"Bigwig Boss" of Domain Name Company Nominet DENIES they ever had variable subscription fees but our TWO MINUTE Internet Search says...

...WRONG ANSWER (because they did have them and we provide the proof).

Nominet Chairman tells members of company that claims variable membership fees "... never enacted. So it was never true. As far as we can tell." and "if ANYBODY can show ANYBODY has paid it, it would be great but WE CAN'T FIND ANYTHING..." so DomainCrawls found it (and it took us about 2 minutes)!

Tuesday 18 July, 2023, 08:00

Nominet UK, a company limited by guarantee and responsible for managing the registry for .uk domain names, is presently undergoing a consultation to revise and improve its articles. Elected non-executive director Simon Blackler, 38, earning £37,000 at the company, and also CEO & Founder of Krystal Hosting, shared his thoughts with viewers in a video released on the corporate website. Blackler likened the need for updating the articles to the fact that "You probably wouldn’t not (sic) paint your house in twenty five years and the same thing's true of the articles. They need a lick of paint." ...so to speak.

Section 6 of the consultation document, titled "Membership subscription fees" proposes the introduction of a change and of "a new section to include all clauses relating to Membership subscription fees."

The reason given by Nominet for this change are "Nominet has always had a flat membership fee for all Members, and we believe that all Members have understood this basis and agreed to it when becoming a Member of the company. However, this has never been correctly reflected in the Articles so we wish to rectify this position."

Shortly after the consultation was published online, sharp-eyed members of the company quickly noticed that it seemed factually inaccurate. They promptly provided evidence obtained from the Internet Archive website, which seems to indicate the existence of variable fees in the past. This raised concerns that Nominet might be potentially misleading its members through the wording of its own consultation.

Rooted around in all the drawers, but found nothing.

On July 13, 2023, during a video call exclusively streamed for Nominet members, the Chairman, Andy Green CBE, 65, earning £90,000 at the company, made a statement. He asserted that "We’ve got no record of ever having implemented anything other than a flat membership fee. If anybody can show anybody has paid it, it would be great but we can’t find anything."

During a sometimes intense exchange, certain members of Nominet and some members of Nominet's Board debated whether the company was showing dismissiveness towards member concerns and disregarding the evidence presented to them.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Dan Rodgers, 31, serving as Head of Domains at both World Host Group and Stablepoint, and also an elected councillor for the Nominet .UK RAC, expressed his views to viewers during the video call with "...So it certainly, I mean, appears from the archive that Nominet was offering tiered subscription fees. Um, Now I found it interesting that Andy [Green, Nominet Chair] seemed to indicate that some kind of research had been done on that to disprove that point. Um, but frankly I’ve been very disappointed that we’ve not actually seen any response from Nominet on this. I think it’s quite a serious thing if members are pointing out that Nominet appears to be misleading members, providing documentation on Nominet’s own web site archive and Nominet doesn’t then address those concerns and at the very least explain ‘we’ve looked into it, this is what we’ve found and this is why we don’t think that is the case’. We’ve just had silence.”

Blackler responded, "Dan, I can talk to that. It says the consultation states that 'Nominet has always had a flat membership fee for all members' and what it should have said is 'Nominet has probably always had a flat membership fee for all members' [Blackler then, rather oddly, waves both his hands in the air, possibly for effect] while uttering "There you go! I’ve fixed it!"

Blackler previously appeared to throw shade over Rodgers on Twitter last year telling him, via his nom-de-plume Twitter account with the name Public Benefit UK, "Pretty sure you work at Krystal Dan? And technically I'm your boss? :/" Rodgers has since left Krystal Hosting, according to his LinkedIn. There appeared to be no obvious animosity between the two throughout the video call.

In a carefully worded response, Green, at times glancing down at what seemed to be pre-prepared notes in front of him, addressed the matter with “the articles on the web site from 1996 set out the possibility of tiered charging structure. In practice it was never implemented. The reference to this was removed from the web site in June 1997 so it was only there for a very short period of time."

DomainCrawls' Google search finds what Nominet did not.

DomainCrawls became aware of the specific details of the video call after it was published in the members-only access "hub" of Nominet's corporate website yesterday. Disenchanted members then brought the content to our attention. Following a  two-minute Internet search, DomainCrawls discovered seemingly irrefutable evidence that contradicts claims made by Green and Blackler made during the video call. This evidence came in the form of a post sent to the USENET discussion group uk.net on August 5, 1996.

Somewhat ominiusly, almost as if it predicted and foreshadowed events coming just under 27 years later, the USENET post begins with the phrase "Talk about misconceptions!" and is authored by Clive Feather, who was an Associate Director at Demon Internet and also an elected member of the now dissolved Nominet UK PAB for 10 years, according to his LinkedIn profile, at the time.

Feather wrote "...Members of Nominet have a subscription level; this can be 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10. If your subscription level is N, you pay (currently) N*500 pounds per annum, and get N votes."

"The founders of Nominet had the view that the influence you have should depend on how much you have used the system. Therefore the limits on a member's subscription level depended on registrations to March 1996. Demon Internet made a lot of subscriptions, and so was given a maximum level of 10. Demon Internet chose to go to level 10 and pay 5000 pounds for 10 votes. We could have, instead, chosen to go to level 6, pay 3000 pounds, and get only 6 votes. We didn't..."

"...The number of discounted registrations you make is not limited. A new member can make 10,000 registrations the day after they join, and get a discount on every single one (paying 600,000 pounds). However, the discount is only available if you pay for registrations in bulk, and not if you require a separate invoice for each name..."

Indeed, Feather's Internet post from August 1996 provides firm evidence supporting the existence of such fees during that time period, and that those fees were actually paid by members, contradicting Green and Blackler's claims that they were not. This inevitably raises concerns about the accuracy of Nominet's other statements and its overall handling of the membership fee issue.

Jim Davies, 57, representing Nominet member Dulwich Storage Company Limited, also propontents of the Weighted Voting campaign web site, conveyed his thoughts to viewers during the broadcast. Davies said “The articles link subscription fees to voting rights… When the company originally started business subscription fees and voting rights were linked. You paid more if you had more votes.”

Green replied "We don’t think that’s true." Davies responded “It IS true. We have provided you with a document from Nominet’s own web site, archived, that shows that was the case."

DomainCrawls says Nominet needs to do better for BOTH its members and its registrants.

The research conducted by DomainCrawls today, which involved a quick 2-minute search on Google, raises doubts about the thoroughness of Nominet's research on the issue of past variable membership fees. While there is no indication that anyone at Nominet deliberately aimed to mislead members on this matter, the fact that DomainCrawls was able to find publically available information contradicting Nominet's claims, especially from someone heavily involved with Nominet in its early years, has lead to questions being asked about the competence of some at the top of Nominet concerning record-keeping practices.

It is evident that some members are now questioning the depth and breadth of Nominet's research of its own corporate history, given the existence of publicly available information that supports the existence of variable fees. This situation has sparked concerns among members about the company's ability to maintain accurate records and transparency in its operations. While no intentional deception is suggested, the discrepancy between historical information uncovered by DomainCrawls and Nominet's current records raises valid questions about the company's practices and competence in historic record keeping.

One member, who asked not to be named, told us "in order to address these concerns and maintain trust with its members, Nominet should conduct a thorough review of its historic records and address any discrepancies or inconsistencies promptly and transparently. It is crucial for a company like Nominet, which manages critical internet infrastructure, to have robust record-keeping practices and to be accountable in its communications with its stakeholders."

Rodgers summed up his thinking on the video call with “...it’s just about accuracy and being clear about what things are..." and "...when there's questions like that about potential misrepresentations, I think it's really important that those get properly addressed as soon as possible."

DomainCrawls has reached out to Nominet and its members for comment.

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