Let’s face it: as domainers, sometimes we forget to renew our domains on time. Other times, we do not want to renew our domains at all and we let them expire, letting them fade away into dropcatching hell.
Soon, these will be options of the past.
Domain Renewal Enforcer (DRE) – a product of Innovative Creations, a Cardiff-based company – is currently being tested at a number of registrars, attempting to remind registrants to renew their domains at an increasingly aggressive manner.
There are three DRE modes: Mild, Medium and Extreme – let’s view them in more detail:
- Mild mode: For the period of 60 to 30 days before expiration, an email is dispatched daily, accompanied by an automated phonecall and a text message to the domain owner. The text is configurable and the voice of the call can be male, female or Robocop.
- Medium mode: Between 30 days to a day before expiration, daily visits at the registrant’s address are performed, urging them to renew – or else. Using former Jehova’s Witnesses, this mode usually would achieve a 75% renewal rate.
- Extreme mode: Upon expiration and for 15 days after, the registrant’s home is shrink-wrapped, thus making it impossible for the registrant to exit their premises without renewing the domain. This mode ensures a 99% success rate with renewals, unless the negligent domain owner dies from starvation.
“We believe that once registered, a domain name must be renewed forever”, said Thomas Lee Harpo of Innovative Creations. “There is no excuse for domain registrants to forget their obligation to the domain Registries, especially since Verisign and ICANN are doing their best to improve the Internet and life in general”, he added.
Among the registrars currently test-driving the Domain Renewal Enforcer are Network Solutions, Seppuku Japan and Registerfly.
