Good idea or not: freecycle for domain names
I have two domains that are expiring in a month that I bought thinking something was a great idea. Domain names are inexpensive, so why not? Now it's been a year and I don't really remember why I bought these domain names (pseudoactuality and questionablyvalid, fyi) and I'm not going to be using them for myself. I'd like it if there were a service where I could transfer them for free to someone who wants them. Would that be something worth making?
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On the other hand, I have no idea how you'd stop domain parkers from actually using the service to get domains for free. With freecycle itself, it's probably quite hard to hide that you're abusing it to make cash on ebay or something, but I don't know how you'd prevent that with non-physical goods.
So just throw up a questionnaire that asks them who they are, what the domain is going to be used for, etc
+ You can let the user make their own questionnaire ...so they can make their questions be as relevant as they want. i.e. lets say you own something like newyorkjetsftw.com, you'd ask some questions that only a true Jets fan would know or someone who'd want to spend the 10 minutes hunting down the information
Just let them expire and whoever wants to use them will (in theory) be able register them from. I.e., when you let them expire they will go back into the pool.
I say "in theory" because of the possibility that domain name registrars will "taste" them http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting and/or do something else to "grab" them and sell or auction them to the highest bidder in whatever marketplace they can expose the names to. Other downside is a domain name speculator will acquire and the the same. All this begs a debate on "right and wrong," which is a whole other topic.
I suppose what I really want is for a group of people that are interested in creating useful web content to have a chance at before it expires. My ideal target audience would be the readership here or a similar group. Just having a list of unused domain names registered by people on this site would be a valuable resource to me. I could get all sorts or ideas from it, make a comment on one of the names that inspired the owner to do something with it, or end up with a chance to collaborate with the owner on a joint idea.
I've let a few expire, and a few I've "given" to charity by hosting something for them.
Question: how do you handle multiple people wanting it?
* First come first serve
* "Bid" => money to charities
* Fight to the death
Seriously though, the bid (to charity) idea makes sense, but I foresee original owners getting greedy when they see what they could've gotten. Then they may pull it and "sell" it instead. You'd have to somehow set it up so they "give" a middle man the site, and then the middle man transfers it. Interesting idea though, I'm in. I've got about 15 domains I don't need.