Dirk,

Yes yes and yes.

"Would the top 500 alexa sites be a truly representative sample?"
- We also included "top virtual communities", top applications, etc. Always looking to expand the list but, insofar as "likelihood that New gTLD customer would visit the website", the Alexa 500 is quite representative of where most people go. Developers tend to learn from each other and update code: if the largest web properties have UA-ready interfaces, it is likely that smaller web properties in terms of visitors/traffic will have an incentive to follow suit and catch up.

"Also, financial institutions and government institutions don't show up as part of the Alexa top 500 but are also very important."

- Agreed: as for Financial institutions, they are part of Alexa 500 (http://www.alexa.com/topsites):
Chase .com is #115, BankofAmerica .com #136, WellsFargo .com #153, etc. These often appear to require an Account to register for the online account, but can be tested partially by, e.g., signing up for news or offers. Remember that we are testing the User Interface. If I can use a non-ASCII or New gTLD email address to interact with Wells Fargo, that is one way to test it - without having to rely on an actual account with Wells Fargo. By the way, I just found out that HDFC Bank's User Interface accepts both short and long ASCII New gTLDs, but nothing at all with a non-ASCII character (they would prompt the user to "enter a valid email format"). So, in other words, imperfect but most websites can be tested in one way or another.

I should have added in my earlier message that, while I began the testing at Donuts in 2015, I am now working on this on behalf of the UASG :-) In this capacity, I am a new addition to the UASG's efforts (Contractor). I have not started outreach yet; working with Don on the strategy. But outreach, in my personal opinion, is the ultimate aim of the testing.

Thanks,
Alina

On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 9:42 AM, Dirk Bhagat <dirk@get.club> wrote:
Hi Alina

Those numbers sound reasonable and are good insights.

For example, from our tests  if we removed the number of sites we couldn't test, then the number of sites where .club was accepted would stand around 83%, which is more inline with your calc for a 4 character ascii tld like .CLUB.  
The being said, would the top 500 alexa sites be a truly representative sample?, I don't know. Also, financial institutions and government institutions don't show up as part of the Alexa top 500 but are also very important.

I would also say that while the testing is relatively easy (but tedious),  the outreach and follow up (as one part of the strategy) is where the real difficulty lies and I'm hopeful that with ICANN's financial support we can undertake this effort and make a meaningful dent.  

Thank you.
--
Dirk Bhagat

CoFounder, CTO
.CLUB DOMAINS LLC.
100 SE 3rd Ave, Suite 1310
Fort Lauderdale, Fl, 33394
o: 954.530.2580 m: 416.839.4945
Get.club

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 1:32 PM, Alina Syunkova <alina.syunkova@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Dirk,

Similar work was started at Donuts back in 2015. I am continuing some of that work.

We began surveying the Internet's highest-profile websites, particularly the Alexa 500, for their capacity to accept New gTLD email addresses when registering a new user account. While Donuts tested only email addresses in ASCII, I am now testing in non-ASCII as well.

Recently drew some numbers off 150 of the websites - only one-third of the list we set out to test.

- a short New gTLD (.tech - 4 characters) gets accepted 89% of the time
- a long New gTLD (.technology - 5+ characters) gets accepted closer to 70% of the time
- a .com email address that contains non-ASCII characters left of the dot gets accepted closer to 40% of the time
- an email address that contains non-ASCII characters (e.g., Thai, Arabic) both left and right of the dot rarely gets accepted, i.e., about 5% of the time

In other words, for this type of UA testing, two of the factors that appear to matter are:

- TLD length (ccTLD or 3 characters versus 4 or 5+ characters)
- SLD and TLD: ASCII or non-ASCII? To the left of the dot only, or non-ASCII characters on both sides?


Thank you,
Alina

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 8:05 AM, Dirk Bhagat <dirk@get.club> wrote:
Hi Andrew
Good to hear. 
Thanks. 

--
Dirk Bhagat

CoFounder, CTO
.CLUB DOMAINS LLC.
100 SE 3rd Ave, Suite 1310
Fort Lauderdale, Fl, 33394
o: 954.530.2580 m: 416.839.4945
Get.club

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 10:18 AM, Robertson, Andrew <Andrew.Robertson@edelman.com> wrote:

Hi Dirk,


Thanks very much for this information, which is quite useful. We'll aim to build this into the proof points we're developing as part of the messaging. 


I may have a coupe of questions for you, which I'll come back to you on directly. 


Best,

Andrew


+44 7921 588 770

From: ua-discuss-bounces@icann.org <ua-discuss-bounces@icann.org> on behalf of Dirk Bhagat <dirk@get.club>
Sent: 18 May 2016 14:15:55
To: UA-discuss@icann.org
Subject: [UA-discuss] [UA-Discuss] Acceptance Tests done for sites
 
Hi All

As part of .Club's effort prior to UASG,  .club had hand tested around 600 popular  sites [mostly from Alexa]  for their ability to accept .club email addresses.

Here is the testing spreadsheet we used:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WIhKvD7mvK7xHyRWGNK1AcDTK7Yhdt69RXuPKcpTIZA/edit?usp=sharing
Sheet1 email@ nic. club verification Domain, Status, Account created, Receiving, Sending, Reason Free E-mail providers, Statuses 10minutemail. com, Can' t Test, Does not require email, Passed 123greetings. com, Passed, Yes, Yes, Failed 365greetings. com, Failed, No, Set up: not successful(...




This spreadsheet breaks the list down into a few categories:

-. Free Email providers
-. Top Retailers
-. Travel
-.  Email Newsletter Services
-.  Music Services
-.  Social Networks

Of the 600 sites, roughly 65% were confirmed to have passed, 13% confirmed to have failed, and 21% could not be tested for one reason or another. 

Although there is a lot more work to be done, I believe it's a good starting point. 


--
Dirk Bhagat

CoFounder, CTO
.CLUB DOMAINS LLC.
100 SE 3rd Ave, Suite 1310
Fort Lauderdale, Fl, 33394
o: 954.530.2580 m: 416.839.4945
Get.club