Visibility of Reported Domain Registrations

In order to further improve the level of transparency and protect the hard work of creatives, we have added additional information on the Contest page. You will now be able to see if any domains registrations have been reported by other contestants in that contest. The count includes all reported registrations even if the information does not match the CH. While some of the domain registrations can be completely coincidental, you can take this information into account before participating into contests or to withdraw entries from a contest. Since this information is always visible on the contest page, it should also increase the accountability of Contest Holders who might have registered names without compensation.

If you notice that a contest has any reported domain registrations, please check your submitted entries as well. If you find that any of them have also been registered, please report this information immediately, using the “Report Domain” feature. We will follow up with the CH if we receive 2 or more reports of domain registration from the same contest even if the Who Is information does not match the CH.

This information is visible under the “Contest Stats” section on the right.

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@dan :thumbsup: Two thumbs up! :thumbsup:

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A nice feature.

Would we get an e-mail to let us know when this action is triggered?

Also, just wondering aloud, why isn’t there a feature that checks domain names we have submitted once per day to see if any of our names have been registered?

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@Arnet Part of it is to stay out of domain front runners ‘sight’. Have a look at this http://discussion.squadhelp.com/t/what-is-domain-name-front-running-or-who-took-my-names/400

The more you check the higher chance of visibility, and the more likely that they will think they’ve found a good/sellable domain to snap up.

I was aware of domain front running years ago. There was a discussion about the topic at a competitor’s website when they decided to check domain names as you submitted the name. Because of this possible problem, they decided not to check domain names at all. Even to this day, they do not check domain names and you have to check them yourself and then the buyer has to check the name to see if it’s available.

When I check domain names, I have always used InterNIC https://www.internic.net/whois.html They aren’t owned by a domain name register, they are actually owned by the US Government, US Department of Commerce.

There is still the possibility for interception though. The Internet is a complex machinery and what’s worse (for our purpose) is that it’s an opened platform by design (so that nobody can own it), and that means there are ways to eavesdrop we probably aren’t even aware of.

Btw, I like that the Internet is as opened as it is, I think it can’t work well if it’s closed.

Maybe Squadhelp has their reasons not to check domains automatically. Over to @dan.

@Front, the option is less practical for two obvious reasons:

  1. the domains may be registered by the contestants (creative owners) themselves for own usage;
  2. they may be resubmitted elsewhere by the very same creatives (as in auctioned, etc.)

I guess it helps a lot not having to check each name yourself.

I think this new feature can work well, because we are checking with a little more intelligence, as a group/crowd.

@vision Yes, kinda complicated isn’t it? Sometimes I only think of SH and not the other naming sites outthere.

@Front, or by evoking the withdrawn entries option, how would you be able to differentiate between temporarily withdrawn entries that can not be rendered active again once they are withdrawn and the names that are taken out of circulation permanently?

@Dan how do you check domains registered as a .ly. Yesterday I submitted three entries to a contest with all domains available. Today all three have the .ly domain listed as taken in the domain checker. Any help is appreciated

@LisaMac, there was an issue with the .ly checker which was causing the names to show as unavailable. We have fixed this issue, and it should work correctly now. Please let us know if you still see any issues.

Thanks @Dan All is well

@Dan, I wanted to mention that I Submitted an Entry that the CH registered the Domain of before the contest was over. It was not the name he chose. The Reported Domain Registered in the Contest Stats for some reason did not pick this up. When I check the availability on the Entry page the domain is taken. I wanted you to know that the Reported Domain Registration may not be accurate, at least is wasn’t in this case. Thanks

It’s not an automatic checker, YOU have to report it by clicking the “report registered domain” and you need to fill in all the WHOIS info.

And I read somewhere that if you check the name too often it triggers a mechanism that will consider the name to be popular and buy the name. The unknown part is how often is too often. Of course not all sites that offer WHOIS buys names, but most do.

I’ve wondered, as I have had some of my unusual good names bought and I have wondered if domain checkers do have some kind of tracking that will snap up good names.

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@Kral,

As covered in our forum posting guidelines, we do not allow discussions related to domain registrations in specific contests in the forum. We investigate and respond to any reported domains directly, and take action in case of policy violation.

Truly sorry about that @Dan. It’s time to reread everything once again, it’s been quite awhile now.
It won’t happen again. Thank you.