[ncdnhc-discuss] About Marketing Practices in .ORG

[Kent Crispin]

On Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 09:28:58PM -0800, Dave Crocker wrote:
> At 11:39 PM 12/26/2001 -0500, Milton Mueller wrote:
> >Instead of negative restrictions, we wanted
> >positive marketing to differentiate the domain.
> 
> Marketing costs money.  What is the need for doing that marketing and 
> spending that money?
> 
> If non-commercial users really are the primary goal, then keeping costs as 
> low as possible should be the means to achieve that goal.

That doesn't follow.  Low prices are good for commercial users and
speculators,as well.  A completely unrestricted domain with the lowest
possible prices is in fact competing with .com.  If it were possible to
get a .org name for $2/year, it would be quite attractive to register
lots of names for 10 or 15 years at a stretch.  The net effect would be
to enable much longer term speculation than is currently economically
viable.  Moreover, very low prices make it profitable to speculate on
names of cash-strapped non-profit organizations. 

> WHAT IS THE NEED FOR MARKETING?

One could ask precisely the same question about .com.  I don't see the 
need for marketing .org, but I do consider restrictions as not only 
desirable, but necessary.

Kent

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
kent at songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain