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Comment by unknownaccount | Hacker News Reader

> randomly cancelling thousands of peoples domains on short notice simply due to the country they are from

Not wrong, but for more context, they made their Russian customers transfer their domains, when their Ukrainian offices started getting shelled by Russian invaders. It’s hard to stay politically neutral when your staff are literally being bombed

Choosing not to allow renewals would have been been acceptable but they straight cancelled those domains prematurely before the term of registration had ended. Basically pulling the rug out from underneath people without giving them adequate time to migrate. Allowing domains to be sniped by unscrupulous parties who put malware on them which hurt many thousands of people (mostly foreigners who had nothing to do with Russia). Totally irresponsible and criminally negligent behavior for any registrar. I hope they get sued for for breaking their own contracts and causing widespread destruction via malware.

While I don't really care about the Ukraine crisis (its just being used as a political tool here), Namecheap offices were being blown up by an invading force.

If Russia wants to have free commerce with Ukraine, including domain registration, then it shouldn't have invaded. As soon as war started, all trade requirements cease. In fact, I'm surprised it didn't become illegal immediately to have any commerce with Russia.

Where is “here” if you don’t mind me asking.

United States. Biden and Congress are just using "Ukraine Aid" as money for special interests (read corruption) and funding the military industrial complex as arms dealers.

> I'm surprised it didn't become illegal immediately to have any commerce with Russia

Because you mistake Russian citizens for Russian Federation. Also someone needs that chea^W not so cheap now gas.

I get it, but this is like kicking Barron Trump (the kid) out of your home because you don’t like his father.

I get that you’re angry, I get that they’re related, but the kid doesn’t really have a say in how the father behaves. Same with Putin and most Russians.

I could be protesting in Moscow and you’re still pulling the domain from me. That’s not ok.

I don’t have a stake in this, I just don’t want to deal with shit if my prime minister 10k miles away is an asshole.

It wasn't how a registrar should act. But it was a completely understandable way to act, and given their emotional distress at the time, I think they deserve a fuckton of slack when judging how bad this mistake was.

I probably would have done the same thing in their shoes.

As for prime ministers being assholes affecting you, that is just the reality of global politics. I could say 'vote better' but that doesn't help much.

> It wasn't how a registrar should act.

So we agree. If you act the wrong way, I won’t give you business. It’s not a hard concept, regardless of the motivations behind it.

> without giving them adequate time to migrate

They gave them a month.

That would seem to be plenty of time to find a new registrar and transfer the domain.

They gave less than two weeks: at Feb 28 people recived the letters about "asking" to GTFO by March 6, 2022.

I would just point to my comment back then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30507975

Also I would remind you what other services were cut immediately:

> Additionally, and with immediate effect, you will no longer be able to use Namecheap Hosting, EasyWP, and Private Email with a domain provided by another registrar in zones .ru, .xn--p1ai (рф), .by, .xn--90ais (бел), and .su. All websites will resolve to 403 Forbidden, however, you can contact us to assist you with your transfer to another provider.

Also I would point out to the other comment in that thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30505934 Looks like someone wasn't satisfied with the ban by the country and resolved by greping by the names/last names. Doesn't remind you anything?

The original date was March 6 but was extended to March 22.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/1/22956581/russia-ukraine-na...

You know, "gave plenty of time (1 week)" and "gave plenty of time ONLY AFTER PEOPLE ACTIVELY COMPLAINED (still less than 4 weeks)" are two different things.

>Received the same email. I'm based in Lithuania and I have a Russian first name. No Russian addresses, IPs, billing info etc (because I have never been there!). How do you even select people to target with this? It's past midnight, I'm trying to figure out my options here. How exactly do the Euros I pay you from EU contribute to the Russian aggression?

This is utterly appalling. Im at loss for words.

The minimum length of registration at practically all registrars is 1 year. Its practically unheard of, and against all professional standards for registrars to cancel a persons domains prematurely. Nobody expects it and they knew that and they pulled the rug anyway because apparently they value virtue signaling more than security.

According to other comments here, their offices were being shelled by the Russians. At that point, taking action against Russians isn't virtue signalling.

> virtue signaling

Or maybe they just don't want to incur the risk of doing business with a sanctioned country.

>Choosing not to allow renewals would have been been acceptable but they straight cancelled those domains prematurely before the term of registration had ended.

As a Russian who was (and technically still is) one of their custmores: this is not accurate or at least only is true for some domains.

I've had two domains registered and managed via NC and decided to only transfer the former.

As of now the other one is still up.

> when their Ukrainian offices started getting shelled by Russian invaders.

Do you have a source for this?

I doubt it was their customers bombing them. If anything, taking money out of the country should be a good thing if they don't want to support that country.

> It’s one of those cheap bottom of the barrel vendors which of course takes shortcuts to make the price so cheap.

NameCheap is only the cheapest for _one_ TLD in terms of renewal cost (https://tld-list.com/registrars). Love that site.

Huh I guess they are just taking shortcuts to enrich themselves then - even less noble than I’d thought.

You seem knowledgeable, so, what do you think about Porkbun?

Not OP, I just took a look at Porkbun.

They appear to take security seriously. You can choose to receive emails upon each successful and/or failed login. You can view a list of recent logins to your account on the website. You can force log out all sessions. Additional authentication methods include two-factor codes, WebAuthn w/ physical keys. You can download a set of backup, one-time-use codes. You can restrict IP addresses allowed for login. They also check if your email address is present in known password leaks, and prompt you to turn on 2FA for added security.

The web interface is quick, has a simple design (Bootstrap/Foundation? for CSS), and doesn't feel flimsy.

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