[RL_Quine]

Sadly namecheap bought into this, so it’s being forced down the throats of people who don’t quite realize that the domains they can buy on the service can not, and will not ever be usable. It’s pretty obvious to even the most casual of observers that this is just yet another cryptocurrency scheme designed to fleece as many people as possible.

[cmeacham98]

This is very unfair to namecheap:

1. The search bar on their homepage returns no handbrake results

2. To get to those results in the first place you have to click on a 'Handbrake' tab (leaving the 'Domains' tab)

3. The search results link to an info page that clearly states "It's also important to note that handshake domains do not resolve in regular browsers without additional setup."

For the record, I think Handbrake is a doomed project and a bad investment for Namecheap, but I don't think that means we can just accuse Namecheap of "forcing it down the throats of people".

[RL_Quine]

> The search bar on their homepage returns no handbrake results

That's sadly not correct.

https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?doma...

For example using "beast mode" on the front page search, a good portion of the domains are "handshake" entries with only a tiny little (i) button to distinguish them from actual domain names which could be used in the real world.

I can add them to my cart with no other mention that the product I am buying is a sham, I can even add a SSL certificate along with my purchase- which can't actually be issued because it's not a real domain name.

> "It's also important to note that handshake domains do not resolve in regular browsers without additional setup."

This feels like an incredible understatement. They will never be accessible by anybody who doesn't install software explicitly with that goal, they will never be able to receive email, nobody is going to issue SSL certificates for them.

[capableweb]

> For example using "beast mode" on the front page search, a good portion of the domains are "handshake" entries with only a tiny little (i) button to distinguish them from actual domain names which could be used in the real world.

I also see a "pill" / "tab" that says "Handshake" and hovering the "tiny little (i)" kindly informs you what Handshake means.

https://i.imgur.com/kr0465o.png

Do you not see the same design as me maybe?

[RL_Quine]

https://i.imgur.com/FqG1Mjj.png

Three of the four domains here are on sale, all have a pale blue pill with white text, two have a (i) logo, one of them is nonfunctional and can not be used as a domain name in the way that a customer would typically expect. It's an incredibly deceptive listing in the wider context, nothing about the way it is presented would make you even consider that what is being sold in that line is valueless for a normal use case of buying a domain name.

[someotherperson]

Why would you say sadly? This is right up Namecheap's alley.

Tip: find a phishing domain -- either SMS or via some search -- and check the WHOIS. It's always the same registrar. Then try to report it and see how it goes.

[r1ch]

Have the complete opposite experience here - we (OBS Studio team) often have malware copies of our website set up by scammers, and Namecheap are the most responsive by far at suspending the domains - usually in under an hour (!).