At the start of 2015, we launched the Registrar Scorecard (RSC), which offers incentives to registrars for helping to enhance the quality of the .nl zone. Since its introduction, the RSC has proved popular with registrars: more than 350 are now enrolled. As our .nl Marketing Manager Michiel Henneke explains, "In recent years, it's become increasingly clear to registrars and to SIDN that a domain's quality is at least as important as the number of domain names. The RSC is a great way of making it profitable for registrars to play their part in the quest for quality."
Four performance aspects
The RSC incentivises four aspects of performance: active use, cancellation rate ('churn'), contact data validity and security. For each aspect, ambitious performance targets are set. Registrars that hit the targets receive reward payments. "It isn't just about the rewards, though," says Henneke. "We know that registrars share our desire for quality. The RSC exists to support the work that registrars do to raise quality standards. Alongside the incentives, there is support in the form of registrar-specific data analyses and quality improvement tools. For example, we provide a report that lists all the contact handles in a registrar's portfolio that appear to have invalid data linked to them. By working together, we can increase the quality of the .nl zone and at the same time help registrars keep their own systems and records in the best possible shape."
Encouraging adoption of standards
Another feature of the RSC is benchmarking: registrars get to see how well they are doing relative to industry averages and trendsetters. Each participating registrar has a dashboard showing their score for each aspect of performance. So they can see at a glance where they stand. "The dashboard prompts registrars to get in touch and talk about things such as avoiding DNSSEC validation errors – one of the focuses of performance in the field of security," Henneke adds. "It's also good for accelerating the adoption of a standard. So, for example, one of the ideas we're currently looking at is an incentive for using IPv6. Because it's built out of generic components, the dashboard is easy to adapt and extend."
