Comments on: Private Whois on Domains in Auction

By: andrew

andrew — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:23:22 +0000

eh, looks like they’re going a little aggressive. They just put one of my domains with “pending auction” that hasn’t even been submitted for an auction They’ll fix it though, no biggie.

BTW, you should all monitor your domains for changes like this with DomainTools. I get an alert any time a whois for my domains changes, which is how I noticed the change on one random domain held at Moniker.

By: stephen Douglas

stephen Douglas — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:16:53 +0000

Hi El,

I brought this issue up a year ago with Snapnames, when they started doing this. They will, at your request, maintain your name on the whois. However, I prefer the “privacy” listing process they are using now. But YOUR idea is perfect, because it will let the OWNER of the domain know that the whois changed because it is in auction. Even some sort of “ID code” that the seller/owner of the domain recognizes in the whois would be smart.

SnapMon can be the winner, but I’m not giving out free advice anymore…

@Adam — it’s not that much of a freakout unless you aren’t communicating with the SnapMon team or aren’t following the domains you’re auctioning. No worries, just stay aware!

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:09:18 +0000

In reply to Adam above, they are not permanently changing the whois info. They are doing it for the names that are at auction.

If you send a domain name to one of their auctions, it is supposed to be an exclusive listing. You agree to that when submitting the domains.

I agree with Elliot, that they should put a link to the domain auction, to possibly drive more traffic to the listing.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:11:31 +0000

Sorry but I think this is total BS. Changing your whois without authorization ? Seriously !? F that.

By: Jamie Zoch

Jamie Zoch — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:54:40 +0000

Nice catch Elliot. They must only do it for “some” auctions as I have 4n.net in the showcase auction and no privacy is on that.

I have listed RMB.org at $79 with no reserve and that does not have privacy.

I checked another that I have listed with a higher starting price (basically a reserve) and privacy is on that one. So it would appear that they do it on domains listed with a higher starting price then $59, $79 and $99.