There’s nothing improper about the VP of aftermarket domain auctions bidding up domain prices, says GoDaddy, but they’ve banned employees from participating in the future anyway, just to make everybody happy.
And likely, to make the all the dirty looks go away.
What looked like an idle comment in NamePros.com’s domain forum stirred up the hornets nest a bit. The comment from a senior forum member going by Stevie read this way:
Nice sales,
spyware.us will sell for over $10K later in the year
I bid to $3k so it shows what a small time domainer would pay for it. And it looks like a big time domainer bought it (adam dicker)
That name drop at the end caused a few mental brakes to lock.
GoDaddy hired Adam Dicker as vice president of its Domain Name Aftermarket sector. Dicker already had a certain amount of fame in the domaining business as the owner of PPC-cash-cows like Penpals.com, Planets.com, Witchcraft.com, FirePrevention.com, SM.com, ElvisPresley.com, SpongebobSquarepants.com and Download.net.
Immediately forum members called shenanigans, citing a conflict of interest if a GoDaddy executive could bid up auction prices. News spread to other forums in under a week, including Slashdot, where the conversation gets, to understate it, colorful.
Among others potentially questionable to reproduce, we can’t help but relay some clever Dickensian lyricism:
Wow, if Charles Dickens were writing today, he’d be all over that name.
Adam Dicker, quicker with the clicker than the clients he dicks o’er
Ahem, that should be “dickers” over. I’m not sure if Dickens is right the poster child for witty poeticism or even clever names, but we’ll give jollyreaper a hand for originality.
Domain Name Wire quickly launched an investigation about which registrars allowed employees to bid on aftermarket domains. Along with GoDaddy, Network Solutions, eNom, NameJet, Pool, and Sedo allow employees to bid, some with tight restrictions.
Yesterday, Wired got official word from GoDaddy, though Dicker himself has been rather quiet about it. A spokesperson said Dicker had done nothing improper and had no access to inside information. Forum members already noted insider information would be difficult to prove given GoDaddy’s no-peeking auction process; buyers don’t know if there are other bidders or not.
Regardless of the debate over what is proper, GoDaddy instituted a new policy to prevent employees from bidding on aftermarket domains.
