Readers' Comments

Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 30 April 2003
Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
From: Les
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: nz tourism board online

It doesnt seem to matter what name they have, they are
still boring. How come there are no lesbians or queers in
their NZ?      Search Results
Your search for "queer" found 0 matches




From: Peter
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: nz tourism board online

Les

All sorts of people are marginalised!

A search on tuba players also turned up nothing.

Shame!




From: Nick
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: New Zealand Dot Com

This explains the failed case brought by the Government-
my sourses say that that to bring this case would have
cost 6 figures

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-0754.html




From: robert rozee
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: why not nz.com?

    i agree with you completely, the government
buying "newzealand.com" for a million dollars is an
unwarranted extravagance given the hardships that exist
within our society. amongst other things, this money could
have bought 2,500 gas heaters for needy homes (assuming
$400 for heater and a full gas bottle), which i am sure
would have helped ease the power crisis - but then i
forget, in a couple of weeks they are going to build some
more power stations!

although i must wonder, why didn't the government go after
the somewhat more compact "nz.com" domain name? even in
your column today the words "New Zealand" are dwarfed in
number by the shorthand "NZ". as an extremely rough guide,
google turns up the following:

"New Zealand" has 5.47 million search results,
NewZealand returns a paltry 235,000 results,
NZ produces a massive 13.3 million results.

it seems the government has acquired the poorer of the
three. plus, the clear winner, 'NZ', is already owned by a
local company - ripe for nationalisation if you ask me, and
i am sure available for well under the $1m mark!

if i were in charge i would snap up "nz.com", and offer
email addresses off the domain to NZ citizens for
nz$10/year - these subscriptions would then pay for the
costs of a top notch kiwi/tourism portal. but then that
would be innovative, and this is something that our
government is definitely not   :-)

regards,
robert rozee
christchurch, new zealand

ps, perhaps you could ask the owners of nz.com to comment
on recent events for a future column...




From: Bruce
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: NewZealand.Com

As a NZ taxpayer I object to this waste of money on
newzealand.com.

If a cybersquatter is holding newzealand.com to ransom for
$1m there is a simple answer.  Get a different domain.
Anyone with any imagination can make up a word or
abbreviation and register that as a domain.

Why not New-Zealand.com?  Or tourismnz.com?

The Government proove yet again they are not fit to run a
fish and chip shop.  But then isn't that why they are in a
govt job.  They couldn't  get a job in the real world.




From: Dave
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Newzealand.com for 50 cents

I know it's easy to knock the Government on this one but, on the other
hand, you have had a personal campaign for many years to make the
Government more web savvy.

A million dollars sounds a lot to us, but in the bigger picture it
probably soaked up 50 cents of those huge taxes you've personally had to
pay. A drop in the ocean compared with the handouts to the NZ social
structure.

I think in years to come, as the web continues it's growth and we
continue to lure people around the globe to our shores or try and float
our IT ventures we may gain from that 50 cent expenditure.

It may even help us show the world that New Zealand is more serious
about the web than some of those other big countries who don't own their
own domains.

Let's turn it the other way and get the Govt. to spend MORE on the web,
rather than knock them for trying.

How about:
A contest to see who can promote NZ the best on the web
Subsidies for sites that show off the best parts of NZ
A Govt sponsored network of the best Kiwi tourism sites

And while they're at it:
Some kind of way of distinguishing between a "qualified" web designer and
a cowboy Some punishment for spammers Some laws about hacking

Oh boy......

It IS too easy to knock them........




From: Andy
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: newzealand.com

This whole fuss about cybersquatting is nothing short of
hilarious.

newzealand.com is a valuable asset, and could have been used
by a number of companies without infringing anyones
"rights". The NZ Govt decided they needed it and after a
failed attempt to steal it from it's current owner, they
played by the rules. Did they get a good deal? I guess we
have to wait to see if they can turn the visitors to that
website into travellers to New Zealand.

Also showing on the stupidity radar this week is Puerto
Rico. They actually had an agreement with the same person to
buy puertorico.com for US$2,000,000 but then reneged and
tried a UDRP. Another embarrasment.

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-1129.html
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