To start with, I have to be honest, I have trouble understanding what
the point of your email is. Is there a question in there or is it just a
pile of poorly connected ramblings unrelated to .au?

| I do realise that I have better things to worry about, as you do, as he 
| does, but on the other hand it's an Australian that has presided over a 
| new form of f#cking the the domain system up for the last five years. 
| And he should be held accountable for his complete lack of achievements. 
| And his legacy: what A MESS.

To say that Internet resource governance has not achieved anything in
the last five years is myopic to the point of making no sense at all.
But more to the point, ICANN is a participatory community, comprised of
many different parties - its successes and failures are more than those
of just one person, it is a collaboration of many.

| I'd also welcome you to comment on what an un-regulated mess the 
| whole TLD situation has become. We used to be able to rely on suppliers, 
| now we need to employ researchers. In fact, we need to employ lawyers.

What on earth are you talking about?

| I know that the quoted email below is tedious, vindictive, colloquial 
| and quotational. Even nonsensical. But to be honest with you, I am so 
| sick and tired of all the bullsh!t artists, whether they're a bunch of 
| brothers in Perth asking my clients to pay $200 for a domain that 
| doesn't exist, or an Australian in Washington, getting paid $2,000,000 
| for a policy that doesn't exist.

What on earth (again) are you talking about?

Can you give details?

| I'll summarise my argument thus:
| - domain locking leads to anti-competitive practices: it is, if 
| anything, a symptom of, or reaction to poor management and policy;
| - domain tasting, camping, whatever you choose to call it, is a result 
| of poor policy and a very public display of a complete misunderstanding 
| of the domain market by its managers.

You haven't given specifics so it might be hard to judge, but aren't
these GNSO policy areas? Why are they decided by Twomey? You make it
sound like he is a dictator who unilaterally sets industry practise. In
fact the various policies that govern gTLD administration are agreed
by an elaborate (some would say too much so) community of different
stakeholder mechanisms, and voted upon by a diverse board of which
Twomey is one of 15 (or 21, depending on your maths).

IMHO, one key problem of things like tasting is that because if ICANN's
need to have extensive outreach, consultation and so forth, it can not
quickly jump on these practices as nimbly as one might hope. However,
clearly they are of concern and are being worked on.

| Paul - list your policies. Do you even subscribe to this list?

This is a list for .au -- I'd be rather surprised if he would actively
follow it. Particularly given your criticisms (and I may be wrong) have
nothing to do with this what this list discusses. 

| p.s. go swans

Sounds like one thing you'd have in common.

By way of a disclaimer: I work for ICANN, and I don't support the Swans.

kim