FYI, and via Michael Zimmer on Twitter, here's a disturbing article which may be of interest to those of us hosting sites under the .org TLD (including AOIR.) -- rick Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/20/org_registry_sale_shambles/?page=1 From the article, here's good bit of advice for those of us operating within the .org domain: consider renewing for longer while rates are low ......
In a sign that ICANN is unlikely to challenge the sale of the registry – as some have formally urged it to do – the organization says in its statement that the new contract requires the operator of the registry to “provide registrars at least 30 days’ advance written notice of any price increase for initial registrations and 6 months’ notice for any price increases of renewals” while allowing domain owners to renew a domain for as much as 10 years in advance “thus enabling a registrant to lock in current prices for 10 years in advance of a pricing change.”
It is debatable whether even a small number of the 10 million .org domain holders would be aware of price increases until they are required to pay them, or whether the ability to register a domain for 10 years is equivalent to a 10-year price freeze.