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My related Ask HN: Would you prefer a non-profit domain name registrar? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7156997 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=71569

• jawns 12y ago
  Since I can't reply in that thread, I'll reply here ... When you say non-profit, you could mean multiple things, at least here in the U.S. You might be talking about a 501(c)(3) non-profit, like Mozilla or Wikipedia. Typically, when people think of 501(c)(3)s, they think of organizations such as the Red Cross or Catholic Charities, but obviously (as with Mozilla or Wikipedia) it can be practically anything directed toward the public good. One common critique I've heard about nonprofits in the tech space is that they have a hard time competing for the best talent (at least when it comes to salary/benefits), but if you have a large volunteer base, and a lot of people who truly want the project to flourish, then that's not a critical problem. Or, you might be talking about a cooperative. A co-op is a non-profit in the sense that (unlike a normal for-profit business) its primary goal is not to make money, but to provide some benefit to its members. So, in the case of a cooperative registrar (such as nic.coop), the members wholly own the registrar, and it exists for their benefit. They may not care about generating a profit, so long as the business satisfactorily provides a necessary service.