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Provider tags
So, with a recent host, that had the Patron providers tag removed recently, whois privacy is enabled.
Does it mean that when the provider tag was awarded, the whois was public?
The rules for applying clearly state that a public WHOIS is needed. If there is a different interpretation, please share that.
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/153228/lowendtalk-selling-rules-updated-april-2023/p1#ppt
Point 3:
When applying, please include your LowEndTalk username, the link to your public company registration in your country of registration, your company number, a link to your website and public WHOIS information.
If not, was it a lapse of the LET team? Or the incoming $$ fees led to cutting corners and enabling seasonal hosts being welcomed to the community without any serious vetting.
Comments
Money talks.
Nothing else matters.
About a month ago I pointed out a pretty popular provider whose whois was hidden to a mod and he basically handwaved it away and berated me for mentioning that one of the reasons I looked at the providers whois was the unprofessional language.
Amusingly the provider closed shop a few days ago.
That would be my interpretation.
Interesting that you brought this up, actually made me go check on ours. I know for a fact it used to be disabled as my first offer posts here that info was immediately copy-pasted into the threads as the low-end detectives went to work and I distinctly remember feeling simultaneously weirded out to see my own info posted but at the same time "glad these guys are doing their DD, I would".
Just checked now and one registrar was showing us as privacy enabled but ICANN and other lookups seem to be correct. Confirmed its definitely off and has been off for that domain via our registrar.
Had me worried though, since whenever I batch renew domains that might be idle/pending projects it's always defaulted to privacy-on. Or maybe I'm too much of a boomer to know how to register domains these days
few domain registrars are now adding privacy/whois ON by default due to privacy laws and domain owner can't cancel privacy.
so this rule seems outdated to me. it should be removed or bypassed.
Who?
pay $200 first.
whatever can come later.
Not a big deal honestly, most of the people out there use privacy by default and for sure that's not a reliable way to know informations about who is running that website.
So the best way is: DYOR
I thought that particular rule went out the window when bilohbucks were introduced anyway.
Likely a rule from the past. At present, most domain registrars have the feature switched on by default, so in my opinion, WHOIS isn't as relevant anymore for checking company information. What's most important is that their business registration details should be present on their website.
Never had any domain registrar where you can't remove private whois. Private whois for privat individuals cause to european laws (maybe other countries have such lawns too). A company is forced to keep their whois public in the EU
There is no explicit requirement for companies to keep their domain WHOIS information public in all EU-Wide laws, including GDPR..
actually its wrong. its other way around. In EU, companies (domain registrar) are forced to mask Whois. They can't reveal the email, phone, registrant name due to GDPR. Only country and organistation name (if provided, not mandatory) is shown in whois records now-a-days.
As far as I know, Godaddy completly masks whois by default if customer is based in EU.
Here is the excerpt: https://www.godaddy.com/en-in/help/privacy-faq-27923
How does GDPR, CCPA and other applicable privacy laws impact availability and access to WHOIS data?
To ensure our compliance with the GDPR and other applicable global privacy laws, GoDaddy is required to restrict both the publication of and access to WHOIS data.
For domains impacted by GDPR, only domain technical information and Registrant's Country, State/Province and Organization (if provided) is returned. To see the list of countries "GDPR Countries", please visit GDPR Affected Country List.
Yeah you are right. I mixed it up with the imprint which is required. Should not post until I drank my coffee.
I don’t think privately registered .SE domains can have a public WHOIS (including sole traders).
Company registered ones are partly public, partly redacted.
This is not some setting, it just is.
I can do that
That’s a requirement for applying for a tag, not for selling on LET. There are additional rules:
This host in question have some basic information (parent company name and company VAT ID) on the website, so in general, it's good to go.
This rule predates all current forum staff. When it was adopted, the logic behind it was that a hosting company should be a legitimate company or sole trader, not just an anonymous, shady homemade fly-by-night selling project without any info who's behind.
I don't know how it is now, but back then, EU companies mostly had their company registration details on their websites, while not all US sole traders did. In such cases, they needed to have visible WHOIS information, their real name and address - some minimal info at least who's behind. That’s all the logic behind it.
When the current forum staff created the additional selling rules for tag requirements, they most likely overlooked the "and/or" part. Now, the "Patron Provider Tag" requires all of these for applying for the tag, while the "Miscellaneous Rules" require one or the other (optional) to sell on LET.
In general, it shouldn't matter as long as there's at least some minimal data, either on the website or in the domain WHOIS, showing who's behind it.
In the case of the host in question it was very suspect as their company info was for another business whose NACE code is "46.44 - Wholesale of china and glassware and cleaning materials".
Something super shady is going on over there, but I guess they met the rules by having the info on their website.
So, looks like the mods/ admins have no inputs on this...
Interesting.
Purely legit place for improving the whole process if there is a lapse somewhere. But guess the fee is good enough to circumvent the said rules.
On that note, who is a part of the admin/ mod team? Maybe a tag to them will help seek their attention
Howdy everyone,
Couple answers:
The mods/admins are listed in the rules https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/137719/lowendtalk-community-rules/p1#staff
A few months ago, maybe almost a year ago now, we made a big pivot on tag applications, and especially provider tag applications where the process became much more difficult to gain approval. We now require business registrations, which are diligently inspected along with a long list of probing questions.
We now include requirements such as publishing contact details on websites, about pages, verified corporate details, etc. The WHOIS requirement was an initial attempt to create a barrier for the least reputable but it is too small a barrier and so things have needed to get tougher.
The tag application process is handled at the helpdesk and is in full view of of other mods/admins, including @DP who keeps a very close an expert on eye.
Overall I can say that the process of gaining a tag approval here at LowEndTalk has never been more difficult or robust. The work continues to make our processes, research and approval process as nothing is perfect.
In the end, it doesn't really matter.
can this data, whois or business registration also be viewed by us as users? if so, where can i find this data on let? @jbiloh
The provider OP is referencing is now claiming on their discord that they'll have their tag back tomorrow.
Thank you for sharing the note. As @bassetts pointed out earlier, a Patron providers with business listed as "46.44 - Wholesale of china and glassware and cleaning materials" got a provider tag, and that is OK?
Slight difference in the description is OK, but Wholesale/ glassware/ cleaning materials are related to hosting is news to me.
Trying to understand the thought process in approval of such providers with a tangential business registration.
yip i already sent DP and co a message with his exact words
my message on the discord was deleted and i was timed out for 7 days
im not claiming they did, but buying a shelf company for 500EUR with some returns history isn't uncommon for shady people
very salty
Ou, good time to mention this thread if "don't care" is on the table:
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/192140/humans-only-please#latest
Hoster:
If this is true, and they do get their tag back, I will be very disappointed, not much I can do myself though.