(Text Version Below) Please see the attached PDF for a better graphical example of what is broken. --------------------------------- Keven Dabney Internet Professional February 14, 2020 Subject: ICANN - MAJOR ISSUE with this public comment process - there is a MAJOR TECHNICAL FLAW that is rendering all external links to the wrong postings! Desired Resolution: ICANN should immediately stop removing public comments and extend the public comment period to allow for the problem to be addressed. Description of Issue: We would like to bring ICANN’s attention a significant bug with the ICANN public comment process. This is making the system impossible to use and it is not allowing stakeholders to read and digest information that is being submitted with other stakeholders on the Internet, in blog postings, and via email. It is making last minute submissions to the process nearly impossible as the IDs are constantly changing! When comments are removed (or deleted) from the system by ICANN, all comments shift down by an ID. Say for example you have seven postings (this example is used for illustration purposes with fictitious ids and fictitious names): ---------000100.html---------Amy Agnew ---------000101.html---------Betty Becky ---------000102.html---------Cathy Charles ---------000103.html---------Dennis Dean ---------000104.html---------Ernie Emmerson ---------000105.html---------Fannie Famous ---------000106.html---------Greg Garrett When ICANN (for some unknown reason) deletes a posting, it “shifts” all of the other postings numbers up by one. Thereby citing a previous posting and linking to it is impossible, making the public comment period buggy, problematic and extremely difficult to use. When the third post above is removed (or deleted), all comments beneath it “shift down” therefore completely hiding the post by “Cathy Charles” and thus every ID beyond it is no longer linkable or citable. In the above example we get this result: ---------000100.html---------Amy Agnew ---------000101.html---------Betty Becky ---------000102.html---------Cathy Charles---------(Deleted By ICANN) ---------000102.html---------Dennis Dean-----------*Id changed by Cathy’s deletion ---------000103.html---------Ernie Emmerson--------*Id changed by Cathy’s deletion ---------000104.html---------Fannie Famous---------*Id changed by Cathy’s deletion ---------000105.html---------Greg Garrett----------*Id changed by Cathy’s deletion First off: Who is removing these postings? By which criteria are they being removed? Is there a public log or record of the removed postings? More importantly, we immediately request that ICANN stop removing postings. It is breaking the entire public comment system and does not allow anybody else to see what someone has said with a direct link to the particular posting. ICANN also has a duty to extend this public comment process - as it is clearly broken and it is making all external links reference an entirely different public comment. This would give respondents, including myself, the time to properly cite prior postings which have now all been messed up and don’t allow links I have been reading to work or point at the right locations anymore! It is unfair and unjust, it is broken, and it is a mess! Preventing many last minute submissions. The URL’s and the ID numbers should not be changing! Please fix postings from disappearing and being replaced by others, while other legitimate comments now don’t have a permanent URL that is easily referenceable and/or addressable. More importantly, I need additional time due to ICANN’s blunder here in order to submit my final submissions. Thank you. - Keven