DNW Newsletter

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The domain name news cycle sometimes mirrors the mainstream news cycle. That was the case in January.

After the uprising at the United States Capitol building, web hosting companies and domain name registrars decided they'd had enough with sites that might have been used to coordinate the attack, and other sites that glorify violence and spread hate.

Amazon told Parler to find a new hosting provider. At the same time, Parler decided to move its domain from DreamHost.

And GoDaddy told AR15 .com to find a new registrar after finding objectionable material in its forum.

Both of these sites moved their domains to Epik, a domain name registrar that has courted controversial sites.

The debate over what role domain name registrars and registries should play in thwarting extreme content is unresolved. Some "low stack" entities want nothing to do with the decisions. Others don't like making the decisions but also don't want to have the content associated with their brands. Look for more debate about this throughout 2021.

Other top domain news stories from last month include a name change at Wix and a big change at GoDaddy auctions.

Scroll down to read the top stories and catch up on last month's podcasts.

-Andrew

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Here are the top stories on DNW last month, as ranked by pageviews:

1. Parler.com domain moves to Epik - The controversial site moved its domain name to registrar Epik shortly after Epik posted a letter sympathizing with its plight.

2. GoDaddy explains AR15 .com boot - GoDaddy kicked gun site AR15.com off the registrar after claiming that the site didn't take down problematic forum content. The site owners disputed GoDaddy's characterization. It ended up at Epik.

3. GoDaddy to change closeout auction pricing - GoDaddy's Dutch auction format for closeout domains will start at $50 instead of $11 beginning in February.

4. Wix changes product name from virus to nicotine - Wix's Corvid brand name didn't play well during the pandemic. Its new choice has another problem.

5. Epik continues to bash GoDaddy. GoDaddy says this is why it dropped Epik - Epik penned a post blasting GoDaddy. This is the exact behavior that GoDaddy says caused it to dump Epik from its Afternic network.

Miss a podcast? Listen now:

#322 Digging into Squadhelp - Squadhelp's founder Darpan Munjal and I dig into the data and how to leverage Squadhelp for domain sales.

#321 Newer domain investors find success - This is a truncated version of a talk hosted by ICA.

#320 Selling Gems - I interview Andrew Miller, seller and/or broker of many valuable domains.

#319 NielsenIQ and domain names - NielsenIQ Chief Marketing Officer Jacqueline Woods explains the company's branding and acquisition of NIQ.com.

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Thanks for reading,
Andrew