TFBW

Do a Google search for “Domain Registry of America”, and the top listing is likely to be the company of that name. The rest consist primarily of people complaining about them: accusing them of being scammers, slammers, crooks, and other similar terms of disapproval. I don’t have anything nice to say about them either.

I’d refrain from saying anything at all if it weren’t for the fact that I too am on their hit-list of people to con. Like many other domain name registrants, I get snail-mail from DRoA to notify me that my domain name is going to expire soon. Like most of those others, I have no business dealings with DRoA at all. Their “Domain Name Expiration Notice” is junk mail dressed up to look like something important and official.

No doubt their manifest lack of business ethics has been profitable, even if it has gained them an ill reputation and made them the target of court action from time to time. It’s easy to see how a person unschooled in the ins and outs of domain name registration could form the mistaken belief that this “notice” was somehow official, and had the force of an invoice rather than a solicitation. No rational actor would buy DRoA’s overpriced services if they were properly informed of the facts and the abundance of cheaper registrars.

But it’s not just their disingenuous advertising methods and inflated prices that make me think ill of them. The stereotypical “fine print” on the back of this junk-impersonating-a-notice contains such unconscionable gems as the following condition relating to transfer of a domain away from DRoA to another registrar.

You… agree to pay any and all fees that may be charged by DRoA to effect the transfer.

What a nice little poison pill that is. If you figure out that you’ve been had, and that you don’t need to keep paying DRoA’s high prices, they can sting you on your way out the door with a fee of unspecified magnitude.

Domain Registry of America is a company rank with misdirection. If all the above doesn’t demonstrate the substance of that assertion, then consider the letterhead on this “Domain Name Expiration Notice”, which incorporates part of the US flag. DRoA is based in Ontario, Canada. And ultimately they are not even an ICANN-accredited registrar, let alone a registry.

“Domain Registry of America?” Bah! Humbug!

After much hacking around with style sheets and template code, I think the site is now doing more or less what I want in all browsers. I’m particularly impressed with how well this site renders in pure text browsers, and newly unimpressed with Microsoft Internet Explorer and its utterly half-baked CSS support. Oh, how I could rant about that. Don’t get me started. Instead, let me say that I have constructed this website using the most widely-supported current standards, then made minor concessions here and there to reduce the visual damage that IE inflicts on the site.

I’m presently juggling all the StepMania stuff: trying to document it and get all the files online and test that it works. At the same time, I’m tweaking the site layout. Consequently, the site is in a state of partial disarray. Expect various bits of ugliness and breakage until further notice. Of course, I haven’t really advertised this site anywhere yet, so my warning and apology is addressed to nobody in particular. Hello if you happen to be passing through: please come back later when the paint has had a chance to dry.