So with everything going on in the world with the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems some want to dabble in pandemic related names.
I woke up this morning to an email asking me if I had a list of namepros members selling covid names? When I replied I don’t, why? The person said they were looking for an easy way to block such members.
There is a lot going on,
Sale of fake coronavirus vaccine website closed by Justice Department coronavirusmedicalkit.com. source
As I wrote last week what is worse the name or the shame?
Some feel the attention to the opportunist hurts domainers more.
Now what about trying to sell to another domainer? You are certainly not providing a public service, it’s not the usual cover, I hope it can be an informational site. Which unless it’s very specialized is not needed. No domain investor is going to have the resources to match the sites provided by Google.
Or this document from the CDC.
So back to domainer2domainer sales, here is a new thread on Namepros should anyone bother? I would say probably not.
Who cares if people are selling or registering Corona names, this does no harm to anyone accept the registrants own financial health. They wasted their money and that is all they have done.
The coronaviruscruiseship.com stuff was a beat up, the keywords are true and the cruise industry has a lot to answer for. The owner should sell it to a law firm, they could use it for upcoming class actions!
You find it harmless, you are soulless imo. I find it reprehensible and see those people as scum.
I have coronavirus-related domains for sale and I don’t give a shit who likes it. I’m not hurting anyone.
With everything that’s happening in the world, you would think people could find something better to do with their time than criticizing harmless activities.
I think you’ve probably read at least some of my posts on other domain blogs over the past few days, Raymond. Why don’t you address some of the points I’ve been making? I don’t have time to keep repeating myself.
Jon I have read two posts on other blogs in the entire month of March, so outside one where I quoted you that would be all I read.
Alright, Raymond, I retract that third paragraph, but look what you have done here. You (and some other bloggers) have talked about buying and selling coronavirus-related domains in the same breath as using coronavirus-related domains for illegal activities such as selling fake vaccines or products advertised dishonestly. That’s like lumping consensual sex and rape together.
So I think that contributes to the hate against domainers with covid domains for sale which certain people are expressing right now, and may make it more likely that even those of us with good covid domains will be boycotted and unable to sell them.
It’s not our fault that journalists and publishers who publish character-assassination articles about people buying and selling covid-related domains may also unfairly criticize domainers in general. Criticize them, not us, please.
I did not speak of that in the same breath so no that’s false.
I did not ask myself, I woke up this morning to an email asking me if I had a list of namepros members selling covid names? for an easy way to block such members.
The industry is a lot bigger than you Jon and I did not disparage you at all, so stick to what was written.
A lot of people have an opinion on this topic.
The phrase “in the same breath” was obviously meant as an analogy, Raymond. I should have been clearer and said “in the same post without making a clear distinction between the societal effect of the two different types of behaviors.” When you do that you do contribute to the moralistic condemnation of people who are trying to sell covid-related domains, imo.
The main problem which I see here is moralism, people accusing others of immoral behavior because they want to see themselves and/or be seen by others – for popularity and/or profit – as “one of the good guys.” I think that is a major problem in our world today, which leads to a lot of the violence.
I wanted to comment on an earlier post of yours, the one in which you criticized people for registering and attempting to sell Kobe Bryant domains – but you were so self-righteously indignant about your point of view, imo, that you didn’t allow comments.
No the comments were open but then close here after a certain about of days.
Self indignant whatever you want to call it, Jon I don’t give a fuck what you think about me to be honest, not in the least bit. And absolutely anyone regging names like that I think is disgusting, absolutely.
Raymond why do you engage this, “person”
Karma is coming, I guess the perfect karma would be one of these registrants getting corona themselves.
Then they could one of the domain names to proper use.
My mistake about the Kobe Bryant post comments.
Do you think Frank Schilling is disgusting for asking $188,000 for Coronavirus.com for weeks, while tens of thousands of people were dying in China, up until the time he sold his portfolio to GoDaddy?
What do you expect from such a dirty business???
I’ll also mention that Mr. Schilling had a pay-per-click page up during that time, with a “domain for sale” banner at the top, so he was earning money while the domain was, I think it’s pretty safe to assume, getting thousands of type-in visits per day.
And is GoDaddy disgusting for having numerous bird-flu and avian-flu domains in their portfolio, some of which are priced for thousands of dollars at NameFind (AvianFlu.com has a minimum bid of $32,500 at GoDaddy Auctions)?
You say that, that’s what your kind does. People criticizing people who deal in this kind of trade is a very good practice.
What the Spanish government did was very encouraging hopefully more governments partake in the same behavior, to put an end to this scourge.
What the Spanish government did was fantastic fuck all these assholes I hope they all go bankrupt
There is no “trade” going on in these names. Only people wasting money.
Some coronavirus domains have value, in my opinion. I think Fox bought CoronavirusNow.com in the aftermarket, I doubt they were the first to register it. I wish I had been the one to get CoronavirusNews.com, among a few other domains.
Jon,
You might be right.
When you say aftermarket, are you referring to a marketplace, or does that also include a possible potential direct WHOIS sale?
Historical nameservers show CoronavirusNow.com had been at ns1/ns2 SEDO.com since January 24th, and stayed for a little over a month…
…before moving to ns1/ns2 registrar-servers.com for a day,
then since March 5th, have been set to fox related NS such as ns01.dns.fox.
(yes, .fox is real, see nic.fox)
https://securitytrails.com/domain/coronavirusnow.com/history/ns
Jon you did not see me call anyone names for registering corona names, others are and it’s a hot topic.
I think many would see an already wealthy man like Frank should donate it, but I will say it’s not for anyone to spend someone else’s money.
Coronavirus isn’t new, and people own names like flu and others like that as well.
I can say when you step outside this industry people don’t respond well to the thought of selling them.
But the topic of this thread was really how domainers feel about other domainers and like the last thread mentioned, should domainers try to sell them to other domain investors? Or is it worth even doing?
I didn’t see this response, Raymond, before I just made another post.
You just said, “And absolutely anyone regging names like that I think is disgusting, absolutely.” Now you’re saying you didn’t call anyone names for registering corona names. You’re not being very consistent.
Yes, bird flu can apply to the poultry industry problem and not just the possible, if not probable, coming bird-flu pandemic. But that brings up the issue as to who’s going to draw the line between what’s “disgusting” in these matters and what isn’t. As others have pointed out in the comments to other blogs, why is there a difference in registering and putting up for sale a domain like CoronavirusNews.com and buying and attempting to sell, at a relatively large markup, a domain like CancerNews.com or DepressionNews.com?
As I’ve been trying to point out, we all profit from tragedy in one way or another, whether we admit it or not. As I opined to Andrew Allemann on his blog, you cause more material harm to society when you drive for a non-essential purpose like going to the movies – as that contributes to the incidence of children being hit by drivers who don’t have time to swerve when a small child runs out from between parked cars – than anyone does from registering a domain like CoronavirusNews.com and putting a for-sale banner on the page. And yet people who do that every day are calling those of us with coronavirus domains for sale “disgusting” and “scum,” right here on this page.
I was referring to the names around Kobe, that I don’t support in anyway no.
The virus names, there are all kinds of flu’s and other ailments so I understand and they are not singular in nature or taking advantage of someone else’s celebrity.
Thanks for the clarification. I still disagree on some points but am not in the mood to argue right now:)
In any case I want to thank you for TLDInvestors and your posts at TheDomains.com. I learn a lot from many of your posts and appreciate the opportunity to comment.
Hi Jon,
Are you really that [insert word here] to not see how others may not appreciate what you’re doing by offering domains such as Coronavirus.org for sale? While also forwarding COVID19.org, Coronavirus.TV, and likely others, to Coronavirus.org?
I suppose “what you’re doing” can be answered from a number of positions:
[1] Could one argument that you are safeguarding and possibly vetting prospective registrants/ those interested in purchasing the domain from you?
[2] Though, when your website displays text featuring, “And, due to financial considerations, I have put this domain up for sale so if or when the domain sells everything here will be moved to 2019NovelCoronavirus.org” what signals do you think that tells the general public about domain investing? Surely, the general public can’t help influence their respective governments, and/or maybe ICANN to propose tighter regulation (maybe welcomed?) with how domain names are bought/sold? I guess though, you could argue, first come, first serve, the capitalistic approach, which grants you rightful owner of a slew of domains registered during a crisis, to express your opinion, and in the mix of offering your opinion, take advantage of that prime positioning by stating you put the domain for sale due to financial considerations? Were such financial considerations caused by time spent registering these domains, and that’s what caused such financial consideration? Or did the classification of a pandemic, and an intensified global focus, change the value of the domains you registered, and due to current financial outlooks, you feel selling the domains would be in your best interest opposed to donating them?
[3] What do others on Twitter users {likely) outside of the domain industry think of your usage of COVID19.org & Coronavirus.org?
See:
(a) https://archive.li/K5u3m
(b) https://archive.li/MCTSe
(c) https://archive.li/OlXS4
(d) https://archive.li/DK6vp << this tweet promises to give 100% profit to COVID19.org
Meanwhile, you seem to be throwing a fit about the coverage Coronavirus domains are receiving by domain name bloggers?
And at the same time, it seems as throwing rocks at (deflecting to) GoDaddy, aka the folks who are making you look like scum, by them doing the right thing and forwarding Coronavirus.com to the WHO, while you, carry put some BS site up, and state you are offering the domain for sale? Almost as if, what you are doing is morally correct, and what GoDaddy is doing, is not.
With all due respect, I hope you do the right thing. Anything you do is outside my opinion, and control. But as you carry on crying like an entitled "I was here first" capitalistic asshole, then perhaps you will understand why me, and others are directing these emojis to you @Jon Schultz 🖕 with ♥ as I'm tired of reading your 💩‼
I don’t have a lot of time to respond, and especially to respond to cowardly people who criticize others anonymously, but I’ll just say a few things. First, you believe in moral obligations, I do not. I consider them to be superstitions, just like the Old Testament God.
Rather than trying to decide what is moral and what is immoral – and who should be praised or blamed for acting morally or immorally – I am for democratically decided laws which hopefully help society to function as harmoniously as possible.
I don’t consider myself a capitalist, but a “libertarian socialist,” by my own definition. I believe that our society would work best if government guaranteed every person access to the basic necessities of life, which expenditures would be funded by a tax that is basically on assets so that people could not accumulate billions of dollars in assets while others are unable, through no fault of their own, to procure basic necessities. On the other hand I believe in reasonable freedom of commerce, so that government no longer forces businesses to do the job it should be doing, with things like wage and price controls.
With regard to domains I do believe in first come, first served and am happy to be the owner of the domains you referenced and hoping I profit handsomely from them. I think it would be a gross violation of freedom of commerce for the government to decide who may or may not own which domains. Of course we could elect you King and let you decide, in your great wisdom as to what is moral and what isn’t, if only you’d let us know who you are!
I’ll end with a quote from the philosopher Alan Watts:
[M]oralistic preaching is… a failure: it breeds only cunning hypocrites – people sermonized into shame, guilt, or fear, who thereupon force themselves to behave as if they actually loved others, so that their ‘virtues’ are often more destructive, and arouse more resentment, than their ‘vices.'”
Hi Jon,
Many thanks for your response.
🙏
They are the scum of the earth and I believe there is a special place in hell.
Everyone is using coronavirus in connection with this bad faith and viral business.
Jon is that person who gets told to stay home and self isolate but refuses and says “ I don’t give a shit who likes it. I’m not hurting anyone”
That person is hurting someone, Raj, just like someone with HIV who has sex without telling the other person. You can’t compare that with buying a domain name and putting a domain-for-sale banner on the page.
Yeah, he is also “that person” who sells poisoned milk to school children. Let’s stop making up random nonsense claims about people.
They are all lowlifes and it looks like governments are going after them. Good to see for humanity.