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Basel has to buy domain name in the Bahamas after mishap
- neilv 2y agoI need to FIRE, so that I can spend my time making informative `<topic>.bs` Web sites, in the public interest. `.bs` is the best TLD since the one that made `jabber.at` possible.
- brianstrimp 2y ago> There is not much time left: taxpayers will be able to complete their tax return for 2024 online as early as next week - probably with a slight detour via the Caribbean. A "detour"? It's just a lookup in a database to resolve a name to an IP address. Unlikely that any person or any piece of technology in the Bahamas has anything to do with a Swiss person going to that website. Maybe the article should have clarified that a little better. Now people will actually worry about their data, while none of it will even leave the country, if the server is domestic.
- fetzu 2y agoOn Switzerland’s “leading” (in terms of pricing, and not in the good way) ISP’s own website nonetheless. So it is either incompetence or they think people are idiots.. or maybe just a healthy mix of both!
- 4ndrewl 2y agoIt's called "humour".
- brianstrimp 2y agoThe article was for normal folks, not for techies for whom this obviously was a joke. My mom would totally believe that the traffic goes via Carribea.
- kome 2y agoaccording to gandi eSteuern.BS is still free and cheaper (around 600 usd)... hn do the magic pls (I would definitely do it myself but I don't have 600 usd to spend on a practical joke unfortunately)
- swarnie 2y agoExpensive for a joke, extremely cheap for international tax scams.
- deno 2y agoStill better than putting porn site address on children’s product (wicked). And they were able to buy the redirect. They should feel very lucky indeed.
- HenryBemis 2y agoI don't know/care to know how this played out. At the time I was thinking that if I was the owner of 'wicked.com' I would change my landing page and put a split-screen with one half linking to the toy (and away from the adult material), and to the other half a respectful/non-pornographic link for 'further in to my own adult material', perhaps adding a couple more hoops to minimize innocent souls being damaged.
- courseofaction 2y agoAnd minimize ads served? Unlikely
- belorn 2y agoWith country code TLDs, there is a key aspect that can be good to know. The process, technology and registration can literally be anything. It can be like what most people expect with normal digital registration where you send them your contact information and a small fee. It could also be a government department where you send envelopes with proof of ownership, cash bribe, and a process where the documents need to be stamped and re-stamped, and where registration can be first-to-apply or an most-deserving kind of thing. Fairly common requirement is also local presence, as in a local citizen or legal firm that operate in that country. Thus, availability and price are somewhat undefined when dealing with ccTLD's. As a customer you may also be fairly protected from knowing the why or how.
- ryan-c 2y agoAs someone with a domain name on a ccTLD for a country most people have never heard of, I can only say "lolsob". It's managed by a guy who works for the post office, things take a few weeks to process, and there's a holding company involved.
- profsummergig 2y agoIt should be possible to geofence it such that requests from within Switzerland are redirected to the correct address.
- Etheryte 2y agoBut not everyone who wants or needs to access it will be inside Switzerland? This doesn't fix anything, it would just make the whole situation even more confusing.
- brianstrimp 2y agoRight, why would anybody ever legitimately want to access that portal from outside switzerland? /s Geofencing is a typical techie "solution" that solves nothing and only brings headache to people.
- theanonymousone 2y agoThey were lucky: Not all Cantons can do it at all, and the domain is not necessarily free (e.g. eSteuern.be may be taken for German-speaking part of Belgium?)
- mgaunard 2y agowhat is this German-speaking part of Belgium you speak of?
- croisillon 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-speaking_Community_of_Belgium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-speaking_Community_of_B...
- jeffreygoesto 2y ago.co.uk solved this looong ago
- ale42 2y agoSolved what? If someone forgets the final .uk on the flyer and don't want to reprint it, they will need to buy a domain in Colombia...
- smcin 2y agoCurious how many times that has happened. And presumably there are typosquatters on .co domains corresponding to valuable .co.uk domains.
- anal_reactor 2y agoVoters in Northern Ireland younger than 45 years prefer joining Ireland than staying in the UK, which means that .uk will stop being relevant within 50 years at most, once all boomers die.
- argsnd 2y agoThe country would still be called United Kingdom if it contained three constituent provinces instead of four
- onehp 2y agoI think the argument comes from the full title being "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". If you drop NI then the other three countries can already be grouped under the Great Britain term.
- jychang 2y agoRename it to “United Kingdom of England and Scotland” and party like it’s 1707. Problem solved.
- 2y ago
- kisamoto 2y agoAhh unchecked websites in print. Two of my favourites are: - The recent (Nov '24) mishap from Mattel printing a p*rn site on their Wicked dolls: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gz91pp5llo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gz91pp5llo - Or the numerous 'Click Here' or unreasonable long (e.g. https://example.gov.uk/some/sub/site/dGhlbi9hL3JlYWxseS9sb25nL2VuY29kZWQv https://example.gov.uk/some/sub/site/dGhlbi9hL3JlYWxseS9sb25...) that have appeared in UK government or NHS leaflets.
- bhaney 2y ago> p*rn Who are you doing this for? All the small children on HN who will be scandalized reading the word "porn" but are safe so long as the "o" is censored with an asterisk?
- aziaziazi 2y agoWhy do you follow your question by a refutation of the supposed response ? They probably doing it for themselves like people saying « gosh ». If you find that ridicule fine, but no need to strawman their intentions. You chances to get an honest, non defensive response are pretty low.
- karmakurtisaani 2y ago> They probably doing it for themselves like people saying « gosh ». Surely you mean g*sh?
- addicted 2y agoThe obvious answer is that this user likely also comments on other platforms that do not allow using the word openly and instead of the mental overload of constantly deciding which site does and doesn’t allow spelling out the word they choose the safer option in every case. Or their autocorrect has now learnt to respell it anyways. Or, they didn’t really spend hours debating the pros and cons of using either spelling and just went with whatever felt ok at the time. But why choose generosity when one can choose snarky ass instead.
- csswizardry 2y agoA firm here in my city once got all of their signage printed and installed _before_ securing the social media handles they’d put on them. The Instagram username they’d opted for was actually literally impossible to register as it contained a special character. That was about six years ago. The signs are still up.
- rayhaanj 2y ago> Users do not have to worry about security, SRF quotes Weber: "No data is transferred. There is only a link to the correct page." Yes but how do you know you've resolved the right thing, it's still vulnerable to a compromise of another TLD.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- betaby 2y ago"Basel has to buy internet address in the Bahamas after mishap" I don't get it. http://www.esteuern.bs/ http://www.esteuern.bs/ is not opening. In which sense 'has to buy'?
- readthenotes1 2y agoI guess you will just have to read the article then huh?
- betaby 2y agoI read and didn't get. Perhaps 'has to buy' well, has other meanings.
- ninalanyon 2y agoThey didn't have to, it was simply the cheapest option, cheaper than reprinting all the leaflets.
- betaby 2y agoThere is no redirect.
- readthenotes1 2y agoI meant the text, not just the headline. It's an entire section with a clearly worded title in bold: Registration is still ongoing At the moment, the incorrect address still leads nowhere, as the registration of the domain in the Bahamas has only just been applied for, as Weber told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. As soon as the registration is completed, the incorrect URL will be redirected to the correct one for the Canton of Basel-Stadt.
- betaby 2y agoI read the text though. Also as of 2025-02-06 http://www.esteuern.bs/ http://www.esteuern.bs/ is still not working. A week to (not) deliver a simple redirect is not something I would call 'has to buy' or 'is still ongoing'. It's 'failed to do a basic task' and 'continuing to fail to redirect'. I have reasons to think no one even tried to do anything beside press releases.