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Whether you agree with him, disagree, or agree to disagree - if you are a domainer, chances are that you've run across Dave Wrixon on the various domain name forums. Or you've at least heard of him, most recently by his nickname "Rubber Duck," accompanied by the iconic avatar shown here.

This 47-year-old structural engineer from the UK has some pretty strong opinions, and with the forming of GotIDN.com (with co-Contributing Owner/Members Alphamale, GS, Mulligan and Sarcle), he now has his own forum to continue to push those opinions. Not that many are complaining: Many IDNers who started investing in IDNs in late-2005 or later would agree that Wrixon had some influence on their investments, if not directly, then by the "trickle-down" effect that online forums seem to create.

IDNcyclopedia.com had the opportunity to talk with Rubber Duck about IDNs, the new forum and the future of domaining.


IDNcyclopedia.com: How did you first become interested in IDNs?

Rubber Duck: I realised that the market for ASCII was pretty much played out. Once it was explained to me by Domainguru (a domainer and member of multiple forums) what an IDN was I saw the potential immediately.


IDNcyclopedia.com: What was the first IDN you registered?

Rubber Duck: We started buying Chinese. I think we tried to get signs of the Zodiac initially. Many of the early registration got dropped. While these were probably far better than your average ASCII domains being registered at the time, it soon became obvious that there was much better stuff available.

The first domains to sell were Chinese Cities dot coms, but I shall not be specific (to preserve buyer confidentiality).


IDNcyclopedia.com: You have had a couple of relatively high-profile sales (翻訳.com - "Translation.com" in Japanese - sold for $9,000 in August, and 東京.net - "Tokyo.net" in Japanese - sold for $10,000 in March), and you have alluded to other four- and five-figure IDN sales that you have made. Would you care to share any of the other sales?

Rubber Duck: No, what is public is public and what is private is private. We have, however, made over 300 transactions to date.


IDNcyclopedia.com: Fair enough. However, why sell? Wouldn't high-profile, gem domains like these be better kept in the "vault," so to speak?

Rubber Duck: It might seem that keeping these in the vault would be the sensible thing to do, but it depends what else you have in the vault and what else is marketable at any other given moment in time. All businesses need to generate some cash, and the delay in the introduction of Internet Explorer 7 has been extremely damaging. Japanese domains sell comparatively well at the moment, but later our other portfolios will prove more valuable because the general quality of names we have obtained is far higher.

OK, so I got the dot net for Tokyo, but I have a dozen Chinese provinces, a very large selection of Russian Cities and nearly all the Arabic Single Characters, all in dot com. And that is barely scratching the surface. What we have in Indic Scripts would be enough to make your eyes pop!


IDNcyclopedia.com: Not long after the sale of 東京.net, you changed your username on the domaining forums from DWrixon to your current nickname, Rubber Duck. What prompted the change?

Rubber Duck: My name is not the easiest to remember or spell. It was also largely as a piece of Cockney style humour for all those ASCII domainers that had been passing me off as a "Dumb F*ck" for the last couple of years. I have been told so many times I would sink without trace. Well Rubber Ducks don't sink!


IDNcyclopedia.com: Why do you believe so strongly in IDNs?

Rubber Duck: I have no use for them but hundreds of millions of others will. Nobody with an IQ higher than your average house brick can fail to see the potential. We have well over 4,000 IDNs which rather suggests I must be a believer.


IDNcyclopedia.com: What do have to say to your critics? The IDN naysayers and those who don't believe IDNs will ever have a strong place on the 'net, for example?

Rubber Duck:Told you so! You missed out first time around because you were not informed. You missed out this time because you were too stupid.


IDNcyclopedia.com: What advice do you have for newbies, just discovering IDNs for the first time?

Rubber Duck Make up for lost time. Research as much as you can. If you want to ask questions then the people at GotIDN.com are there to help. Do not ignore the excellent value that is still available in the secondary market. Always put quality first. One good domain may be worth 10,000 ordinary domains and will be worth paying a premium for.


IDNcyclopedia.com: You mentioned GotIDN.com, the new multilingual forum that you helped launch. What led you to start GotIDN.com?

Rubber Duck: We started GotIDN.com because we believe in the importance of accessing information on the Internet in your native language and script. GotIDN.com is already making a huge impact to bring direct navigation in native script to fruition. We were not involved in the development of the system, but we are making a very significant contribution in getting the message across to the end users.


IDNcyclopedia.com: What benefits does GotIDN.com offer to members and users?

Rubber Duck: See above. Essentially we are committed to bringing the information relating to IDN to the World in the languages that the World wants to use. It is essential that this information flows, as seamlessly as possible, across language divisions. We hope to be able to make the language problem a surmountable obstacle for those seeking information from others who speak and write different languages.


IDNcyclopedia.com: GotIDN.com takes a unique approach to the ownership model. Can you explain it?

Rubber Duck: The ownership model has been chosen to enhance the efficiency in which the information on the forum is researched and presented. It is intended to provide a voice for those who work to contribute to the knowledge base. One individual may own a domain or a website, but what we are trying to build is neither of these things. We are trying to build a knowledgable worldwide community.


IDNcyclopedia.com: What else do you have planned for GotIDN.com?

Rubber Duck: Plenty, but to find out, you will have to follow the Forum Announcements.


IDNcyclopedia.com: With the growing knowledge base, and all of the work toward creating a multilingual worldwide community helping to futher the awareness of IDNs, what is more important to continue the momentum: The release of Internet Explorer 7 or more developed IDNs (as opposed to parking pages or pure Adsense sites)?

Rubber Duck: Internet Explorer 7's release is the most important. Large corporates are not going to host content against a domain that won't resolve. Once the domains resolve for the majority of browsers, because the SEO advantage is overwhelming, content will start to appear very quickly. I am talking about real content, not Adsense sites.


IDNcyclopedia.com: Where do you see IDNs in the next few years?

Rubber Duck: Totally forgotten. Nobody will know what you are talking about. Punycode will disappear off the radar screen altogether and just become some kind of weird machine code that only the Techies ever come across. People will think of IDNs simply as domains.

The time to act was yesterday, but it is still not too late to make some serious cash from International Domain Names.

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