4 ms·

HN often suggests having your own domain so you own your presence (instead of having a gmail.com address or a blog on medium.com). So it's a lost cause?

TAForObvReasons 4y ago
Stick to .com domains
- Symbiote 4y ago
  Or country domains of your own country.
  - cubesnooper 4y ago
    There are downsides to country TLDs. What if you move? You might not be allowed to keep the domain from a country in which you no longer reside. Or if the country moves underneath you. Quite a few Brits lost their existing .eu domains after Brexit. And they sometimes have undesirable policies. For example, .us prohibits any kind of WHOIS protection. It’ll be tied to your real name, address, and phone number, unless you take some steps like getting a P.O. box or buying in the name of a shell corporation.
    - KomoD 4y ago
      Some registrars offer a "trustee" service, so if you are no longer allowed to own the domain due to moving / whatever you can just transfer over the domain to a registrar that offers a trustee service
    - Ekaros 4y ago
      If it is valuable enough for you. Setup corporate entity.
  - ivanmontillam 4y ago
    I used to own blockchain.*.(my-ccTLD) and the national registry took these domains from me after a short while (like 3-4 months). The new owners didn't even use them properly.
zamadatix 4y ago
The more traditional your TLD the less the risk but there is currently no option with 0 risk. At the same time not being able to reach 0 risk doesn't mean pursuing less risk is just a lost cause.
lolinder 4y ago
.com .org and .net are all very safe. If a registrar starts screwing you over you can switch, and the actual governing entities don't play these kinds of games.
- lupire 4y ago
  They are not "very safe" .org was very nearly stolen by its operators. https://www.eff.org/press/releases/org-domain-registry-sale-ethos-capital-rejected-stunning-victory-public-interest https://www.eff.org/press/releases/org-domain-registry-sale-...
  - layer8 4y ago
    I’d say the fact that this didn’t go through is evidence of its relative safety.
    - lupire 4y ago
      Logic like this, ignoring risks because disaster was averted in the last, is causes plane crashes and space shuttle explosions. It's normalization of deviance. Ancestor wrote "the actual governing entities don't play these kinds of games" and I gave a recent example of that kind of game being played.
      - ameliaquining 4y ago
        There wasn't any specific bad outcome for consumers that was only narrowly averted, though. The thing that was narrowly averted was management of the registry being taken over by an entity that said it wasn't going to do bad things to consumers, but not everyone believed them. That's still a fair few steps removed from anything directly bad happening.
        kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
        The bad outcome was removal of the price caps. That happened without any outside interference. The rest of the scheme depended on that first step and they got away with it.
lgats 4y ago
Perhaps a better solution would be owning your own TLD?
- yencabulator 4y ago
  If you can burn a cool $185k into brand awareness...
kixiQu 4y ago
I mean, I've got 2ish domains for self hosted stuff, 3 for public projects – they're rentals that I get enough value from to be worth it, and I'd recommend having a domain to a lot of people who don't currently have one. But they're rentals, and I think it's important to remain clearsighted about it.

TAForObvReasons 4y ago

Stick to .com domains

Symbiote 4y ago
Or country domains of your own country.
- cubesnooper 4y ago
  There are downsides to country TLDs. What if you move? You might not be allowed to keep the domain from a country in which you no longer reside. Or if the country moves underneath you. Quite a few Brits lost their existing .eu domains after Brexit. And they sometimes have undesirable policies. For example, .us prohibits any kind of WHOIS protection. It’ll be tied to your real name, address, and phone number, unless you take some steps like getting a P.O. box or buying in the name of a shell corporation.
  - KomoD 4y ago
    Some registrars offer a "trustee" service, so if you are no longer allowed to own the domain due to moving / whatever you can just transfer over the domain to a registrar that offers a trustee service
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    If it is valuable enough for you. Setup corporate entity.
- ivanmontillam 4y ago
  I used to own blockchain.*.(my-ccTLD) and the national registry took these domains from me after a short while (like 3-4 months). The new owners didn't even use them properly.

zamadatix 4y ago

The more traditional your TLD the less the risk but there is currently no option with 0 risk. At the same time not being able to reach 0 risk doesn't mean pursuing less risk is just a lost cause.

lolinder 4y ago

.com .org and .net are all very safe. If a registrar starts screwing you over you can switch, and the actual governing entities don't play these kinds of games.

lupire 4y ago
They are not "very safe" .org was very nearly stolen by its operators. https://www.eff.org/press/releases/org-domain-registry-sale-ethos-capital-rejected-stunning-victory-public-interest https://www.eff.org/press/releases/org-domain-registry-sale-...
- layer8 4y ago
  I’d say the fact that this didn’t go through is evidence of its relative safety.
  - lupire 4y ago
    Logic like this, ignoring risks because disaster was averted in the last, is causes plane crashes and space shuttle explosions. It's normalization of deviance. Ancestor wrote "the actual governing entities don't play these kinds of games" and I gave a recent example of that kind of game being played.
    - ameliaquining 4y ago
      There wasn't any specific bad outcome for consumers that was only narrowly averted, though. The thing that was narrowly averted was management of the registry being taken over by an entity that said it wasn't going to do bad things to consumers, but not everyone believed them. That's still a fair few steps removed from anything directly bad happening.
      - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
        The bad outcome was removal of the price caps. That happened without any outside interference. The rest of the scheme depended on that first step and they got away with it.

lgats 4y ago

Perhaps a better solution would be owning your own TLD?

yencabulator 4y ago
If you can burn a cool $185k into brand awareness...

kixiQu 4y ago

I mean, I've got 2ish domains for self hosted stuff, 3 for public projects – they're rentals that I get enough value from to be worth it, and I'd recommend having a domain to a lot of people who don't currently have one. But they're rentals, and I think it's important to remain clearsighted about it.