As you all probably realize, the SACMARC has its own standard Internet
domain, sacmarc.org. This was obtained by me during the SACMARC's more
informal, and Mikado-like, administration in the late 90's (where I was
simultaneously serving as President, Postmaster, Webmaster, Events
Committee Chair, Chief Bottle Washer, etc.):
http://sacmarc.novia.net/hypermail/0145.html
I paid for two year's registration at that time, and paid for another
two year's renewal in 2001, as gifts to the club (with the only
condition that the club make use of the gift). During that time, it has
provided a standard, fixed, location for our web site:
as well as permanent, and SPAM filtered, E-mail address aliases for all
officers and trustees. Such address aliases can be seamlessly
handed-off when office holders change. As noted at last year's annual
meeting:
http://sacmarc.novia.net/minutes/2002December16.html
Novia Internetworking continues to provide name service resolution, web
hosting, and E-mail forwarding/filtering free of charge as a courtesy to
our non-profit, public benefit corporation. If, at some time in the
future, Novia, or at least Novia's generous offer, goes away, we can
take our standard domain name elsewhere without users losing links to
our web pages or E-mail address aliases. Several other local clubs have
had to change their links, and update everyone, when they have moved
their web hosting to new locations (sometimes as often as every few
years).
The second term of renewal will expire in late December of 2003 (after
our annual meeting). I intend to offer a motion (or ask that someone
else do so if I cannot attend) that the club take over funding of the
domain name registration. I feel that this is reasonable for the
following reasons:
- Four years has been enough time for the SACMARC to determine whether
or not such a domain has been useful to its mission.
- The SACMARC is in a healthy financial position, with a bank balance
equal to at least several years of dues/expenses, and can now seek to
become fully self-supporting.
If another two year's renewal is chosen, the cost will be $30/year, or
$60. Further savings could be obtained by renewing for five years
($19/year, or $95). A nine year renewal can be obtained for a maximum
discounted cost of $15/year, or $135, but I wouldn't recommend renewing
for much longer than the terms of our present station licenses (due to
expire in February and May 2007, respectively).
Another option to consider is whether or not to change domain name
registrar. We currently register with the original domain name
registrar for the Internet, Network Solutions (also doing business as
Verisign). As with long distance telephone service, there may be a
trade-off between cost and reliability. Domain name service
registration also has its own similar problems with high-pressure, and
misleading, marketing tactics to get domain name holders to switch
registrars. Reliability of registrars range from rock-solid to
fly-by-night. They also span a wide range of ethics in their business
practices. For example, it may be difficult or impossible to get a
discount registrar to promptly release our domain name if we ever wanted
to change back to a full-service registrar, leading to potential
interruption of service. Even the blue-chip registrars are not immune
to shady practices. For example, Network Solutions is not beneath
aggressively selling their mailing lists to third parties. It took a
bit of digging to find out how to opt-out of this so that our P.O. Box
wasn't overflowing with junk mail. I had to find this out on my own, as
customer service played dumb with me when I confronted them about it.
I welcome further discussion on this subject, either now, or at the
annual meeting. I would also be interested in hearing from the
membership regarding how useful a standard domain has been to you, both
in terms of accessing our web site, and in sending or receiving
SPAM-filtered E-mail to our officers via addresses that can be
seamlessly handed-off when office-holders change. If any of you have
had good experiences with an alternative domain name registrar, both in
terms of cost and ethical business practices, please don't hesitate to
recommend one.
73, Paul, K3FU
SACMARC Co-Webmaster
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 27 2003 - 13:38:16 CST