Give HN: 3 character .net domains | Hacker News Reader

Give HN: 3 character .net domains

49 pointsmslagh41 comments

I'm cleaning out my godaddy account and have a bunch that are expiring in the next two weeks. I'd be happy to pass along the rights to you before they drop, if you can find one that would be useful. 4HN.net, anybody?

1F3.NET 1F4.NET 1G4.NET 1J4.NET 1J6.NET 1R7.NET 1YL.NET 2S7.NET 2UL.NET 2VH.NET 2VL.NET 3FQ.NET 3FY.NET 3JG.NET 3JV.NET 3KQ.NET 3LQ.NET 3P6.NET 3QG.NET 3UQ.NET 3VQ.NET 3YQ.NET 4H0.NET 4HN.NET 4JN.NET 4KQ.NET 4P8.NET 4QB.NET 4QE.NET 4QG.NET 4UJ.NET 5P2.NET 5R3.NET 5R7.NET 5W3.NET 6F3.NET 6F4.NET 6G4.NET 6H3.NET 6H4.NET 6L4.NET 6M4.NET 6P4.NET 6PF.NET 6Q0.NET 6Q4.NET 6Q5.NET 6QE.NET 6R1.NET 7AW.NET 7I3.NET 7IJ.NET 7N0.NET 7N9.NET 7O5.NET 7R0.NET 7R5.NET 7S2.NET 7V0.NET 7YQ.NET 8G1.NET 8G2.NET 8G3.NET 8G6.NET 8H3.NET 8M3.NET 8M4.NET 8M5.NET 8P2.NET 8P5.NET 8Q0.NET 8R1.NET 8R2.NET 8W6.NET 8Y1.NET 9H4.NET 9J0.NET 9J4.NET 9J7.NET 9M5.NET 9P2.NET 9Q0.NET 9Q2.NET 9Q3.NET 9Q4.NET 9Q5.NET 9R0.NET 9R6.NET 9T3.NET 9U0.NET 9U4.NET 9V4.NET 9W0.NET 9W2.NET

Can I ask why you registered all of those in the first place?

It is surprising. They're short, but they're also absolute trash.

One domainer's trash is another domainer's treasure?

So was 4sq.com.

4sq.com is just another '1 in a million' url shortener. Hardly a prime example of a trash url turned gold.

Never heard of it.

Most were part of a bulk buy on ebay. Others are remnants of years of domain buying and selling.

Indeed - I get really tired of seeing 'this domain is parked!' or, worse 'this domain is for sale!' when trying to find a domain.

If you're not planning to use it - don't sit on it!

Unfortunately, this is just the way it'll always work. Take land, for example: It's all claimed by someone already. And a lot of it isn't even being used. It'd be really sweet to use a bunch of it... but there are squatters. :/

The only sane answer is to increase the registration price for domains so that it relates more to the market worth of that domain.

Good luck properly determining that.

It still doesn't solve the problem: then they're all just squatted by the rich.

The problem at the moment is that it is essentially free to squat on millions of domains. It's just a matter of getting organized, using grace periods, advertising income, so you don't actually have to pay any money to hold millions of domains.

That can't be right.

Even if you set the registration price to say $1,000 I think you'd solve a lot of problems. People wouldn't just buy 20 domains just incase they might put something on 1 of them.

Sure, you'd still get people squatting on names, but to a far lesser extent.

Currently, people just buy up a ton of domains thinking "Wow I'd like to develop that someday". It's antisocial, but it's encouraged by the nominal price of registering domains.

</rant>

"Even if you set the registration price to say $1,000"

Do you realize the impact that would have on innovating new web apps?

Negligible if any. Buying an SSL certificate is more expensive than registering a domain.

edit: It'd also be likely someone would startup some 'free/cheap' subdomain hosting for people who don't want to pay the $1000... eg myapp.free.com

Bollocks.

Right now I can get an SSL certificate and register a domain name for under $30 through Dreamhost.

I can think of a few projects that I've started that have helped a few people that never would have gotten off the ground if we had your preposterous $1k fee for registrations.

The current system's not great, sure, but it's a whale better than your "only the rich can register" plan.

I have never had more than $2,000 in a bank account at one time. I think that your expectations are slightly skewed. And buying an SSL certificate may be more expensive, but it's still $50/year, a far cry from $1k.

I'm sure Verisign would be delighted for ICANN to raise the domain registration fee like that!

no, that is not the answer.

BTW: I'm using a free SSL cert at the moment.

> 'free/cheap' subdomain

They already exist. They're all over the place really...

So this way registrars will make obscene amounts of money for doing very little rather than squatters? Don't you think that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

There are a ton of domains that shouldn't be worth $1000. Take my name. There are half a dozen domains I could park that no one but my immediate family could want.

It costs anywhere from $8-15/year to renew a domain depending on the tld, so it's pretty expensive to sit on them. I thought this would be a good way to put them to use within the hn community before I set them free to the crazies of the domain registrant world.

Oh no, what you're doing is awesome. I own three or four domain names that I'm not using yet myself.

I agree with Steve. The people with the extra cash will just park on it which will drive up the price they will charge you to buy it. There is no clear cut solution to this problem, it will be around as long as the domain model is what it is (but then again how would it change?).

The closest thing I can come up with would be to in-act some kind of domain activity monitor (use it or loose it) type pattern, but I don't seriously think this would ever happen either.

So, auction them?

Aren't squatters already taking care of that by offering to sell these domains to bidders?

plug: http://hntrades.com/

It is interesting to see, how different people find use for different pointless character combinations :-)

Nice cache of domains! No use for any of them here, but there's good potential for many.

And I thought I was a domain packrat! :)

The 4xx ones seem like they could be useful.

You got me thinking... I'd like 4qe.net if I could.

If possible, I'd love to have 9w2.net, thanks! (sending email now)

If possible, I would like to have 4jn.net (sent you an email)

Sent you an email about 9T3.net - thanks for doing this. :)

Would love 4KQ.net - have sent you an email. Thanks :)

4QB.NET might be good for a fantasy football site

Just sent an e-mail about 2UL.net, thank you!

I'd love to take 9j0.net off your hands.

If possible, I'll take 3FY.NET. Thanks!

sure, just email me (profile)

Sent.

These are only the .net domains! Wonder how many .com and other tlds you have!

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