>
>Correct.  An e-mailed message has been sent this evening (Monday) to the
>current list of 76 confirmed and potential PISPs (Participating ISPs),

Today is Thursday, not Monday :)

>proposing a collaborative bilateral process for verifying the
>provisional lists of COM.AU Domain Names (DNs) "owned" by each PISP,
>prior to the PISP submitting validated lists of DNs for renewal of
>registration. Melbourne IT will then invoice each PISP on its validated
>list. 
>

>As the COM.AU DNA, we are motivated to improve the integrity of the
>COM.AU name space, by flushing out the "dead" DNs and encouraging
>updating of the administrative contacts for the "live" DNs; and this
>will only happen through a combination of a collaborative process and
>the commercial discipline of applying fees to the renewal of wanted DNs.
>For this reason, we will be offering financial incentives for early
>renewals, to those PISPs who are motivated to assist us in this updating
>and data-cleansing process.

sure. voluntary is fine. Mandatory is not (not desirable, and not necessary)

>
>However there is bound to be scope for a compromise on timing for those
>PISPs and ISPs who genuinely cannot cope with the current time-scale for
>renewals. 

excellent news.

> The weakness in your proposal (that ISPs simply nominate the
>anniversary dates for renewal) would only postpone the current problem
>by one year if every ISP nominated the end of December 1997 as their
>renewal date. We will consult with several large and small ISPs,
>including yourself, to come up with a sensible way ahead on this. 
>[...]

I have to disagree with the presumption that if you give all ISP's the
latitude to choose an anniversary date, that they will unilaterally specify
the latest possible date. We, for instance, will work with you to define the
true anniversary date for all DN's we are adminstering for customers. You
need to show more trust for your customer community than that. 

And consider the downside - let's postulate that you're right and all ISP's
nominate December 1997 as their renewal date. If you adopt the policy I've
suggested below, then you do zero work on those names in exchange for zero
cost and zero earning. Gee, sounds fair to me. If an ISP asks for a change
in detail, then you insist on payment for the DN before you implement the
change. Problem solved! 

You have already indicated the sensible way ahead on this - which is to
consult with ISP's to get their current records straight, *INCLUDING* the
correct anniversary date. That is all you have to do - make sure that one of
the data points you collect in addition to correct people and billing data
is correct anniversary. That's it - it's that simple!

In fact, here's the easy policy answer. Please consider it:

Set your policy to be that you will not make a *change* to any existing DN
delegations without the domain being registered up and paid for, but that
for all existing DN delegations, you will explicitly LEAVE THEM ALONE (and
not delete them - which would require labour and actions on your part that
will cost you money, as opposed to leave them alone!) until one of the
following events occurs:

        - either someone owns up to that domain and offers you both updated
contact information *and* money, and defines the anniversary, by
implication, to be the date of this request, or:

        - twelve months have elapsed from 01-Nov-1996 (when you started
operations), at which point you explictly purge all COM.AU names which are
not, at that time, paid up and registered properly.

The point here: the incremental cost to you of existing entries in the DNS
is damn near ZERO. So **LEAVE THEM THERE** until either someone claims it
(with money to back up the claim) or we reach the end of 1997.  Let elapsed
time do the work. Then you will

(a) alienate NOBODY

(b) cost yourself no work at all for domains you don't need to care about.
They've been incorrect or broken for years, don't worry about it, *LEAVE
THEM ALONE* and just purge un-claimed domains after 12 months. 

Surely that's simple enough, and fair enough, for us all to accept? Please?


>> 
>> QUESTION:
>> What are the prices for one year renewals (since only two year renewal rates
>> are listed in the rest of the quoted web page)?
>
>ANSWER: $50 via a PISP or $75 from a direct applicant, per DN. The $25
>saving per DN to the PISP is, as usual, achieved through the Bureau not
>having to incur the cost of processing individual payments.
>> ----

Will you publish these one year renewal rates on your web page formally for
the benefit of non-readers of this mailing list? ta :)

>The manager of the COM.AU DNA bureau, David Hopkins, will try to get in
>touch with you tomorrow to discuss your suggestions and concerns -  and
>find some solutions. 

I note your mail was composed on Monday. It's thursday. I'm really happy to
be contacted..., but that doesn't seem to have happened yet.

thanks for your response, and I look forward to the next one - especially a
response to the notion of just leaving existing names alone until either
they are paid up and updated by an ISP _or_ 12 months from 01-nov-96 have
elapsed. 

Think of the benefit - that huge labour intensive task you're about to start
to get everything current - just *DON"T BOTHER*. Wait for your customer base
to do your work for you. 

Cheers,
  Simon
---
Simon Hackett, Technical Director, Internode Systems Pty Ltd
31 York St [PO Box 284, Rundle Mall], Adelaide, SA 5000 Australia
Email: simon§internode.com.au  Web: http://www.on.net
Phone: +61-8-8223-2999          Fax: +61-8-8223-1777