4 ms·

If you have customers familiar with your domain, annual domain renewal is an extremely negligible cost to your business.

Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago
Unless the price suddenly increases, say, 20000x.
- Spivak 3y ago
  Then you bite the bullet send out an email to your customers that you're moving domains and why, rip the band-aid off and move on with your life.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago
    Unless you are hosting an email service and now all your users have to bite the bullet and send out emails to all their contacts, right.
    - Spivak 3y ago
      Yep, there is no magic bullet to "thing I rent from someone else who has nigh complete discretion on price decides to price me out." You either regulate (which is what happened here that limits the price hikes to 7% yoy) or figure something out. If you can't leave or retaliate then you're basically proving explicitly why they're able to increase prices to the point of ruining you. At a certain price you just pony up the $200k to ICANN become your own registrar and then actually own your domains.
      - Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago
        The ICANN too can play this game, and ask some outrageous fee every year for your TLD
seszett 3y ago
What if you have family or friends "familiar with your domain", but no paying customers?
- redog 3y ago
  ...charge them for dinner. -verisign
- uxp8u61q 3y ago
  Then you send them to the new website. It's about as much a bother as changing postal addresses.
  - paulmd 3y ago
    mmhmm, and what happens to their email at the old address?
    - Spivak 3y ago
      You tell people to use the new email. I don't understand this, if you make a thing the root of your identity then you have get everyone to migrate when it changes. There is no solution to this problem that doesn't involve implementing USPS mail forwarding for email.
      - macintux 3y ago
        There is a solution to the problem: price caps.
      - thayne 3y ago
        > You tell people to use the new email. Easier said than done. For most people that probably means updating literally hundreds of sites (and better hope all of those have a way to change your email). Not to mention telling your contacts to use the new email, and hope they don't forget and send an important email to the wrong domain.
    - joshmanders 3y ago
ivanhoe 3y ago
If you run a successful restaurant paying for "protection" to mobsters is a negligible cost to keep your business running (and your kneecaps not broken), but that doesn't make the racketeering acceptable...
- midasuni 3y ago
  If you run a successful restaurant and the landlord hikes your rent you can hardly move town. Yes it’s rent seeking. It’s also the way capitalism works.
  - pwpw 3y ago
    I can’t imagine a world where Google would move their primary domain from .com to .io. Over the past 20 years, I’ve witnessed numerous successful restaurants move locations due to rent hikes that are still in business in their new locations indicating continued success. I’m having trouble thinking of any major companies that have changed their domains after already being established and successful. Migrating domains feels a smidge different.
    - jonas21 3y ago
      The reason it's different is that domains are so cheap and the price increases are so small. Why would a major company (or even a tiny company) change their domain over an increase of a dollar or two per year? It doesn't make sense. If those restaurants' landlords had hiked their rent by a few dollars per year, they wouldn't have moved either. But it's not uncommon to see increases of thousands of dollars per month, even for a small restaurant, when the lease comes up for renewal.
      - ivanhoe 3y ago
        The problem here is how justifiable is the change in prices, not the amount. If you raise prices because you really have to and I can't keep up, that's OK, that means that my business is not viable anymore, I need to charge more also or cut on expenses (or go out of business, which is also OK). But if you keep milking me for more money just because you can, as I have no other options, it's not OK at all.

Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago

Unless the price suddenly increases, say, 20000x.

Spivak 3y ago
Then you bite the bullet send out an email to your customers that you're moving domains and why, rip the band-aid off and move on with your life.
- Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago
  Unless you are hosting an email service and now all your users have to bite the bullet and send out emails to all their contacts, right.
  - Spivak 3y ago
    Yep, there is no magic bullet to "thing I rent from someone else who has nigh complete discretion on price decides to price me out." You either regulate (which is what happened here that limits the price hikes to 7% yoy) or figure something out. If you can't leave or retaliate then you're basically proving explicitly why they're able to increase prices to the point of ruining you. At a certain price you just pony up the $200k to ICANN become your own registrar and then actually own your domains.
    - Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago
      The ICANN too can play this game, and ask some outrageous fee every year for your TLD

seszett 3y ago

What if you have family or friends "familiar with your domain", but no paying customers?

redog 3y ago
...charge them for dinner. -verisign
uxp8u61q 3y ago
Then you send them to the new website. It's about as much a bother as changing postal addresses.
- paulmd 3y ago
  mmhmm, and what happens to their email at the old address?
  - Spivak 3y ago
    You tell people to use the new email. I don't understand this, if you make a thing the root of your identity then you have get everyone to migrate when it changes. There is no solution to this problem that doesn't involve implementing USPS mail forwarding for email.
    - macintux 3y ago
      There is a solution to the problem: price caps.
    - thayne 3y ago
      > You tell people to use the new email. Easier said than done. For most people that probably means updating literally hundreds of sites (and better hope all of those have a way to change your email). Not to mention telling your contacts to use the new email, and hope they don't forget and send an important email to the wrong domain.
  - joshmanders 3y ago

ivanhoe 3y ago

If you run a successful restaurant paying for "protection" to mobsters is a negligible cost to keep your business running (and your kneecaps not broken), but that doesn't make the racketeering acceptable...

midasuni 3y ago
If you run a successful restaurant and the landlord hikes your rent you can hardly move town. Yes it’s rent seeking. It’s also the way capitalism works.
- pwpw 3y ago
  I can’t imagine a world where Google would move their primary domain from .com to .io. Over the past 20 years, I’ve witnessed numerous successful restaurants move locations due to rent hikes that are still in business in their new locations indicating continued success. I’m having trouble thinking of any major companies that have changed their domains after already being established and successful. Migrating domains feels a smidge different.
  - jonas21 3y ago
    The reason it's different is that domains are so cheap and the price increases are so small. Why would a major company (or even a tiny company) change their domain over an increase of a dollar or two per year? It doesn't make sense. If those restaurants' landlords had hiked their rent by a few dollars per year, they wouldn't have moved either. But it's not uncommon to see increases of thousands of dollars per month, even for a small restaurant, when the lease comes up for renewal.
    - ivanhoe 3y ago
      The problem here is how justifiable is the change in prices, not the amount. If you raise prices because you really have to and I can't keep up, that's OK, that means that my business is not viable anymore, I need to charge more also or cut on expenses (or go out of business, which is also OK). But if you keep milking me for more money just because you can, as I have no other options, it's not OK at all.