Show HN: Giving lonely domain names a new life - name2.me | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Giving lonely domain names a new life - name2.me

name2.me

10 pointsdworrad14 comments

I have around 100 domains and only "use" about 10 of them. I'd be interested in being able to upload a "portfolio" listing all my domains that others could browse. If another user wants one of my domains, a message would be sent to me. I could then browse their "portfolio" and see if I wanted one of their domains. If so, a 1-to-1 trade would be proposed which both parties would then have to agree to. At that point, we would each transfer the domains to the other party (without some type of escrow, you'd be on the honor system and have to trust the other party, but some type of "reputation" or "karma" could maybe be implemented for that?).

Just the sort of ideas i need.. Thanks

Hey did this come out of the domain exchange idea I had a week or so ago in one of the threads on HN? If so, great execution. I like the idea of a "kudos" being used as a virtual currency.

Just looking at the instructions now is there any way to make them shorter (maybe 3 or 4 steps instead of 6?) Also step 6 is very vague. What are "golden domains"? I mean I may have some idea but it's really not clear to an average user. What makes a domain a "golden one"? Are my domains "golden"? Anyway you get the picture.

Funny you should say that.. I was about to launch with a similar product but a little more complicated. I was waiting for someone at the airport and I saw your post/comment and it made it clear to me that I'd over complicated the idea. So I pretty much went back to scratch and came up with name2.me... Thanks for unintentional "push" in the right direction. When we see top domain names come through we are going to mark them as "Golden" and give the opportunity to the highest kudos users to get in first. Thanks again.

Excellent. And no problem, I'm happy I was able to provide a little bit of inspiration. Rock on.

Are you detecting a doorway makers in some way? Your project looks like a Klondike for them.

Are you talking about adding a unattractive domain, then using the free kudos point to grab up a better one? That's kind of what is keeping me from putting mine up (magnatecha.com and linuxterm.com). They're not that great, but I would rather keep them than get 3 kudos to get things like antpx.com... I guess one just has to make a choice as to how much they like their current unused domains.

It is certainly a scenario which we have thought about quite a bit. That is why we have the approval process so you can choose if anyone gets your domain - You should give this a try. In time we'll see how the site is being used. I guess there are some who have domains that they are never going to use (or renew) so it makes sense to give their domain away to someone who might use it.

You get 1 point just after registering, and 2 more with tweet and like buttons. So you can get a free domain without giving away yours. 2) Register a new account. 3) Repeat.

We are aware of that possibility and we have "whois" jobs running to tell us that domains have exchanged hands - we are working on other ideas. Also we won't be so generous with the points once the site is off and running. But I still think that if you are not using a domain (and not going to renew) then you might as well let anyone have it - I don't foresee many really great domains coming through here (I might be wrong)... But it does give the kid who doesn't have $10 (or a credit card) the chance to grab a domain for free.

We have some "whois" jobs which should alert us in the initial period. We'll be working on this though if the site gains traction.

Nice idea.

I tried to add a domain and it said it was invalid, looks like a faulty regex or something... http://quickscreen.me/aPEd.png

Thanks for the heads up.. we'll fix that up straight away.

good idea, will be nice to see if this becomes popular. i think quite a lot of people (myself included) have loads of unused domain names for project ideas that were never finished (or started) that will just be left to expire

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