/FM

Apologies for the lengthy comment, but you DID ask!

First let me outline the life-cycle of an expiring domain at Tucows and how it relates to the Afternic Auction:

Day 0 – Domain name expires. Original Registrant can renew domain at any time.

Day 3 – Domain parking enabled, parked page header might contain message indicating domain is expired (parking and header message are applied at the discretion of Tucows Resellers). Original Registrant can renew domain at any time.

Day 21 – Domain listed in Afternic marketplace where domain can receive PreOrders. Exceptions: names that have been renewed by Original Registrant, names that Afternic doesn’t want to list on its site (e.g., adult, trademark, vice names), names that Tucows has selected for its Portfolio. Original Registrant can renew domain at any time causing name to be removed from Afternic.

Day 26 – Domain parked page header changes to a specific auction message (unless Tucows Reseller has configured this differently), WHOIS info now includes auction message as well. Original Registrant can renew domain at any time causing name to be removed from Afternic.

Day 38 – Last day that Afternic accepts PreOrders on marketplace names. Original Registrant can renew domain at any time causing name to be removed from Afternic.

Day 40 – Last day that Original Registrant can renew domain, causing name to be removed from Afternic.

Day 41 – Start of 5-Day Live Auction (only for domains that had at least one PreOrder on them at the end of Day 38).

Day 46 – End of 5-Day Live Auction.

With that as background, let’s look at the specific names you mentioned and where they fit in the life-cycle:

Baecscp.com – expired 7-7-2008 – not on Afternic yet (< 21 days)

Jait.com – expired 7-5-2008 – not on Afternic yet (< 21 days)

BedFace.com – expired 6-27-2008 – not on Afternic yet ( 21 days)

X4M.com – expired 6-19-2008 – not on Afternic, chosen for Tucows Portfolio, Original Registrant can renew

WLF.com – expired 6-19-2008 – not on Afternic, chosen for Tucows Portfolio, Original Registrant can renew

NotAMan.com – expired 6-16-2008 – on Afternic as PreOrder (> 21 days)

Sags.org – expired 6-12-2008 – not on Afternic, chosen for Tucows Portfolio, Original Registrant can renew

IPBN.com – expired 6-11-2008 – not on Afternic, chosen for Tucows Portfolio, Original Registrant can renew

BetACot.com – expired 6-12-2008 – on Afternic as PreOrder (> 21 days)

ERDY.com – expired 5-29-2008 – currently in Live Auction (> 40 days)

MrCoffeeBean.com – expired 5-28-2008 – not on Afternic, renewed by Original Registrant prior to entering Live Auction

Oserinia.com – expired 5-27-2008 – currently in Live Auction (> 40 days)

I think that provides a pretty clear (albeit complicated) explanation of the data you’re seeing. I know you don’t like that we’re allowed to select expiring names for the Tucows Portfolio rather than letting them all go to auction or drop but that seems to be something we have to agree to disagree about.

(Jamie – your commenting system doesn’t seem to capture blank lines so this may not have the best formatting – feel free to add blanks lines between paragraphs if you can do it via you admin access)

Cheers,

Ken.

**Jamie Says**
Thank you Ken for the detailed discription and the answer that I was expecting. I know you know that I strongly disagree with warehousing expired domains by registrars, so I just wanted Public Comment one more time with clearly stated domains to show some domains that Tucows is warehousing and publicly expressing “chosen for Tucows Portfolio”.