[registrars] Ballot Request: Adopt as Constituency Position

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello Jay,

> 
> How many hundreds or thousands of driver licenses do you have 
> and renew on a yearly bases? 

I have to pay my car registration every year - there are millions of
cars in Australia.

I also seem to be able to manage a range of subscriptions - including
registrar constituency dues :-) - that are on an annual basis - and I
don't use a public database to find out when they are due.  In fact most
organisations contact me when something needs renewing - or I agree to
auto-renew.

There are also millions of hosting customers for .com names, and I don't
rely on a public database to see when a hosting or ISP account expires.

> How do you avoid 
> a scam if you make the checking of facts harder on the 
> average joe. 


Simple.

(1) Look up WHOIS for the name, and find the Registrar of Record.

(2) Contact the Registrar for that name.

An ISP, reseller etc can easily provide the advice above.

If the user is already using the WHOIS to find their expiry date
currently - I don't think it is too hard to then contact the registrar.
In fact it would probably help keep contact information accurate if
customers checked with their registrar more often.

Compare with car reg:

(1) Look up phone book for motor reg organisation

(2) Contact car reg organisation



> The ISPs and Hosting companies will not have 
> access to check facts and troubleshoot situations because 
> they will not have direct access to the domain holders 
> registrar account.

OK.  There are really two models here:

(1) The ISP, hosting company manages the domain name on behalf of the
user.  In this scenario the ISP/Hosting company has a preferred
registrar and will transfer the name to that registrar to facilitate
registration.  Most have accounts with a few registrars.   The monthly
hosting fees usually cover the domain name registration and management.
Registrars that service this market provide full facilities to allow the
ISP/Hosting company to determine expiry dates.

(2) The user decides to manages the domain name themselves through their
own registrar.  The user delegates the name to the nameserver used by
ISP or hosting company.  The user will look after their own renewal.

A subcategory of (2) can be handled by the user providing the hosting
company with the current expiry date of a domain at the time they take
up a service - in that same way that hosting companies track expiry
dates of credit cards used for monthly payments.

Again this has been very successful in Australia - and the issues you
have described were dealt with in a matter of weeks after the change.

I would assume there will be plenty of time for people to learn about
any changes, and the registrar is still free to publish the information
in ways that suit their customer base.  Currently the registrar has no
choice.

If a registrar is providing a good service to its customers - then WHOIS
is not an issue.  The registrar will keep the customer informed of
expiry dates etc.   In fact the average registrant never uses WHOIS.

Regards,
Bruce