My Response to Rick Schwartz's Blog Going Dark

Rick's blog is going dark; In his post "What's Your Excuse Now?" Rick Schwartz laments the apparent apathy of the average domainer. I posted the following response on his blog (I don't know if my comment will be approved or just dismissed into cyberspace. Update: the post has been approved. Thanks, Rick):

I am a relatively new domainer (since May 2007), and I recognized early that this business was filled with self-serving people and organizations who just took care of #1 and didn't give two hoots about the questionable practices going on. (TM squatting, typo-squatting, hinky aftermarket auctions, to name a few).

As a new domainer, I tried to help other newbies by posting my experiences and the pitfalls I have experienced. For my efforts, I was called a name on my own blog, probably from someone who has forgotten what it's like being a green domainer.

Whenever I posted about practices that concerned me, I got nothing but a code of silence (with a few exceptions).

Now, all of sudden, these selfish people want me to join their organization so that they can save their expensive domains; these are the same people who ignored my questions or blew me off just because I was a silly newbie who dared to question the industry or even ask a silly question.

Well, I'm not buying into it. Those whiners can twist in the wind, for all I care.

Had anyone in a so-called power position paid a little heed to the newbie population, even those of us who dared to question, I think the ICA would have had support from more of us.

More importantly, had efforts been made to clean up this industry BEFORE the Snowe bill became a threat, ICA would have had better support. Last summer, I would have lined up to join an organization that promised to clean up the domaining mess. But now, the ICA comes across as being totally self-serving and concerned only because the status quo is threatened, not because there are some very real ethical gaps industry wide that need to be addressed and solved.

My question, then: why should I (and others like me) help people who were mostly unhelpful as I was learning the industry? Where were ICA members last summer when I posed my "dumb" questions, questions that were serious from a newbie point of view?

Maybe, Rick, this is why most domainers are apathetic toward ICA and the Snowe bill threat.

We know that if the bill is rewritten to be friendlier toward big money domainers, it will again be business as usual: the small domainer forgotten and slimy business practices continued.

Ms Domainer