New Portfolio Site for IDNs - lets do this right

[Olney]

I'm going to create a new site just for IDN portfolios

I looked at Afternic & it's almost impossible to even look at anything after the very first few pages.

If they won't do it I will.

I'm looking for feedback though...

So far some of the options I'm thinking are:

Users can comment on the URL
Users can rate sellers
It will be directory style with these categories:

Asian Languages:
Japanese, Chinese, Korean

European
French, Spanish, Portgueses, Russian

One character, two character
Possible Feature IDNs

I'm not sure I can automate the punycode at lauch but I think I can put the punycode tool in the script so you just type in the native code & copy the punycode.

Translation: You will need to include a translation in English (Sorry but it will be initially an English site)
Language: You will have to specify which language the url is in.
Possible Stats: Results from Google, or the local OVT tool

Also members can be either sellers who have portfolios or regular members who want to contact a seller.
The system will have an internal PM system.


This won't be a parking system but the first portfolio site to correctly display IDNs.
We can't check out the sellers or users so at first we just will be a portfolio site.

I'm not sure if I'm going to accept non IDNs or not.

There will be a yearly fee for this (probably $20) but most likely you guys on here now will be able to post your portfolio for free
As of this point I don't know how to & can't take commissions. So if you guys make sales later you can donate (if you like)

Anyway there are probably more features that I haven't written.

But looking for feedback

My concerns is testing out the search function for this.
It will be a completely seperate URL

[idn123]

Hi, this is a great idea!

I think will need to be an educational resource
somewhere on the site explaining more about
IDN, because it is my experience that even
'seasoned' domainers don't know very much as
yet about IDN and what its all about.

So, if this is a sale-based site like Afternic, then
this will be essential in order that investors can
be educated not only on the domains being
offered but the risks and potential for IDN
(generally, and for the respective TLDs).

See you

Richard

[Rubber Duck]

Not sure about that. Most domainers just follow like sheep. They try to copy something that fetched a good price last week. Few of them do much in the way of original research.

Most will not become involved with IDN until they see big ticket sales, once that happens they will buy anything starting with an X as long as it is a dot com.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[Rubber Duck]

I'm going to create a new site just for IDN portfolios


Users can comment on the URL
Users can rate sellers
It will be directory style with these categories:

Asian Languages:
Japanese, Chinese, Korean

European
French, Spanish, Portgueses, Russian

One character, two character
Possible Feature IDNs




As we are interested in script more than language, my opinion the languages should be grouped by script as follows:

Latin - French Czech, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Yuroba etc
Cyrilic - Russian, Ukrainian etc
Arabic - Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, etc
East Asian - Chinese, Japanese and Korean
South Asian - Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Thai and many more!

We are already active in Arabic and South Asian Areas and would appreciate that these be included. Arabic Script is huge and covers vast parts of Asia. In IDN terms it will eventually be second only to Chinese.

The South Asian Languages are not really all of a script or even of a group, but the subject is very complexed, so it is probably best to just lump them together.

I am sure you will have differing opinions on this. I have had huge arguments with Seeker at DNForums. He could not see that although there are many dialects and even languages within China, this is almost irrelevant as they all use the same characters more or less to represent the same thing. The fact that the spoken language is very different is of little or no interest to me as a domainer. He also had difficulty grasping that his predictions of an imminent fragmentation of China into hundred of states, would have little impact on the value of Chinese dot com IDN. Mind you he also would not accept that could possibly ever have any value either. Some debates probably not worth having!

If conventional dot coms are to be included as they can come from hundreds of languages not just English they should be referred to as "ASCII Encodement".

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[Olney]

Thanks I may let IDNers put up there regular dot coms
I think your scheming works well, better than my first attempt.

Also I am working on a glossary now.

I've just been looking at the IDNs & descriptions on Afternic.

I'm going to insist on translations.

I saw plain crap on there with the description:
Rare & Unique IDNs. You have no clue what you are buying & neither does the sellers.

If we can build a better system with more info I think it will spark sales.

Also sellers much put in the actual text of the URL...

I saw one post on afternic about a guy selling a domain name posted just as money.com

Steaming mad after he found out what an IDN was...

[Rubber Duck]

Thanks I may let IDNers put up there regular dot coms
I think your scheming works well, better than my first attempt.

Also I am working on a glossary now.

I've just been looking at the IDNs & descriptions on Afternic.

I'm going to insist on translations.

I saw plain crap on there with the description:
Rare & Unique IDNs. You have no clue what you are buying & neither does the sellers.

If we can build a better system with more info I think it will spark sales.

Also sellers much put in the actual text of the URL...

I saw one post on afternic about a guy selling a domain name posted just as money.com

Steaming mad after he found out what an IDN was...





It is not an easy thing to sort out as we have learnt from Sedo's and Afternic's, at times, rather disappointing efforts.

Praise to Afternic for being first to accept all IDNs but their service in general is poor and I have actually let my subscrition drop.

It is essential that the RACE or punycode is listed as this is what is actually held at the registry. Verisign does not interest themselves in what the domains actually mean.

Graphical Representation is ideal but not absolutely essential, although I am sure Bramzio could sort that out if your struggling.

Script is essential it should explicitly say whether it is ASCII or not and which script it is in. Note script not language, as languages share scripts and some languages are represented in more than one script.

Translation would seem important, but is fraught with difficulty. I think you will be dependent on owners providing reasonable translation, which is at best subjective as these things can mean different things in different languages or dialects. However, some attempt must be made at this level, otherwise the whole thing becomes a farce. Translations should always be labelled "Indicative". The translation is really there to get the buyer to where he needs to go as quickly as possible, however, the responsibility for ensuring he gets what he wants should rest with him. Free translation links might be a good idea to assist him in this process.

Hope that is helpful.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[gammascalper]

While the responsibility lies on the buyer to understand what he's purchasing, it would nice to see the seller's translation and a machine-assisted translation as a confirmation.

It would also be nice if the search function indexed translations as well as terms in their native character set. So, for instance you could search for "dog" or "犬" and it would return translations that included "dog" as well as IDNs that contained "犬". I think that's what you meant about the complexity of the search.

[Rubber Duck]

While the responsibility lies on the buyer to understand what he's purchasing, it would nice to see the seller's translation and a machine-assisted translation as a confirmation.

It would also be nice if the search function indexed translations as well as terms in their native character set. So, for instance you could search for "dog" or "犬" and it would return translations that included "dog" as well as IDNs that contained "犬". I think that's what you meant about the complexity of the search.


Of course the seller should display a translation. However, it is doubtful whether there is a single source that could come up with the Translations required. Many of the major languages of India, you would be lucky to come up with dictionaries in excess of 100 words at the moment and they are not automated.

Yes a search funtion of that nature would be good.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

[bramiozo]

A great idea, for the puny code conversion you can use my bulk-tool if you like, you'll write it in php ?

[Olney]

I'm not going to write the script from scratch.
Actually I'm going to convert a program I own that I can add various functions to.

I think I'm going to start with more popular languages that members actually own & add a suggest category link for sellers.
I would like to extend it to buyers but I would not like to have buyers just request categories & those domains don't sell.