lcdproc.org/com/net domain renewal issues

On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 2:58 PM, William Ferrell <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 12:46 PM, William Ferrell <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I've poked eNom at their registation-pending address to see how to get this process started. We'll see what they have to say about it. I don't expect them to be deliberately obtrusive in the process of getting this transfer going; just bureaucratically annoying as is expected from a registrar :) They haven't got any "personal" vested interest in the situation (the previous donor did, and she and I are most likely not on speaking terms any longer) so I can't imagine they'd deliberately try to stop our effort.
>
>
> I've received an automated response from eNom explaining (among other
> things) how to use a tool they provide to determine the current
> registrar of record. I've done so, and have now sent a message to that
> entity (contact info as provided by eNom follows) to inquire how to
> proceed.

Bad news time.

The web hosting company has been very helpful so far, but
unfortunately eNom wants $250 per domain (*plus* the regular domain
registration fee) to "rescue" them from the current "redemption"
status they're in. Renewing and then transferring them to a different
registrar (that we actually have *access* to) will require a second
year's registration for each domain as well (register through the
current registrar to gain access to transfer keys, then register
through the desired registrar so we can transfer the domains to it).

We now have three options:

1. Pony up ~$800 or so to recover the domains now.

2. Wait for them to "expire" and become publicly available (it could
be between 32 and 90 days, seemingly arbitrary), then register them as
new again once they do.

3. Pick a new domain for the project (if we do that, I'd suggest
something like lcdproc-project.org, but I'm open to suggestions),
register it now and set it up, and be done with it.

Option 1 is !@#$ing expensive. Option 2 includes the risk that a
squatter will buy the domains before we get the chance to. Option 3 is
cheapest, though it "costs" us the original domain names and the loss
of whatever search engine mojo the existing domains had.

What do folks think? I'm inclined to opt for option 2 for now, to see
if we can just scoop the names back up again ourselves, then fall back
to option 3 if some smeghead snatches them out from under us.


-- 
William W. Ferrell
Software Engineer
http://willfe.com/ -- [email protected]