Domain Name Industry Observer DN FORUM IDN Registrars Hosting Servers Rating Resellers Website Developers

WhatName

Domain Name Industry Observer

Registrars, Hostings, Servers, Resellers and Forums:

Good, Bad & Ugly

These Tables are intended to bring some transparency to the wild wild world of the Domain Name Business

dnforum.com – The oldest, and probably, the best domain forum out there. Friendly folks often argue politics. Requires membership fees from $25 to $100. Run by Adam Dicker out of Toronto, Canada. Adam claims to own upward of 10,000 domains. Lately he started buying idn portfolios

idnforums.com – cool forum to learn and trade IDNs. Has a long and varied history. Friendly folks. Smoothly-run forum. IDNForums was the first exclusive IDN forum. The forum was recently purchased by a group of experienced IDNers who have nicely upgraded the forum and appointed a professional staff. It is a great place to learn about IDNs, with up to date information and helpful members. IDNF is also known as one of the best places to buy, sell and trade IDNs.

idnclub.com – IDN forum focusing primarily on Chinese and occasionally Japanese names. If you like Chinese domains keep your eyes open there, often some good deals. Mods, especially IDNer, are extremely helpful in many aspects of identifying and trading Asian names. Currently idnclub is adding non-Chinese sub-forums to accommodate a huge traffic

idntraders.com - interesting IDN forum. Good potential

domainstate.com - Well run, professional ascii domain forum. Lots of experienced domainers and good exchange of information between members

DNLocаl – Forum for IDNs is owned and run by David Wrixon (Rubber Duck) from England. RD is a civil engineer, 48 & plans to move to the Czech Republic. David was looking for a big payday for a long time, but it hasn’t happened yet. And yet every month he pronounces the coming of the new era. RD is probably the earliest proponent of the IDNs and amassed a large 5,000 name portfolio in many languages, including Azeri, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, and Czech. This portfolio’s negative cash flow ($45,000 a year) is being partially offset by sales ($10,000) and the ppc stream ($2,000). There is a financier behind the scene who foots the bill. RD is a hands-off patrician; Jose runs the technical part, and mod Mulligan often micromanages. Oftentimes the newbies don’t get the trading privileges. The forum lost its spunk when IDNForums came back to life in 2008

idnf.ru - Russian forum to learn and trade IDNs. Not ok to trade

domain.cn/club – Chinese Domain forum

Demene - Foro de Dominios en Español

Forumdominios.com - Foro de dominios, foro profesional sobre dominios y monetizacion

mobility.mobi - Run by Andre. Mobi-related forum.

namepros.com - Probably one of the largest domain forums out there. Attracts primarily the younger audience. If you’re into tlds .mobi, .TV or .us this is the place for you. Lotsa good deals

domain.cn/club/ - Very popular Chinese domain forum with 50,000 members

idnсhаnel.com – a rather minor forum run by Michael Jackson from Finland. MJ is running away from the USA and IRS.

MJ occasionally called the Spotted Dick or SciFi. His email address is MJ@Sci.Fi

MJ is a bit of a fanatic and no doubt a control freak. As a matter of fact it’s almost impossible to get registered there. Since MJ is anal-obsessive he has to approve every application by himself. It takes him 24 to 48 hrs, after which you are told to forget about it. The forum’s fortunes went down in 2008 after IDNF came back to life. The forum had no spunk to begin with. Currently MJ is under mental health professionals’ supervision. The forum is a complete waste of time and effort.

Recently MJ took an unusual step at his shrink’s advice: He posted a letter where he apologized for being a control freak and an a-hole. MJ’s apology

(Acknowledgements: Everything here was written by MJ’s friends and colleagues in the IDN field)

domenforum.net – run by a psychotic maniac Alex Chernishev from Chicago. IDNs are discouraged. Translits are big there. Alex also co-owns the .ru registry & makes money exchanging $$ for WMZ. You never see quality names there. A waste of time. There is a talk of Alex being MJ’s twin separated at birth.

dnjournal.com – Great Publication

domains.adrforum.com

idn.bz – Amazing free automatic idn appraisal written by Jose Augusto, one of IDNF.com mods. It works better with IE8 than with Firefox

Achtung: Market manipulation

Financial markets are prone to manipulation by the criminal elements. DN market is no exception.

Michael (Misha) Schneider from Moscow, Fort Lauderdale, FL, and London, UK is a noticeable player.

He bought a small Russian portfolio consisting of пoрно.com, Бизнеc.com & Мoсква.com for $1,200, $2,000 and $9,000. He’s been lobbying DNJournal to have those sales listed at $500,000 and $1.2 million. So far DNJ has declined to list any of his purchases. The Russian source of his money is tainted.

Nikolai Pavlov (later777) currently operates out of NYC and Moscow. The Russian source of his money is tainted.

There are instances where the mods and forum administrators inject themselves into the bidding process.

We were informed by the market participants that mod Mulligan has a rather strange history: he often bans people who bid against him and removes their bids & postings.

Not a legal advice

Often, in the criminal investigation, the government demands that the transactions done with the “unclean funds” be reversed. You may be a totally innocent party but you still can lose all your money.

Opinions here are protected by the First Amendment. If you feel you seriously disagree with these opinions you should see a mental health professional

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