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Comment by benatkin | Hacker News Reader

I think this should be the normal way of doing things. I cringe when I hear about people renewing domain names after they expired. I think the records should be changed prior to the domains expiring so they could hard-expire X years after being registered and people would know exactly when they really need to renew them.

But, of course, since it's not in their TOS, and isn't either the normal way of doing things or stated very loud and clear during the registering process, it's unacceptable.

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You think deleting the registration before it expires should be normal?

No, I think changing the DNS before it expires should be normal. Changing the DNS to a tacky parked page is often the only thing that gets peoples' attention, including highly competent people. I think if DNS changed 30 days before N years after the registration date, it would get people to extend the registration before the official expiry date. The date that DNS changes would be a date that the domain owner would get warned about.

Having a window after the official expiration date that few people know isn't elegant to me. Also in the vast majority of cases, if it's valuable to keep a domain 11 months after registering it, it's valuable to keep it longer.

unbelievable--if i renew my domain with one day to spare every year without any mistake or delay in payment, you believe my websites should be interrupted! for what, besides being on time?

For your own good. If dhh can delay renewing rubyrails.com until the domain gets cut off, many of us can forget to renew our much less important names!

If you sell me twelve months, cutting me off at eleven is fraud. If you want to offer a "reminder" that makes me look like an idiot in public (when I haven't even screwed up!), make it opt-in.

For your own good, domain registrars should contact you, by email, well in advance of an expiration. Worst case scenario, the name is held by the registrar for the grace period and the former owner has exclusive rights to it during that term.

Moniker actually sense out these emails regular like clockwork.

A sample:

# 0 Domains Pending Deletion - [ RENEW NOW ]

# 0 Domains Pending Deactivation

# 0 Domains Expiring Within 7 Days

# 51 Domains Expiring Within 35 Days

# 146 Domains Expiring Within 75 Days

So they actually start warning more than two months in advance.

This is kind of what happens anyway. If you let a domain expire, there is still a 'grace period' where you can renew it before it becomes available for someone else to buy. So, in those terms, the expiry date is a soft limit, and the end of the grace period marks a hard limit.

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