Today, auDA announced auDA CEO Rosemary Sinclair will step down.
She has been CEO for 4 years, as she commenced in March 2020.
You can read some nice things auDA said about her here.
But, in my humble opinion, during her time, I found she most notably:
- championed and implemented “Direct .au” domain registrations. These appear to have done nothing but water down the value and trust of Australian domain names, are not really being used by anybody, and, as we wrote in this article, “there are more than 75% of existing “.com.au” holders who have NOT chosen to register their matching “Direct .au”, making it easy for scammers to register their “Direct .au” and spam email millions of Australians from the company before they realise it.”
- never approved a new auDA Registrar, leaving the current old-school Registrars in control of wholesaling and retailing Australian domain names to Australian businesses. In fact, auDA have not approved a new Registrar since 2016.
- consistently moth-balled Cameron Bell’s Registrar and Drop Catcher aftermarket application, after he famously spent 18 months jumping through auDA Registrar Accreditation hoops, and spending thousands of dollars, and was one of Australia’s most experienced domain industry professionals, with over 17 years experience.
- did nothing in 4 years to create competition in the domain name drop catching aftermarket (by not approving any new Registrars). During her reign as CEO, Netfleet (auDA Registrar) was sold to Trellian (auDA Registrar – which owns Drop.com.au), which created an anti-competitive monopoly allowing one single private company to dictate who can, and can not, purchase dropping premium Australian domain names.
- oversaw the blocking of 86 premium two-letter “Direct .au” domain names, most of which don’t have any rhyme or reason?
Did I miss anything?
Uproot auDA and the entire orchard of greed with one policy. Registration of a domain name is no longer renewable, it is yours forever. (Just like customized number plates)
Good Riddance.
Bruce Tonkin and others run auDA on a day to day basis and have for years.
Cut the fat from the auDA outgoing inflatex expenses and reduce .au wholesale fees.
How’s the auDA Foundation charity going these days and it’s reporting