Tag Archives: moniker

Wed 9th September 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Jothan Frakes to lead Moniker - Frakes to the rescue? Domain name industry veteran Jothan Frakes is set to take over the helm of Moniker as interim CEO later this month. Frakes will have a tough challenge ahead of him. Moniker has been in a tailspin ever since it switched from its legacy system to a reseller platform under the ownership of KeyDrive. The new system was confusing to users. Worse, migration errors led to domain names missing from accounts and incorrect account balances. Support and communication during the transition ... read more ...
Tue 3rd February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker mislaid over 60,000 .com domain names in October - Registrar plunges below 900,000 .com registrations mark. Verisign’s latest .com monthly report has been published by ICANN, and Moniker’s woes from its platform switch over the summer appear to have finally caught up with it. Moniker lost 61,191 .com domain names to transfers in October 2014. After its disastrous platform switch in June, it lost at least 17,500 .com domains to transfers each month, peaking at 26,681 in September. The October jump is huge. (ICANN publishes the reports after a ... read more ...
Mon 8th December 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oops: Moniker comment balances are apparently borked - Incorrect balances shown on accounts dating back to October. The hits keep on coming for Moniker…and its customers. When the domain name registrar switched to a completely new registrar platform over the summer, it lost all previous invoices that customers used to be able to view within their account. Customers got access to new invoices, and could see an up-to-date balance, but couldn’t see their transactions from before the platform switch. Then, some time around ... read more ...
Wed 5th November 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker mislaid only 18,057 .com domains to transfers in July - Customer losses still fairly low after switch to new system. Last month I reported that Moniker only lost 17,506 .com domain names to transfers in June after its disastrous switch to a new registrar platform. I predicted that the number would shoot up in July, since it was easier to transfer domains out at that point. (Official .com registry reports are published three months after the end of the month). The July report is out, and Moniker’s losses in July were ... read more ...
Thu 9th October 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker usually mislaid 17,506 .com domains to transfers in June - Customer losses stemming from botched transition was rather limited in first month. ICANN has just published the monthly registry reports for June, the month that Moniker switched to an entirely new platform. The switch caused numerous problems for Moniker and its customers. But it looks like — at least for the first month — the damage in terms of domain outflows was rather limited. Moniker lost 17,506 .com domain names to transfers out in June. Given that it ... read more ...
Wed 8th October 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker’s transition-related confidence holes come to light - Moniker customer explains some of the security holes that may have led to his domains being stolen, including some introduced by the transition from the old Moniker system to a new platform. So it is sad to say goodbye to Moniker, and to witness the self-destruction of this company that played such a large role in the development of the domain industry. So writes Nat Cohen, long time domain name investor and owner of perhaps the best portfolio of three character domains ... read more ...
Mon 6th October 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker only reset your password, and we need to do something about it NOW - Moniker tries to improve security, but… Moniker just sent an email to all of its customers notifying them that their passwords were reset in the name of better security. Requiring stronger passwords at Moniker is a good idea. It has historically had weak password requirements, including password character composition and reset requirements. Yet the way Moniker made the change was probably counterproductive to security. The email to each customer included the login ... read more ...
Thu 17th July 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker enables bulk send auth codes - Moniker makes it easier to transfer domain names to another registrar. It’s been a frustrating six weeks for Moniker customers. After a disastrous switch to a completely new registrar platform, many customers wanted to move their domain names to another registrar. Adding insult to injury, there was no way to get transfer authorization codes in bulk. Instead, customers had to request them one-by-one. Finally, some good news for customers: Moniker has added bulk ... read more ...
Wed 2nd July 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Top 5 Domain Name Wire stories from June - Moniker “wins” three spots on June’s top stories list. Is there no such thing as bad press? That phrase probably went out the window last month for Moniker. It took three of the month’s top five spots on Domain Name Wire for highest-trafficked stories. The stories also combined for over 350 comments. It was not good news. Here’s the complete top five. 1. The new Moniker: Love it or Hate it? – It’s definitely the latter. 2. Moniker CEO Bonnie Wittenburg ... read more ...
Wed 11th June 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sorry, Moniker. It’s Over. - My long relationship with Moniker is coming to an end due to irreconcilable differences. I’ve been a Moniker customer for a decade. Probably longer. I haven’t been a completely satisfied customer, but I have been a content customer. Until a week ago. That’s when Moniker flipped the switch on its new system. It completely scrapped the old Moniker we all knew. It replaced it with KeyDrive’s reseller platform. Unfortunately, the transition has been an unmitigated ... read more ...
Thu 5th June 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker CEO Bonnie Wittenburg discusses botched transition - Wittenburg discusses what went wrong and what the company is doing to fix it. It’s been a long week for Moniker and its customers. The company transitioned its entire platform over to Key-Systems’ reseller platform over the weekend and it didn’t go as planned. Domains not set to renew were renewed, domains were missing from accounts, pricing was erroneous and other features didn’t work correctly. Moniker took the entire site down for 24 hours starting Tuesday ... read more ...
Tue 3rd June 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oh, crap: Moniker is down - Moniker has taken its website offline to fix numerous problems with its new system. [Read this update with responses from Moniker CEO Bonnie Wittenburg] Domain name registrar Moniker switched its interface to a reseller platform over the weekend. It didn’t go so well, as evidenced by the 100+ comments on my post about the change. Issues include being billed for renewals on domains set to cancel, incorrect pricing, inability to execute order, domains disappearing ... read more ...
Mon 2nd June 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The new Moniker: Love it or Hate it? - One thing is for sure: it’s going to take a while to get used to this new account interface. [Read this update with responses from Moniker CEO Bonnie Wittenburg] Moniker released its upgraded interface over the weekend. The interface is based on the RRPproxy reseller platform. This isn’t just a modification to Moniker’s interface. It’s a completely new one. That means a learning curve. Most people hate change, which means the grumbling will begin. Is it warranted? ... read more ...
Thu 1st May 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker to switch to DomainDiscount24 interface - Moniker’s interface is being retired. A big change is coming for Moniker customers. The registrar will soon switch it user interface to one very similar to DomainDiscount24.com, another registrar within the KeyDrive family of companies. KeyDrive acquired Moniker in 2011 but has barely touched the site design. In fact, Moniker.com’s interface hasn’t been touched in years, and frankly it’s time for a change. When you transfer domain names out of Moniker you ... read more ...
Tue 23rd July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain sales watch: CompUSA and CircuitCity domains, and Moniker auction - These domain name sales and auctions are worth watching. With all of the news surrounding last week’s ICANN meeting in Durban, I’m a bit behind on a couple domain auctions and sales that are noteworthy. First, Hilco Streambank is offering the domain names CompUSA.com and CircuitCity.com. Both of the domain names are from defunct technology retailers. Systemax bought the assets of both of these companies last decade. It kept CircuitCity.com as a separate online ... read more ...
Thu 20th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
After questionable activity yesterday, Moniker asks users to reset passwords - Company says it has no evidence that domain names were stolen. Domain name registrar Moniker discovered suspicious activity on its network, and as a precaution is asking all account holders to reset their passwords today. The suspicious activity occurred yesterday. There’s no notice on the site about the password change requirement, and if you try to log in you’ll just get a message that your password is invalid. However, the company sent an email to all account ... read more ...
Wed 8th May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Very active Moniker Spring Auction ends tomorrow - Domain name auction that ends tomorrow has lots of activity. The Moniker Spring Auction on SnapNames doesn’t end until tomorrow, but bidding is already very active. The auction features 199 domain names and 33 of them already have bids. 22 have met their reserve price. The leader so far is StumpRemoval.com, which has an $11,770 bid and has met its reserve. I’ve paid for tree stump removal so I know it’s not a cheap service. That said, an individual tree company ... read more ...
Mon 15th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames no haven auction ends Thursday - Three auctions are running on SnapNames. SnapNames has three auctions running this month, and the first one ends Thursday. SnapNames’ “April Deals” auction ends Thursday, April 18. The auction includes just 44 domains and all have no reserve (but a $199 minimum bid). So far three domains have bids, including WorkToDo.com, CashCrash.com, and KindGift.com. Most of the domains are brandable, such as BuzzIncome.com, BeyondCeleb.com, and ScienceGo.com. Next, the ... read more ...
Tue 22nd January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bali.com, JF.com, and Message.com combined to Webfest live auction - Big names added to live Moniker domain name auction. The list of domains for next month’s live auction during Webfest is growing. Bali.com has been added with a reserve range of $750,000 to $1,000,000. The site is owned by a Bali travel company. According to it’s about page, it has been operating as Bali.com since 2000. There are two 2 letter .com domains in the auction: xu.com and jf.com. The former has a reserve of $100,000-$250,000 and the latter has a reserve ... read more ...
Fri 21st September 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CA Technologies sells Platinum.com domain name for $250,000 - Domain name appears to have been sold to pet food company. It looks like CA (aka Computer Associates) has sold one of its prime domain names, Platinum.com. Moniker has confirmed that it brokered the transaction and the sales price was $250,000. The domain name was featured in Moniker’s DOMAINfest and Spring Auctions with a reserve range of $500,000 to $1,000,000. The whois record for the domain name just changed to show that the domain now belongs to the German ... read more ...
Wed 19th September 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker usurpation auction submissions for DOMAINfest 2013 - Moniker and SnapNames will run an auction in conjunction with DOMAINfest next year. It looks like Moniker and SnapNames will hold an auction in conjunction with Oversee.net’s DOMAINfest Global 2013 conference next year. SnapNames.com has a submission form for the auction. It’s currently listed as an online auction. Both Moniker and SnapNames were owned by Oversee.net until their sale earlier this year to KeyDrive. They provided the auction platform at DOMAINfest ... read more ...
Tue 21st August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Monte Cahn settles lawsuit opposite Oversee.net - Long legal battle between Moniker founder and Oversee.net is over. Moniker.com founder Monte Cahn has dismissed his lawsuit against Oversee.net regarding money he said he was owed under a bonus plan. Cahn joined Oversee.net after Seevast sold Moniker to Oversee.net. Cahn left Oversee at the end of 2010. In May 2011 he filed a lawsuit against the company arguing he was due part of a $13 million bonus plan. Having read many of the documents and examinations filed with ... read more ...
Mon 30th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Salesforce.com buys Work.com domain name - Another confirmation that Salesforce.com bought Work.com domain name. In March I put together a fairly convincing argument that Salesforce.com had purchased Work.com. Now we have another good confirmation: the nameservers on Work.com have changed to Salesforce.com. Here are the nameservers currently on the Work.com domain name: In March I wrote about how all signs pointed to Salesforce having purchased the domain name. The whois record and brand protection company ... read more ...
Mon 23rd July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker and SnapNames beef adult patron support after acquisition - Support and operations staff quadruple. I recently read Elliot’s post about Moniker’s extended phone support hours. I’ve been tracking the support situation at Moniker/SnapNames since KeyDrive bought the companies from Oversee.net, as a number of people have made comments about it. Some customers were also concerned because their account manages left the company. Here are some more details about the support changes at Moniker/SnapNames. DNW: How did the support ... read more ...
Wed 20th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames throws shawl into domain morning and landrush auction ring - KeyDrive companies want to play a role in new TLD rollout. SnapNames and Moniker have announced they will support sunrise and landrush auctions for new top level domain registries. The company will, of course, also offer premium generic sales and auctions for registry withheld domain names. I’ve been told by a newish TLD registry (I think I just coined a term) in the past that Pool.com is really the only service that meets the unique needs of a sunrise auction. ... read more ...