2 ms·

How does one even get a list of dropped domains to populate this database? This is something I really have no knowledge about.

memset 6y ago
Have built a domain registrar. The industry term for this business is called “drop catching” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_drop_catching https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_drop_catching Domain registries provide registrars with reports of domains which are set to expire, and if you’re not a registrar yourself, you can often purchase these lists on a secondary market or use APIs built upon serving this information. But even if you don’t have that list, you can do a Whois search for any domain and know its expiration. You could build your own database! Note that most domains have a grace period (eg, 30 days) where the original owner can renew even after it has expired. So it’s not like you’d be able to steal someone’s domain just because of a clerical error.
- iso947 6y ago
  > Note that most domains have a grace period (eg, 30 days) where the original owner can renew even after it has expired. Back in the day Microsoft dropped the ball with passport.com, shutting down hotmail over Christmas. https://m.slashdot.org/story/8999 https://m.slashdot.org/story/8999 https://www.doublewide.net/faq.html https://www.doublewide.net/faq.html You’d think Microsoft would have learnt their lesson but no, 3 years later it was Hotmail.co.uk that dropped off https://www.theregister.com/2003/11/06/microsoft_forgets_to_renew_hotmail/ https://www.theregister.com/2003/11/06/microsoft_forgets_to_...
  - memset 6y ago
    It turns out that grace periods (called a "redemption grace period") weren't proposed until 2003. I'm not actually sure when this process was approved by ICANN - sometime between 2003 and 2013. The latest version of ICANN's registrar accreditation agreement, in 2013, includes grace period provisions. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-20...
adminu 6y ago
Hey, also posted it above, but here again: Droplists are from namejet, domain cleaning is done by checking against zone-files from ICANN (that's why I don't currently check .tv and .cc domains as there are no zone-files by ICANN provided for them. As they are country specific, I would have to build custom solutions for them, which I don't want for a proof of concept).

memset 6y ago

Have built a domain registrar. The industry term for this business is called “drop catching” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_drop_catching https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_drop_catching Domain registries provide registrars with reports of domains which are set to expire, and if you’re not a registrar yourself, you can often purchase these lists on a secondary market or use APIs built upon serving this information. But even if you don’t have that list, you can do a Whois search for any domain and know its expiration. You could build your own database! Note that most domains have a grace period (eg, 30 days) where the original owner can renew even after it has expired. So it’s not like you’d be able to steal someone’s domain just because of a clerical error.

iso947 6y ago
> Note that most domains have a grace period (eg, 30 days) where the original owner can renew even after it has expired. Back in the day Microsoft dropped the ball with passport.com, shutting down hotmail over Christmas. https://m.slashdot.org/story/8999 https://m.slashdot.org/story/8999 https://www.doublewide.net/faq.html https://www.doublewide.net/faq.html You’d think Microsoft would have learnt their lesson but no, 3 years later it was Hotmail.co.uk that dropped off https://www.theregister.com/2003/11/06/microsoft_forgets_to_renew_hotmail/ https://www.theregister.com/2003/11/06/microsoft_forgets_to_...
- memset 6y ago
  It turns out that grace periods (called a "redemption grace period") weren't proposed until 2003. I'm not actually sure when this process was approved by ICANN - sometime between 2003 and 2013. The latest version of ICANN's registrar accreditation agreement, in 2013, includes grace period provisions. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-20...

adminu 6y ago

Hey, also posted it above, but here again: Droplists are from namejet, domain cleaning is done by checking against zone-files from ICANN (that's why I don't currently check .tv and .cc domains as there are no zone-files by ICANN provided for them. As they are country specific, I would have to build custom solutions for them, which I don't want for a proof of concept).