Dot com NOT gone - very odd

[Kay]

I just came across something that looked very odd - a domain where the dot net and dot org had been registered since the mid-2000s, yet the dot com was FTR. And it's about something fairly topical. Why on earth would the .net and .org be taken and not the .com? It's nearly always the other way around.

It's not something I want to register for myself (or I'd have done it already) but it's very unusual to see the .com available when several of the other extensions have gone.

What could the explanation be?

[tke71709]

It dropped and nobody bothered to catch it would be my guess.

If the other tlds are taken, and they have actual sites on them I would consider buying the .com and trying to flip it to them for a quick buck.

[Kay]

They look as though they're owned by the same person/company. I didn't do a lot of research since I didn't actually want the thing. Same original reg date, same registrar, etc.

The other TLDs are only parked - no sites that I've seen but I haven't dug deeper. The interesting thing for me is I wonder why these domains would have been registered all those years ago in the first place, and only now the subject has become more topical. Yet the .com is lying around at reg fee.

It's almost like talking about something that was invented in 2012, yet the .net and .com were reg'd in 2005. It just seemed a bit weird to me.

PS: the org and net have been renewed recently to take them up to 2013.

[David S]

That has happened to me several times. I buy a non-.com and then the .com later is dropped. Whenever a .com becomes available for a dot-something-else I own, I get a bunch of unsolicited emails offering to sell me the .com when it drops. I've never taken the offers up, although once I did wait until after a .com dropped and then registered it myself.

[Kay]

It's not the same thing, David S. I could have registered that at reg fee earlier today if I'd wanted it. No one is trying to sell me anything. It just seemed a little bit odd to me that the .com is FTR when the .net and .org have been recently renewed to take them up to 2013. Yet, the .com is still sitting there FTR.

If someone was selling the .com, then they'd need to register it first. With this one, it's sitting there waiting for anyone to reg it at cost. $10.

[tke71709]

If someone was selling the .com, then they'd need to register it first.

Not necessarily, I could have a script written that would search for sites where the .com is available but the other tlds are not and then email you automatically asking if you wanted to buy it from me.

If you said that you wanted to buy it, then I would buy it and sell it to you once I could transfer it over.

I doubt that most people would take the time to check to see if a domain that was offered to them was actually registered or not, they would just assume that it was.

[crabfoot]

What I can see might happen -
Fred starts up by buying FingBoots. com, FingBoots. net and FingBoots. org. He points FingBoots .com at FingBoots .net and develops a site on FingBoots .net while getting all his links and juice coming into FingBoots .com . He puts links from FingBoots .net into FingBoots .org which result in FingBoots .org becoming a viable commercial entity in its own right, selling other Fing products.

Fing gets upset about Fred's activities, and sends him a C&D letter . Rapid reaction - Fred sells FingBoots .net and FingBoots .org as viable sites, and Marty buys them because the C&D letter is not disclosed.

Fred's intention is to start again with FingClog .com etc., using the traffic whcih is mainly channelled via FingBoots .com - but Fing have tracked him down properly, so he can't find a way to get the commission out of any resulting sales. He loses interest and lets FingBoots .com drop.

Meanwhile, Marty is stuck with a couple of sites that have no real revenue because FingBoots .com is no longer driving traffic, and he is getting C&D letters from Fing which make him take the sites down. Whatever, the domains are in his account, and he has set everything to automatic renewal so he doesn't drop anything significant ...

[Kay]

Fing in this case, AFAIK, isn't trademarked, so I don't think that could have happened.

I checked again today and it's still available. It would make a nice little project for you. I think you'll like it, so I'm PMing you the name.

[crabfoot]

Y Fanx. Now the matter is slightly clearer.

So somebody came up with the Fing concept in 2006, and Fred registered FingIsBad .com and put up a site.
Marty registered FingIsBad .net and .org, and left them on auto-renew.
Either Fing didn't happen in 2006, or it did happen a bit and Fred got hit with C&D letters.
Whatever, Fred couldn't be bothered and let FingIsBad .com drop.
More recently, somebody said "What will we call our new idea?" and someone else replied "Fing!" - so the name became relevant again.

You will note that, in my reply to your kind PM, there is an example of a site which has ceased and desisted from saying Fing Is Bad ...

[David S]

It's not the same thing, David S. I could have registered that at reg fee earlier today if I'd wanted it. No one is trying to sell me anything. It just seemed a little bit odd to me that the .com is FTR when the .net and .org have been recently renewed to take them up to 2013. Yet, the .com is still sitting there FTR.

If someone was selling the .com, then they'd need to register it first. With this one, it's sitting there waiting for anyone to reg it at cost. $10.

I wasn't being very clear, I guess. I bought some .info sites, because the .com domains were taken. I built a site. The .com becomes available but at this point I don't want it or need it. This has happened to me at least half a dozen times in the last year or so.

The fact that someone tried to sell it to me when it dropped was irrelevant to your question. I was trying to point out that despite the fact that someone alerted me to the .com domain becoming available, in only one case was I interested enough to even go register the site after it dropped, because I though it might be useful for the $10 it cost me. In that case, I am still using the .info and have not used the .com even though I now own it.

My reasons for not buying up the .com in the other cases vary. In a few cases, my .info site isn't bringing in much money. I see no reason to spend money on the .com.

I one instance, I bought a series of .info domains that I planned to use that were along the lines of Geo1Guide, Geo2Guide, Geo3Guide, etc. A few domain names, say Geo11Guide and Geo17Guide, were available in a .com but then the pattern would be just a few .coms thrown in among the series of .info geo guides, so I intentionally didn't register them.

It's also possible that the person that owns the .net or .org doesn't know the .com is available if it was dropped after they bought their domains, but given the frequency with which I get contacted about buying .coms that match non-.coms I own, I would expect that those people have a business based on contacting owners like me.