11 ms·
Why we will not be registering easydns.sucks
- ak217 11y agoThis and the "great TLD expansion" in general seems like a great way for ICANN to make itself irrelevant. People will just stop trusting TLDs they don't recognize.
- yk 11y agoWell, people should not trust TLDs in the first place. So this is actually progress.
- david_shaw 11y agoI think the parent comment was implying that people will stop using services that end in ".io" or ".co" or, really, anything but ".com" because of the large number of shady websites on the off-brand TLDs.
- hueving 11y agoThere are an order of magnitude larger number of untrusted domains on '.com' than any of these new ones.
- B-Con 11y agoBut many trusted ones are, and most importantly most of the ones a user interacts with are legit. If a significant portion of the domains a user visits on a new TLD are shady, they may just write it off.
- smoyer 11y agoI see a great public service business here ... become a consumer advocate and buy a huge number of domains for $9.95/year. Charge the trademark holders a few dollars above that per year and deprive these trolls of the huge fees (> $2,499 per year per domain for premium names) they were expecting (yes, I'd rather they made nothing too). It should be pretty easy to automate the process. The down-side is that if you're Comcast (or one of the other common targets) you're probably going to have to live with a .sucks site. Try not to incite people into believing you suck so much!
- toast0 11y agoThe $10/year option doesn't actually let you control the domain. It just turns it on for the registry's captive forum.
- droopyEyelids 11y agoThe main argument doesn't hold up to my mind. It completely ignores the fact that ease of access to information is a greater determinant of what people learn than existence of information. Yes, right now it is possible to find discontents of a brand or company by searching and reading through various forums and webpages of differing quality and structure. However, if there was an easy mnemonic like "just add .sucks to the end of a name" to find the bad things about $NAME then the game would change. It'd be easier for people to organize and oppose companies than anything else imaginable. And that makes a huge difference. Think of how hard it was to find programming help before stack overflow. This would be a much more potent and wide-ranging way to organize information, because it can still be difficult for a novice to understand what to search for on stack overflow. This would remove even that last bit of friction. I'm not denying that .sucks is a bold and roguish move. I am asserting that it is an effective move.
- MichaelGG 11y ago... Or people will just use Google for "foo sucks". Like they do for Facebook login. It doesn't sound remotely effective unless Google goes ahead and blesses the TLD and increases rankings for such domains. Seeing as how stupid these new TLDs are, it'd be rather bad of Google to do so.
- ChrisGranger 11y agoGoogle themselves have applied for loads of these new generic TLDs though...
- ekimekim 11y agoIn which case they should've started up an independent service "sucks.com" where you could have "easydns.sucks.com", "hackernews.sucks.com"...ie. why involve DNS registration at all, if you're actually trying to provide a forum for people to air grievances? The fact that the sunrise registrations are so expensive (as opposed to disallowed altogether) is an even stronger indicator that this is extortion for the purpose of profit, nothing more.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- MichaelGG 11y agoWhy does ICANN allow TLDs that are obviously trying to be extortionate? Locked nameservers? Blocked registration? Sunrise period for trademark holders? It's like they're just totally admitting that new TLDs are moronic and pointless and have absolutely nothing to do with increasing domain name space or providing value for the Internet community.
- moe 11y agoWhy does ICANN allow TLDs that are obviously trying to be extortionate? Because they collect $0.18 USD per domain per year. It's like they're just totally admitting that new TLDs are moronic and pointless and have absolutely nothing to do with increasing domain name space or providing value for the Internet community. Did they ever claim otherwise?
- MichaelGG 11y agoI remember seeing something about how .museum and .aero and a lot of the first round of dumbass-TLDs was announced. Despite the only .aero I've ever seen was Boingo which seemed like a rather tenuous link. They offer WiFi all over, including airports, so that makes them aerospace? There's a really great yogurt/oatmeal place in SFO in Terminal 3 -- should they have whateverfraiche.aero, too? And at some point I thought it was, well, at least about DNS. But registrations with no nameservers, or registrations purely to "block" registration seems rather much opposite of resolving names. The justification for these new names is some of the dumbest I've read. I think Canon or some camera company was saying that with their own TLD, users could automatically share photos. ... WTF? What does that have to do with anything? It's just bizarre. The best idea is probably just allowing anyone any domain, anytime, for some smallish price. Or force a standard registrar agreement so anyone can buy any second level from any registrar. Then we can just go back to ignoring all these terrible special TLDs. Why get .sucks, when you can have .blows, or .isshit or any other name.
- rtpg 11y agoon the inverse, why are there any TLD restrictions at all? Why can't google get google.chrome? It's just a text field, after all This is a serious question, because I know a lot of people are against the expansion of TLDs (now I wouldn't have put .sucks on the top of my list for expansion, but...) and I haven't seen a real argument against it.
- po 11y agoCan someone explain to me any benefit that the ICANN decision to rollout new TLDs has provided? I am sure one exists but I cannot think of any. Trying to be open minded about this but I really don't understand why more geeky types weren't more anti-new-TLD when it was being proposed.
- Hobotron1 11y agoICANN gets a nice influx of cash.
- cgag 11y agoWere people not opposed? I was opposed, but as far as I know there wasn't a vote about it.
- mortenjorck 11y agoI would say there was an overwhelming anti-new-TLD groundswell in the tech community! ICANN took note of this, raised a very balanced and diplomatic middle finger, and proceeded to move ahead with its plan.
- raesene9 11y agoAFAICS the nominal reason was that TLDs like .com were/are getting crowded and country based one's (e.g. .io) were being mis-used as generic TLDs So as a reaction to that ICANN allow new generic TLDs to be registered. In and of itself, I don't think that's a bad idea. However the $180,000 registration fee seems a bit like a money grab, the lack of restrictions on the allowed names (e.g. .sucks) and the land-grabbing by large companies on a wide range of generic names (mainly from what I've seen Google and Amazon) have made the process a bit of a mess.
- niklasni1 11y agoMoney grab? Protection racket.
- Cakez0r 11y agoHow about a million dollars to sweeten the deal? "IPC also points out a peculiar change to the standard new TLD contract that’s in the .Sucks agreement with ICANN. It includes an additional fee for Vox Populi with $100,000 upfront and $1 for each additional transaction for up to 900,000 transactions. It’s very odd that a registry would agree to pay this additional amount to ICANN." http://domainnamewire.com/2015/03/27/ipc-asks-icann-to-halt-controversial-sucks-domain-name-roll-out/ http://domainnamewire.com/2015/03/27/ipc-asks-icann-to-halt-...
- Stratoscope 11y agoI wonder who will own this domain: icann.sucks
- oalders 11y agoHow about sucks.sucks ?
- leereeves 11y agoIf the $10 fee simply turns on the domain and points it to a captive forum, hosted by the registrar, how is the registrar going to avoid being sued for trademark infringement over every domain name?
- dangrossman 11y agoFor the same reason PayPalSucks.com has been online for 15 years without being sued: it's not trademark infringement. Nominative use (using a mark to refer to that product) and fair use (criticism and commentary, protected by the first amendment) are affirmative defenses to trademark infringement. Registering a trademark doesn't prevent other people from using that word, only from using it in ways that are likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of some goods or services.
- leereeves 11y agoI'm not a lawyer, but this seems different. This isn't using a single mark to refer to a product for criticism and commentary; this is using an unlimited number of marks for promotion of the registrar's sites. (In addition to using the mark in the ways you mentioned.) That is, the registrar's goal isn't to refer to PayPal, but to use the domain PayPal.sucks (and potentially every protected mark plus ".sucks") to draw traffic. I guess the legality of this use will need to be decided by the courts.
- callum85 11y agoYou're allowed to criticize any company you like (as long as you don't lie), and you can even profit by doing so. For example, media companies can sell newspapers containing negative reviews of trademarked companies, and make money from it. For trademark infringement, there has to be "likelihood of confusion", i.e. your use of their trademark could lead to people thinking that your goods/services originated from the trademark owner. In the case of someone explicitly critisizing a company, this could never be argued.
- 11y ago
- miles 11y agoMad props to Mark Jeftovic and easyDNS. Found his service by doing a WHOIS on ycombinator.com when looking for a new registrar a while back. easyDNS has the cleanest and most logical interface for managing domain names and DNS records that I've found. And Mark's blog posts (like the one above) are great. Here's another favorite: http://blog.easydns.org/2014/01/29/welcome-to-easydns-press-1-for-support-press-2-to-get-the-last-4-digits-of-your-credit-card-number-on-file-here/ http://blog.easydns.org/2014/01/29/welcome-to-easydns-press-...
- BinaryIdiot 11y agoGood for them. The new TLDs are really worthless in my opinion. For instance they already have .net and added .network. The majority of people will recognize .com and maybe .net. Beyond that it's a stretch in my opinion and you're only going to get visitors via searches or links. I can't imagine anyone is going to think "oh I wonder what microsoft's latest press releases are; I'll just go to microsoft.press". No, they're going to search for it. In all honesty domains in general are not very user friendly. I wouldn't be surprised if they are eventually replaced for a system that's more of a search than anything. I mean just look at all of the domain names being squatted on and for what? Half the times you can pick a different domain name, still name your product what you want and people will still find you due to search.
- SoftwareMaven 11y agoI wouldn't be surprised if they are eventually replaced for a system that's more of a search than anything. There's no need to replace anything. Nobody[1] uses domain names any more to browse the web. That's what Google, the default browser home page, and the omni-bar is for. I don't know a single non-web-developer who uses domain names. Everybody just drops "facebook" or "google"(?!) in the search box that shows up when the browser opens. 1. Well, nobody except for a rounding error number of people who hang out in places like HN.
- vacri 11y agoI don't know a single non-web-developer who uses domain names I get your point about the general public, but there is more to the internet and domain names than web browsing :)
- MichaelGG 11y agoHell I'm a developer and sorta technical and I can never remember the URL/domain to login to Office 365. So I end up using Google and trying to find a reasonable-looking result and then check for a cert that looks right.
- bad_user 11y ago
- fsk 11y agoDomain names aren't as important as they used to be. As long as you rank #1 in Google for "name of your business", that's good enough. Someone who googles easydns will find the official easydns website. easydns.sucks will rank lower, if at all.
- shostack 11y agoMy opinions on the matter: - It is dirt cheap to bid on paid search brand terms for "brand sucks." Be smart in where you take people and you manage against concerns. - Having an exact match domain is not anywhere near as useful as it used to be per Matt Cutts[1]. Someone would have to also manage to rank for your brand terms consistently for it to be of any note. I would laugh so hard if this went the route of .info and became recognized as a poor quality TLD that didn't rank worth a hoot. - There is no avoiding the vocal minority of upset customers. If you have an awesome product/service, you have nothing to worry about. Focus your energy and budgets on positive things and don't look back. [1] http://moz.com/blog/googles-emd-algo-update-early-data http://moz.com/blog/googles-emd-algo-update-early-data
- guelo 11y agoI think of ICANN like I do FIFA, an unbelievably corrupt bureaucracy at the center of the most beautiful game around.
- thomasvarney723 11y agoWhat's corrupt about FIFA? Genuinely curious as I don't really watch soccer.
- jrowley 11y agoJohn Oliver sums it up pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I
- thomasvarney723 11y agoThat's hilarious and terrible.
- StavrosK 11y agoSo they're basically another IOC?
- lotsofmangos 11y agoMight be easier to make a list about what isn't corrupt. 1. sometimes they sleep
- lazaroclapp 11y agoWell, if you really think so, there is but one course of action: register icann.sucks (and/or fifa.sucks)
- PhantomGremlin 11y agoGood one! I don't think ICANN would allow icann.sucks to exist. Even if that's not explicitly in writing, it would be foolish to bite the supreme leader's hand, wouldn't it? But FIFA better cough up $2,499 in "protection" money or there will be no shortage of people trying to grab that one.
- bhauer 11y agoWhat sucks most of all are the concept and execution of gTLDs.
- luckydude 11y agoWe've used easydns for more than a decade (yes, my new marketing people are trying to move us away from then, I'll fix that). My experience with easydns is that they are like us. They care about their customers, they care about doing the right thing, and they do that even when it hurts. Great company. Very slightly more expensive than the cheapest but they are definitely in the you get what you pay for category.
- Corporate_Shill 11y agoSO BRAVE
- lucb1e 11y agoWithout all the background info, in paragraph 15 (after 644 words) they answer the initial question from the post's title. TL;DR: anyone can register easydns-sucks.com or anything like it anyway. No need to "protect" yourself by buying [yourdomain].sucks at exorbitant prices.
- Sealy 11y agoIf you register a .sucks domain against a company you want to complain about, then the last laugh is on you for paying that much.
- fiatjaf 11y agoPossible solutions to this mess: GNS, IPNS.