4 ms·

Maybe with the abundance of TLDs .com/.org will eventually be reduced in importance and seen just as another TLD with a bit of special history.

thaumasiotes 7y ago
As things stand now, .com is basically seen as just a mysterious string that ends URLs in much the same way that "http" begins URLs. It isn't viewed as having any more significance than that. "Just another TLD" is arguably a step up in importance from "invisible part of the background that nobody ever thinks about".
- bscphil 7y ago
  > .com is basically seen as just a mysterious string that ends URLs in much the same way that "http" begins URLs. This is 100% true. And yet, for the average person, it's viewed as the default mysterious string that ends a website's "name". Anything else is viewed as slightly questionable, although most people are aware of .org and .net as sometimes legitimate exceptions. I think most people would be less likely to enter their credit card information on a ".biz" domain, even though they couldn't express any accurate reason why that made it less trustworthy. That's significant, even if it makes no technological difference.
  - eloisant 7y ago
    Outside US, country tld are also very common.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      The same heuristics apply. .<ccTLD> is roughly as trustworthy as .com is; .<class>.<ccTLD> is as trustworthy as .<tld>, where class=tld.
  - bjornjaja 7y ago
    I think the move to more specific domains is better and .org should be a relic of the past. For instance, consider: people.org people.health people.art The last two actually imply what they are about, but the .org could be anything. Trust and faith in the service associated with a domain needs to be built with standard channels like word of mouth, advertising, good business practices, etc.
    - Nullabillity 7y ago
      To me an industry-specific TLD just says "We couldn't think of an original name."
      - bjornjaja 7y ago
        Hmm, yeah now that I think about it more I agree.
      - thaumasiotes 7y ago
        While that's not inaccurate, I don't think it's a problem. It makes no sense to require everything to have a globally unique name.
- WilliamEdward 7y ago
  Wait, what? Give people more credit, a lot of people know it stands for the commercial domain name and understand the implications of that.
  - cdirkx 7y ago
    A lot of English-speaking people, which isn't everyone.
  - geitir 7y ago
    I was under the impression it had Soviet origins
    - julianlam 7y ago
      Da, comrade.
      - type0 7y ago
        Net comrade, my soviet domain names are still valid [1] and free from this private equity capitalism nonsense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.su https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.su
- bitslayer 7y ago
  The traditional TLDs, especially .com, are immediately recognizable as www addresses. If you write some_name.com somewhere, just about anyone would know that they could type that into a browser. But some_name.club would not have that effect.
ddingus 7y ago
I don't care about that happening with .com I do care about that happening with .org The .org matters. I would say these new owners don't get that, but I think they do, and think they have position to just rent seek, essentially trading on something that matters to just about the point where it doesn't so much. Not going there. End game is .org no longer matters. Fine. Might as well not contribute to the whole mess.
- nicky0 7y ago
  Rather than pre-emptively throwing your toys out of the pram, why not wait and see whether Ethos proves to abuse their position or not.
  - ddingus 7y ago
    Just watch: "If we double it, the impact to any one domain will be near negligible..." That will prove irresistible. Too easy. And unnecessary. Flat out, someone got pitched about an easy money machine, with strong second sale potential. And it is, and will be too. It is because .org was not supposed to be about these kinds of things. Well, now it is. With no value added. Just rent seeking. Maybe in the future much stronger legal means can prevent this kind of thing from happening. I get it. The money is good. It just will not come from me. Have seen this movie enough times to know how it ends now. It is sad, and it sucks.
  - drawkbox 7y ago
    Ethos Capital (little bit too much like 'tethics') was formed in 2019 so nobody knows. Their headquarters is in Mauritius [1][2]. They could even be cool for a bit and then sell it to someone worse, though it isn't looking good as there was some insider finagling [3]. The problem is '.org' is in the private equity game now and when you go down that path, value is extracted and entities end up stripped of assets, loaded with debt and eventually stagnate. Private equity investment does not invest for community goodwill, it is a value extraction mission. Even if it is for investment, as much value or growth that can be extracted before it is available for investment is the modus operandi see Softbank with WeWork, Uber etc. You can see Ethos Capital goals and history where again creating returns and value extraction is the only goal. [4][5] Since it is a new entity there is very little ability to predict what this firm does or will do with their investment targets. If this is the new game in TLDs then there could be some price collusion incoming, meaning more expensive for small/medium/institutions that are trying to compete or do public good. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius [2] https://ethoscapital.mu/contact/contact-us/ https://ethoscapital.mu/contact/contact-us/ [3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/20/org_registry_sale_shambles/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/20/org_registry_sale_s... [4] https://ethoscapital.mu/what-we-do/advisor-ethos-private-equity/ https://ethoscapital.mu/what-we-do/advisor-ethos-private-equ... [5] https://ethoscapital.mu/what-we-do/investment-strategy/ https://ethoscapital.mu/what-we-do/investment-strategy/

thaumasiotes 7y ago

As things stand now, .com is basically seen as just a mysterious string that ends URLs in much the same way that "http" begins URLs. It isn't viewed as having any more significance than that. "Just another TLD" is arguably a step up in importance from "invisible part of the background that nobody ever thinks about".

bscphil 7y ago
> .com is basically seen as just a mysterious string that ends URLs in much the same way that "http" begins URLs. This is 100% true. And yet, for the average person, it's viewed as the default mysterious string that ends a website's "name". Anything else is viewed as slightly questionable, although most people are aware of .org and .net as sometimes legitimate exceptions. I think most people would be less likely to enter their credit card information on a ".biz" domain, even though they couldn't express any accurate reason why that made it less trustworthy. That's significant, even if it makes no technological difference.
- eloisant 7y ago
  Outside US, country tld are also very common.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    The same heuristics apply. .<ccTLD> is roughly as trustworthy as .com is; .<class>.<ccTLD> is as trustworthy as .<tld>, where class=tld.
- bjornjaja 7y ago
  I think the move to more specific domains is better and .org should be a relic of the past. For instance, consider: people.org people.health people.art The last two actually imply what they are about, but the .org could be anything. Trust and faith in the service associated with a domain needs to be built with standard channels like word of mouth, advertising, good business practices, etc.
  - Nullabillity 7y ago
    To me an industry-specific TLD just says "We couldn't think of an original name."
    - bjornjaja 7y ago
      Hmm, yeah now that I think about it more I agree.
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      While that's not inaccurate, I don't think it's a problem. It makes no sense to require everything to have a globally unique name.
WilliamEdward 7y ago
Wait, what? Give people more credit, a lot of people know it stands for the commercial domain name and understand the implications of that.
- cdirkx 7y ago
  A lot of English-speaking people, which isn't everyone.
- geitir 7y ago
  I was under the impression it had Soviet origins
  - julianlam 7y ago
    Da, comrade.
    - type0 7y ago
      Net comrade, my soviet domain names are still valid [1] and free from this private equity capitalism nonsense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.su https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.su
bitslayer 7y ago
The traditional TLDs, especially .com, are immediately recognizable as www addresses. If you write some_name.com somewhere, just about anyone would know that they could type that into a browser. But some_name.club would not have that effect.

ddingus 7y ago

I don't care about that happening with .com I do care about that happening with .org The .org matters. I would say these new owners don't get that, but I think they do, and think they have position to just rent seek, essentially trading on something that matters to just about the point where it doesn't so much. Not going there. End game is .org no longer matters. Fine. Might as well not contribute to the whole mess.

nicky0 7y ago
Rather than pre-emptively throwing your toys out of the pram, why not wait and see whether Ethos proves to abuse their position or not.
- ddingus 7y ago
  Just watch: "If we double it, the impact to any one domain will be near negligible..." That will prove irresistible. Too easy. And unnecessary. Flat out, someone got pitched about an easy money machine, with strong second sale potential. And it is, and will be too. It is because .org was not supposed to be about these kinds of things. Well, now it is. With no value added. Just rent seeking. Maybe in the future much stronger legal means can prevent this kind of thing from happening. I get it. The money is good. It just will not come from me. Have seen this movie enough times to know how it ends now. It is sad, and it sucks.
- drawkbox 7y ago
  Ethos Capital (little bit too much like 'tethics') was formed in 2019 so nobody knows. Their headquarters is in Mauritius [1][2]. They could even be cool for a bit and then sell it to someone worse, though it isn't looking good as there was some insider finagling [3]. The problem is '.org' is in the private equity game now and when you go down that path, value is extracted and entities end up stripped of assets, loaded with debt and eventually stagnate. Private equity investment does not invest for community goodwill, it is a value extraction mission. Even if it is for investment, as much value or growth that can be extracted before it is available for investment is the modus operandi see Softbank with WeWork, Uber etc. You can see Ethos Capital goals and history where again creating returns and value extraction is the only goal. [4][5] Since it is a new entity there is very little ability to predict what this firm does or will do with their investment targets. If this is the new game in TLDs then there could be some price collusion incoming, meaning more expensive for small/medium/institutions that are trying to compete or do public good. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius [2] https://ethoscapital.mu/contact/contact-us/ https://ethoscapital.mu/contact/contact-us/ [3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/20/org_registry_sale_shambles/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/20/org_registry_sale_s... [4] https://ethoscapital.mu/what-we-do/advisor-ethos-private-equity/ https://ethoscapital.mu/what-we-do/advisor-ethos-private-equ... [5] https://ethoscapital.mu/what-we-do/investment-strategy/ https://ethoscapital.mu/what-we-do/investment-strategy/