thenbrent's comments

I write a free auction/marketplace WordPress plugin (called Prospress) that could be used to set up a working prototype in a couple of hours.

- not requiring a 37 step signup process

- not requiring a user to choose between a dozen different monthly plans before being able to sign-up

- not requiring a monthly subscription just to test and send the odd fax

It's been a while since I looked at the available options, but the few I previously evaluated required far too much overhead to make them effective.

Melbourne AU - also good for tech and culture, though it is closer to what you're used to (I'm assuming American)

New York US - hard to beat as a city

Important tips:

- live only in cities where you speak the local language, but visit countries where you don't.

- expect your productivty to be reduced by about half. Learning to live in a new country is surprisingly time consuming and the simplest of things can take hours.

- make sure you have at least a small social group (2+ people) or way to break into a social group in the new city.

I've lived in 4 cities across 3 countries in the last 2 years and in my opinion, moving to a foreign country while beginning a startup is like trying to swim while juggling.

I still say go for it, it'll be an experience, but starting a business is hard enough without having to learn to live in a new city, so if that is your ultimate goal, stay close to what you're familiar with.

It seems surprising to me that potential damages would not be taken into account. By doing so, the accussed would essentially be rewarded based on chance - at least in this case.

Edit: also in reference to this comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2054679

If you have nothing to show for it, you haven't actually started a startup. You may not get a 7 figure bank balance to show for it, but you'll get something out it. Be it a website you can show off, better anecdotes for job interviews & parties or a network of new friends.

I'm surprised we don't hear more about them though. I was surprised they'd been around for so long (03/2008 [1]) before I first heard of them a month or so ago.

1. http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/startuply

I'd love to hear more about the "alternative methodologies" and why they're more "efficient, extensible, and far more economical".

Also, do people think the fees are that outrageous? A common complaint about the .com TLD is that it is too cheap; thus, making it susceptible to squatting. I've no idea about the real costs involved in creating custom TLDs, but I wouldn't be surprised if the fees are in part set high to avoid people buying custom TLDs, like .inc or .fb (facebook) and squatting them.

Ulterior motives aside, it's a great offer, good work on putting it together. Best of luck with PadPressed.

Disclaimer: My thoughts are heavily influenced by having just read your piece on how to pitch TC and get press.

The biggest issue I see though is the implication for small projects.

For example, maybe in 1994 you snapped up pizza.com. You could have been using it ever since for a pizza price search engine which gets 100,000 unique visitors per month and earns you $5,000 per month. That's decent income, except the taxes on the domain's market value of $2.6 million[1] would be crippling. So despite using the domain in what most would think of as good way, you couldn't afford to have such a good domain. Now extrapolate this example for the thousands of sites that have a good domain name for a small project.

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9912380-7.html

I'm not surprised to see my comment being both up and down voted, but anyone down voting my comment, at least take the time to share your reasons for disagreeing. If there is any place a well considered domain purchasing discussion should be able to occur it's HN.

Regulators realised the best way to provide domains was to let the market determine their value and allow them to be traded at will (with respect for IP). So they wholesale at dirt cheap prices on a first-come first-served basis and people can then buy and sell them based on market value. Works for real estate so why not domains?

The problem derives from the initial price and the expectations that implants. Many expect a domain to cost $10. So when they are offered a price more than that, they are pissed off and blame the person selling it to them.

Nobody walks past a vacant block in a prime real estate location and goes "bastards, if they weren't squatting that land, I could snap it up". They know the land costs $x million and don't assume it should cost $10. However, because domains are a new real estate market and not every possible domain is out of wholesale, people base their expectation of price on the wholesale price.

Now, let's think of the alternative. Anyone who has tried to buy a top level domain for a country that heavily regulates the names would understand the pain of the alternative. It can cost hundreds or thousands for the wholesale price. You're required to own the trademark already (which adds additional cost for a new project) as well as have a registered company etc. I can think of dozens of my favourite projects/blogs which I'm sure don't have a company or trademark registered under that name. This system would not only be a pain for small business, it would stifle innovation on the web.

I'm not a domainer (I do own about a dozen though) and I get just as annoyed as the next guy when I come up with a name for a project and find some punk wants $15k for the domain. But then I think of the alternative.

It doesn't have to be the security blackhole or spaghetti monster it's made out to be.

Probably because by the time they've transitioned to the more popular language, an entirely new programming language will be the one more great programmers want to use.

IMDb told the team that if a movie is not set up with a production company with a history of theatrically released movies, getting it listed at the early stages of development would not be possible

The reasoning didn't have much to do with it being released via bitTorrent only.