Well, in what now seems to be now an “official continuing saga”, the .cm registry has postponed for a second time, the ‘Go Live’ registration period, which was to begin at 8pm EST tonight.
Once again the delay seems to be due to “technical issues”.
Once again the postponement was announced just minutes before the “Go Live” was to go live.
(thanks to our friends at Moniker.com for passing this information on to us)
I don’t know about you, but for me this is becoming quite scary.
It seems like the .cm registry is over its head, as it is postponing the Go Live registration period, yet again.
This maybe a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to own their own gTLD.
You better have a proven backbone to support your extension before embarking on running a registry.
This is one of those things, that looks like its harder than it seems.
Especially troubling is the statement from the registry, regarding when the Go Live will be ready to go:
“We hope the situation will change in the next few days.”
Hope
Hope is not a word that Tech guys are used to hearing.
Hope does not inspire confidence.
Now we are down this road for a second time and backed up more than a month; now that auctions are starting and people are going to be asked to spend 5 figures or more to get some of these .CM domains, and the fact that the registry can’t seem to get its act together, one word comes to mind;
Scary
Bottom line, no “Go Live” tonight, and no timetable is set for the “Go Live” .cm registry.
Here is the official announcement.
“””””The Go Live of .CM set for 27th August 2009 ( 00:00:01 UTC ) has been postponed by CoCCA.
The servers under the control of Camtel require further testing.
Pulling the .cm Zones from the CoCCA Registry and loading them onto the .CM TLD servers is still not reliable enough at this point for CoCCA to
approve the use of our system for processing second level .CM applications.
CoCCA provides the Register System but does not provide DNS services.
The administrators of the various ccTLDs that we host on our platform generally use Anycast technology and reliable third party DNS providers
with whom with we have a close working relationship. This include UltraDNS, DynTLD and PCH – all of which have proven and reliable DNS
networks.
The .CM DNS is managed by Camtel, – Cameroon’s Telecom company ( not Netcom.cm SARL or CoCCA ). CoCCA has been working with Netcom.cm SARL
who has in turn been working with the regulator in Cameroon to improve the reliability of the .CM DNS. These efforts are not sufficiently
advanced for COCCA to be comfortable in assisting in bringing this product to the market for “Live” registrations.
We support the approach taken by Netcom.CM to go through a Sunrise and Landrush applications phase; and to discontinue the wildcard – therefore
bringing a best-practice approach to the administration of the .CM ccTLD.
As a CoCCA registrar, you have a trusted relationship with us as your registry provider. We need to ensure that offerings made using our systems and technology are reliable enough for you to be confident when you extend those offerings to your valued clients. Unfortunately this is not the case at this time. We hope the situation will change in the next few days.”””
Horrible. I could smell trouble from the beginning. That is why I would not touch .cm names with a nine inch pole. Imagine once they resolve their “technical issues” what other catastrophes are waiting to unfold. When you have your .cm, there’s no telling when you can actually use it. Also, there is no way you can run a legitimate site on a cm.
Oh well. Only the best in Cameroon.
Why should people be interested about .cm, I won’t and many of domainers I know. The reg fees are really too much, not woth if you think of .com typo is .cm, many legal action to come for cyber squatters…..One of the worse extension I ever see in my life.
US
If its a generic term without a trademark I would say its fair game if you want to play, but the registry issues should be a concern
I backordered some but will not bid, either I get it or not. As for legal worries just use fake name somewhere in Bananistan, what’s the frickin’ problem ? Worse case you lose $350 a pop (very low probability)
Its unfortunate that the author of the blog failed to read the official release on the reasons behind the delay. The registry is not the issue. Its the servers in Cameroon.
Netcom.cm has activated all single landrush application domains and almost all sunrise domains (some are not activated becuase of nameserver missing or documents not complete).
Fact Checker
Then you did not read the official announcement that WAS contained in the original blog post which clearly said:
Here is the official announcement.
“””””The Go Live of .CM set for 27th August 2009 ( 00:00:01 UTC ) has been postponed by CoCCA.
The servers under the control of Camtel require further testing.
Pulling the .cm Zones from the CoCCA Registry and loading them onto the .CM TLD servers is still not reliable enough at this point for CoCCA to
approve the use of our system for processing second level .CM applications.
CoCCA provides the Register System but does not provide DNS services.”””
However, my opinion still stands.
Which is this registry is showing it has little knowledge on how to run a registry.
The registry decide 30 minutes before the “Go Live” time that the servers are not up to snuff. That means they knew for days that the servers had issues.
Who hired this company with the servers to provide them to the registry?
The registry.
Here’s a thought, hire another company to provide DNS service, whose servers are capable and stable to handle the load
All I know is that this is another postponement due to technical issues.
This is the announcement of Cocca not Netcom.cm Sarl.
And maybe you simply start checking some of the domains which wherein landrush and see that they are connected.
check for exmaple :
verisign.cm
bookings.cm
booking.cm
economic.cm
Just a few examples. We checked the zone and there have been more than 10,000 domains added.
Snick
The postponement of the Go Live was delayed.
However the 11,000 domains had a single backorder were proceed by NameJet.com and are live. Moreover the 4,500 domains that are subject to auction due to having more than 1 back order, are starting today.
We wrote about this the other day:
http://www.thedomains.com/2009/08/26/namejet-cm-preorders-yield-11000-registrations-and-4500-domains-going-to-auction/
This post referred to just the Go Live situation which is postponed indefinitely
I understand this, as we are an accredited registrar of .CM and get the updates 😉
Snick
I’m just making sure everyone else, who is not an accredited registrar, understands what is going on.
“””””The Go Live of .CM set for 27th August 2009 ( 00:00:01 UTC ) has been postponed by CoCCA
I think this means CoCCA is waiting for a cheque in the mail from Cameroon
before releasing go live
I am not at all surprised with all what is happening because if you live and work in Cameroon then this is very typical of Cameroon and I bit you some people
especially those working at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications are Presently eat fat because of this technical delays because being that most people in the government know little or nothing about technology and they these guys will come up with all sorts of Inflated bills for the government to pay for it …..
The Ministry of Post and Telecommunication in Cameroon is like a Cash cow for
the very few who know little about Information Communication Technologies -ICT With the present correct system in Power, Cameroon will always remain Cameroon And I am even shocked at the outrageous prices that some of these .cm domains are going for …. This People are really sick