4 ms·

.calvinklein? .bananarepublic? A clear money-grab that has no benefit to users, complicates validation and security for developers, and seals off vast swathes o

by gfaure 6y ago

.calvinklein? .bananarepublic? A clear money-grab that has no benefit to users, complicates validation and security for developers, and seals off vast swathes of the namespace for the sole use of corporations.

ShakataGaNai 6y ago
A money grab for whom? ICANN, sure. But if a company wants to spend the $200k, what is the big deal? Some companies (ex http://www.nic.ovh/en/index.xml http://www.nic.ovh/en/index.xml ) are using it for their customers. Some companies (ex https://calculator.aws/ https://calculator.aws/ ) are using it for shorter URLs, while still being descriptive. Sure some are just doing it because they can, other's have no good use case yet. But I fail to see how .bananarepublic being in the hands of one company is a detriment to me... the average internet user.
- gfaure 6y ago
  It's a money grab for ICANN, precisely. Neither users nor developers have any say in this process, and the body that stands to benefit financially from accepting trademarks as TLDs is _not_ going to be acting in the interest of users or developers, are they? My argument wasn't specifically about .bananarepublic or .calvinklein. It was more that I don't believe trademarks should have been admitted, full stop. There's no way ICANN can make impartial decisions here that benefit the bulk of Internet users. I reserve judgement on generic TLDs, although I really don't like the implications to user confusion caused by .photo, .photos, .pics and the like.
- thayne 6y ago
  trademark names sure. But getting a TLD like .sucks is very nearly extortion.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  Has the money from the heist been sustainably invested? I'd love to see it guarding the openness and availability of the internet infrastructure as a whole.
riffic 6y ago
Are there any other top-level domains named after people?
- gfaure 6y ago
  Yes, insofar as organisations and corporations are named after people: .agakhan, .bentley, .dupont, .lamborghini, .scjohnson etc.
  - schoen 6y ago
    I'm just trying to imagine the first Aga Khan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_I knowing that his descendant and third successor would have an Internet TLD named after his title. On the other hand, apparently the third Aga Khan expressly emphasized his preference for a technologically-literate successor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_IV#Ascension_to_Nizari_Ismaili_Imamat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_IV#Ascension_to_Nizar...
tialaramex 6y ago
> complicates validation and security for developers No? If this broke things for you then I've got very bad news about how broken those things already were. Only textual exact matches of A-labels work for figuring out if names are the same. Guessing that if parts of the name seem kinda similar maybe that's enough just introduces endless weird security bugs. And the new TLDs didn't change that, example.com isn't example.org and example.photos isn't example.pictures or example.snaps or example.selfie If you think you need "effective TLDs" then you actually wanted the Public Suffix List, and the reason that's what you wanted begins decades ago in several ccTLDs and isn't the fault of this cash grab at all. Remember to thank Mozilla again while you're there.
- quotemstr 6y ago
  It's not technical breakage that's the problem: it's the mental breakage. This proliferation of TLDs confuses users and makes domain names less recognizable, all for no benefit to anyone but ICANN.

by gfaure 6y ago

ShakataGaNai 6y ago

A money grab for whom? ICANN, sure. But if a company wants to spend the $200k, what is the big deal? Some companies (ex http://www.nic.ovh/en/index.xml http://www.nic.ovh/en/index.xml ) are using it for their customers. Some companies (ex https://calculator.aws/ https://calculator.aws/ ) are using it for shorter URLs, while still being descriptive. Sure some are just doing it because they can, other's have no good use case yet. But I fail to see how .bananarepublic being in the hands of one company is a detriment to me... the average internet user.

gfaure 6y ago
It's a money grab for ICANN, precisely. Neither users nor developers have any say in this process, and the body that stands to benefit financially from accepting trademarks as TLDs is _not_ going to be acting in the interest of users or developers, are they? My argument wasn't specifically about .bananarepublic or .calvinklein. It was more that I don't believe trademarks should have been admitted, full stop. There's no way ICANN can make impartial decisions here that benefit the bulk of Internet users. I reserve judgement on generic TLDs, although I really don't like the implications to user confusion caused by .photo, .photos, .pics and the like.
thayne 6y ago
trademark names sure. But getting a TLD like .sucks is very nearly extortion.
kzrdude 6y ago
Has the money from the heist been sustainably invested? I'd love to see it guarding the openness and availability of the internet infrastructure as a whole.

riffic 6y ago

Are there any other top-level domains named after people?

gfaure 6y ago
Yes, insofar as organisations and corporations are named after people: .agakhan, .bentley, .dupont, .lamborghini, .scjohnson etc.
- schoen 6y ago
  I'm just trying to imagine the first Aga Khan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_I knowing that his descendant and third successor would have an Internet TLD named after his title. On the other hand, apparently the third Aga Khan expressly emphasized his preference for a technologically-literate successor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_IV#Ascension_to_Nizari_Ismaili_Imamat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_IV#Ascension_to_Nizar...

tialaramex 6y ago

> complicates validation and security for developers No? If this broke things for you then I've got very bad news about how broken those things already were. Only textual exact matches of A-labels work for figuring out if names are the same. Guessing that if parts of the name seem kinda similar maybe that's enough just introduces endless weird security bugs. And the new TLDs didn't change that, example.com isn't example.org and example.photos isn't example.pictures or example.snaps or example.selfie If you think you need "effective TLDs" then you actually wanted the Public Suffix List, and the reason that's what you wanted begins decades ago in several ccTLDs and isn't the fault of this cash grab at all. Remember to thank Mozilla again while you're there.

quotemstr 6y ago
It's not technical breakage that's the problem: it's the mental breakage. This proliferation of TLDs confuses users and makes domain names less recognizable, all for no benefit to anyone but ICANN.