Diamonds and Domains...

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...Are a Girl's Best Friends!

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Happy Holidays!

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Ms Domainer

An Interview with "Gus The Groundhog"

Interview with a Groundhog

Pennsylvania Lottery
Instants Launch - Gus
“Interview with a groundhog”
As recorded -- January 28, 2004

Interviewer

Well, I’m here today with a very special guest. What an honor. It’s a pleasure to have you with us, Gus.

Gus

Thanks. I’m happy to be here. The doughnuts are a really nice touch.

Interviewer

So, you’re the second most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania. I’ve just got to ask, who is the “real Gus?”

Gus

Oh, I’m just a regular guy. You know, I climb out of my burrow one leg at a time like all the other groundhogs.

Interviewer

But tell us a little about yourself.

Gus

Oh, where do I begin? You could say I’m average height – a foot and a half tall on a good day (straightening up) – and maybe a little over my ideal weight. Anyhow, I come from a big family; 27 brothers and sisters, a few hundred cousins. We’re spread out all over the state. Yeah, the holidays are pretty fun, I must say.

Interviewer

Of course. So, Gus, how did the Pennsylvania Lottery choose you to be the face of their instant scratch-off games?

Gus

Well, look at this face. Just kidding.

Interviewer

Uh huh.

Gus

Seriously, it all comes down to one thing.

Interviewer

What’s that?

Gus

Scratching.

Interviewer

Really?

Gus

Oh yeah. (scratching, he does his scratching thing). I love it. And I can’t help it. I’m just good at it. You could say it’s a gift.

Interviewer

This is all because of scratching?

Gus

Oh yeah. Those Pennsylvania Lottery instant game tickets. It feels good. There are new games every month and I’ve just gotta scratch ‘em, y’know? Of course, it’d be a little easier with an opposable thumb, but whatever. And then there’s the chance I could win some cash. Who doesn’t like cash?

Interviewer

But how did the Pennsylvania Lottery find you?

Gus

It’s the funniest thing. I was standing in line waiting to pick up a pizza, right? Next thing I know, I’m surrounded by all these lights and people and cameras and stuff. I guess the camera loves me.

Interviewer

Naturally.

Gus

But you know, I didn’t set out to become famous, or even second most famous. I mean, I’m not into that sunglasses and autograph thing, I’m not what you’d call a ‘stagehog.’ Heck, I don’t really even like tv cameras – nothing personal – the camera adds five pounds, you know.

Interviewer

Oh, I know.

Gus

It isn’t about the glory. It’s about the love of the game. That’s why I want to tell the whole world to ‘keep on scratchin.”

Interviewer

I see. But how will you do that?

Gus

Well, get this, I’ll go to places all over Pennsylvania. From Plumsteadville to Claysville. All the villes, for that matter. Burghs, towns and cities, too. I’ll play the games. I’ll make some friends. It’s a dream come true. All because of the good things the lottery does. How perfect is that?

Interviewer

Yes, of course. Now, Gus, everyone knows the Pennsylvania Lottery benefits older Pennsylvanians. Every day. But what does that mean to you?

Gus

Oh, it’s simple, really. It’s about helping older people in our state. (aside, waving) Hi, Mom. She’s probably watching, y’know?

Interviewer

Uh yes, hello. But back to the lottery.

Gus

Oh yeah. That’s the really cool part, my friend. Last year alone the Pennsylvania Lottery generated over eight hundred million dollars for programs that help the older people of Pennsylvania. That’s a lot of help for hundreds of thousands of people. With prescription drugs. With hot meals. With transportation. With property tax and rent rebates. With hundreds of senior centers across the state. Did I mention the hot meals? Oh I love that part.

Interviewer

Yes, I believe you covered that. And that’s quite an extensive list.

Gus

There’s more. Oh, I could go on and on.

Interviewer

Well, we’re beginning to run short of time, so let me ask you this, Gus: Are we going to see more of you?

Gus

Keep those doughnuts right here, and yeah, you’ll see lots more of me.

Interviewer

Seriously.

Gus

Well, I’ll be on t.v. and radio and billboards. In fact, my agent says you’ll even see my smiling face in more than seven thousand stores in Pennsylvania. Like this – whatdya think?

Interviewer

You’ve got an agent?

Gus

No, but I thought it sounded good.

Interviewer

Ah ha. Okay, Gus. Sadly, our time is up. Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

Gus

Oh yeah. Keep on scratchin.’

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___________________________________

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(Interview transcript found on the Pennsylvania Lottery Website)

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I have a point here.

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Gus is cute and adorable, and he loves his mother, and all--he lavishes her with gifts on Mothers' Day--and I love playing the lottery (as evidenced by my losing ticket).

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But Gus is a spokesanimal for state-run gambling, his campaign paid for with my tax dollars.

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I have nothing against state-run lotteries and such, but, on the other hand, it's kind of hypocritical to limit gambling in the private sector.

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In response to Jay Westerdal's post "Online Gambling Ads: What a Crime," I responded as follows:

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What a stinkin’ rotten double standard. So that’s why my gambling domains don’t do that well. I have noticed that no gambling ads appear on those Google searches.

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Every single day, on TV ads, Gus the groundhog pushes the Pennsylvania Lottery. He even has his own Christmas "wrap" song.

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So, then, it’s okay for states to run lotteries and numbers games, but if a private citizen gets caught, he or she pays huge fines and even faces jail time.

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My late grandfather was a bootlegger and bookie, and I used accompany him on his “bet runs” and go to the race track with him–I loved it! Even though I’m not much of a gambler (well, maybe a little), I still love the smells and the sights of a race track. He never gambled himself and gave up drinking in 1935, but he sure made some nice side money. As far as I know, he never got caught. He had no ethical ambiguity about being involved in a gambling business, either. He felt it was his right.

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I think it’s outrageous how the government moralizes about the evils of gambling but has its dirty lobbied hand in the thick of it.

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My opinion: if someone wants to gamble his/her life savings away, drink until they die of alcohol poisoning, and smoke until their lungs turn black and atrophy, that should be their choice.

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The government should stay out of it.

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My late bootlegging, bookie grandfather would have loved Gus--he always had a soft spot for animals, real and imaginary. In fact, he had a soft spot for just about everything.

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However, he was not beyond breaking a few laws here and there, especially stupid laws that seek out to legislate human behavior.

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Ms Domainer

Finally, Feedburner!

I finally found feedburner and am in the process of "burning" feeds for all my blogs.

I have figured out how to add a "Chicklet widget," so now readers can subscribe to this blog (see orange button on the right).

I tell you, this tech stuff is killing me, but I'm getting there!

Best,

Ms Domainer

THE 800-POUND DOMAIN ISSUE: Are Auction Houses Participating in Their Own Auctions?

In answer to Sahar Sarid's question about the possibility of auction houses participating in their own auctions, I posted this on his blog Conceptualist (As of this posting, my comment is still awaiting approval):

I have spoken about this on my blog–I have received a few veiled threats.

Anonymous, of course.

This practice is called “shill bidding” and is illegal.

Until the mainstream domainers start questioning auction practices, it will be business as usual, and domainers like me will be labeled “cranks” and non-players.

Thanks for addressing this 800-pound domain issue.

Ms Domainer

Kudos to Sedo!!

Bump and update.

Found on Sedo's site:

On December 5, 2007, the third and final .MOBI auction was scheduled to close on Sedo’s domain auction platform. In line with the previous two .MOBI auctions, the available domains garnered significant attention and received many competing bids in the seven days the auction ran. The domains received so much attention in the final moments that Sedo’s auction servers crashed before the completion of the auctions, rendering our system incapable of processing many validly submitted bids, including proxy bids set by user’s using the feature to automatically bid up to a maximum amount, and sending out winner notifications in error.

While Sedo takes steps to ensure the stability and security of our services, the crash that occurred could not have been predicted given traffic spikes more than ten times higher than anticipated by previous high-traffic auctions. Decisions were made with the intention of protecting all parties involved, but as we have learned from investigating the crash more carefully since December 5th, the auction was compromised and as such, DotMobi has exercised its right to declare the auction results void and will conduct a new auction at Sedo.com beginning on January 23rd, 2008. Sedo will be contacting everyone who participated in the auction to inform them of this decision.

more...

Thank you, Sedo, for taking a close look at what happened at the .mobi auction and admitting that you experienced technology problems and possible auction compromise.

Here's part of the problem: automatically extending an auction whenever a bid is placed in the last minutes of the event encourages bidders to try to slide in that last bid at the last possible second, knowing that their bids will reset the clock for two minutes; if a domain is highly desirable, you might get hundreds of bidders trying to place bids at the same time, all tripping over each other and stressing out the servers.

I suspect that if the auction platforms set a clearly defined stop time, bidders would learn to get their bids in early--a "Snooze, you lose" approach.

In any case, I believe that Sedo has done the right thing by restarting the December 5 auction at zero; I'm feeling more confident that the company where I have placed my domains is trying to do the right thing.

I'm sure that there will be lots of server test runs in the next five weeks.

NEW! According to Frank Michlick at DomainNameNews:

[The rescheduled auction] is causing additional confusion for the participants in the auction, since some of them have already paid for and completed their sales. The author also was able to confirm that several buyers have already been provided with the authorization code for their purchases, enabling them to transfer the domains.

Another point to note is that Sedo has chosen for the auction to coincide with the SnapNames live auction at Domainfest.

Best,

Ms Domainer

New Address for the Hernandez Memorial Fund

See previous post for details about this family's tragedy.

New fund address:

Hernandez Family Memorial Fund
c/o Commerce Bank
1098 Haines Road
York, PA 17402

If you already sent a donation to the address in yesterday's post, it will get to the right place.

York isn't that large.

Ms Domainer

A Fire in My Home Last Thursday...

But we are so fortunate; we are alive and well and only lost part of a wall (and cheap paneling). The fire was contained to a laundry room and started inside a wall. An inside wire went haywire, and that was enough to set off a spark, which set off the insulation. We could smell smouldering, but we couldn't find the flames.

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Then we saw the swirling smoke.
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We called 911; two fire trucks and about six firefighters arrived, and they spent two hours putting out the hot spots. Just as they arrived, the fire was JUST to the point of igniting and would have spread rapidly. The chief said that the house would have probably burned to the ground.

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Fortunately, we were home and it was early in the evening; had we been away, we would have lost our house. Worse yet, had we been home but asleep, we might have lost our lives.
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Unfortunately, the very next night (Friday), the Hernandez family wasn't so lucky; four people (two children and their parents, the mother four months pregnant) died in a fire that started in their basement.
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Unlike us, they were dealt a bum hand, and they had almost no chance. Three teenage girls did escape the fire, but they had to jump from a second and third story window.

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Read the whole story here. (York Daily Record, York, PA)

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My husband and I will be donating some money to a fund that will help defray their funeral expenses and the transport of their bodies to Mexico for burial.
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If some readers of this blog could find it in their hearts to make a small donation to this family that has suffered so greatly, that would help them so much. This blog has a few readers a day, so every little bit would surely help.
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The address:
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Salvation Army
Hispanic Worship Center
257 E. South Street
York, PA 17403

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Make out any checks to the Salvation Army, with a Hernandez family notation.
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By the way, I don't know the Hernandez family at all, but I do feel a connection with them.
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Most important: hug your children, family, and significant other.
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And check your fire alarms. Tonight. Before you go to bed.
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Best to all,
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Ms Domainer

Jennifer

It's JUST War! Relaunched with a New Focus

Check out my associated blog It's Just War!

I would like to read your war stories, poems, and essays and, possibly, even post them.

The comment section of It's JUST War! is open for creative work having to do with war; I may elevate works from the comment section to actual posts.

It doesn't matter if you're anti-war, pro-war, or neutral.

I just want to hear your voice.

Best, Jennifer Semple Siegel

Ms Domainer

Sahar Sarid's Friday the 13th True Story

Today, Sahar Sarid had an interesting non-domaining post about his "welcome" to the US back in 1996.

Food for thought. Here's an excerpt:

Friday the 13th 1996 started as just another day in New York. Nice weather, I was driving around not sure what to do, just moved to the U.S, decided to visit a friend of my sister in Jamaica, Queens, get the car washed. Ilan, my sister’s friend, was a car wash manager in Queens. I used to go there from time to time, as he was a friend, he let me get the car washed whenever I stopped by, then we would sit in office and talk about life, dreams (even the internet back then),

That day things changed, Ilan, as he was living in Manhattan, didn’t have a ride back home, not sure why. He was suppose to take the Subway but suggested I drive him to Manhattan, drop him closer to his area. My only objection was I have never driven in Manhattan, don’t know the roads. Ilan said no worries, he will guide me out after I drop him...

Read the rest of his story here.

Sahar's true story really resonates with me; as a teacher of literature, I am drawn to multicultural works, especially works having to do with the immigrant experience and African-American struggles of the 19th century.

I'm especially impressed that Sahar decided to remain in the US and has obviously made a success of his life.

In a sense, we are all immigrants--that is, unless you're Native American. I'm Irish Catholic, with the red hair to back it up (Okay, so the red hair is fake, but my mother had natural red hair, so I have the red hair gene...). My family came over in the 18th Century, probably because of poverty and political reasons.

This country is made up of immigrants who have done very well for themselves; however, each generation seems to have an ethnic group that is deemed "undesirable"; during the Civil War, the Irish were dubbed "Lace Curtain Irish" because of their love for lace, which was frowned upon by the elite, and their willingness to assume jobs no one else wanted, much like the Mexicans do now. The American-Japanese were feared during World War II and incarcerated in detainee camps by the U.S. government. Shortly after the Vietnam War, Vietnamese refugees fled to the U.S. where they were often referred as "Gooks" and other pejorative labels.

Unfortunately, people fear what they don't understand; if an immigrant worships a different God, has a different color of skin, or speaks a strange language with a different alphabet, folks sometimes make negative assumptions. Events like 9/11 just intensify negative sentiment.

I'm glad that Sahar decided to make his story public; he's a perfect example of someone who has made it big despite people's prejudices and stereotypes. We "natives" should take a lesson or two from Sahar's book.

Ms Domainer

Elliot's Blog and Good Advice

I am a faithful fan of Elliot's Blog; he offers a lot of good information to domainers who are still fairly new at this profession. I appreciate his insights and his patience. I do like the other blogs, such as Domains Tools Blog, but I'm sure that I sometimes come across as a royal pain in the arse, with all my newbie, naive questions and insights.

Elliot's post today discusses protecting one's brand by registering generics, associated domains, and TLD's; once a business or entity becomes known, speculators could snap up the other TLD's and try to sell them to you.

It was a wake up call for me; I have grown rather fond of my Ms Domainer moniker, but I had only regged the dot-com. Today I fixed that problem by regging the major TLD's: .net, .org, .info, .org, .biz, .us, .mobi, and even .tv (after some agonizing, but if .tv takes off like some think, I thought I'd better have it--cheaper getting it now than having to go after it in the aftermarket).

These domains are now permanently redirected to this blog. I don't expect my traffic to pick up dramatically, but this defensive move could help avoid traffic being siphoned off from this site. Never underestimate the power of .net and .org--the few .orgs that I have are kicking serious butt. In the future, I may branch off, and these domains could be directed to other projects; for example, I may set up a Ms Domainer foundation, and .org would be used for that purpose.

It was an expensive day, but I think I made some good decisions that will impact my future in this biz.

Thanks, Elliot.

Best, Ms Domainer

Sedo Silence is Deafening...

Hmmmm,

The domaining community has been somewhat mum about the music.mobi fiasco.

I suppose both sides of this dispute are busy lawyering up.

Or are back room deals going on?

I'd love to see this issue be exposed to the light of day and not shoved under the rug. No matter what, a day of reckoning WILL come.

Ms Domainer

Is the Domain Aftermarket Corrupt? (Part 2)

The following is too compelling to remain buried the comment section. From Anonymous:

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I have one for you. I recently set a domain for backorder over at SnapNames, went and purchased the matching .net and .org just in case I did manage to grab it up (to complete my magical three for copyright [TM?]).

[Now, keep in mind, I set my email to NOT display in whois for any domains I purchase.]

A week later I receive an email from WebNameSolutions offering me said domain for 199 bucks (Try to follow me here, lol).

So, I look up there domain via whois to find out who owns WebNameSolutions and find out it's NS is on PCGLOBE.CA (a so called canadian company [I make note of phone #]).
I then go to Whois to look up PCGLOBE.CA and find out their phone #number is one digit off.
I call them.. hehe.

[Ms Domainer questions: Doesn't providing an incorrect phone number violate ICANN rules? Also, whatever happened to that rule about a registrar not being involved in registering deleting domains and selling them for extortionist prices?]

"Hey, I yada yada a domain over at SnapNames, do you also own that company besides WebNameSolution?"

He responds with, "Oh, no, but we do business with them."

Me: "How did you get my email address, and how did you know I am actually interested in this domain?"

Him: "Oh, well, uh.. I guess we did a whois?"

(Keep in mind, I don't release my email with my domains.)

So, I offer a lower amount, and he says price is firm. Fine, this is already wicked fishy so I decline and decide to do some more research.

(Stay with me here, lol.)

I'm really curious here and decide to look up PENDINGRENEWALDELETION.COM and find out this is registered by DomainDiscover (which is who I register my domains with??!) I then do a whois on the two domains I have already registered and see my email address has been released in the WHOIS!! I go back to my account and see that my settings are set to NOT release email address!

[Update: PENDINGRENEWALDELETION.com is registered and used by Network Solutions and not by DomainDiscover. Thank you, Frank, for the clarification.]

1) How can they sell me a domain they don't own?

2) How did they find out I'm interested in it at all?

3) Why is the company that holds the other two domains releasing my email address when I've requested they not?


I can't believe ICANN hasn't picked up on all this "insider trading" of information?

Racketeering at its finest!!

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I have been domaining since May 2007, I have observed a lot of ICANN "head turning" at questionable practices.

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I wonder: Is it even possible to be an ethical domainer?

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Alvaro Albarracin, Cults, and Questionable Aftermarket Activities

I'm moving an anonymous comment to a post; this is fascinating stuff, to say the least, about Alvaro Albarracin, the buyer of music.mobi and other domains:

You need to read more into the story of these .mobi purchases. The person who bought them "Alvaro Albarracin" is an interesting person to say the least. Albarracin was named Creciendo en Gracia's Entrepreneur of Entrepreneurs. Creciendo en Gracia's is the cult that believes in the 666 $$$ De Jesus guy who believes he is the second coming. Here is a quote from the site:

"With more than 100,000 members and hundreds of congregations worldwide, the church’s message comes from De Jesus, who claims to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. And many people, including Albarracin, agree."

I just hope that these .mobi names will not be a an open promotion for this cult and it's beliefs.

Here are some referring links.

http://666noticias.com/en/estados-unidos/the-believer-former-dialtone-internet-ceo-alvaro-albarracin-www.thewhi.html

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2006-02-09/news/jesus-redux/3

http://www.rickross.com/reference/creciendo/creciendo3.html

Cults have a long tradition in the U.S.; those of us who have lived long enough remember the heyday of cults: Hare Krishna and the Moonies immediately come to mind.

Our First Amendment and Separation of Church and State (U.S.) allow these groups to flourish--as long as they pay their taxes and don't break any laws.

I worry more about the possibility of rampant shill bidding in the domain aftermarket and other questionable business practices, such as insider trading and sharp auction practices.

If anything, there seems to be a "cult" of silence surrounding the entire domain name aftermarket.

All you "Ethical Domainers" out there: why aren't you calling for an investigation of aftermarket sales? Will it only happen when YOU have been ripped off? And, then, will all your buddies turn away from you because no one wants to rock the boat?

Certainly, the recent Sedo auction involving music.mobi (and other .mobis) has raised some real concerns about the way domains are acquired and then auctioned.

I will tell you this: for the near future, I will not be buying domains in the auction aftermarket, not until I'm reasonably certain that I'm participating in an honest and legal process.

One can talk about TOS forever, but the bottom line: if a business TOS contains illegal acts, they are not binding, no matter how "airtight" the rules.

Perhaps it's time that ICANN "spank" the bad boy auction sites before the legal system kicks in and slaps 'em with huge fines and maybe even prison time for the CEO's. Think it can't happen? It takes just one brave whistle blower to bring down a Goliath.

It may already be too late for Sedo.

As for Alvaro Albarracin: it looks as though you were royally ripped off. If you're smart, you'll unload those domains ASAP.

Oh, wait. Don't you have to wait 60 days before transferring those domains?

Or does that rule just apply to small-time domainers like me?

Ms Domainer

What's Up with .mobi?

Yesterday, Sedo's .mobi auction closed with games.mobi ringing in $401,500. (I caught that page just at the end of the auction, so it remains to be seen if that bid holds).

Also, according to Elliot's Blog (where you can find a list of sold .mobi domains), music.mobi sold for $616,000.

Astonishing, to say the least.

Pretty sweet for a TLD that most non-domainers/end-users know little or nothing about. Perhaps the buyer knows something that the average small-time domainer (like me) does not.

Games and music: nice generics/money terms, but I suspect that the buyers are taking an expensive risk on an untried TLD. Don't get me wrong; I have a few .mobi's in my portfolio and would be delighted if they were worth more than the regular fee I paid.

But I doubt very much if, as a buyer, I'll be chasing the .mobi aftermarket any time soon. I will continue to register good solid generics because one never knows when (or if) the .mobi TLD will be developed as a viable cell phone platform.

From my perspective, .mobi will suddenly become a must-have TLD when I can pick up my cellphone, text "games," and automatically be directed to games.mobi.

Otherwise, it's just another TLD like .biz.

But that huge bid makes me wonder if such a .mobi platform is on the horizon.

Ms Domainer

Now it can be revealed...

...I picked up lived.info at GoDaddy's fire sale, 20,000,000 Google hits but no paid advertising.

Elliot Silver (Elliot's Blog) has pointed out that paid advertising is a good indicator of how well a domain will monetize. On the other hand, the term gets a lot of hits.

BTW, I highly recommend Elliot's Blog for all newbies; he's a bright young man who offers some great domaining tips. He also seems like a very thoughtful and nice person who believes strongly in "giving back" to the community.

I'm not sure how lived.info could play out as a financial venture, though I could see a genealogy website possibility.

I look forward to some day snagging a one-word domain without its being plural (jennifers.tv , critiques.tv, and Bonuses.tv), past tense like "lived," or a gerund (Rescuing.mobi). I suspect I won't find such pristine domains in GoDaddy's fire sale or as a regular reg.

My four-word dot-com: NoFeeStudentLoans.com. I would not pay a huge aftermarket price for such a long domain name, but maybe I'll change my mind once I see how it does traffic-wise. Also, not a lot of Google hits--about 2,000--but the paid sponsor list goes on for three pages. But it was a small investment for a term that rolls easily off the tongue.

After a month of so-so traffic, 1-25.com has suddenly picked up significant traffic, 20 hits in one day; I was scratching my head, when my husband informed me that it's football season, so it's possible that I'm getting some type-in traffic from football fans.

This would be a great Top 25 of everything site, perhaps a user-generated site/forum. Hmmmm.

Domaining is habit-forming, I'm afraid. I need to get cracking on developing some of these sites.

Best,

Ms. Domainer