Suhail, will you please continue to check the whois for confirmation that your six
.info names were in fact registered during the quiet period - Bob may be right in
that you may have been receiving confirmation of preregistration or queuing - although
if you have already paid your prereg and the mail says "registered" I would be despairing
too.If it is as Bob has suggested - then it raises a concern of the frustration
I have had with emailed advice from some registrars which are plain confusing - which
parallels the intentional tricks of some registrar's web sites which I am sure are
intentionally confusing.
How many of you encountered the registrars whose sites
never mentioned whether they were multiple or single request queuing? They
had a page which said the name was available in a manner similar to the one-name-once-only
sites, or, you provided your card detail and had to confirm an order before you had
confirmation of availability of a name.
When I encountered such scam business practice
or was in doubt, I cursed the registrar and never returned to the site. Months
ago I had the decided impression there were registrars taking .info Landrush preregistrations
who never planned to be in business after the rollout was over, because the way they
treated prospective customers ensured that very few if any would return.
Now to
my point - while some registrars had clear, accurate, current and easy to navigate
sites, others were a complete and utter abomination.
I think for the good of the
paying customer, ICANN via the relevant registry has to set and maintain appropriate
standards in the websites of registrars.
I know there will be arguments from the
likes of ICANN and the registries that they don't want to impose too many regulations
on honest folk going about their business - but my experience during the .info rollout
indicates that there are some which are scamsters and their web sites are traps for
both the novice and experienced alike.
There are regulations against sharp or deceptive
practice in every other field of business - why not in the registrar business.
The honest and professional registrars have nothing to fear, while the implementation
of an effective code of best practice would shake the monkeys from the trees that
the industry and the public don't need.
I think that together with Bob's great
proposal for the formulation of the top ten questions for investigation - posters
may wish to consider a list of those things we would like to see emerge from an investigation
which would make the domain world a safer place for the average Internet user.