There are some issues with the new domain verifying enforcement: 1) Like with links, in many cases you don't want the domains to be listed in public. 2) There are many cases where the domain is parked (so its not possible to verify it by uploading a file) and its also not possible to control its DNS settings (for instance .eu or .es TLDs). 3) What if you want to sell many domains ? its not reasonable to open like 20 threads for each domain ... I also have a very good suggestion for an easy-quick verification of a domain ownership, without the troubles involved with uploading files / changing DNS settings: WHOIS email verification: - By running a WHOIS query on a domain you can know its owner's email address, this address can only be modified by the owner of the domain ofcourse. - So simply send an email message to this email address with a confirmation link.
Its an alternative way, you will still have the other verification options, but this should be the main one as its the most efficiency. There also TLDs like .CA where you can't see the owner info using WHOIS.
For some privacy protection providers, there isn't a unique email address. Instead it goes to their own, single inbox and never passed on. I'm having no problems controlling the DNS settings for my .es domain, so this seems more like a problem of your provider, so you might want to consider switching, mate. By the way, a lot of people use GoDaddy, so that means Captcha to get the email address. I'm sure there will be other TLD and whois issues. DNS and file upload is really so simple.
For every .es domain on my GoDaddy account I get: "DNSSEC is not allowed for this domain extension." when I try to manage its DNS.
I strongly agree with tbtb. I can't make bulk sales now, it's not like i am going to create 20 listings for 20 domains. Verification is also very painful, for example on Dynadot it takes forever to get a domain validated without dealing with a hosting account and uploading files. There must be easier way to verify domains.
If GoDaddy's causing problems, use the DNS servers of where you have your web hosting. If you look at other sites that do domain verification, it's meta tag, file upload or DNS and there's a good reason for this. Uploading a file and DNS are the simplest (and more reliable ways) to check as it's something everyone can do with their domain (and doesn't take long for the steps - yes it might take a 2-24 hours for DNS updates). A whois check would just be hit-and-miss as not all whois output is equal - varies from registrar, ccTLD, etc. I don't mean the text format, but what details are included. So there would be a lot of circumstances where it just wouldn't work. You mention Dynadot - this is an example of where privacy protection lists the same email address for every domain, so it's just going to their mailbox and not yours. So, there are two reliable ways (neither of which are a lot of effort) and one that might work 50% of the time, so if I had my own marketplace I wouldn't waste my time coding for this 50% option. There is always mind-reading, once the technology is available.
Its all true if you host your domain normally, but in many cases the domains are parked and you don't have such control over them. Now hosting a domain, change NS, building a website for it and uploading a file just to list it here for sale is too much effort, especially when you have many domains for sale.
Why are you selling domains if it's too much effort? Earning money requires hard work, not sitting around all day doing nothing. A few minutes for each domain? That's too much? If you were a bit less lazy, you could find tools to help you do this.
As far as too much work to list each domain... How exactly are you planning on people even knowing your domain is for sale if you don't want to create a sale thread for it?
Re: .ES domains... it IS possible to control the DNS (assuming you are in control of the authoritative DNS servers listed for the domain obviously). But it's not possible to do anything based on the whois of the domain (like verify email) even if we wanted to, because there is no .EU WHOIS server to begin with.
I'd +1 for this thing. Like when selling a website I'd not want to give away the URL of the site just like that to anyone. Maybe we can come up with a better feature?
I really don't see a situation where we are going to help people sell a domain/site, that they refuse to tell the buyer what it is. lol
Not every person looking at your thread is a buyer, IMO. Those who'd really be interested in buying would inquire about it that shows the seriousness of them. The only reason of not giving away the URL of the website is people can copy the idea of the site thus creating more competitors.
Maybe, but if you are selling the site anyway, do you really care if there are more competitors? And by that same notion, what if you aren't selling the site, are you worried about users coming to it and seeing it because they will steal your site idea also? How do you have any users if you don't want people to see it?
Maybe only a part of the domain can be shown in the sites/domain section like in the link sales section? EDIT: Does DP take a 20% cut of site and domain sales?
The whois email verification is a good way. Just add it as an alternative way of verification. I tried many times to verify a domain by uploading the .html file till I got it worked.