[TERPELAZIUN] Ministreu dàl Tec'hnoloxhà

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Estimat Túischac'h, my question is for the Minister of Technology.

Given that:

• el Lexhtax D.2.8.4.1. states:
  

  2.8.4.1 The Ziu hereby authorizes the annual and ongoing expenditure of 60 louis by the Burgermeister of Internal Revenue for the specific and sole purpose of paying for the annual domain name registration of talossa.com and for associated webhosting services as selected by the Seneschal or their designated representative. All payments made under direction of this authority should be reported as according to normal procedure by the Burgermeister.

• and that el Lexhatx D.2.9.2 states:
  
  

  The Government shall own the domain name talossa.com, and may purchase and maintain any other Talossa-related domain names as they see fit, following normal budgetary procedures. These domain names and their associated webhosting shall be administered by the Ministry of Technology

• and that el Lexhatx D.2.9.3 states:
  
  

  There shall exist within the Ministry of Technology an officer to be known as The Talossan Web Registrant who shall act as the domain name registrant for the domains stated in D.2.9.2. and any other government operated domains as required. The Talossan Web Registrant shall be appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Technology. The Talossan Web Registrant shall inform the government of any payments due or made towards domain registration and hosting of any government operated websites and domains and shall be reimbursed for any payments made as soon as is practicably possible and in accordance with all law relating to the governmental budget.

• and that on March 9 of this year, the Minister of Technology named himself as the new Talossan Web Registrant, replacing the previous incumbent, the Secretary of State;
• and that on April 29 of this year, the Minister of Technology announced, among other things, that the domain name talossan.com would be preserved by the Government;
• and that on July 3 this year, registration for talossan.com was allowed to lapse, after a month or two of erratic functioning;
• and that the currently-due bill for the continued registration of talossa.com arrived a few days ago with the former TWR, rather than his replacement;
• and given that, on July 13 this year, the Minister of Technology opened a support ticket with DoRoyal enquiring about the grace period on the lapse of domain names, indicating that he was fully aware that there were some issues with domain names;

My questions to the Minister of Technology are as follows:

• Was the Government aware that the domain name talossan.com would lapse on July 3; and if so, why was it not renewed?
• Was the Government aware that the bill for the domain name talossa.com was coming due?
• Why were the responsibilities of Talossan Web Registrant under El Lex D.2.9.3. not practically transferred - that is, why has the current TWR (the Minister of Technology) not been registered with DoRoyal Servers as our contact person/registrar of domain names, so that the former incumbent is still receiving the bills? We note that a previous change of TWR - from Istefan Perþonest to the SoS - was performed with very little drama last year.
• Why was the Seneschal so rude and evasive when this question was raised in public forums, and how does this square with the current Government's championing of "open government"?

[Danihel Txechescu]

Estimat Túischac'h, my question is for the Minister of Technology.

Given that:

• el Lexhtax D.2.8.4.1. states:
  

  2.8.4.1 The Ziu hereby authorizes the annual and ongoing expenditure of 60 louis by the Burgermeister of Internal Revenue for the specific and sole purpose of paying for the annual domain name registration of talossa.com and for associated webhosting services as selected by the Seneschal or their designated representative. All payments made under direction of this authority should be reported as according to normal procedure by the Burgermeister.

• and that el Lexhatx D.2.9.2 states:
  
  

  The Government shall own the domain name talossa.com, and may purchase and maintain any other Talossa-related domain names as they see fit, following normal budgetary procedures. These domain names and their associated webhosting shall be administered by the Ministry of Technology

• and that el Lexhatx D.2.9.3 states:
  
  

  There shall exist within the Ministry of Technology an officer to be known as The Talossan Web Registrant who shall act as the domain name registrant for the domains stated in D.2.9.2. and any other government operated domains as required. The Talossan Web Registrant shall be appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Technology. The Talossan Web Registrant shall inform the government of any payments due or made towards domain registration and hosting of any government operated websites and domains and shall be reimbursed for any payments made as soon as is practicably possible and in accordance with all law relating to the governmental budget.

• and that on March 9 of this year, the Minister of Technology named himself as the new Talossan Web Registrant, replacing the previous incumbent, the Secretary of State;
• and that on April 29 of this year, the Minister of Technology announced, among other things, that the domain name talossan.com would be preserved by the Government;
• and that on July 3 this year, registration for talossan.com was allowed to lapse, after a month or two of erratic functioning;
• and that the currently-due bill for the continued registration of talossa.com arrived a few days ago with the former TWR, rather than his replacement;
• and given that, on July 13 this year, the Minister of Technology opened a support ticket with DoRoyal enquiring about the grace period on the lapse of domain names, indicating that he was fully aware that there were some issues with domain names;

My questions to the Minister of Technology are as follows:

• Was the Government aware that the domain name talossan.com would lapse on July 3; and if so, why was it not renewed?
• Was the Government aware that the bill for the domain name talossa.com was coming due?
• Why were the responsibilities of Talossan Web Registrant under El Lex D.2.9.3. not practically transferred - that is, why has the current TWR (the Minister of Technology) not been registered with DoRoyal Servers as our contact person/registrar of domain names, so that the former incumbent is still receiving the bills? We note that a previous change of TWR - from Istefan Perþonest to the SoS - was performed with very little drama last year.
• Why was the Seneschal so rude and evasive when this question was raised in public forums, and how does this square with the current Government's championing of "open government"?

1. Of course, it was mentioned at the time. Our plan of action was to 1) assess the need of the resource 60 days prior to its expiration, and to 2) effectuate the monetary transactions 30 days ahead of its expiration, to prevent billing problems. Things were set in motion in due time and the proper technical procedures put forth. However, we were not counting with a lack of response from the record owner, Istefan Perþonest, which stopped the process from transferring that domain to me or any other entity. Our messages to him have had no reply yet. There is absolutely no change that can be made (like change of owner) without his agreeing.

I apologize to everyone for this bumpy procedure. Because lately Talossan.com had been moved from Ieremiac'h Ventrutx's server to our own hosting solution, and was further planned to be folded into something major, we did not anticipate any major calamities to the users.

There is the unresolved issue of transferring the ownership off of Istefan's to our hands. We have already tried reaching out; next we will try mediation, DoRoyal's support, and finally a proper dispute via ICANN if all else fails. I really hope that we can have Istefan Perþonest to help us here.

2. It's not. It's due to expiry on Towel Day 2024.

3. The responsibilities have been assumed by my Ministry. DoRoyal, btw, is soooo (technically) close from being ditched, so consider that a legacy service.

In any case, the reason why a few other technical contacts remain in DoRoyal's account is because I'm interested in having people knowledgeable with the account (with DoRoyal, that is) to help in case something happens to me -- not technically, but by means of liaison.

If for any reason any of the technical people there would like to be removed please let me know. I don't want to burden anyone with something they are not comfortable with.

4. I do not know. I don't know if he's being overprotective of his Cabinet: I had surgery a few days ago and was recently released from the hospital. He's wanted me to take rest and recover (and I will) but I still wanted to address and explain this situation.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

I thank the Minister for his responses. Supplementary Questions in response to 1 and 2:

1. Of course, it was mentioned at the time. Our plan of action was to 1) assess the need of the resource 60 days prior to its expiration, and to 2) effectuate the monetary transactions 30 days ahead of its expiration, to prevent billing problems. Things were set in motion in due time and the proper technical procedures put forth. However, we were not counting with a lack of response from the record owner, Istefan Perþonest, which stopped the process from transferring that domain to me or any other entity. Our messages to him have had no reply yet. There is absolutely no change that can be made (like change of owner) without his agreeing.

I apologize to everyone for this bumpy procedure. Because lately Talossan.com had been moved from Ieremiac'h Ventrutx's server to our own hosting solution, and was further planned to be folded into something major, we did not anticipate any major calamities to the users.

There is the unresolved issue of transferring the ownership off of Istefan's to our hands. We have already tried reaching out; next we will try mediation, DoRoyal's support, and finally a proper dispute via ICANN if all else fails. I really hope that we can have Istefan Perþonest to help us here.

I see by comments made by the Burgermeister of Internal Revenue elsewhere that the plan was to move all the domain names away from DoRoyal, and in fact payment was already made to an alternative registrar, before it was discovered that they could not be moved because the former TWR/BIR is incommunicado. Can the Minister confirm this is accurate? And if so - while the Government has all my sympathies dealing with cxhn. Perþonest going radio silent - does the Minister agree that, by going about it this way, the Government has messed up significantly and possibly wasted a sizeable chunk of Kingdom funds?

2. It's not. It's due to expiry on Towel Day 2024.

I fear the Minister has misinterpreted my question. The domain may not be due for expiry until then, but the bill is certainly due as of last weekend, as can be seen in the attached invoice which was delivered to the SoS. I believe that this caused some panic at the Chancery before it was determined that the domain name was not immediately expiring.

One further Supplementary Question: all this only came out because Senior Judge Cjantschéir discovered that talossan.com had expired, and because the SoS got a surprise invoice. When it did come out, by the Minister's own admission, the Seneschal was rude to people wanting to know what was going on. Does the Minister agree that the way this has been handled contradicts the platform of "open Government" on which the TNC has been elected?

[Danihel Txechescu]

I thank the Minister for his responses. Supplementary Questions in response to 1 and 2:

1. Of course, it was mentioned at the time. Our plan of action was to 1) assess the need of the resource 60 days prior to its expiration, and to 2) effectuate the monetary transactions 30 days ahead of its expiration, to prevent billing problems. Things were set in motion in due time and the proper technical procedures put forth. However, we were not counting with a lack of response from the record owner, Istefan Perþonest, which stopped the process from transferring that domain to me or any other entity. Our messages to him have had no reply yet. There is absolutely no change that can be made (like change of owner) without his agreeing.

I apologize to everyone for this bumpy procedure. Because lately Talossan.com had been moved from Ieremiac'h Ventrutx's server to our own hosting solution, and was further planned to be folded into something major, we did not anticipate any major calamities to the users.

There is the unresolved issue of transferring the ownership off of Istefan's to our hands. We have already tried reaching out; next we will try mediation, DoRoyal's support, and finally a proper dispute via ICANN if all else fails. I really hope that we can have Istefan Perþonest to help us here.

I see by comments made by the Burgermeister of Internal Revenue elsewhere that the plan was to move all the domain names away from DoRoyal, and in fact payment was already made to an alternative registrar, before it was discovered that they could not be moved because the former TWR/BIR is incommunicado. Can the Minister confirm this is accurate? And if so - while the Government has all my sympathies dealing with cxhn. Perþonest going radio silent - does the Minister agree that, by going about it this way, the Government has messed up significantly and possibly wasted a sizeable chunk of Kingdom funds?

No money went to waste here. I'll explain in a bit how a domain name transfer works, but in the end of the process, if it fails, money is reimbursed. Even if something like that happened, I'd reimburse out of my own pocket.

[Note: I had a long paragraph here that didn't resist a proof-read, on how we may make mistakes and also need to be understanding of people making those mistakes in order to learn. I guess I'll just link to this instead of that verbiage: https://www.facebook.com/nathanwpyle2/posts/pfbid02fEp57VUE4EoZMFe6YnFVhJRXHjZZZcaL18zToGvdAZEVyiQxnfnSqaToz4ctRgTMl]

The process for a domain name transfer is explained here: https://www.namesilo.com/domain/transfer-domains and the actualy techical part is here: https://www.namesilo.com/support/v2/articles/ordering/domain-transfer-checklist

It's not as straight-forward as purchasing a new domain, but it's pretty streamlined if everything is simple. One hiccup can derail the whole process, though, as happened here. The bottom line is that step #3 in the first link is where the billing occurs, and then the rest of the process (technical stuff, mostly second link) happens afterwards, and may or may not succeed.

2. It's not. It's due to expiry on Towel Day 2024.

I fear the Minister has misinterpreted my question. The domain may not be due for expiry until then, but the bill is certainly due as of last weekend, as can be seen in the attached invoice which was delivered to the SoS. I believe that this caused some panic at the Chancery before it was determined that the domain name was not immediately expiring.

I appreciate the concern. A Support ticket was raised and the friendly staff acknowledged that it was a very peculiar situation that our DNS and our service (for which they're billing us US$0.00) went out of sync.

Even if we refused to pay that bill, nothing would have happened until May 2024, as no service would have been discontinued.

One further Supplementary Question: all this only came out because Senior Judge Cjantschéir discovered that talossan.com had expired, and because the SoS got a surprise invoice. When it did come out, by the Minister's own admission, the Seneschal was rude to people wanting to know what was going on. Does the Minister agree that the way this has been handled contradicts the platform of "open Government" on which the TNC has been elected?

I really appreciate that all of these things were funnelled through me as not not cause a bigger confusion, and I believe that the sole reason why this may have been frustrating was because I was at the hospital when it developed. Before I went in, I briefed the cabinet on the current status and what to expect, but I reckon that they could not have had all of the information that I needed to share.

There's absolutely nothing to hide here, and my portfolio is being diclosed here with complete transparency. One of main drivers of not making changes to the DoRoyal contact list was because the people listed there were far more knowledgeable than me on those affairs (with DoRoyal), and am happy that people there can scrutinize the rapport. (I offer again to anyone who wishes to be removed, I'll do the needful.)

I am sorry for the tardiness of my reply -- I have been mostly away from my desk as I'm recovering, but can follow-up with any other questions on this matter, via this format or any other.