Morning Folks!!
As long as we are talking about “Shills”, let’s talk about
“Forum Shills”. What is this? These are guys defending the indefensible. Each
board seems to have at least one poster ready to defend each and every negative
thought. My advice, give it a rest.
But what this post is about is something many won’t like.
From the little I know and I, like you, know very little as not an official
word in days. So speculation grows. Some of that speculation is backed up by
some pretty strong evidence and there appears to be something that spills over
outside Snapnames and Oversee. If that were the case, the only way to ever find
the truth and the total depth of this would be an “Industry Grand Jury.” Now I
know this is not going to happen, but I still want to raise this because if it
does spill over, a Grand Jury would be the only way to figure out this entire
thing unless 'Deep Throat' sings. Inside investigations led by lawyers and PR firms with all types of motives and cover your ass thinking is a dog and pony
show. In Act 2, as you see will be silence and stone walling
I have seen this show before. Death by 1000 cuts. Mostly
self inflicted as it is normal for those on the ropes to calculate and when
they do, they usually miscalculate because they are in CYA mode.
Now as far as the “Class Action”……well it shows that there
is some real damages here. But at the end of the day, they may bring the house
down, but the share any one will receive will be more like $4.50. That said we
will see many lawsuits because of the shear size, scope and amount of money
involved.
As you can see above, this is making news in the mainstream
of the Tech universe. The Industry
has suffered great damage imo in addition to actual domainers. How many years did
that kick us back? Has anyone asked that? It is a setback no matter how you
look at it. A set back at our very core and with the largest representative of
the Industry involved in a multi million dollar scandal that has affected the lives of most people in it. Like I stated
before, this is where I just get angry. I do, I am and it is hard to put it in
words. I have seen things first hand. Then when I think that it may actually spill over to other companies,
other individuals etc, I just have to stop because I am about to be enraged. But I do think there is a CULTURE
out there that has continually done things that most would just find wrong and would it be wrong to conclude who headed that culture based on what we have seen? It’s like where do you start? All I know is that it angers me and it angers
everyone I have spoken with in ways they might not say publicly but future actions
will demonstrate. The TRUST has been broken and folks are asking the question
really at the core. Where is the money coming from for all these settlements?
The wide shared belief is that it will result in lower PPC payouts. Then in
effect domainers are just getting jerked off. Paying themselves with their own earned income?
Trust? The trust has been broken.
I have no idea how they can fix that trust without coming clean and letting it
all hang out. I guess it is go fo broke or possibly go broke. Silence and
stonewalling waiting for this to blow over is folly. It ain’t gonna happen. There is real anger out there and I think thepost I made last month about who you do business with has much more merit today.
Now I don't want to pile on but don't insult the intelligence of domainers. Give us some straight talk before nobody believes a word. How far reaching is this? REALLY? Has a police report been made? Who knew and WHEN did they know it? We already have evidence on the boards that is not consistent to the statements being made. Every HOUR and every DAY that passes will be painful until you guys tell theTRUTH and start to level with the industry. Sorry, but this is really beginning to get old very fast and anger is building.
These are my opinions but I doubt I am the only one that shares some of these things. And if I am, well, nothing knew. Just like some may use this post against me, detractors of the industry will use this scandal by the largest player in it against every one of us and point to it as further evidence that we are a corrupt, non legitmate way to make a living and they will do that for years and years and maybe longer than that. That is DAMAGE that you can't see or put a price on. The invisible price and cost each and every one of us will pay and bear the burden with for years to come. It becomes part of our foundation. Our flawed foundation. Ammunition for our enemies! That my friends is the real damage. The real disgrace. The real story from how I view the universe. For those that want to minimize the effect, so be it. For those that want to turn a blind eye and excuse it, that is why we are here to begin with.
Rick Schwartz
Rick
Sorry but your all fools! Fools.
Hal should be made domainer of the year! Every year for the next ten!
You idiots fail to see what was done. You should have been thanking Hal in fact anyone which has outbid him needs to send him 20 percent of your last 4 years revenue.
What you ALL fail to see is how Hal was able to get the best price out of your domains. So many names sold closer to their true value because of him. How many years did he save the industry.
And now having already bought the farm you complain how much you over paid. You just killed your own resale value. You fools.
Hal raises te entity industry more then any of the Ricks could.
You want more?? Watch those resale values drop to the floor and keep digging you douches who do you think your hurting?? Lol
The teck world thinks of you as a joke becuase you are!
Hal for prez!
spelling
It’s”you’re” not”your” you moron..
You and are become a contraction to make an action like”you’re going to the store”…i.e. you are going to the store.
“Your” is posessive like”those shirts are yours”.
99% of people screw this one up…SCARY
Rick
Wow spelling and grammer…. Glad the point of the post wasn’t lost on you….
justt
His name is Nelson Brady, not Hal or Halvarez!
Yaron
I remember not too long ago when everybody was prompting ICA and advice every domainer to join. I didnt, and when the Tucows story came out I was very glad about that. now we have another”Platinum Sponsors” – oversee.net…
ICA got another chance to take action. I doubt if it will.
justt
Seriously, where is ICA?
Rick Schwartz
“Seriously, where is ICA?”
Maybe this will help answer the question and also illustrate my decision 14 months ago. Like I stated then, I would be more effective on this side rather than inside. To that they have been more sensitive to domainer needs but on each important issue of the day where you would expect some leadership, here we are again and my ultimate frustration. Had I been on the inside I would have had a muzzle around me and I am sure that would be better all around anyway………
http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2008/09/ica-resignation.html
spelling
Didn’t mean to call you a moron..I take that back because don’t want to be mean spirited (although it is amazing how many people mess that one up)
I just meant that no, imho hal is a piece o’ chit. Solid domains don’t need any fake bidding like houses to prop up values..like oil, gold and food they actually have value. And the bad attention he brings to an industry that so many people don’t understand (even though it’s simple) it is almost undebatable that no one benefited from him except oversee (albeit for a short time period) I imagine their vested interest was boost revs for ipo and then dump.
Rick
How many times do you think those names he bid on have be sold or traded during this time?each person selling sold at a higher price. So many people gained from this. 99 percent of those drops are junk anyway. Bought and resold for 50-100 bucks more to other domainers.
The ones which might get screwed if they don’t stfu are the current holders. Not only due a perception these domains were priced too high, but also and more importantly due to the loss of the selling platforms.
If you can’t sell an asset, any asset in a timely fashion that’s assets value tumbles as the investor pool is reduced.
Is easy to see why such a massive industry with little barriers of entry has been bought up by a very select few.
The rest of domainers by and large are total fools, dreamers, or scanners.
Don
This is no different than insider trading. It’s basically what it is in some form.
I mean this hal guy is not the only one. I am sure when they dig you will see 20 or 30 more fake bidders. Though this is my guess Due own DD
Big mess.
If you bought a great domain with them, then you really don’t have much to worry about. They will hold their value even if you overpaid a bit. If you bought overpriced inflated junk, well that sucks.
Don
peter
Unbeleivable how many are willing to rip a nascent industry apart to their own behest. The majority of auctions have some level of shill bidding. To see it at this level is unfortunate, but to hurt everyone by tearing these companies apart does a disservice to all domainers. Surely there has to be a better solution.
Maybe oversee.net should compensate those affected by issuing them equity in the company. Both would benefit and more transparency would be the side effect.
What say you mr. Scwartz?
peter
mr. Schwartz.
sorry for the typo Rick.
Rick Schwartz
I think compensation is meaningless without a full public accounting and explanation of what actually happened. So those agreeing to something without knowing the full extent may not be that wise. Time will tell.
Bid
I personally think snapnames was in on it.
It would have been easy to just see who put a large reserve bid on an auction and then just shill bid to get them to that level.
Even domain bidders who needed to do other business and put a higher reserve bid in the system would have been exposed to being shilled to their reserve. Its like playing poker against the house and they always know your hand.
Rob Sequin
1. Oversee is also a victim here.
2. Trust. I just won an auction, just me and another bidder on a keyword domain where I RARELY have any other strong buyers. This one bidder bid me up MUCH higher than the domain is worth so I sent in a support ticket asking if this buyer is a real person. At least they are on notice AND it goes to show that I don’t trust Snap as much as I did.
3. Craig Snyder was CEO of iReit for three years while they were buying domains from Nelson Brady.
He is now General Manager of Snapnames. Why won’t he make a statement as to what he knew and when? If he knew nothing, why not?
Like you say, follow the money. In this case, follow the CEO.
I’m not accusing him of anything and will believe what he wants to release but he owes Snapnames and this entire industry a complete explanation.
justt
Rob,
Has Oversee pressed charges against Nelson Brady?
No, but they just filed a lawsuit against one of their old customers for a relatively tiny amount.
Jimbo Jones
The truth of the matter is that hundreds of domainners have been ROBBED.
Robbed of valuable domains, robbed of hard-earned money, robbed of a Industry that had thousands around the world waking up every morning, happy and excited to get into those drop auctions, if only to be lucky enough to get the domains they coveted, for the best price possible.
This amounts to FRAUD.
FRAUD is a CRIME.
Fraud is akin to getting robbed and not really knowing it until it is too late.
The state’s attorney general’s office (not sure where SnapNames is legally registered, or has it’s business/servers) should quickly move to investigate (if they have not already).
Obviously, at this point, whoever was responsible has probably done enough”track-covering” damage, to make such an investigation harder. But the good thing is if anything was modified, deleted, trashed etc… they will be more heads on the chopping block (YEAH!!!)
I for one am glad I made that move to get out of this cesspool of an industry where Registrars, CPC engines, and even the major searchies are manipulating stats, results, prices, shares, and final payouts to domainners based on an ever increasing nickle-and diming-chip-away-strategy.
The time has come to pull the mask of this”black-box” industry and see what monsters really lurk beneath. It was easy to conceal everything when times were good, but now that those junky names you bought for $250 (because the $60 you should have paid was bid up by a robot), are barely making enough to cover the $8/yr, the truth suddenly becomes clear that you were”royaly phuqued in the arse” by a computer script, and have little, if any, real prospects of recouping the money that was jacked!
I agree with Rick: A class action suit will likely benefit the lawyers, and the real victims will see a”too little-too-late” check for about $4.50…
SteveC
Shill Forum Posters?
Rick you should be ashamed of yourself. Everybody knows all those posts are by real posters. ;>
The day after the story broke I predicted the SnapNames debacle will go deep into the industry. It goes a lot further than Nelson Brady. And it involves off shore less than reputable domaining.
Hold on to your horses on this one.
anon
this really good stuff?
bunch of folk who make money for doing not much more than spending their time hitting key strokes driving up the cost of doing business as though they are entitled to the money because they can?
you guys are in for a very rude awakining, like the FDA coming down on people selling paharma arent watching you too?
People with trademarks your kind have infringed upon?
The plot sickens, as far as I am concerned yer all in on it?