HN Explorer

Would you use this classifieds service for domain names? (domains.wiffin.com)

7 points by erikwiffin ↗ HN
After this thread earlier: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=652952 I decided that it would be fun to put together a "domain name classifieds". There's a few things I'd add, but I wanted to get some feedback first, see if I was even heading in the right direction.

Haven't bought a domain for it yet, maybe I'll find one on my own site if this takes off ;)

24 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 63.2 ms ] thread
erikwiffin
After this thread earlier: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=652952 I decided that it would be fun to put together a "domain name classifieds". There's a few things I'd add, but I wanted to get some feedback first, see if I was even heading in the right direction.

Haven't bought a domain for it yet, maybe I'll find one on my own site if this takes off ;)

paulbaumgart
I put on my two excess domains, and I tried to put in that I'd give them away for a $10 donation to a worthy non-profit. (Some guy in the domain swap thread asked for the same, and I thought it was a good idea.)

Instead, it converted that to $0. Maybe have a comment field?

Also, how can I edit listings after the fact?

Edit: http://mailhide.recaptcha.net/ is pretty good for protecting emails from getting harvested.

erikwiffin
I'll add a comments field. I haven't implemented editing yet. I was looking to show off a very unfinished product to the audience who inspired it before making it a really viable service. Mailhide sounds like a good idea.

Thanks for the pointers.

erikwiffin
You can now edit and delete your listings. Also, I've implemented mailhide.
paulbaumgart
Another thought: put a better title on this news item, please.
kylec
Actually, I thought it was good question to ask, certainly better than the dozens of "review my startup" posts I frequently see here.
paulbaumgart
It is, but a 3 or 4 word description along with it would be nice.
ddemchuk
"Would you use this classifieds service for domain names?" sounds about right
varaon
The site looks like a parked domain/spam. I navigated away the first time I loaded the page.

You might want to differentiate the design a bit (not sure how).

astine
The search function could stand to give more results. It said 'rivetinggames' in the little list oin the side so I typed in rivet and got nothing. I typed in 'rivetinggames' and got it. What if I would looking for a domain with the word 'money' in to the title? I'd like to be able to type in 'money' and see all the possiblities.
erikwiffin
The search function is a mysql fulltext. Obvious drawbacks to searching for words inside of words, so I added a "tags" parameter. from the looks of things, if you had searched "riveting" you would have found something.

Obviously this is not a great solution, but I don't know of too many better options. :/

astine
You could create use a function to generate lists of substrings, and places them under tags. Then you could wieght the tags, giving user generated ones highest prioity and higher priority to tags that more fully match the domain. You could then organize the results by the value of matched tags.
erikwiffin
I've changed the fulltext to allow for a wildcard after the actual query. It's not perfect. "cool" wont match "imcool.com", but hopefully people will use the tags category to their advantage.
timf
Do you know about http://sedo.com?
erikwiffin
yes, all my domains are also listed there. But from what I remember, sedo had a lower bound on how much you could sell a domain for, and takes a cut of the sale. Right now this is more of a craigslist knockoff, but tailored for domains.
timf
Cool, good luck!
erikwiffin
A lot of suggestions were made as to how this could be better. I've implemented most of them if you want to check it out.
GiraffeNecktie
I can't answer your question if you don't give me any information about what it would cost. Also you need a fuzzier search engine (proteo shows up but not when I search for prote)
erikwiffin
Right now, as a service to the Hackernews community, I wouldn't consider charging anything. If this really takes off (unlikely) then I'd consider setting up a service where people can pay each other through the site, with my holding the money in escrow until both parties agree the transfer has gone through. In that case I'd have to figure out how much that would be worth.

The search function is a mysql fulltext. Obvious drawbacks to searching for words inside of words, so I added a "tags" parameter. Obviously this is not a great solution, but I don't know of too many better options. :/