[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] .org domain price increases

[Karl Wagenführ]

To Whom it May Concern:

The .org top level domain is an important tld for all kinds of charitable and nonprofit groups and organizations; we use it for our Friends of the Library organization supporting our local public library. We are not making money for filthy lucre, but rather to support our library where its funding falls short to support its mission of providing all kinds of public good resources to the community. We can't afford frivolous expenses!

The current proposal to increase the price of domains in the .org tld is driven by sheer greed, and nothing else; jealousy at newer tlds that charge ridiculous prices and on paper make ridiculous profits. Well, guess what, the newest tld du jour is not nearly as well known and respected and useful as the .org domain, so those on-paper-potential-profits probably aren't even being realized by the new tdls. But regardless, there is no reason for the .org tld  to be made more expensive: there is not a lot of work required to keep a database to administer the .org tld -- all the development costs have long ago been paid, and the system is very automatable, so that if anything, prices to run it should be coming DOWN, not up, as modern computer systems make automation ever easier. Jon Postel was able to administer ALL the tlds for YEARS as a side project from his office.

The argument that removing restrictions increases free market forces is spurious, because once you buy a domain, you are locked into a quasi monopoly situation: you cannot  change to another competing tld because you have branded to the tld you chose to begin with. jplfriends.org is our branding; we cannot realistically switch to a competing tld jplfriends.xyz, no matter how much cheaper it might be, without losing tons of valuable consideration and good will and branding that we have attached to our current domain name. 

So to summarize: it doesn't cost more to administer the .org tld, if anything, those costs keep coming down; .org is used overwhelmingly by non-profits and charities, who can ill afford to be extorted for more cash; the argument that removing pricing restrictions will increase free market forces is pure fiction to justify thinly veiled greed. So this move is one of sheer greed and nothing else, directed toward the most unsuited targets for this kind of extortion, charities and nonprofits, and thus should be slapped down.

Sincerely,

Karl Wagenführ
Treasurer, The Friends of the Johnson Public Library