AfterNIC No Longer Lists Adult or Gambling-Related Domain Names

Domain name broker AfterNIC recently announced that they will no longer list adult and gambling-related domain names. Here's a clip from a recent email:

"...After extensive consideration, we have decided to no longer accept domain names that promote hate, sex, obscenity or self-destructive behavior, such as substance abuse, violence and gambling. The sole rationale behind our decision is to make AfterNIC a more comfortable site for mainstream domain name shoppers, especially small business owners..."

To be perfectly honest, I have no problem with the new AfterNIC policy. They are not being forced to implement their new policy; they are doing it simply because they feel it's the right thing to do, and I respect that.

They are, however, overdoing it.

Today, I received an email from AfterNIC that contains a list of domain names from my portfolio that AfterNIC has deemed unsuitable for listing under their new rules. Here are some of the names:

PowerTeen.net
MyRut.com
WellDressedWoman.com
WomanOfTheYear.us

Hmmmm...

As you might have guessed, they are using an algorithm to weed out names, which is quite understandable since assigning a human to sift through their entire database wouldn't be practical. But, it's clear that their algo' needs some serious tweaking. Yep.

In all fairness to AfterNIC, they also included the following at the end of their email message:

"...You may request an appeal for any of the domain names listed for removal..."

$7.49 .Com domains from GoDaddy.com!