mrt
13-07-12, 04:10 PM
Hello, everybody!
This is my first time posting but I've lurked on AD and (recently) here for a while. My background is mainly web hosting (server side) with an occasional habit of registering domains that mostly sit and gather dust - I'm sure we're all guilty of that to an extent :) Over the past few weeks I've had an idea bubbling around in my head and I'd be interested in feedback to validate whether it'd be worthwhile.
The idea largely stems from AD's Domain Name Registrars (http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/domain-name-registrars.html) forum where there are reasonably frequent complaints about registrars and their various policies and tactics that can, at times, tend to get on domainers' nerves. It seems to me there's space for a registrar aimed at domainers, making .uk domain management easier while also providing tools useful to domainers.
Of course, many serious domainers will already have a tag of their own so such a service may not be as useful, but there are many smaller domainers who can't justify the expense or don't have the technical know-how (or don't want to learn) - and this would hopefully be useful to them. Some ideas that differentiate from a regular consumer-facing registrar include:
No charges for account balance topups where possible (i.e. via BACS/DD or even old fashioned cheques) - cheaper than the 3% or so levied by most registrars requiring pre-funding when paying by card
Fixed fee per reg/renewal rather than per-year margins that add up on multi-year reg/renewals. Somewhere in the region of 30-50p on top of Nominet's cost regardless of the term - competitive pricing at the 1-year mark and almost unbeatable at the 10-year mark
Heavy focus on immediate updates when changes are made to domains or inbound/outbound transfers are made. This is one that aggravates me somewhat, waiting hours and hours for registrar systems to pick up a transfer when it's technically possible to do in seconds; or taking a long time to submit nameserver changes or contact detail updates when, realistically, it can be immediate
No bullshit approach to limits: if Nominet allows it, I can allow it. For example unrenewing a domain or deleting a registration before it's invoiced. There's no need to make you jump through hoops or be refused "because that's policy"
Domainer friendly features like grouping domains with the ability to manage/change things by group, or making bulk actions for tens/hundreds of domains trivial, or domain research facilities (or integrating existing tools, of which there are many!)
I'd expect there to be tens (if not hundreds) of little tweaks that could be implemented to make your workflow easier and use up less of your time. Not catering to end users who may buy a single domain means significant focus can be put on making it usable by domainers and not shy away from having complex features exposed, or spend months going through design/development/QA for simple ideas to be added.
So there's the basics of an idea - what do you folks think? :)
This is my first time posting but I've lurked on AD and (recently) here for a while. My background is mainly web hosting (server side) with an occasional habit of registering domains that mostly sit and gather dust - I'm sure we're all guilty of that to an extent :) Over the past few weeks I've had an idea bubbling around in my head and I'd be interested in feedback to validate whether it'd be worthwhile.
The idea largely stems from AD's Domain Name Registrars (http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/domain-name-registrars.html) forum where there are reasonably frequent complaints about registrars and their various policies and tactics that can, at times, tend to get on domainers' nerves. It seems to me there's space for a registrar aimed at domainers, making .uk domain management easier while also providing tools useful to domainers.
Of course, many serious domainers will already have a tag of their own so such a service may not be as useful, but there are many smaller domainers who can't justify the expense or don't have the technical know-how (or don't want to learn) - and this would hopefully be useful to them. Some ideas that differentiate from a regular consumer-facing registrar include:
No charges for account balance topups where possible (i.e. via BACS/DD or even old fashioned cheques) - cheaper than the 3% or so levied by most registrars requiring pre-funding when paying by card
Fixed fee per reg/renewal rather than per-year margins that add up on multi-year reg/renewals. Somewhere in the region of 30-50p on top of Nominet's cost regardless of the term - competitive pricing at the 1-year mark and almost unbeatable at the 10-year mark
Heavy focus on immediate updates when changes are made to domains or inbound/outbound transfers are made. This is one that aggravates me somewhat, waiting hours and hours for registrar systems to pick up a transfer when it's technically possible to do in seconds; or taking a long time to submit nameserver changes or contact detail updates when, realistically, it can be immediate
No bullshit approach to limits: if Nominet allows it, I can allow it. For example unrenewing a domain or deleting a registration before it's invoiced. There's no need to make you jump through hoops or be refused "because that's policy"
Domainer friendly features like grouping domains with the ability to manage/change things by group, or making bulk actions for tens/hundreds of domains trivial, or domain research facilities (or integrating existing tools, of which there are many!)
I'd expect there to be tens (if not hundreds) of little tweaks that could be implemented to make your workflow easier and use up less of your time. Not catering to end users who may buy a single domain means significant focus can be put on making it usable by domainers and not shy away from having complex features exposed, or spend months going through design/development/QA for simple ideas to be added.
So there's the basics of an idea - what do you folks think? :)