AboutUs.org Whois Abuse

[Whois-Search]

Ray King (founder of Snapnames) seems to have started aboutus.org back in August 2006:

AboutUs: A Wiki About Every Website

However I've just noticed this:

The company has partnerships with a number of domain registrars in the works to put links to each site’s AboutUs page at the top of WhoIs info, in exchange for a badge linked back to that registrar.

So when you search for a domain at say enom.com you get:

Whois Search - Domain name whois

=-=-=-=
Visit AboutUs.org for more information about enom.com
AboutUs: enom.com

Which i'm sure is against the ICANN rules?

Also if you check my "about us" page which I did not create:

Whois-Search.com - AboutUs

It shows my old whois details which I know can only now be found on Alexa:

Related Info for: whois-search.com/

Which seems to be where they get most of their details from:

SonSpring | AboutUs.org - a Sham

It rips most of its info straight from Alexa

So I suggest people edit their "about us" page and even their details on Alexa. Also i'm going to add a nice scraper to get rid of "Visit AboutUs.org for more information about" and complain to ICANN.

:angry:

 

[labrocca]

Exactly where is the abuse? And what ICANN rule do you think they are breaking? WHOIS has requirements for minimal information. Doubtful that giving EXTRA information is against any rules.

 

[droplister]

Its public information so... meh. It's a rather useless site imo

 

[Whois-Search]

Exactly where is the abuse? And what ICANN rule do you think they are breaking? WHOIS has requirements for minimal information. Doubtful that giving EXTRA information is against any rules.

On this page ICANN list what should be in a Whois record:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-10may02.htm

No where does it say "an advert for aboutus.org"

 

[domain newbie]

aboutus.org is complete useless, you also can edit any info for any site there i.e.

http://www.aboutus.org/Enom.com#eNom_-_domain_name.2C_internet_services.2C_dns_hosting

 

[Dave Zan]

On this page ICANN list what should be in a Whois record:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-10may02.htm

No where does it say "an advert for aboutus.org"

You might want to note the first paragraph's first sentence of that link:

The purpose of this advisory is to assist ICANN-accredited registrars in understanding their obligations under ICANN's Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) regarding the accuracy of Whois data.

Then check the ICANN-accredited registrar list and see if aboutus.org is listed
there.

 

[Deleted member 5660]

On this page ICANN list what should be in a Whois record:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-10may02.htm

No where does it say "an advert for aboutus.org"

Godaddy truncates its port 53 results. I have filed many complaints about that with ICANN but they never do anything or respond.

 

[jberryhill]

http://www.aboutus.org/AboutUs:Concerns

On this page ICANN list what should be in a Whois record:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-10may02.htm

No where does it say "an advert for aboutus.org"

That advisory lists what should be "in" a whois record. It does not state that anything else is prohibited and should be "out" of a whois record.

Sample question for cognitive calibration, please answer yes or no:

If I ask you to bring three cookies to my party and you bring four cookies, did you do what I asked?