[swozey]

You should never look up potential domain names at the big registrars. Or most registrars. Or any registrars. They'll buy it out from under you if it generates enough attention. They know exactly how many people looked up $coolnewthang.xyz and they know the bidding offers. THEY have to register it for you.

Somebody at Godaddy probably did this before you thought of the domain in the past, which is why its in their network and rejecting bids. It knows the incoming bids. It's sitting on it until someone like you came along.

I use porkbun, no idea if they've stayed course in honesty but I believe so.

Also if you're looking at GoDaddy era webhosts, they all own most of the market. Bluehost, Hostgator (EIG), etc are all grouped with a ton of other webhosts for that low end $10 market.

So, stay away from those.

Registrars are a scam, too. And stupid tlds.

[ScoobleDoodle]

I look up potential domains from ICANN for fear of getting the domain sniped: https://lookup.icann.org/en

I'm not actually sure that they are not involved in sniping, or even that others are involved. But it's my best bet on it.

[ryandrake]

> They'll buy it out from under you if it generates enough attention.

Is there actually evidence of this happening? I always thought this was an urban legend.

[sidewndr46]

Steps to verify

1. go to GoDaddy

2. search for a bunch of domain names that are loosely plausible but also so niche no one really wants them. Make sure you find a bunch of ".com" that are not registered

3. come back a week later. I can guarantee you one is now registered.

[behringer]

Happened to me with a registrar whose name I can no longer remember. And yep, dropped them like a hot potato.

Waited the cancellation period (I think it was 5 or 7 days for a registrar to cancel a registration back in those days) and the domain became available (from a different registrar).

[dewey]

There a comment or tweet by the Namecheap CEO saying that something like this would be so obvious and a breach of trust that this would cause more damage to any registrar than making some money on a domain sell. Not worth it.

[swozey]

Webhosting is one of the most scammy shitty industries. I worked in it for 15 years. Do not give that industry any sort of benefit of the doubt. There are good companies but there are a lot of not.