[Cunjo]

Ever since my site's last domain name fell through (that's a long story involving trusting others to do things right and Murphy), I've been on the lookout for new, useable top-level domains for my site. The harder I look, the more the whole search seems futile.

Every relevant domain name that meets my criteria (It has to be related to my content, short and easy to remember/type, and phonetic enough to relay to someone verbally) is already taken, and only about 1/3 of them by legitimate webmasters or businesses - the rest are parked by cybersquatters demanding anywhere from five thousand to several hundred thousand dollars to buy the name from them. Needless to say, I simply can't afford to pay that kind of money for a non-profit website. It's unconscionable that people are raking in millions of dollars by hoarding something that should be free to the public and monopolizing it like that.

Four of the domain names I've considered belong to BuyDomains.com, one of many companies that could be considered amongst the lowest scum of the internet. They boast over 800,000 domains, all of which they've snatched up for exactly $****, while demanding between $700 and $1,000,000 of anyone who has a legitimate use for them. They promise to help people in search of domains by squatting new domains constantly and charging them a premium. Ironically, they're also the owners of cybersquatters.net . I wonder how much they would charge for that one.

The point is, it's getting increasingly hard for anyone to find a useable domain name, because even the mediocre ones are all taken by scum who capitalize on the free internet. I've been searching for a useable domain name for my site for more than two weeks now... after spending the last four hours searching for a domain - any domain - that would work for me, I'm on the brink of despair.

I really wish something could be done about it. It should not be legal for people to scoop up .org domains en-masse and deny them from the public or sell them for gross profit. I used to think that spammers were the lowest scum of the internet, but at least spammers don't literally prevent you from conducting legitimate business... squatters are a real problem, but what can you do about it?

[williwaw]

I feel your pain. Just to add a little salt to the wound, they most likely bought up the domains that you recently searched for availability on their site. What a SOB!

Cheers,
Williwaw