>_From: Jordan Green
<snip>
> Let's start with the last point in Vic's e-mail regarding the current status
> of the CoRE gTLD initiative. Melbourne IT is NOT accepting preregistrations,
> as was clearly reported in The Australian newspaper on February 3rd (nearly a
> month ago!). Perhaps Vic doesn't read the Australian - fair enough - 
<snip>
> On Monday February 2nd all our account holders received notification that due
> to the change in circumstances Melbourne IT could not ethically continue with
> preregistrations at that time.

well Mr Green I received your initial spam inviting me to "bid" above
the "normal" price to "jump ahead" in the queue for the new gTLDs.

what initially concerned me was the total lack of any clearly stated
refund policy given the public knowledge over the dangerous nature of
the whole process. or any included facts surrounding the US goverments oposition
to gTLD for those not up to date. or the fact you were encouraging
people to bid real money for a non-existant name.


> Melbourne IT is not the current arbiter of the com.au domain licensing, we are
> only a licensee. If someone has a problem with the current situation then I
> suggest that person make a convincing case to the licensor.

yep. ok. if you could now just give us the phone number or name of the
government dept which issues these licenses please. 

so just how did you get this "license" then?


> Vic's question "..how many domains have MIT served out in the last year?"
> seems deliberately misleading. Vic knows very well that we only operate in the
> com.au domain. So Vic the answer must be "Just one".

water that wit Mr Green it has potential.  lets see you must have
collected $100 from at a guess roughly 10,000 domains, thats pretty
much over a million dollars. hm yes I see your point of view now.


>That same service that has Australia's
> top 19 ISPs giving our customer service a satisfactioin rating over 80%!!
> [Independent survey data - STM Consulting] That same survey also indicated
> that Melbourne IT out performs any other domain name vendor used by those ISPs
> anywhere in the world.

<shake head> what did your mom tell you about politicians and statistics?
your 5-10 day turnaround outperforms .com's same day turn around? your
restrictive rules and random enforcements outperforms .com's first come
basis?  its trully amazing just what one can pull out from surveys and
statistics isnt it.

well let me tell you Mr Green I was ellected on the board of IIA to
represent the voice of small ISPs, and I can tell you now I have spoken to
a lot of people and the vast bulk are really fed up with the whole
issue of domains in australia. so you can play statistics as much as you like.
the facts are simple. I have never seen so much flaming over a single
topic (aside from telstra) as I have seen over the .com.au domain practices.
your policies, your attitudes, have been a total waste of time and money
for all of us small ISPs.

we are fed up with it and we are not going to take it anymore!


> As for new SLDs in .au Vic should be addressing this concern to ADNA as
> Melbourne IT has no authority to address this issue.
 
I think we need this point very clearly clarified.
in very plain simple english.

MIT are on the board of ADNA, and from reading the minutes its very hard
not to come to the opinion of repeated delays, contrived excuses,
lack of progress over a rather long period of time, and what in polite
company might be refered to as nest feathering. but then I havent
attended an ADNA board meeting in person yet.

as for the issue of ADNA selecting new registrars.

a) the existing registrars should submit tenders the same as new applicants.

b) the existing registrars should not be involved in the selection process.

clearly there would be absurd conflicts of interest
at work here to allow anything else.  its way past the time to
breath some fresh air and shed some sunlight into the current sad
and murky mess.


> As for CoRE (you refer to gTLD) and their SRS please don't overlook the fact
> that Melbourne IT is a founding member of CoRE. We have invested our own time,
> money,

your money? you mean some of the thousands of dollars we shell out to you
every month for the miserable priveldge of having domains rejected,
having a turn around worthy of a snail. having to argue on behalf of clients
to extract names out of you.  having to explain your bizzaro policies
to incredulous customers.  for the miserable priveledge of being charged
$100 every two years to once add a few lines of text into a zone file ??????

you mean you blew $10k+ of *our* money in gTLD to further your own
business interests.  is that what you are telling us?


> A very few people, like Vic, have not been happy with their dealings with
> Melbourne IT and for that we are truly sorry.

I dare say its not a very few. there are now around 500 ISPs and I
am yet to find any small ISP, who has to deal with this mess, satisfied
that the current situation is acceptable. some think there should be rules
but are not happy with the way MIT administer them. others think
there should be no rules and are also not happy with MIT. but thats
pretty much a common denominator.

we are fed up with reasonable requests for domains that are rejected,
the current turn around is unacceptable.  the cost is ridiculous.
the rules are an embarassement. and competition is so long overdue its chronic.


Vic Cinc
Chairman CIA
Director IIA
Director Ausbone