6 ms·

I might get downvoted for this, but here's a story. We just finished picking a brand name, after 2-3 months of intensive work. Being fond of .io's I naivly goo

by jondot 10y ago

I might get downvoted for this, but here's a story. We just finished picking a brand name, after 2-3 months of intensive work. Being fond of .io's I naivly googled my <brandname>.io, and found that park.io owns it - this happened last week. I immediately sent an email to inquire. We considered the price, and then when I came to buy it today, a week after, the price is tripled. This was a fixed price domain, NOT bid. That's clever price manipulation. Detect when someone wants something, let it sit, and when they're ready - triple the price. Maybe that's a hint for how he made so much money? In any way we'll just do the get<brandname>.io or something like this, as a compromise. Thanks for being a douche, park.io! And then, magically, this is now on HN :)

ca98am79 10y ago
Hi sorry this happened - most likely it is owned by a park.io user and they can set the price to whatever they want. Feel free to reach out support@park.io and I will see if I can help
- icantdrive55 10y ago
  Since you're here, maybe you could help us all understand your business better? 1. You are not getting .io names at a discount from nic.io? No insider deals/information? 2. The Only advantage you have at acquiring an expired domain names at nic.io is your propriatiatry program. A program that is just faster at buying these expiring domains--just faster than your competition? 3. You only know when a .io domain name is due to expire is by looking at the same WHOSIS info we look at? 4. I ask these questions because so many of these domain buying services are just to magical. We tend assume the worst.
  - ca98am79 10y ago
    Thanks for thinking park.io is magical! :) We have no special advantage other than our knowledge and technology
    - icantdrive55 10y ago
      Thanks--
  - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    I'm guessing it works like stock market bids from high-frequency traders? They've bought up the closest server they can to the bid receiving server at the registrar and/or they send their purchase request before the domain becomes available -- accounting for the network latency -- so that their bid gets there at the exact millisecond that the domain drops. My personal domain drops at 2018-0X-0YT00:00:00Z, then IIRC it takes 75 days for it to be cleared. So presumably if your request for that domain arrives at 1 microsecond after midnight on that date then you "win" it. Surely there's no secret sauce beyond that?
mzarate06 10y ago
That's clever price manipulation. Detect when someone wants something ... triple the price. Some aspects are different, but reminds me of a similar tactic Network Solutions pulled back in 2008 wrt to listening to domain name searches then raising their price: https://techcrunch.com/2008/01/10/network-solutions-using-questionable-tactic-to-sell-more-domain-names/ https://techcrunch.com/2008/01/10/network-solutions-using-qu...
opendomain 10y ago
This looks like cybersquatting and may be illegal. Please note: I said it MAY be illegal. There are very special rules when it comes to domains. Some people have a legitimate reason for 'holding' a domain. On quick glance, this looks like a legitimate concern. I am the founder of OpenDomain and we fight cybersquatting - contact me if anyone needs help with domain issues like this.
- ilostmykeys 10y ago
  Yeah this guy (park.io) is getting free PR and manipulating everyone here. It's obvious that he is marketing himself in this thread and calls himself a hacker. The funny part is he has very little hacker credibility if he hasn't been able to get his server up all day. A big no no is to steal domains that just lapsed on their registration by mere seconds or minutes and then engage in price gouging via a scheme that makes Park.io not legally responsible (because well it's the owner of the domain who had purchased it via Park.io who is doing it, and do we really know that it's that owner or park.io itself hiding behind a some fake user account?) Anyway, the idea of stealing domains and then ripping off people who are interested in them is really super amoral and stinky. People should do good in the world, not make it a worse place , and then bate others with how much they make for sake of publicity and more money. B.S. business model.
  - joelrunyon 10y ago
    If you read the article or the process about how domains expire, they don't actually get re-released until close to 75 days AFTER the domain actually expires. If you forgot to renew the lease on your apartment and 75 days later, someone else rented it, it might suck or be annoying, but you'd still have to move. The easy fix? Set everything to auto-renew & have a backup credit card on file.
    - infocollector 10y ago
      Recently I let a domain expire. I found out, that in those 75 days, I had to pay $180 instead of $20 for the same domain (namecheap). So, its not the same as leasing an apartment - I think.
edoceo 10y ago
That's how ticket scalping works.
z3t4 10y ago
If you buy a domain from a squatter, you encourage domain squatting. Domains are not that important as most browsers send the url to a search engine. So just register brand-name.com instead of brandname.com. Or pick another TLD.
- joelrunyon 10y ago
  MOZ would disagree with you https://moz.com/community/q/hyphens-in-domain-name https://moz.com/community/q/hyphens-in-domain-name edit: here's a better article actually on it - https://moz.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-domain-name-whiteboard-friday https://moz.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-domain-name-whiteboard-...
- flashman 10y ago
  In 2009 I registered a hyphenless version of a Scientology domain name, and scored tens of thousands of visitors, who I rickrolled. I would never, ever recommend settling for a hyphenated domain name.
- Mattasher 10y ago
  This reads like: If you buy good real estate from someone who has a parking lot, you are encouraging people to buy good real estate. Better to buy a swamp an hour out of town and build your business there.
  - z3t4 10y ago
    More like someone occupying lots of parking spots outside the mall, then charging many times the price for you to park there. Or take up many seats in public transportation, then charge people extra to sit, or hold seats until their friends come aboard.
    - pavel_lishin 10y ago
      Buys up deeds from people who missed paying their mortgage by a day, evicts the owners, offers to sell it to them - or anyone - at triple the price.

by jondot 10y ago

ca98am79 10y ago

Hi sorry this happened - most likely it is owned by a park.io user and they can set the price to whatever they want. Feel free to reach out support@park.io and I will see if I can help

icantdrive55 10y ago
Since you're here, maybe you could help us all understand your business better? 1. You are not getting .io names at a discount from nic.io? No insider deals/information? 2. The Only advantage you have at acquiring an expired domain names at nic.io is your propriatiatry program. A program that is just faster at buying these expiring domains--just faster than your competition? 3. You only know when a .io domain name is due to expire is by looking at the same WHOSIS info we look at? 4. I ask these questions because so many of these domain buying services are just to magical. We tend assume the worst.
- ca98am79 10y ago
  Thanks for thinking park.io is magical! :) We have no special advantage other than our knowledge and technology
  - icantdrive55 10y ago
    Thanks--
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  I'm guessing it works like stock market bids from high-frequency traders? They've bought up the closest server they can to the bid receiving server at the registrar and/or they send their purchase request before the domain becomes available -- accounting for the network latency -- so that their bid gets there at the exact millisecond that the domain drops. My personal domain drops at 2018-0X-0YT00:00:00Z, then IIRC it takes 75 days for it to be cleared. So presumably if your request for that domain arrives at 1 microsecond after midnight on that date then you "win" it. Surely there's no secret sauce beyond that?

mzarate06 10y ago

That's clever price manipulation. Detect when someone wants something ... triple the price. Some aspects are different, but reminds me of a similar tactic Network Solutions pulled back in 2008 wrt to listening to domain name searches then raising their price: https://techcrunch.com/2008/01/10/network-solutions-using-questionable-tactic-to-sell-more-domain-names/ https://techcrunch.com/2008/01/10/network-solutions-using-qu...

opendomain 10y ago

This looks like cybersquatting and may be illegal. Please note: I said it MAY be illegal. There are very special rules when it comes to domains. Some people have a legitimate reason for 'holding' a domain. On quick glance, this looks like a legitimate concern. I am the founder of OpenDomain and we fight cybersquatting - contact me if anyone needs help with domain issues like this.

ilostmykeys 10y ago
Yeah this guy (park.io) is getting free PR and manipulating everyone here. It's obvious that he is marketing himself in this thread and calls himself a hacker. The funny part is he has very little hacker credibility if he hasn't been able to get his server up all day. A big no no is to steal domains that just lapsed on their registration by mere seconds or minutes and then engage in price gouging via a scheme that makes Park.io not legally responsible (because well it's the owner of the domain who had purchased it via Park.io who is doing it, and do we really know that it's that owner or park.io itself hiding behind a some fake user account?) Anyway, the idea of stealing domains and then ripping off people who are interested in them is really super amoral and stinky. People should do good in the world, not make it a worse place , and then bate others with how much they make for sake of publicity and more money. B.S. business model.
- joelrunyon 10y ago
  If you read the article or the process about how domains expire, they don't actually get re-released until close to 75 days AFTER the domain actually expires. If you forgot to renew the lease on your apartment and 75 days later, someone else rented it, it might suck or be annoying, but you'd still have to move. The easy fix? Set everything to auto-renew & have a backup credit card on file.
  - infocollector 10y ago
    Recently I let a domain expire. I found out, that in those 75 days, I had to pay $180 instead of $20 for the same domain (namecheap). So, its not the same as leasing an apartment - I think.

edoceo 10y ago

That's how ticket scalping works.

z3t4 10y ago

If you buy a domain from a squatter, you encourage domain squatting. Domains are not that important as most browsers send the url to a search engine. So just register brand-name.com instead of brandname.com. Or pick another TLD.

joelrunyon 10y ago
MOZ would disagree with you https://moz.com/community/q/hyphens-in-domain-name https://moz.com/community/q/hyphens-in-domain-name edit: here's a better article actually on it - https://moz.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-domain-name-whiteboard-friday https://moz.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-domain-name-whiteboard-...
flashman 10y ago
In 2009 I registered a hyphenless version of a Scientology domain name, and scored tens of thousands of visitors, who I rickrolled. I would never, ever recommend settling for a hyphenated domain name.
Mattasher 10y ago
This reads like: If you buy good real estate from someone who has a parking lot, you are encouraging people to buy good real estate. Better to buy a swamp an hour out of town and build your business there.
- z3t4 10y ago
  More like someone occupying lots of parking spots outside the mall, then charging many times the price for you to park there. Or take up many seats in public transportation, then charge people extra to sit, or hold seats until their friends come aboard.
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    Buys up deeds from people who missed paying their mortgage by a day, evicts the owners, offers to sell it to them - or anyone - at triple the price.