Originally Posted by Accent
There it is, right there...
+ Pred's post above with Trey Harvin + mTLD TOS from 2006/7 that gogo & others have posted etc etc etc.
Problem is, they've said it all before....How do we know something will be different, this time?
.
No, their obligation is to keep their promises.
It is generally accepted that advertisers will puff their product, however the customer has a right to expect that the product will generally perform as advertised. When things occur that prevent the advertiser from fulfilling his promises then the advertiser has to either find an alternative way to provide equal value or refund customer's money. MTLD made specific promises: Code compliance, backer support. Look what they say right now on their website:
The "expectations" of someone who sees the symbols of all those mega-companies at the bottom of mTLD's home page ("our investors") is not to be dealing with an "also ran" extension.
And it is wholly reasonable to expect any company to live up to it's promises.
http://tibetanjewelry.mobi
"First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they fight you. And then you win."
-Gandhi
It's evidence enough of a crisis when a number of unconnected sales in the past week or two alone bring about sub $5 sales for LLL's
It seems that we are now looking for a market share within a sub-section making up no more than 25% of the mobile web market. The lack of awareness is lamentable and we'll do well to end up with a 10% share at best unless there is a dramatic turnaround!
m.example.com or example.mobi
At a conference recently held in Cape Town South Africa by Media24 (Naspers) I asked one of the speakers, Sophia Stuart Director of Mobile at Hearst Media, why they had chosen to go the m.seventeen.com route rather than the seventeen.mobi route and she said it came down to the fact that the dotmobi team did a poor sales pitch?
Have I wasted my money on the .mobi extention?
Probably not, I feel it will have its place in South Africa over the next year and a half and then as someone else said, Good Night Vienna.
I think there was real lack of foresight with regards to the creation of this TLD and overall marketing but to give the dotmobi guys a little slack I think everyone underestimated just how fast mobile technology would develop.
Hear in SA we sit with the problem of skills shortage. Developing an effective mobi site ppl are asking $1000 for a three page static site with no client profiling or any other funky stuff.
I'm very interested in this webinar and look forward to the results.
Fortunately I didn't invest too much money in this extension as I figure more value in .com and .co.za
Seems I may have been right.
From Also Ran to Top TLD in 365 Days or Less (serious proposal, less serious format)
Are you a TLD that has been hit too hard by the global recession?
Have you spent all your reg fees on development of amazing new tools, convinced that such a superior product would always sell itself?
Is your zone file in danger of embarrassingly large shrinkage?
Are you about to lose the support of the 20% of loyal customers who keep paying dearly for the chance to develop 80% of your best products (and failing because they are too busy recovering from the renewal hits for the rest of the year)?
Is your key asset (search engine whitelisting) under threat because of widespread non-compliance with your terms.
Are you worried that harsh compliance enforcement may exacerbate the problems or is legally impractical?
Don't despair, help is at hand.
Just get your esteemed CEO to drop us a one-line PM, and we will show you how to do ONE simple thing, ONCE, and solve all of the problems above.
With our clever 1-step plan you can turn the tables on the naysayers, execute the most dramatic business turnaround in recent history, and show everyone that fortune still favors the brave.
There is still everything to play for.
We think you deserve much more respect than you are getting, so if you can get your CEO to take just one step to engaging in a real conversation with his core customers (i.e. register for an account here), we'll let you run with this idea as your own.
But you must act now, today, before the (high) noon webinar.
Our operators are standing by, awaiting your PM.
Yours sincerely,
Anonymous (or at least unknown to the management of this forum) voice of a silent minority
The Webinar is now over. I'd like to thank mTLD once again for taking their time to talk to our community.
How do folks here feel the Webinar went?
Please feel free to leave your feedback here (if you attended).
My .mobi's: Dating.mobi | Dubai.mobi | Adult.mobi | Banking.mobi | Student.mobi | Call.mobi | Horoscope.mobi | Messenger.mobi | Classifieds.mobi | LiveTV.mobi
Developed: Yup.mobi | Mobility | Why .mobi? | Banking | Vuelos | Airline Complaints | Random Site | Whois | Free Mobile Dating | Free Dictionary | Free Thesaurus | Horoscope | Astrology | Free Translation | Exchange Rates
Well above expectations for me personally, would buy more mobis if I could.
a big theme was "we have access to big companies and talk to them so we have credibility... so later they will come and buy from us"
virtually a waste of time really
i have to push on with my own stuff anyway, which is where its at
but, yeah hot air really. dont know if i expected anything different tbh
I liked the webinar!'s
It was very motivating and informative.
Does anyone know how many members took part?
Hello everyone..
I was unable to listen in. Is their a way to hear the presentation or does anyone have a summary of the topics covered?
Any mention of the trust mark?
TIA
nothing of substance was discussed
just waffle and stuff we know, or knew
i think member : PARKS kept a recording
they didnt answer my rfp questions/concerns
they were ignored
they did say the domain was their main objective though and to wrap everything around it, and its what everythings for and they believe they will arrive in a place where it will be first choice for developers to choose as mobile site for small businesses that want a site, and small businesses make up most of web
PARKS recorded it:
At a conference recently held in Cape Town South Africa by Media24 (Naspers) I asked one of the speakers, Sophia Stuart Director of Mobile at Hearst Media, why they had chosen to go the m.seventeen.com route rather than the seventeen.mobi route and she said it came down to the fact that the dotmobi team did a poor sales pitch?
Have I wasted my money on the .mobi extention?
Probably not, I feel it will have its place in South Africa over the next year and a half and then as someone else said, Good Night Vienna.
I think there was real lack of foresight with regards to the creation of this TLD and overall marketing but to give the dotmobi guys a little slack I think everyone underestimated just how fast mobile technology would develop.
Hear in SA we sit with the problem of skills shortage. Developing an effective mobi site ppl are asking $1000 for a three page static site with no client profiling or any other funky stuff.
I'm very interested in this webinar and look forward to the results.
Fortunately I didn't invest too much money in this extension as I figure more value in .com and .co.za
Seems I may have been right.
This sounds really interesting.... what was it about "m." that sold the "m.domain" route to her if she wasn't sold on the "domain.mobi" route?
I'm wondering what she means by "sales presentation"?
Did she go to a Dotmobi happening & speak to the dotmobi team or what? (I can't imagine mTLD doing many one to one sales pitches?)
I can't imagine why anyone would fail to go with dotmobi for the sake of a few dollars when the site can be hosted exactly the same way as the m. would be (redirecting on or the other).. so was it the additional cost of $10 per annum was too much? (Answer almost certainly no!)...
I think the lesson here is that dotmobi need a compelling, single paragraph sales pitch that everyone can understand!
Sweet! I'll get w/ Parks...
Thanks
A lot was discussed but some substantive take-aways for me were:
-Code compliance including enforcement (aka the trustmark) is basically dead. When the CEO doesn't want to pursue it then there either needs to be a change of CEO or I adjust and move on. I'm inclined to do the latter. The longer it's dead the harder it is to revive, so while they may keep their options open by still having contractual option for it, there is zero movement towards a compliance structure at mTLD which is basically the end of compliance as described around landrush. I may not always agree with mTLD (and this would be one of those times) but at the end of the day we're both trying to move .mobi forward and the trustmark isn't the end-all-be-all for the extension. While I hate saying it, the trustmark is dead, RIP.
-There's a renewed focus on working out private agreements on the Premiums, which I think is far better than more auctions. When you look at the majority of sites that result from the auctions it is clear that the "best efforts" Premium enforcement isn't resulting in the quality sites that most people would want to see for Premiums. Good move mTLD. While this process feels slower, the results will be more to everyone's liking IMO.
So, at the end of the day, we got some great names in the only extension that say's for mobile. I guess I can live with that. Looking forward to the upcoming announcements from Mtld. I said this once before at that other forum, but it's worth repeating again. I've always seen the mobile web as an ever expanding multi-billion dollar global pie. I like pie. Plan on getting me a little slice of it. Hope other's do to.
Yes, and has been often noted, our individual successes will largely depend on our own efforts to further our own sites. I had expected/wanted to use the promised ***icial trustmark of .mobi as a differentiating factor, but that option isn't viable anymore nor was it really ever made available other than in the marketing literature. I fully understand peoples disappointments over this policy shift from mTLD but I need to move on. What others decide to try and do about it is entirely up to them.
I like pie too capt, goes good with beer
I am letting many of them expire and will only keep handful.
Editing my finance and time investment as many of you already have done.
As for me the webinar hasn't prompted me to drop any domains. I'm still fully committed to my goals for .mobi sites I want to build and promote since that's where my best successes will be found in .mobi and it is also how I can best contribute to the extension as well.
For those that didn't attend the webinar, the decisions by mtld regarding abandonment of compliance were spelled out in detail, and to me made perfect sense. There are multiple reasons why it is very difficult to enforce and most likely counter-productive.
Overall I thought the webinar was great. There was plenty of information and now the expectation of more positive news to come shortly. I also saw the CEO to be very competent and motivated.
I undersatnd Scandi.
To each his/her own investment decisions.
I see it as if the registry does not have general wide range promotion planned, then, in that case, I see the value of the names on it's own would not be meaningful for me to keep personally. Therefore, my current strategy is to keep the very few that I want to develop and promote in the future.
Allotting funds to be used for that seem more prudent. But, that's just me and what I'd like to do.
I must have missed the details. I only heard the CEO say he did not want to enforce general compliance and that's that. Can you share what else you heard him say. To be honest, I had two screaming kids, maids, and multiple media devices streaming at the time of the webinar.
Thanks.
I definitely believe that the CEO believes what he says. I'm not so ready to believe what mTLD says, no matter how convincing and passionate it may seem, as they were equally as compassionate about the now abandoned trustmark. If you haven't already, go back to that darn trustmark thread and look for the 2006 response from the CEO about how integral and pivotal the trustmark was/is.
The abandonment of the trustmark at the whim of the CEO simply begs this question for me: If they lied about enforcing the general compliance trustmark, what else did they / will they lie about next?
That's my opinion. I too, will move on from hammering mTLD on it. I may file a complaint like gogo has suggested on principle. I may zing them time to time. I will not invest as much energy to keeping my sites up to the fake standard at ready. I'll keep some of my best names. I will drop the rest. I just think that lying to numbers of your base about a core feature of your product is a big f'ing deal. I know that others here are complacent with their station making horny money and such and that's great. I was hoping for some help from the registry on some more mainstream sites with the use of the trustmark marketing tool.
oh well.
this sums it up
`
Last edited by FilipinoFood.com; 11-10-2009 at 10:24 AM.
You seem pretty set in your judgement since a long time. Definitely if I didn't trust mtld, and thought they were serial liers as you seem to think, then I would get out quick. So thats what I recommend you do, and move on to new investments.
I have sat in judgment for a while since they did nothing to enforce complaince, yes. I don't think they are serial liars. I said the way they lied about compliance all these years, in retrospect, begs the question if and when they will lie again. There is a big difference. I'll try to be more clear next time so you understand it the first time.
And for the last time, I'm not leaving. I'm just not complacent. That doesn't mean I'm a quitter. Again, I'll be more clear so you can understand what I mean next time, the first time.
I don't believe they lied about anything. As was stated in the webinar they cannot get the registrars to enforce compliance, but more importantly multiple sources indicate that enforcement will alienate the client base. After weighing it up they came to a sensible decision to not enforce. Personally, from now onwards, I would rather have mtld focus their energies on other problems such as awareness. Having something very strictly enforce but that nobody knows about or uses is useless. In any case its only speculation that enforcement would have had a positive impact. But its a done deal now, we will never find out, so we hope that the opposite is true that the more open something is the more widely it is adopted. That is the general rule in the web era, that is what we should hope for now for .mobi.
Selling the trustmark for three years and never saying they never intended on fulfilling it publicly until today is lying. I don't see how you can find any other way to describe it.
That's your opinion. My opinion is different to some extent. I agree there needs to be more awareness. But you speculate heavily that compliance would be devastating. That actually flies in the face of mTLD opinions as they probably did a feasibility study (I hope) before making such a bold statement.
Ten hours later and I am still processing.
I take a different tack on the "keep trustmark in the fine print, but not enforce it" bit - I fear that some will read the fine print and be scarred away. Oh well, there are techies and marketers.
More largely I still haven't come to grips with what I heard. It was a pep rally, of course, with promises of great things in the future that they can't yet talk about - no surprises there. Trey did sound competent and involved. He did say that the success of the domain was their priority, that was my biggest worry-point - that DotMobi inc's emphasis was drifting away from the extension.
I noted with curiosity his frequent use of the word "channels" instead of registrars. I take that to mean that they are working some non-traditional markets. For .Mobi to conquer the giants non-traditional methods are required. They do not have a multi billion dollar advertising budget.
Still and all I am undecided on my overall impression. Not overly bad or good, that much is clear. But what does it mean regarding the future?
http://tibetanjewelry.mobi
"First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they fight you. And then you win."
-Gandhi
For what it's worth, here's my attitude, after last night's Webinar.
The Webinar clarified some core things for me:
(i) Compliance/Trustmark
I now know, for sure, that Compliance/Trustmark will not be a marketing differentiator for .mobi domains, and, .mobi websites.
It means the loss of a potential competitive edge in the market for my .mobi-based businesses, which is very disappointing....But, that just means we have to work harder to compete.
I'll adjust my strategies accordingly.
(ii) Ready.mobi - & Smartphone Site Design
I now know that Dotmobi has ***icially accepted that many large corporates are NOT interested in designing mobile sites for the low-end phones....Only designing sites for Smartphone capability (eg the Marks & Spencer example Trey quoted).
This means that designing sites that are 5/5 on Ready.mobi (and, therefore, limited design/function options) is, in practice, an optional strategic commercial decision now for .mobi domain owners, including Premium owners.
Each of us are now free to put out whatever sites we wish, designed however we wish.
If we design for Smartphones, then we close out traffic from the low-end phone user, but, have potentially a much richer site.....If we design for Ready.mobi compliance (lower-end phones) then we are seen by anyone with a mobile phone, but limit features & maybe impact.
This is now a Dotmobi-sanctioned choice.
That's okay by me.
(iii) Market Awareness Campaigns
I now know that its most unlikely that we'll see a truly global, stand-alone, ubiquitous, marketing campaign to help .mobi become a household name anytime soon, if ever.
We learned there will be some social network activity, blogs, video releases, and, working with Channels, and the like - but, a truly ubiquitous .mobi = mobile identity campaign? No.
It means we won't get that lift & support for our own individual .mobi sites & .mobi-based businesses that a globally-known, mobile-specific, extension would give us.
Okay. No free help. Business success is always down to individual business-owners, anyway.
I'm cool with that.
(iv) .Mobi Domain Portfolio Value
Nothing I heard last night will actively assist in creating aftermarket value for .mobi domains, and .mobi domain portfolios.
The confirmation of abandonment of Trustmark, as a .mobi differentiator - and, the choice/necessity not to proactively imprint .mobi awareness as the .mobi = mobile standard in a dominating, major global campaign - means there's no fire being lit under the .mobi brand that has the effect of 'We must have .mobi...'.
Consequently, imo, the aftermarket for .mobi domains is likely to remain depressed for the foreseeable future.
Many .mobi Portfolio owners are likely to revise their investment strategy in .mobi domains that they don't intend to develop. Expect many more dropped domains, and ongoing lack of demand for them.
Like many, I'll be reviewing my portfolio.
(v) Bottom Line?
* Dotmobi is not now really any different to any other Registry.
- There are now no significant differentiators in the brand to give a .mobi-based business any competitive edge in the market.
- Dotmobi won't be 'making the difference' - by either Compliance to a mobile standard, or, by making its brand a household name.
- .mobi is now just another internet extension.
* Businesses built around a .mobi-based extension will be like any other business - ie each individual is on their own to make of their business what they can.
That's fine by me. Now I know.
Sadly, the '.mobi is special' thing is over.
.
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