to pay and B) Have the ego that will force them too.
Damm I wish I had thought of this one, its almost a perfect business model. Just like selling MP3's for Christian Music like LiquidAudio is doing, you know a Real honest christian isnt going to steal the MP3 when they can buy it , its gold,
This is too, between overinflated ego's of "Proffesionals" Layers, Doctors, etc...You cant loose.
Whats next a
This is funny beyond compare
Re:Bwwwahahahaaaa (Score:2)
I expect the whois results from RegistryPro to look like this:
Domain Name.......... registrypro.com
Creation Date........ 2000-02-19
Registration Date.... 2001-10-13
Expiry Date.......... 2003-02-19
Organisation Name.... Dogbert Ltd
Organisation Address. c/o Dogbert, Dogbert & Dogbert
Organisation Address. 6 Fitz William Square
Organisation Address. Dublin 2
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. IRELAND
I mean, this is so good that it HAS to be Dogbert's creation.
All in favour say "aye" (Score:2)
Lets get this straight, here is a company set up to fleece money out of ambulance chasers, audit dodgers and doctors (feel sorry for them being lumped in with the others). Brillant, and inspired, pray on their inate structures and desire for recognition. All those crappy adverts on US TV will now have "certified professional" because of their $300
Fleecing those whose business is to fleece others (and doctors so they don't spot its just aimed at them).
Just think those Anderson/Enron people will be certified as trustworthy
And people on Slashdot haven't worked out that this is in fact the first time the geeks get to fleece the suits.... shame on you.
Analogy + rhetorical question = (Score:2, Insightful)
No. If you give one company a license to print money, they will probably print money. However, if you give one company an artificial monopoly in a top-level domain name, they may pump-up prices due to lack of competition pressuring the price down.
hmm (Score:2)
Why can't they just be unregulated, like usenet?
Anyone have a theory or knowledge?
Also, why can't we have all unicode chars in the domain name ? This would rule for Japanese et al.
graspee
Localization,or"for the non-US residents of Earth" (Score:4, Interesting)
Surely just like the ".com" tld, this is going to cause problems for both consumers and suppliers of accounting / law services with a lack of localization (if anybody takes them up on the £300 offer of course).
I think that the tld's should be reserved for global things only, e.g. java.sun.com seems good, sun is a multinational company, and the same java is used the world over. (and as a counter-example, I've seen people looking for the U.K safeway chain caught out by www.safeway.com, using the store locator and being given an address in Florida).
It does however seem a good idea for governments (or some other authority) to try to set up "authoritive" sources of information that people are more aware of, and with suitable degrees of localization.
For example if I want accurate information on Tax or benifits in the U.K, I'll start of with a google search including "site: .gov.uk", as I'm pretty sure that they don't let just anybody have a .gov.uk domain, or for non-crackpot theories of relativity, limit to "site: .ac.uk" or "site: .edu", or to find a local doctor, something under ".nhs.uk" for the national health service seems a good bet.
Back to the ".pro" idea, this is already partially implemented with for example the ".co.uk", ".com", ".ltd.uk" domains, except that:
They're getting added services for the $300 (Score:2)
Who's 'qualified'? (Score:2, Funny)
And just how do they determine who is 'qualified' or 'in good standing'?
Oh, yeah.... I forgot about the $300.00 'proof'.
All this means for me... (Score:2)
appeal to their ego (Score:2)
It's not a bad idea, actually. Let's say you are a company and you get the right to manage a brand new TLD. Let's also say you want to get rich doing it, with minimal work.
I say, if you want to make money, appeal to the ego of a demographic with plenty of expendable income and generally limited computer know-how. If a semi-competent "professional" gets an email message suggesting that he/she may qualify for an elite, brand-new .pro domain, this professional might be duped into thinking that others in the profession will stare at his/her new website domain with awe. This professional will use the .pro domain to brag to the whole world that he/she is competent - much like getting a vanity license plate with "doctor" or "lawyer" on it.
IT professionals were probably left out of this club because we're much less likely to actually want a .pro domain (and probably already own a few .com's anyway). Why waste advertising money on a demographic that isn't going to buy the product? Also, we don't tend to fit in with the other professionals socially - if you saw a lineup comprised of lawyers, doctors, accountants, and one IT professional, you'd probably be able to pick the IT pro out quickly enough (if by no other means, by saying "all your base are" and wait for one to say "belong to us!"). We don't need/want to be in their club. We already know we're superior :)
This is the biggest load of crap I've ever seen. (Score:2)
If they are checking to see if .pro registrants are certified professionals, then they don't *need* 300$ as a barrier to non-professionals. They have one. They're checking. That's the barrier. In this case, .pro addresses should be slightly more expensive to pay for the identity check, but $300 is a lot.
If they arn't checking, then the 300$ isn't going to do anything to keep non-professionals from just paying up.
So the 300$ is either a totally redundant or completely useless barrier to entry, one or the other. Perhaps both.
Everyone knows that "someexistingproduct.pro" addresses will exist, anyway ... pepsi.pro will point to pepsi's legal representitives, of course.
Or maybe pepsi's home page which has a link to thier legal representitives. Or maybe pepsi will just sue like mad untill they get "pepsi.pro" free and clear with no restrictions.
Somebody come up with something better than DNS and TLD registration, please...
I'll pay 300$ for porn.pro and sex.pro :) (Score:2, Funny)
Proposal: Let anyone start a TLD (Score:2)
Caveat: off the top of my head, not sure its a good idea, but might be worth a discussion.
Why not let anyone be eligible for controlling a TLD? Then that person or entity may decide:
Now, what eligibility requirements do the TLD owners have? Options (pick a subset):
The endemic problem with TLD is that its always a monopoly held by someone, but we try to pretend that it isn't. Lets give up on pretending a TLD is not a monopoly and instead loosen up who gets a TLD, thereby providing competing TLD monopolies. So company X controls .pro and company Y controls .md; I'm Garver, MD. and I think .pro wants too much money, so I go with .md.
This may also help other issues such as free speech vs. kids hitting xxxbigtits.com. A TLD's requirement may be that all content is kid-safe, and they would decide what that means. It would be easy for software to filter on TLD. Parents would have the power they need to control their kids content without having to watch every link their kid follows.
Just an idea.
Once again, the ICANN process produces nothing... (Score:2, Interesting)
And so far, in every case, they've failed. .biz, .name, .pro, .museum (well, that _might_ make it, but not at the price their offering), all 4 of those are current failures in our eyes. and they're failures not because the company couldn't handle the registrations; they're failures because they suck, and we know it.
C.Eng C.Phys versus Standard BEng BSc degree (Score:2)
Personaly I think it is a crap idea open to abuse
However look at the number of "profesional bodies" here in the UK (Institue of Physics etc) who charge £40 (~US$60) a year plus, just so you can call yourself a "Chartered Physicist" or "Charterd Enginer"
In reality all this means in that the title holder has a BSc/BEng degree (These are regulated to a minumum standard anyway) with three or four years works experiance, and is stupid enough to cough up money to an unelected body every year.
Yet people still pay to be "chartered" and people still look for "charterd profesionals"
Stupid!
And that is why it will suceed
pr0n.pro (Score:2)
when will this stupid domain issue end? when are we going to push for a country-based management of domains? Let's make an example, Italy; I dream a world where all Italian companies MUST have the
dot-com domains made sense in a us-only internet, as it was a while ago.
I don't know why my neighbor can have his useless and not interesting domain name waste disk space on the root servers and waste bandwidth for MY connections!
uhm.. never mind.
[I wonder what could happen if I can put the deCSS algorithm as a domain name.. will the US government shut down the root servers for DMCA infringement?
Again, someone that doesn't know what DNS is... (Score:2)
It's not even a good use of a TLD, if they artificially limit it to a really small class of users. The idea, is to choose enough TLD's, that everyone can have as many as they need, while still allowing people to categorize them enough to make a little sense. In effect they are pulling a "two tld system" where one is
That's an exaggeration, but it makes the point, doesn't it? It's just not an efficient use of TLD's.
i hate TLDs (Score:2)
Gated Community? (Score:2)
Run for cover!!
Re:Gated Community? (Score:2)
They just wanted to use a metaphor that their overpaid potential customers could relate to in their real lives.
Lets milk them for their money (Score:2)
Global census data shows professionals are higher wage earners
What they are trying to say is "these rich bastards have money and we plan to stick em for $300 a pop"
Oxymoronic.. (Score:2)
So, RegistryPro wants to associate the .pro TLD with honesty, morality and trust?
You have to wonder why they're allowing lawyers to buy them -- but then again, at $300, they're the only people who would be prepared to splash out that much on a simple domain name!
Curate's egg, but more bad than good (Score:2)
(For those who can't be bothered reading the reference, i.e. 90% of /.) On the up side, they're partitioning the space sensibly. You're not buying a 2nd level domain (e.g. rogerborg.org), you're buying a third level, e.g. rogerborg.med.pro, so Mr Rogerborg the doctor and Ms Rogerborg the accountant can coexist without getting rogerborg.law.pro involved.
On the down side, they are extremely fuzzy.:
Basically, this looks like a TLD for people who want a TLD that costs $300. I'm actually fine with that from a market point of view, but - lacking details - their claims regarding validation of certification simply aren't very credible. I'll stick with my .org, thanks very much.
Printing worthless paper (Score:2)
Newbie Question (Score:2)
I keep hearing about ICANN screwing things up, but don't know the details of how this is happening.
My question is this:
Are there good technical reasons for not proliferating TLDs to the same extent as all the many entries in theOr is it just a political quagmire, where "other interests" are looking for ways to address their pet concerns, make extra money, etc.?
For a good laugh, see GreatDomains (Score:3, Informative)
Realistically, you can get almost any domain name not in use that isn't a major English word for less than $100 now. The domain business is over. Verisign's profits are off because hundreds of thousands of domains are being released when they come up for renewal, and the few people still into domain hoarding are using cheaper registrars.
.PRO? I don't think so (Score:3, Insightful)
Is Registrypro really going to track the licensing, accreditation, and disciplinary status of all the professionals who hold these names? If so, then how incompetent or fake do you need to be before they take away your
Someone else suggested TLDs that follow educational status,
Is this what happens when you give one company ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Um, YES!
Free markets are wonderful, up until a supplier gets a monopoly. Or collusion starts up. Then the lovely free market rapidly turns into a bloodsucking operation.
This, kids, is why we have "government". It's sort of this organization we collectively create to protect our national interests. It requires politicians and statesmen, not business majors, to review markets and issue controls.
We are now commencing a wonderful experiment in government by anti-government zealots. Watch what happens... inflation, monopoly, and control of markets by people who don't have our national interests at heart.
Oops (Score:3, Funny)
"Yes, my name is Seymour Edward Xavier, Ph.D. I'd like to register a
(If you don't get it, think about it for a minute.)
Re:What about prostitutes? (Score:4, Funny)