Is your domain registrar stealing from you?

Posted by stuart as news aggregator

A roundup of my previous posts on the matter, then I’ll be moving on to another domain registrar:

It appears that mydomain.com are redirecting traffic to “landing pages” stuffed with PPC advertising whilst domain registrants are waiting for their DNS to propogate.

This is wrong for so many reasons it’s not funny. For example, let’s say you’re a web developer, and putting together a site for your client. You buy the domain name, and tell your client you have done so. The client merilly types their shiny new domain name into their web browser, and as the domain hasn’t propogated yet, they are confronted with a page of ads.

Keep in mind that the content of these ads is outside of the control of both mydomain.com, and you, the person in charge of developing the site which will sit on this domain, as they are contextually served. This means that inappropriate ads may be shown, which the client may find highly offensive. It is then left up to the web developer to explain to a client who has no understanding of the DNS, what is happening.
This raises some serious questions which need addressing:

1. Why weren’t we, as domain registrants, told about these changes at mydomain?
2. What’s to stop registrars placing a few hours hold on the updating of name servers, to have their ads show for longer?
3. What’s to stop the registrars pointing the domains to a landing page if there are other problems with the DNS system
4. What’s to stop registrars choosing low trafficked domains, and randomly making them show a landing page, rather than the intended URL

This is interfering of the highest level.
If mydomain, and other registrars can’t see that this is stealing from their clients, by using a domain that has been paid for, to make money for themselves, there is something seriously wrong in the world.