>>>All I know is that on Day 1 I want to be able to choose a registrar based on price.
<<<Please reconsider your statement. How many "bargain" registrars have you tried?
They have the *worst* customer service, lengthy response times (up to 2 weeks to
respond), and additional fees attached to every change you'll want to make. Try Namebargain.com
- a subsidiary of REGISTER.COM (gee, part of Afilias) - they had a $5.99 DN registration
special a month or so ago. Guess what, even now, with the price back at 9.99, you
can't change ANYTHING, including DNS info, without paying an *additional* $35 to
"upgrade" to REGISTER.COM. I believe this and other money-grabbing techniques will
be the practice of Afilias - if they are erroneously awarded ANY TLD.
>>>And I
know that on Day 1 I don't want to be unable to register a new domain because of
technical glitches due to the massive rush to register. Based on the information
in the applications, I don't believe that any of the applicants will be able to handle
the demand from a rush. At least with Afilias, they'll be using a round robin system
to deal with the demand and keep everything stable.<<<
If Afilias is awarded ANY
TLD, on Day 1 you won't be able to do anything but register. I wouldn't start developing
your site(s) since any good name you don't have trademarked is probably going to
be taken away from you by the end of the "sunrise" period. But you'll probably get
a refund - without interest.
>>>I guess you could call me a "generic Internet user."
I don't work for a registrar or applicant, and I'm don't have any investments in
them. All I want is choice, price competition and a solid system. If it takes a company
like Afilias, made up of the largest .com registrars, to offer that to me, I'm going
to support them.<<<
I hope that if you are the generic Internet user, you are just
a highly uninformed one. ***********If you do not see the magnitude of this decision,
and the choice of Afilias as the begining of the end of an era in the Internet, then
there is nothing I can say that will make sense to you.**********
What is occurring
right now with Afilias has been predicted since the beginning of ICANN's formation.
All of it: The abuse of absolute power by ICANN, the use of ICANN by wealthly groups
to control the Internet, etc.
Unless ICANN changes the entire tone and direction
of this TLD selection process, I simply don't see how educated human beings could
want them to continue to operate. If Afilias is chosen for ANY TLD, we, the people,
all people, any company, every company, lose any chance of EVER running a registry.
That may not be your goal, and it's certainly not mine, (to ever run a registry),
but the possibility of it is gone forever, nonetheless. The power stays with the
powerful, once and forever.
Make no mistake about it - this decision is a dividing
line in Internet history, and choosing Afilias is the wrong fork in the road.
--M
Lynn