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Does it bother anyone else that YouTube has its own TLD (.youtube)? TLDs used to carry a lot of weight, and used to signify something besides individual entiti

Does it bother anyone else that YouTube has its own TLD (.youtube)? TLDs used to carry a lot of weight, and used to signify something besides individual entities/companies... but it feels to me like that designation is becoming rather diluted.

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
Personally, I'm quite happy with the proliferation of top level domains. It seems like the alternative was a completely unnecessary layer of indirection; it's not like every .com was a company or every company used a .com, so they weren't even strongly meaningful before.
Ayesh 4y ago
Oh yeah, that's what I was just about to comment. One can arrange their own TLD for under $200,000 initial fee, plus around $25,000 a year (IIRC). I imagine there will be a whole TLD auction game, but among those with deep pockets and governed by an organization that doesn't seem to take their job seriously. ICANN looks like a cash grab nowadays to me. I don't mean any offense to the engineers behind it, just that the administration seems quite greedy.
9dev 4y ago
It bothers me that we still have those useless suffixes attached to domains. What does „org“, „com“, „net“ even mean to the average user? Nothing. It’s nothing but a pointless ritual at this point, and after ICANN chose to add thousands of generic domains, they don’t have any significance left at all, except that nice names are very expensive now. It would be easier for everybody if we simply removed that extra step that is TLD names.
- nephanth 4y ago
  Regional TLDs like .us .uk .fr .ru etc. do make sense though
  - HideousKojima 4y ago
    Until they're useful for making a catchy address, like me.ga (which wasn't hosted in Gabon)
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      Many region level tlds require a legal presence. .au requires you to provide an Australian Business Number to register. It’s mostly the tiny islands that decide to cash in on fancy tlds who don’t care so much about providing them as a service to the small population.
      - viraptor 4y ago
        It's pretty much never checked. You can search for a random name on https://abr.business.gov.au/ https://abr.business.gov.au/ and use it.
        Gigachad 4y ago
        It’s in the ToS though. You can register and at any moment you risk having your domain taken. Especially if you are a large business
- moffkalast 4y ago
  I still don't know why ICANN gets to tell people what they can or cannot have as their TLD name. It's just a string, it doesn't cost anything more to compare on the DNS server if it's custom or standard.
  - SpicyLemonZest 4y ago
    I don't know if every ICANN restriction can be justified from first principles, but there definitely has to be some strategy to ensure nobody sets up a .(U+0585)rg TLD.
    - jonas-w 4y ago
      That's why punycode exists.
  - viraptor 4y ago
    There's still a need to limit the TLDs. In small increments it doesn't matter if we add another one. But fully opening the floodgates? I don't think the root server operators would be happy about the load.
- rchaud 4y ago
  It helps identify scammy low-effort sites. Too cheap to spring for the .com, and went for .news instead? Pass.
maerF0x0 4y ago
apple and many others have em too. Nearly no one knows the meaning of .com also the US centric monopoly of .gov is probably antithetical to many early internet ideals.
- sofixa 4y ago
  > also the US centric monopoly of .gov is probably antithetical to many early internet ideals. .edu is much worse IMO.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
asciimov 4y ago
Nope. It does not bother me at all as I don't care for the people that profit from sitting on domain names.
HellsMaddy 4y ago
The full list: https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db Interestingly, a number of corporations that registered their own TLDs seem to have since let them go. You can see them by searching for "Not assigned" on that page.
vsareto 4y ago
It hasn't for a while https://icannwiki.org/.ninja https://icannwiki.org/.ninja

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago

Personally, I'm quite happy with the proliferation of top level domains. It seems like the alternative was a completely unnecessary layer of indirection; it's not like every .com was a company or every company used a .com, so they weren't even strongly meaningful before.

Ayesh 4y ago

Oh yeah, that's what I was just about to comment. One can arrange their own TLD for under $200,000 initial fee, plus around $25,000 a year (IIRC). I imagine there will be a whole TLD auction game, but among those with deep pockets and governed by an organization that doesn't seem to take their job seriously. ICANN looks like a cash grab nowadays to me. I don't mean any offense to the engineers behind it, just that the administration seems quite greedy.

9dev 4y ago

It bothers me that we still have those useless suffixes attached to domains. What does „org“, „com“, „net“ even mean to the average user? Nothing. It’s nothing but a pointless ritual at this point, and after ICANN chose to add thousands of generic domains, they don’t have any significance left at all, except that nice names are very expensive now. It would be easier for everybody if we simply removed that extra step that is TLD names.

nephanth 4y ago
Regional TLDs like .us .uk .fr .ru etc. do make sense though
- HideousKojima 4y ago
  Until they're useful for making a catchy address, like me.ga (which wasn't hosted in Gabon)
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    Many region level tlds require a legal presence. .au requires you to provide an Australian Business Number to register. It’s mostly the tiny islands that decide to cash in on fancy tlds who don’t care so much about providing them as a service to the small population.
    - viraptor 4y ago
      It's pretty much never checked. You can search for a random name on https://abr.business.gov.au/ https://abr.business.gov.au/ and use it.
      - Gigachad 4y ago
        It’s in the ToS though. You can register and at any moment you risk having your domain taken. Especially if you are a large business
moffkalast 4y ago
I still don't know why ICANN gets to tell people what they can or cannot have as their TLD name. It's just a string, it doesn't cost anything more to compare on the DNS server if it's custom or standard.
- SpicyLemonZest 4y ago
  I don't know if every ICANN restriction can be justified from first principles, but there definitely has to be some strategy to ensure nobody sets up a .(U+0585)rg TLD.
  - jonas-w 4y ago
    That's why punycode exists.
- viraptor 4y ago
  There's still a need to limit the TLDs. In small increments it doesn't matter if we add another one. But fully opening the floodgates? I don't think the root server operators would be happy about the load.
rchaud 4y ago
It helps identify scammy low-effort sites. Too cheap to spring for the .com, and went for .news instead? Pass.

maerF0x0 4y ago

apple and many others have em too. Nearly no one knows the meaning of .com also the US centric monopoly of .gov is probably antithetical to many early internet ideals.

sofixa 4y ago
> also the US centric monopoly of .gov is probably antithetical to many early internet ideals. .edu is much worse IMO.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

asciimov 4y ago

Nope. It does not bother me at all as I don't care for the people that profit from sitting on domain names.

HellsMaddy 4y ago

The full list: https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db Interestingly, a number of corporations that registered their own TLDs seem to have since let them go. You can see them by searching for "Not assigned" on that page.

vsareto 4y ago

It hasn't for a while https://icannwiki.org/.ninja https://icannwiki.org/.ninja