Ask HN: what unwanted domain names are you sitting on?

[stevejalim]

While thinking of ever more imaginative ways to punish domain squatters following yet another abandoned hunt for a domain-cum-product name, I finally became aware of the irony that I am sitting on a few decent domain names that I'm not using.

Then, I wondered, if one of the parked domains I've come across recently is held just by someone like me, not maliciously or out for profit, but just as a by-product of a non-startup startup, an abandoned weekend hackery project or whatever really.

So, rather than set up www.domainnameswap.com (partly because the name is parked ;o) ), how about a thread where we have a rummage down the back of the sofa and throw in any parked domains we'd be willing to give/swap away. If there's a match up, the relevant poster is contactable via their HN profile.

[Note: this idea may tank, but it's got to be worth a try. My fingers are being worn shorter with each fruitless domain search]

[petercooper]

I'm sitting on tons, but I've given plenty away over the years too, so I don't think of myself as malicious. Nearly all are from project ideas I had but then never followed up on.

ajaxday.com* amonad.com* cocoainside.com* detailedlook.com javascriptinside.com jotpack.com* jsinside.com pythonflow.com pythoninside.com railgrinder.com* railsteam.com (currently giving this away) railswebhosting.com rorhosting.com rubyonrailswebhosting.com richlanguage.com rollwall.com roted.org* rotes.org* rubyandhow.com rubypedia.com rubyweekly.com scalainside.com* spacepit.com* startupfreude.com* superyay.com* tipteam.com* topichub.com*

I don't think I'd be willing to unconditionally give/swap away all of these, but I'd say for at least half I would (I've put stars next to those). For example, I consider the Rails Web hosting ones to have value - I just haven't bothered to do anything with them yet. Some of the others I am "squatting", in a sense, in order to prevent competitors infringing on my brand.

Sorry for the formatting.. too lazy to fix it, but actually realized it doesn't look too bad as a horizontal list anyways..

[petercooper]

Big thumbs up to the starter of this thread, by the way. I've already given away three domains in the last two hours..

[RandomPersona]

superyay.com is possibly the most amazing domain I've ever seen. I can't even look at it without chuckling.

[endlessvoid94]

i'd be interested in obtaining topichub from you...

[poshj]

I'd like to know the availability for cocoainside.com. I sent you email yesterday.

[Keyframe]

space pit sounds like a name for a pinball table, I like it :)

[thorax]

Has anyone considered changing their parked domains to say:

"This domain is free to anyone who will develop it into something. All that is required is that they feature a link to my other project/site %s for the first year."

[patio11]

I bought a domain name (actually, the big three) for a phrase that would be instantly recognizable on HN, with the intention of using it for a weekend project. Halfway through the weekend, before it was publicly accessible, I got an email from a chap in Italy saying it was his heart's desire to use that name for his software company, and could I please give him the domain name.

I'll mention to you what I mentioned to him : if you have hearts desire, you can afford $10 for a reg fee the SECOND you think of that domain name. (This is why I routinely buy them for weekend projects.)

But I am a softie for small software companies, so I made him a deal: I'd keep the domain pointed at his DNS servers for a year, meaning he gets 100% practical use out of the domain. If, at the end of the year, he had a software company active on the site, I'd transfer it to him gratis. If not, I'd keep it.

I think that everyone wins for that, except my weekend project. (Sure, I could technically screw him over, but I value my reputation far more than my domain names, even a pretty nice one.)

[adrianwaj]

Once the deal was done, they could shaft you. The only thing you could do was keep ownership and grant technical administration over to the new domain user for a year. Would they want that?

[synnik]

Good idea.

Although I've also had luck just emailing the contact for a domain, and finding they were willing to give it up. Worst case scenario is some squatter overvalues it and won't sell for a reasonable price. But it is always worth asking.

I even had one person randomly email me offering $500 for one of my domains. I didn't reply right away, and two hours later, he upped the offer to $1000. I had the cash in hand by the end of the day. Easiest money ever.

[jwesley]

Yea, I've had the same thing happen to me with a name that I posted on Sedo :)

For what it's worth, owning a domain and not developing it is not "domain squatting" which is defined by law as "registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting

There is nothing wrong with owning a domain and not developing it. It's the same as making a speculative investment, just like in real estate or any other asset. We all wish we were there in 1990 to scoop up the best names, but just because we weren't doesn't make the smart people who did unethical.

[stevejalim]

Yeah, I bought lancelist.com from a very nice vendor after approaching him out of the blue. Shame I never got to use it.

Shakes fist at UK employment laws (but that's a different story)

[stevejalim]

I'll go first, hoping that karma is more than an int next to my name:

lancelist.com / lancelist.net / lancelist.co.uk

bookafreelance.com / bookafreelance.co.uk

flatplan.net

zeditorial.com / zeditorial.co.uk

[anigbrowl]

buyitwhen.com

I've had this idea that when you see things you don't want to pay new price for, you can look them up, enter the price you'd prefer to pay, and get a notification when a merchant hits that price point - best for technology and gadgets where the price tends to fall over a predictable curve.

But I've been too lazy to build it out. I'm reconsidering after seeing the other day it gets 400 monthly uniques just for existing.

[tricky]

You should build that out! I've set up scrapers for my wife to help her stalk sweaters and shoes. she loves that, and i'm guessing there are a lot like her out there who'd use the service.

[dylanz]

Ooo... I actually started something "just" like this, and this domain name is perfect. Would you part with it?

[davidw]

I have jeejah.net, and would love to develop it into some kind of site for advanced mobile phone stuff. You'd have had to have read Neil Stephenson's Anathem to get the reference though.

Speaking of something that would be anathema to many here, if web sites are going to be 'properties', then why don't they have property taxes based on the last sale value? That might keep people from squatting - they'd be "forced" to either develop the site into something that generates revenue, or sell it. In theory at least... I don't really think it is a good idea, but it's something to consider.

[scumola]

0spy.com

american-idol-online.com ( has gone through multiple ideas, but none have taken )

cheaptightwad.com ( was a product sales site based on the pronto.com api )

everythingmicrosoft.com

gconq.com ( was going to be an online game )

hddvdtech.com ( ha ha - gonna let that one expire. )

hotwaterinteractive.com ( meant for steam game development )

imvote.com ( never did anything with it )

rssgoogle.com

txt2sms.com

wiidynamics.com

wiiphysics.com

I have more, but they have some content on them or are partially active. These are basically my abandoned idea websites. :)

[redorb]

Here are my domains I would let go for any reasonable offer...

AndyApp.cm AndyApps.com AndyDev.com AhayStack.com (think mahalo) AGoodProblem.com

    (like having too many sales, not enough inventory)

FastRapid.com (dev company?) HelpStopJunkmail.com (info site) LogicRandom.com ( a little logic + random = genius?) MobRally.com - (mobile social networking) SEOdeft.com

I saw some awesome domains listed here, good luck all finding their own little domain in the wild world.

[paulgb]

Great idea. I've had these since 2006 for some project ideas that quickly became obsolete. I didn't want to let them expire and fall into the hands of squatters, so I kept renewing them. I'm willing to give them up to a good home.

  gowiki.net
  swound.com
  thumbnote.com
  thumbwiki.com

(edit: one gone, removed. the four above are still up for grabs. Will trade for a donation to EFF or Wikipedia)

[racerrick]

Or use www.twitter.com/domaintrade. I'll set up a "bot" for it.

[stevejalim]

Let me know if you whip up something - it's a nice idea you've put forward

[Brushfire]

I know what you mean. I have dozens and dozens of these names, all really good names that I like for startup or related projects. I dont want to give them up becuase, like you, I HATE trying to find new names. I also hate domain squatters, so they arent filled with BS Ad's either, just a brief message saying "this was for a project I was or will be working on... if you are interested, let me know.

My list is too long to post, but you can check it out at http://btlventures.com/domains/ . I'm happy to lease/loan these domains to someone on the cheap who wants to use them for a good project.

[mrtron]

I have to ask what thegreatmustachechallenge was.

[sil3ntmac]

I've had good luck with godaddy's auctions. They have a good, powerful search (you can specify tld's and set a max length and blacklist characters), and their buy-it-now feature allows you to instantly separate inexpensive domains from domains owned by, er, less rational holders.

For example, the auction for eventjunky.com is ending in 10 minutes, and the price is $10. not bad. I also saw asdense.com on there the other day for $5 buy it now... I thought that would be a domain squatter's dream, but decided to pass it up :P

https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpHome.aspx?t=16

[nopassrecover]

I've seen some decent ones come up on pool.com actually. For instance "digitalclassroom.com" was listed recently (no idea how much, would have looked more if I wasn't concerned with blackboard suing me if I used it).

[peterbraden]

I have bringbacktheblinktag.com

If anyone wants to mount a campaign to bring back the much maligned html tag then let me know!

[lacker]

I was hoping for a pro-blink-tag essay that all blinked using javascript.

[csbartus]

I had two domain names reserved for some projects

nukanon.com extrophos.com

and now they are available for free. I'll tell you their story if you register them :D

currently I'm reserving only 'local' domain names which are mine forever. unused are

nucumpar.ro gros.ro

[pjdavis]

I bought alcoholicsunanimo.us awhile back as an idea for a service to prevent drinking problems. You know you have a drinking problem if you drink alone, so you can send a txt to alcoholicsunanimo.us and let everyone know you want to drink, and need someone to drink with, and voilà! drinking problem solved.

[abyssknight]

There are a few I am sitting on for lack of motivation:

  meetthedress.com
  hackmyjob.com
  fragtweet.com / tweetfrag.com (Has an app on it, needs more work though.)

[jfarmer]

I was going to create a site that made fun of the fact that John McCain looked like Saul Tigh, so I have a bunch of domains like: saultigh2008, tigh2008, electsaul, etc.

[forgotmypasswd]

I have "wow! A looks like B, haha" problem alot. Thankfully I dont ever buy domain names though.

[jorgem]

Now you know why 78 million COM names are taken. A few here, and a few there. Most doing nothing. I posted an analysis with list of available one-word domains that are left recently: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=480858

[ajb]

linux-inside.com.

I was looking round for a new computer to run linux on. There are lots of little companies that will sell you a computer with linux preinstalled, but they mainly have short product lines, so you have to check out loads of websites. With windows, there are companies which will put together the computer you want set it up for you.

I thought it would be a good idea if there was one place where all the small linux companies could list their product lines so they would be easier to find. Then the experience of buying a computer for linux would be closer to buying one for windows.

It became less urgent for me because I bought a computer :-) Anyone wants to execute on the idea, I'll give you the domain. Someone else has linuxinside.com, BTW.