Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The .blog Bait and Switch

chrisschidle.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 186 posts

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#41

Post by pc86 »

jamchris wrote: post #35
intrasight wrote: post #33

I fail to understand the purpose of these non-standard TLDs. Nobody is going to remember or type in such a domain, so you stuff is only going to be found by a web search - where a standard domain would be better. So why not just register a .com - which are also cheaper?

> So why not just register a .com Because the name you wish to register is not available as .com domain. > Nobody is going to remember or type in such a domain I don't think this is true, I live in Europe and we have tons of country tlds, people use and remember them. Also is chris.blog really so much longer to type then chris.com or a lot harder to remember? I don't agree. At first it might feel strange to type some…

> Also is chris.blog really so much longer to type then chris.com or a lot harder to remember? I don't agree.

It depends on the audience. If you have a non-technical audience or you are e-commerce a .com is basically a necessity still.

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#42

Post by Valodim »

stephenr wrote: post #20
echelon wrote: post #11

This seems to have become the de facto pattern with the new gTLD system. A company swoops in and buys a namespace for $200k (or more if there is a competitive bid), and they effectively turn into the cartel equivalent of the domain squatter. You can register your new gTLD for anywhere between $1 and $100, depending on what I suppose they expect their target demographic to be willing to pay. Dot horse is more expensiv…

I wonder how much to buy "my.horse". Then I can setup a sole mailbox "look", and have it auto respond to any messages with "my horse is amazing". I wonder how may will get the joke.

I own amazin.horse using this very concept with the "my" subdomain as my professional email address. Closest I could get. :)

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#43

Post by ajacksified »

AndrewStephens wrote: post #25
stephenr wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much to buy "my.horse". Then I can setup a sole mailbox "look", and have it auto respond to any messages with "my horse is amazing". I wonder how may will get the joke.

I have a .horse domain - I tried every permutation horse puns and in-jokes (my.lovely.horse, etc) but they were all taken by squatters or reserved for stupid prices. Eventually I settled for sheep.horse, which is easy to remember but not much else.

When I was first building m.reddit.com, I put it under `reddit.horse`, mostly because I found it hilarious that `.horse` existed.

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#44

Post by cdubzzz »

jamchris wrote: post #36
coldcode wrote: post #3

I signed up too and then saw the ridiculous prices and policies. Happy to stick with .com for 10 bucks.

Like the author I would also have no problem in paying a few of several hundred dollars as an initial registration one time fee, for a domain like chris.blog. I would really prefer using chris.blog instead of buying a .com domain like this-is-chriss-development-blog.com, just because any shorter .com domain is already taken.

It's still possible to come up with vanity domains using common TLDs. You just need to have some wiggle room (: I replaced a single letter in the shortened version of my own name and got a .net for it just a few months ago.

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#45

Post by cschidle »

jamchris wrote: post #36
coldcode wrote: post #3

I signed up too and then saw the ridiculous prices and policies. Happy to stick with .com for 10 bucks.

Like the author I would also have no problem in paying a few of several hundred dollars as an initial registration one time fee, for a domain like chris.blog. I would really prefer using chris.blog instead of buying a .com domain like this-is-chriss-development-blog.com, just because any shorter .com domain is already taken.

Right on. While I said "I appreciate a good name", I'm truly a sucker for a good name. Branding is huge, even when it's a personal brand.

So yes, a one-time fee of $250-$1,000 feels ok to me, especially considering what Automattic paid for the TLD.

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#46

Post by taftster »

rlpb wrote: post #12
overcast wrote: post #5

They are doing this a lot with more and more of the new TLDs. Defeats the purpose of even bothering with them. Create more, to open up the domain space, make it cost prohibitive, so we're back to where we started.

> Create more, to open up the domain space... Adding TLDs doesn't open up the domain space; it closes it. The domain name system was designed to expand downwards, by adding more hierarchies. Downwards is where the space is. Expanding upwards is limited. The racket ran out of space selling keywords inside .com, where this was originally meant to be confined. Once they finish selling keywords at the root, that'll be it…

I don't know. I don't think nested hierarchies is a thing. I mean, I guess you have the "Go Network" go.com example (disney.go.com). But I think the ship has sailed for deeper hierarchies. I really don't want an email address that is: taftster@foo.bar.baz.example.com

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#47

Post by charlesafinley »

I had this happen to me as well. I registered a domain directly with get.blog on the day that they first started accepting pre-registrations. I got an email a couple of days ago saying that I would be getting my money back, nothing about an auction. I asked for details because I too was expecting an auction. My response also came from the same guy ("Ran") who said that it wasn't available when my "application" was processed.

The twist in this case? The domain I applied for is now pointing directly towards WordPress.com. So get.blog, owned by parent company Automattic, took the domain which had been made available for the public, and gave it to WordPress.com. I wonder what ICANN will have to say?

SHADY AF.

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#48

Post by gambler »

ensiferum wrote: post #2

I've never understood why some random company is allowed to arbitrate the domain registration and make $$$ out of it. Feels like it's kinda not in the spirit of the internet.

DNS is a rotten system. From censorship, to ddos attacks, to squatting, to privacy issues with whois, to messed up financial incentives. It's a shame that DNS is a critical part of the internet infrastructure. We should work on getting rid of it.

Re: The .blog Bait and Switch

#50

Post by codebook »

In my case, my surname TLD exists like XXX.{surname}. So I bought it w/ my first name ==> firstname.surname . It's cool and I will keep it as long as I can.

I agree with the OP. They seems to gather the popularity info by accepting pre-register requests.

Is there any policy to ban this behavior? Shouldn't the TLD be publicly opened?

Post reply on HN