I use Forever Registration on my ultra-premium .com domains.
This is a discussion about the domain name registrar/company Epik.
The key word is "renewal", not "registration". A registration follows your domains when you change registrars (with added years upon transfer). A renewal only applies to the current registrar and no longer applies when you switch registrars or the registrar suspends business for any reason. Big difference.
You have spent a long time arguing the word forever, and how the word perpetual is synonymous. You quoted my very early post reposted above. The main point is, is it renewal or registration?
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It's a registration, just as much as renewal is a synonym of likes for those who are domain name investors.
Know why? I can have a hand registered domain and choose to make it a Forever Registration with my very first purchase. Had I bought it later from NameLiquidate, it would be a renewal, but still, be my registered domain that I choose to not ever expire with the addition of registering it as a Forever Registration.
What word do you want to argue next?
As I previously mentioned, "perpetual" has the potential of not hitting all English speakers the same due to reading levels and usage. Just my 2 cents after researching the word usage with mentions amongst thousands of periodicals, etc. (see mentions list above).
Again, you are putting too much emphasis on the wrong word. A registrar is a mediator between the registrant and the registry. If a registry does not offer a "forever registration" then neither can the registrar. The fact that no one @Epik can provide a list of registries that are on board with this concept, despite @robmonster making a claim that some are, is proof of that it does not exist. If a registrar acts in good faith on behalf of the registrant, it would not purport to provide a forever registration. It just looks like price gouging. That's all.
Registration is not synonymous with renewal. You renew a domain registration not re-register it. Renewal takes place at expiration date, maximum 10 years after initial registration. It can be automated. The registration is not in perpetuity. It has an expiration date always. The registrar can promise to renew indefinitely. But that is only between the registrant and the registrar. The registry is not in the agreement. So if you change registrars or if the registrar no longer offers that service you lose it. There is no legal protection. And you can set the domain to renew every 10 years automatically at any registrar for around 100 dollars. And this type of renewal will follow you to any registrar, should the previous one go out of business or you sell the domain. Much better business sense, IMO.
That's news to me. I thought maybe perhaps some ngTLD registries. But a number of them also operate registrars and aftermarkets which make their money on renewals and auctions. It would be a death blow if a registry would allow a policy change to make registrants lose their domains outside of expiration. And it is not in the registry's interest to allow for a forever registration as it would impact the aftermarket. It would be within their business model to have the option for perpetual renewal, irrespective of the registrar.
.ro (Romania) changed their policy in 2018 I think. Not that popular, unless your niche. You'll also find grandfathered .ws domains with like, an expiration date 100 years from now.
Sole reason for reviewing their policy and change of RA, the renewal money making machine + aftermarket when the tlds matured. Not sure if @jmcc is active here but he could shed some more light on this I'd reckon ( go buy his book I might add).
And yes. Haven't noticed any issues. Existing regs grandfathered. But you never now. lifetime + unlimited simply doesn't exist.
There's a whole world beyond GTLDs and newTLDs. ccTlds are interesting and some registries are lightyears ahead of the likes of verisign.
Sorry for the late reply. Been a bit busy working on a project involving all the ccTLDs. Most of the ccTLDs were aimed at the local market and had restrictions on ownership. As the markets evolved, some of them relaxed their regulations and allowed foreign registrations. The problem for domainers is that without knowing the dynamics of the local markets, registering a "good" keyword domain name in a ccTLD and expecting to be able to sell it for a high price rarely happens. Some of the larger ccTLDs have their own domainer communities and have got dropcatching down to an art.
The repurposed ccTLDs (those that sell to a global market like .TV, .CO etc) have similar dynamics to the small gTLDs but ccTLDs are subject to local regulations rather than ICANN regulations. When the ccTLD registries make the jump from being run from the Computer Science department of a university to being a stand-alone registry business, everything becomes focused on renewals and revenue. Sometimes, a repurposed ccTLD can get the timing right and gain a lot of registrations. The .CO ccTLD was very lucky to be able to do that and the management team and marketing teams were excellent. It did that in a completely different market where the only gTLD competition was from the legacy gTLDs (COM/NET/ORG/BIZ/INFO etc) as the new gTLDs had not launched.
Many of the ccTLDs are dominating their local markets at the expense of the gTLDs.
Regards...jmcc
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