dn
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2024
- Posts
- 138
- Reaction score
- 275
- Trophy points
- 64
I had an interesting dialog with Alexander Thomas from Breakline Agency (you might know him from this @Breakline or other forums).
Being a client of DomainCatch with his BREAKLINE registrar tag, Alex emailed me a couple of days ago with the following message:
(I believe this email exchange involves public interest and shows how some registrars are openly violating Nominet's policies and attempt to blackmail, if refused to be serviced, threatening to take their non-compliant business to a competitor, known to be happy not to ask any questions).
This was my response to Alex:
Unfortunately, Alex has started acting silly, under conviction that when he solicits creation of new tags to be run & managed by him for catching, sharing profits, it is the same "as [what] I am doing with DomainCatch" whose clients "catch domains for me" (!). I replied:
I have onboarded AMDOMAINS tag in March 2025, based on Alex's brief request "<..> If you’ll have me I would gladly come back to your system. I’ll bring my mate AMDOMAINS as well. I manage it for him. <..>" and it didn't raise concerns at that time, as knowing Alex as a long-term domainer, I haven't suspected any foul play.
It has obviously changed, when this time Alex much more openly requested to add his newly minted "friend" TAG to be under his own full management.
My arguments to link the tags with Nominet to become compliant and still enjoy improved catching chances didn't resonate with Alex:
Naturally, I am not the person who could stand being blackmailed or intimidated - especially for doing the right thing - so Alex Thomas' tags BREAKLINE, AMDOMAINS (and not yet active) MJEVANS are now banned from DomainCatch systems.
His pre-emptive reponse was:
I wish for a dear competitor Robert to show integrity toward the broader community by refusing to host TAGs that openly violate Nominet's terms, regardless of the financial appeal of adding a few more to his roster.
I also believe that if UKBO proceeds to host these tags banned for non-compliance, I welcome anyone reading this and using UKBO to switch away in an act of objection of supporting platform operating for years without any kind of informal KYC, responsible onboarding, and care for the existing customer base and the wider ecosystem. Turning a blind eye to ghost or fronting TAGs undermines the credibility of the entire system.
Being a client of DomainCatch with his BREAKLINE registrar tag, Alex emailed me a couple of days ago with the following message:
(I believe this email exchange involves public interest and shows how some registrars are openly violating Nominet's policies and attempt to blackmail, if refused to be serviced, threatening to take their non-compliant business to a competitor, known to be happy not to ask any questions).
This was my response to Alex:
You must be aware that using friends to obtain extra TAGs is against Nominet
"Anti-avoidance and Connected Persons" policy:
Acceptable Use Policies – Registrar Resources
This document outlines the Acceptable Use Policies for our domain query and domain management tools. WHOIS Acceptable Use Policy This is the acceptable use policy for the WHOIS. The acceptable use requirements are: The website WHOIS is intended for manual queries only. Any automated queries to...registrars.nominet.uk
I take pride in operating DomainLore and DomainCatch with strict adherence to
rules and policies, ensuring a level playing field for everyone
involved - clients and competitors alike - within the bounds of what I do and
what I can control. Unfortunately, not all competitors hold themselves to the
same standards.
Over the years, I could have invited many friends to participate in catching,
had I been willing to act unscrupulously. I invited zero, despite knowing how
beneficial a bit of extra income could have been for some of them. Honest
catchers constantly face unfair competition from those who operate multiple
"ghost" tags, undermining the value and fairness for legitimate participants.
I will assist in setting you up, but you should inform Nominet that you have a
personal connection to MJEVANS under the "Connected Persons" policy. While
your 1,000 daily limit will be linked, this will not negatively affect
catching performance. The improvement will be equivalent to having the tag
operate independently, since one TAG typically cannot use more than 500
requests per 24 hours when targeting competitive names.
So if you can confirm you are doing this, I'll add this tag to your existing
system now.
--
Regards,
Denys
Unfortunately, Alex has started acting silly, under conviction that when he solicits creation of new tags to be run & managed by him for catching, sharing profits, it is the same "as [what] I am doing with DomainCatch" whose clients "catch domains for me" (!). I replied:
I have onboarded AMDOMAINS tag in March 2025, based on Alex's brief request "<..> If you’ll have me I would gladly come back to your system. I’ll bring my mate AMDOMAINS as well. I manage it for him. <..>" and it didn't raise concerns at that time, as knowing Alex as a long-term domainer, I haven't suspected any foul play.
It has obviously changed, when this time Alex much more openly requested to add his newly minted "friend" TAG to be under his own full management.
My arguments to link the tags with Nominet to become compliant and still enjoy improved catching chances didn't resonate with Alex:
as he thought to intimidate with threatening to switch business to a willing competitor (apparently expecting "no question asked" policy - something I lamented about for a long time, with how shady tags operating on UKBO are full and plenty).
Naturally, I am not the person who could stand being blackmailed or intimidated - especially for doing the right thing - so Alex Thomas' tags BREAKLINE, AMDOMAINS (and not yet active) MJEVANS are now banned from DomainCatch systems.
His pre-emptive reponse was:
I wish for a dear competitor Robert to show integrity toward the broader community by refusing to host TAGs that openly violate Nominet's terms, regardless of the financial appeal of adding a few more to his roster.
I also believe that if UKBO proceeds to host these tags banned for non-compliance, I welcome anyone reading this and using UKBO to switch away in an act of objection of supporting platform operating for years without any kind of informal KYC, responsible onboarding, and care for the existing customer base and the wider ecosystem. Turning a blind eye to ghost or fronting TAGs undermines the credibility of the entire system.
