i dono really get it~ when my domains from godaddy was deleting - they went straight to tdnam, even if i still could restore them
Nah... your name was just expired but not DELETED (pending-delete).
If in doubt check the whois.
The whole scheme seems unclear to many people.
It works like this:
When a name expires the registrar will usually renew it provisionally with the registry for 1 year. In the meantime they will change the name servers or disable the domain.
You can tell by checking the whois, for example registrar data says the name has expired 02/2008 but registry data indicates 02/2009.
Technically it means they have renewed it with Verisign but they can get a refund within 45 days. During that time frame they will either:
- send the name to auctions and transfer ownership to the auction winner, if no-one bids on the name they drop it
- drop the name if you don't react, the name then goes to redemption, pending delete, it drops - at this point it can be caught by snap/pool/gd etc or a taster. The registrars gets the renewal fee back from Verisign.
When a name has been deleted the creation date in whois is reset.
On the other hand an expired domain that has been auctioned is known as prerelease name and keeps its vintage. So you can get old domains through snap or tdnam.
Hope this clarifies. Everybody needs to understand the difference between expired, deleted and prerelease.
Maybe we should make this a sticky