domain names are weird

[MediocreMetastasis]

I just went down a domain name rabbit hole I am now a different man than who I once was.
Did you now top-level domains have agreements? These agreements have to be followed by registrars (the people who sell you domain names). The most significant detail I've seen in these agreements is the renewal price. For example .com domains can be increased in price by 7% each time you renew it each year for 3 years. That price then must be frozen for 2 years until you can increase the renewal price again. However, for .dev domains. The renewal price must be the same for all .dev domains (not including discounts). This means it's probably a good idea to get a .dev domain over a .com domain. I'm pretty sure registrars can still make you pay a lot of money to register a domain name for the first time even if it is a .dev domain.

Where you get your domain names from is important also as the agreements don't have a limit on how much a domain name can cost.

It's interesting how new top-level domains are made also. You need to be an already established organization and pay a lot of money and be capable of that top-level domain. That not even considering that you application can be disapproved and contested by anyone.

[crazyroostereye]

TLD = Top Level Domain (the thing at the end of a Domain (.com, .us))
ICANN = The Organization who manages all of this and makes the Rules.

I have several Issues with the ICANN and their decisions they made about Domains and what are and aren't TLDs. Like they had a great Idea with making .edu, .com, .net, .org and .gov for Defining the purpose of Sites. Also having Countries TLDs based on the Country codes .us .de .it .tv etc. wasn't bad either, maybe combining them with purpose driven TLDs similar how the UK manages their with co.uk, org.uk would have been a good Idea. But then they opened all of them for everything completely eliminating the meaning of a TLD. And then they made the Registering your own TLD and option for the big Companies. Which just why. What's the purpose of a TLD now. Except being an unnecessary, meaningless extension at the end of my Website.

Also, there other things the ICANN has done that makes me a bit mad at them.

[MediocreMetastasis]

What's the purpose of a TLD now. Except being an unnecessary, meaningless extension at the end of my Website.

To be frank. A lot of companies could've been categorized as both a .net and a .com site. They could've left out .net overall as websites could've just fit into .com and .org. Also what about the personal sites that didn't fit in any of the categories as they aren't made by organizations.
And we wouldn't get the awesome TLDs that are .pizza, .horse, and .gay .

[crazyroostereye]

To be frank. A lot of companies could've been categorized as both a .net and a .com site. They could've left out .net overall as websites could've just fit into .com and .org. Also what about the personal sites that didn't fit in any of the categories as they aren't made by organizations.
And we wouldn't get the awesome TLDs that are .pizza, .horse, and .gay .

I think you can categorize every website in .net .org .com .gov .edu.
.org => Registered Non Profits / Organizations with no Comercial Interest
.com => Commercial Entities, stores, shops and company Websites fit in there
.gov => Government (and what I really would have hoped for not only the US government)
.edu => Educational Institution
.net => Network, everyone else personal websites, Blogs and Forums. With no clear Profit Motived nor being Registered Organizations. E.G. the Catch All

And I can much agree there are cool and funny TLDs. But this opens the question of what is a TLD worth. Why can't I register as Layman the crazyroostereye TLD. Why in the Place of Open Principles, the Internet, can only Big Major Companies do that.

[MediocreMetastasis]

Why can't I register as Layman the crazyroostereye TLD. Why in the Place of Open Principles, the Internet, can only Big Major Companies do that.

Money... It's always money...

A "logical" reason is that your webpage will load a lot slower as I'm pretty sure ISPs would have to find your domain name server rather than instantly knowing which server it is based on your TLD. A big company is kinda a guarantee that they will have the resources required/be able to maintain the TLDs

[EdgyRabbid]

My domain is Edgyrabbid.space. the reason i ended with .space intead of .com is because.. well its my space on the internet. So it seemed logical to me to make it .space.. plus its not a domain you see often, is it?

[Melooon]

I was skimming an old computer book from the late 90s recently (i think!!) and it had an interesting factoid, I should have photographed it to remember the source; but anyway it seemed to imply that .com domains were associated with spam and ads in the late 90s, it actually suggested that many web surfers often blocked .com domains entirely from their browser to have a better experience, although the book said that was prob overkill since there were legitimate .com sites too.

That's a really unusual perspective since by the time I was browsing the web in the mid 00s .com domains almost felt like the only real domain; when I was a tween I would not have considered a website to be a real website unless it ended in .com 

It might have been this book!


EDIT:  I found  it!

[Kalka]

my grief is the .ai domains costing a huge amount of money for some. When I was younger, the sites in .com were the "big sites" or international sites and .fr (French sites) were for the daily use. It's only quite recently that I discovered there were many many many more TLDs, some are fun like .omg.lol or .party

I obviously bought .club for my own website since matchaprika-club.neocities.org would have become matchaprika-club.club. I remember my high school "techno" teacher's (brief) course on having a domain name. He told us to make it simple and to avoid things like "company-fr.com" or "company-com.fr". Seeing that .club was available, I jumped on the occasion of making Matchaprika.club.

First time I've seen a different domain was a .us and I was weirded out because I believed .com were for big interntional companies and USA-based corporations and websites. I do like website names were the TLD is part of it. However seeing .zip websites made me uncomfortable because if we allow anything as a tld it could quickly devolve into a phishing-fest.

I tend to be more open to personalized TLD instead of .com or .fr that are now linked to corporate / official websites. My brain has made a clear cut between the two. I would believe that coa-cola.com is a real website but if you tell me "no it's coca-cola.party" or "coca-cola.fun" I wouldn't trust you. People that are less tech-savvy could be confused or ending up in an elaborated trap/scam. (However I'm sad that nasa.space is not owned by NASA...)

If it was reverted and "funny" TLD weren't allowed anymore I'd probably get behind a .net