Any news on dot.web IOD?

[David G]

Anyone here know anything at all on Image Online Design (IOD) and the fact their tld and website appear to be dormant with almost no activity or news? Plus their forum
http://forum.webtld.com/viewforum.php?forum=1 also seems dead with basically no postings and activity.

Anyone know if they are going out of busienss? As the owner of a large number of dot-web names I am thinking I may have lost my high investment as it seems the one and only chance they had to get admitted to the root failed when web was bypassed at the time biz and info were approved.

What with IOD appearing dormant now it seems real unlikely they will ever get approved by Icann into the root. I know there are some .web owners here so anyone have news or opinions on this?

 

[mole]

Chris was trying to hint hint hint to all you .web advocates that the "politics" will not allow for a .web namespace.

I don't speak for Chris, but its pretty much obvious isn't it. Move on.

 

[David G]

Originally posted by mole Chris was trying to hint hint hint to all you .web advocates that the "politics" will not allow for a .web namespace. I don't speak for Chris, but its pretty much obvious isn't it. Move on.

Unfortunately, I never got those hints until after the fact and it was too late. Too bad he did not come out and say so rather than use vague hints?

Also, he was generally portrayed as devoting full time to IOD and most assumed it was so, and many assumed he was also the Owner or Pres or CEO or top official and employee. He never disclosed otherwise and IOD allegedly seemed to lead everyone on in that regards.

It later was revealed by a 3rd party on their forum and turned out he was merely a part time paid consultant and actually a full time employee of Microsoft. That was very misleading at the least and even worse than that as many were fooled by all of that, including myself who learned of this AFTER they went dormant and after I reg'd my now semi-worthless dot-web names. Now Chris and others seem to have abandoned ship

 

[GeorgeK]

Even if .web was approved, I don't expect existing .web owners would be first in line for them. There'd be a landrush, almost certainly, open to anyone.

 

[namedropper]

Considering that they were *this* close to handing a new .web to Affilias and now express no desire to release general use extensions, I think your .web hopes are even slimmer to none than they were before.

Should, miracles or miracles, a .web appear out of nowhere, I agree with George, they'd do another major landrush, because that's where those people get most of their money. Any acknowledgement of previous registrations of presumably all the good names would just get in the way of that.

 

[David G]

Unfortunately agree now, I have almost 100 .web names costing over $1,500, even with their long running 2 for 1 special. It seems a total loss at this point.

It is so most all the good names were taken during the pre-reg process over several yrs. That would reduce the popularity of the ext if they were honored if it was approved, as you pointed out, greatly reducing potential pre-reg orders I am sure.

Actually the best of the best were taken yrs ago by a group of early supporters who hoped to get rich on the pre-reg names. One guy in particular (not Chris) from Seattle WA reg'd almost 100% of the top financial names like loans.web stocks.web bank.web commodities.web even jesus.web and god.web etc. Odd how Chris worked at Microsoft there?

Not only do they now seem dormant and dead in the water, but they now have no cash flow what with no new registrations for ages. It would be a big problem to re-apply as they would also likely have to pay another application $50,000 fee to apply at Icann again if Icann ever wanted general tld's again, slim and none chance

 

[crabby]

Yeah, IOD seems dead in the water. I don't think all the good names are taken there. Back in November 2000, they only boasted having 25,000 registrations .... not really alot.

 

[CoolHost.com]

I remember that "2-for-1" "special deal", too ... and wonder if the guy who bought a new boat from those ... and is currently sailing around the globe is enjoying himself? I'm sure he must be. Maybe he went to confession before departing.
Oh well.
Good Luck.

 

[ObtainADomain]

Originally posted by mole
Chris was trying to hint hint hint to all you .web advocates that the "politics" will not allow for a .web namespace.

Can anyone explain to me what he means by the "politics" of it? Do the largest .com owners think it would threaten their investment and therefore are fighting it?

 

[crabby]

Chris blamed "politics". He meant real politics, like the pay-a-lobbyist-in-Washington type politics. Who really knows how much of Chris's act is bullshit ... I really don't know. The bottom line is he failed, in a big way, losing to the chumps at Afilias.

IOD could have been a part-time project for him, but if ICANN had given him .WEB in the USG root, money would have poured in for him not to have to worry about a paycheck from Microsoft. I like his work ethic, rather than the lazy nature of those pulling the strings at Afilias and ICANN.