Afternic Gets A Case of the Goodie Two Shoes
Afternic domain name sellers received an email today telling them that any names they have listed that promote “hate, sex, obscenity or self-destructive behavior, such as substance abuse, violence and gambling” will be delisted.
Well, that’s about a quarter of the domain names. LOL!
Hey, that means my new IHateRobots.com won’t even be able to be listed any longer. RoboPhobia? Crap. Robot hate crimes? I’m in trouble.
I’ve already had too much wine at the Los Olivos Cafe (you know, that movie called Sideways where the actors got drunk) so I want to be careful to not say too much tonight. I should really wait until the morning. But, I’ve got a big mouth so I can’t wait.
Seriously though, I can say that I certainly respect the rights of any private business to do as they please; I’m a conservative thinker (no not a religious conservative)–so do what you want with your business. I don’t think it’s a smart decision, if it helps them sleep better at night, then it’s the right decision for them. It’s just too bad that the only real hope of competition to get Sedo to improve their impossibly frustrating user interface is going to quickly fade away. Sedo NEEDS competition.
Anyway, Afternic’s got the religion, but nothing is going to change in the domain world. They’ll lose not only the “bad” domain names, but the rest of the names in peoples’ portfolio’s that have those domain names in them. People don’t want to start having to keep track of subsets of their portfolio at one of the sales sites; it’s enough work as it is to keep track of thousands of domains and where they are listed.
Hey, I was just wondering…I’ve got this cool name called Pleasurama.com. I suppose you guys with dirty minds think it’s about something sexual, but listen up Afternic, it’s not. 
Please don’t delist it. It’s about chocolate. Yeah, that’s it. Chocolate. It’s not naughty. Okay? The pleasure of chocolate.
Here’s the letter. What’s your opinion?
Note: Do you guys think you could digg the article so the subject gets some attention? if you will, please go here for the Digg page.
Dear Members, Domainers and Friends:
We want to share with you a recent decision that we believe will put Afternic in an even better position to serve the small business, SOHO community and greater domain industry.
After extensive consideration, we have decided to no longer accept domain names that promote hate, sex, obscenity or self-destructive behavior, such as substance abuse, violence and gambling. The sole rationale behind our decision is to make Afternic a more comfortable site for mainstream domain name shoppers, especially small business owners. We recognize that taking a leadership role on this issue may have a negative financial impact on our business in the near term. Nonetheless, we believe strongly that it’s the right thing long-term decision for our industry and Afternic.
In the next few days, we will de-list these kinds of domain names currently posted on our site. Members who own such names will receive a letter from us informing them which names will no longer be listed. We hope that they, and others, will understand that we have no interest in censorship and that we fully support First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression. And, there is certainly no lack of other Internet sites where such names are welcomed.
The Internet, much like the early days of television, is still a new frontier. We believe it is up to the industry leaders-and we include Afternic here-to step up and determine what constitutes professional standards and practices. We take this action in the interest of socially responsible corporate behavior and hope that it leads to further healthy industry dialog and discussion on the topic.
We greatly appreciate your business and support of Afternic, and will continue to endeavor to earn your confidence and trust.
Very best regards,
Roger Collins
President of Afternic, Inc.
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My opinions are:
1. Move your business if you don’t like their policies, and:
2. Send them feedback and let them know what you think.
This will not be the last marketplace or parking to service to implement this policy. My guess is that you will have trouble finding any major marketplace to park/promote these types of domains within 12 months.
Corporate image obviously outweighs revenue for Afternic.
I’m just curious why everyone (and by everyone I mean the many people posting on various forums) makes this out to be an issue of religion? And why everyone takes it so personally?
Companies set standards of what is professional for their businesses all the time. Think of dress codes. One office may want to present an image that requires that its employees wear suits all of the time. By saying that professionalism in their office includes wearing a suit, are they saying that any business that does otherwise is not professional? No. And if a company makes the decision that wearing a suit to work is going to attract thekind of clientele that they are aiming to keep, based on research they have performed, who would fault them for that decision? Not any reasonable person, I would imagine. Does this mean they all wear a suit everywhere they go? Probably not.
Whether anyone agrees with the implications of what is moral/acceptable or not, when it comes down to it, its a business decision. Not a political or religious statement. Businesses do this kind of thing all the time.
When I said that Afternic “got the religion” I probably should have used differnet words. I didn’t mean it literally. I don’t think they did it for religious or moral reasons (especially when dnjournal.com is showing a picture of the owner gambling). I do really think they did it for business reasons–right or wrong. Since they are losing their butt to Sedo (which is amazing because Sedo is so screwed up), they’d probably figured they would carve out a niche. I hope it works for them.
I too am sick of the kids (and I mean that literally, I think most are teens) on the forums calling Afternic hypocrites. Well ‘enlighted and liberated” Europeans or teens, same thing. Afternic has always said it was for business reasons, not moral reasons.
Well, well, well….
Even if all this is truly for “business reasons,” it very offense to a segment of the population or to anyone that believes in freedom of lifestyle. Apparently, they have removed all names with the word “Gay” in them. What makes “gay” more adult-oriented than “hetero”? Obviously, Afternic believes that anything gay-oriented is offensive.
Why else would they remove my:
Gaycation.com
GayTravels.us
GayCharity.com
GayCharities.com
DateAGay.com
GayDaySpa.com
GaySpa.us
GaySpas.us
Given their apparent dislike of gays, you’d think they would have at least wanted to keep my GayCure.com. LOL!!!
The gay population is actually one of the highest earning demographic groups. Is it not in Afternic’s business interest to show domains that might allow sites to show them specialized travel opportunites, charities, health spas, etc.?
If this this was not the intention of Afternic, the big broad sweep of mass deletion/fix later, is just plain stupid. Stupid business. Plus it’s going to be a waste of time for us even if they let these non-adult ones back in.
Just plain dumb. Sedo has to be laughing all the way to the bank. And that’s a shame too, since they have so many of their own problems.
My most confusing name removed that shocked the hell out of me was
pontiffjohnpaul11.org
Now they are turning on religion!
ROFL@ pontiffjohnpaul11.org! And here I was upset with lovepoem, gaytravelportal, gaymarriage, gaynation, etc. That’s pretty funny! Guess Afternic should have thought this out some before jumping to deletions, huh? Quite a big hurry they were in, no? No time to plan this out properly, I guess. Makes me wonder why. No problem, SEDO and Great Domains don’t seem to have a problem with selling my evil domains. I’ve sold more through SEDO anyway, and no membership fees or $60 minimum when parked there .
I only made like 2 cents (LOL!) when parked with Afternic, so no huge loss. Let them roll in their religion. It’s their business. BUT, no need to cram it down my throat. That’s not what I signed up for when I paid my $20. Anti-gay = Afternic caught the religion and right-wing fanatic politics bug. Unfortunately, I paid $20 to join this religious domain group. If I would have known……………. I think any offer I receive on Afternic (until my membership expires) will receive a $5,000,000 counter. They can email me (or find SEDO 
) if they want it for less.
They’re not completely going goodie two shoes. No, you can’t list gay or poker names, but if you’re into animal sex, incest or child porn you’re still in the clear.
https://www.afternic.com/name.php?id=14258588
https://www.afternic.com/name.php?id=14256273
https://www.afternic.com/name.php?id=14259098
https://www.afternic.com/name.php?id=14257675
https://www.afternic.com/name.php?id=424499
LOL!!!!!
http://www.afternic.com/news.php
NAMEMEDIA ACQUIRES AFTERNIC
Waltham, MA — 11/28/2006 - NameMedia, the industry leader in Direct Search and Premium Domain Name Sales, today announced that it has acquired Afternic, Inc., the industry’s pioneer marketplace for the resale of domain names. Afternic will join with BuyDomains, NameMedia’s existing domain name marketplace, in creating the leading platform for the domain aftermarket……