5 ms·

Imagine having 900 houses and renting them out to a community of like minded folks. Whether it is at cost or slightly above, it is "rent seeking" in the sense

Imagine having 900 houses and renting them out to a community of like minded folks. Whether it is at cost or slightly above, it is "rent seeking" in the sense they own, you borrow. While it isn't rented, they are squatting on it.

franciscop 2y ago
Rent seeking is NOT the same as renting, otherwise we would not need a new word for it. Rent seeking is particularly abusing the ownership position or power to obtain rent, not just rent: > "Rent seeking: the fact or practice of manipulating public policy or economic conditions as a strategy for increasing profits."
- mcnichol 2y ago
  Owning 900 domains hoping for them to be rented is "rent-seeking" A simple test: Would all of FolioHD's domains being rented benefit their business or not? They are subsidizing the cost of buying those 900 domains into their overall pricing as a line item. Now the registrar is trying to push out squatters. Sounds like the housing and renting markets. Insert surprise Pikachu face.
close04 2y ago
That's not what "rent seeking" means. Imagine you have a bench on your property and people can just rest there. One day you start charging money for it but without offering anything extra, same old bench. That "squeezing for money with no justification" is "rent seeking".
- mcnichol 2y ago
  You clearly do not understand. They buy 900 domains. They hold 900 domains. Anyone who wants that domain cannot use it but must rent through them (whom they rent through someone else) This is textbook rent seeking behavior.
  - grujicd 2y ago
    It's not like that. They buy mcnichol.com on your behalf, when you request it. They're not registering it in advance and then blackmailing you to rent it through them. Domain is yours, you can move it elsewhere (they explicitly mention that). It's same as any other domain registrar, except that have small markup (couple of dolars per year) but they provide additional service, i.e. customer doesn't have to deal with DNS.
  - Operyl 2y ago
    They buy the domain their customer _wants_ them to buy. That customer is free to transfer it out if they want to. What are you going on about?
grujicd 2y ago
I don't think you understand what foliohd does. They're not squatting on hundreds of domains in advance. This is how it works, based on 1 minute glance of their site: - you create portfolio, but it's by default served as a subdomain - then you decide that you really want to use "mchichol.com". You register through them instead of buying it yourself. That's it. It's customer's domain, not theirs. They also specify that domain is yours if you ever want to move your site elsewhere.
- barryrandall 2y ago
  I suspect they're confusing domain speculators with domain registration resellers.

franciscop 2y ago

Rent seeking is NOT the same as renting, otherwise we would not need a new word for it. Rent seeking is particularly abusing the ownership position or power to obtain rent, not just rent: > "Rent seeking: the fact or practice of manipulating public policy or economic conditions as a strategy for increasing profits."

mcnichol 2y ago
Owning 900 domains hoping for them to be rented is "rent-seeking" A simple test: Would all of FolioHD's domains being rented benefit their business or not? They are subsidizing the cost of buying those 900 domains into their overall pricing as a line item. Now the registrar is trying to push out squatters. Sounds like the housing and renting markets. Insert surprise Pikachu face.

close04 2y ago

That's not what "rent seeking" means. Imagine you have a bench on your property and people can just rest there. One day you start charging money for it but without offering anything extra, same old bench. That "squeezing for money with no justification" is "rent seeking".

mcnichol 2y ago
You clearly do not understand. They buy 900 domains. They hold 900 domains. Anyone who wants that domain cannot use it but must rent through them (whom they rent through someone else) This is textbook rent seeking behavior.
- grujicd 2y ago
  It's not like that. They buy mcnichol.com on your behalf, when you request it. They're not registering it in advance and then blackmailing you to rent it through them. Domain is yours, you can move it elsewhere (they explicitly mention that). It's same as any other domain registrar, except that have small markup (couple of dolars per year) but they provide additional service, i.e. customer doesn't have to deal with DNS.
- Operyl 2y ago
  They buy the domain their customer _wants_ them to buy. That customer is free to transfer it out if they want to. What are you going on about?

grujicd 2y ago

I don't think you understand what foliohd does. They're not squatting on hundreds of domains in advance. This is how it works, based on 1 minute glance of their site: - you create portfolio, but it's by default served as a subdomain - then you decide that you really want to use "mchichol.com". You register through them instead of buying it yourself. That's it. It's customer's domain, not theirs. They also specify that domain is yours if you ever want to move your site elsewhere.

barryrandall 2y ago
I suspect they're confusing domain speculators with domain registration resellers.