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Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

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Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#51

Post by indigodaddy »

Before anyone makes another comment about how and why this should be a webapp….

The author has answered and stated multiple time here that the reason he made this a local app is because if the website that the tool is hosted on is down or gone, then you are dead out of water.

That’s why he made a local tool.

And no, the tool does not still rely on some application/webserver. He has stated that it only requires reaching out to the Whois servers.

note I used “he” but probably should have used “they” as I have no idea on the gender identification of the author. What is the proper way to just use “the author” in place of he/she/they?

Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#52

Post by indigodaddy »

dkersten wrote: post #48
docuru wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you mean why I choose ElectronJS: I wanted it be cross-platform, and ElectronJS was the easiest (partly because I already built and been using the main feature). If you mean why a desktop app: I've been using some web-based tools. Somehow, they don't last (ie. namemesh, or domainsfortherestofus that @pwdisswordfish8 mention went offline for sometimes). Then I thought having a desktop app would be great. For long t…

If it’s javascript-only, then surely it could run in the client and be hosted for free on github pages as a static site and not have to worry about going down.

What if the site goes down before you visit/load the site?

Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#53

Post by Y_Y »

pwdisswordfish8 wrote: post #42
huhtenberg wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> solidus Ooooh, very nice. A welcome addition to my anti-personnel vocabularly. Let me put it right next to the tittle and somewhat more pedestrian compartmentalization .

The point is not that "backslash" sounds unrefined. "Backslash" is fine when you're referring to a backslash (reverse solidus). What's not fine is saying backslash when you are in fact referring to a plain ol' slash (solidus), as in URLs. People who refer to domain "extensions" share something in common with people who misapply the term "backslash". Nerdy enough to have heard of (file name) "extensions" and "backslas…

I share your sentiments entirely. I would like to unhelpfully add that some TLDs, like .com, .org, and even .rs are also file extensions (at least when considered as strings).

Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#54

Post by sillystuff »

nikkwong wrote: post #40
sillystuff wrote: post #29

An alternative for researching domain names is to apply for TLD zone file access. "Trying to find a one word domain name," is unlikely to be an acceptable reason for access, though. I applied (and received access on my second attempt) about a decade ago for .com access. Among other things, I ran a check for any words in my spellcheck dictionary that were not already taken as .com domains. There is a reason for all th…

That’s interesting. What type of reasons are typically accepted for getting access? I’m assuming if you are attempting to commercialize a domain website or project they may give you access?

I do not know what their criteria for acceptance are. My first, rejected, request discussed looking into distribution of available domains. My second, accepted, request was more carefully worded to indicate it was for general research.

The purpose of my request was for a personal research project to satisfy curiosity. My initial motivation was that there were things that seemed to be true about the distribution of available .com domains, and I wanted to see what the reality was. And, using NS queries would not scale.

I looked for the shortest English dictionary words available, percentage of various length domain names still available (alpha only and alphanumeric; with single numeral, two numeral digits, etc.), for non-words I looked at the distance from the closest English dictionary word, collected the patterns of common permutations of dictionary words into domain names, I monitored change rate, etc.

I've never "used" the information learned except to be able to speak with a little more authority in a single conversation where the subject matter came up. But, it was interesting to me :)

Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#55

Post by [deleted] »

indigodaddy wrote: post #49
docuru wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whois servers down? It doesn't make sense

Exactly. The author appears to be telling you (you being jaywalk) that the application only requires talking out to Whois servers, and does not rely on any application/webserver… You concern as stated does not apply.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#56

Post by whymauri »

mritchie712 wrote: post #20
zombieprocess wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Why would I download an app for something that can be done in a browser?

also, something you will do a couple times at most a year.

There are actually power users in this space who might need the tool on a weekly basis. It's niche, but they exist.

Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#58

Post by phgn »

sillystuff wrote: post #29

An alternative for researching domain names is to apply for TLD zone file access. "Trying to find a one word domain name," is unlikely to be an acceptable reason for access, though. I applied (and received access on my second attempt) about a decade ago for .com access. Among other things, I ran a check for any words in my spellcheck dictionary that were not already taken as .com domains. There is a reason for all th…

Note that DNS zone files don't include all registered domains, only ones that have DNS records. Depending on domain extension, a significant number of desirable short words are registered but not in the zone file, or held by the registry for a higher price. Also, you can't get complete zone files for ccTLDs.

This is part of the reason why domain search is often slow even on popular sites like GoDaddy or Namecheap. They want to give you very accurate results, which takes longer.

Source: I'm fighting this accuracy problem all the time for the search at https://domain.garden

Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#59

Post by phgn »

docuru wrote: post #12
dirtybirdnj wrote: post #9

Hate to dogpile on this but why the app? Not trying to hate on you, genuinely curious why you chose this route. Sometimes using the tools you are most comfortable with at the time is the path to the highest short term productivity.

If you mean why I choose ElectronJS: I wanted it be cross-platform, and ElectronJS was the easiest (partly because I already built and been using the main feature). If you mean why a desktop app: I've been using some web-based tools. Somehow, they don't last (ie. namemesh, or domainsfortherestofus that @pwdisswordfish8 mention went offline for sometimes). Then I thought having a desktop app would be great. For long t…

Also I assume you do WHOIS queries for availability checks right? The protocol doesn't work over HTTP in browsers.

Re: Show HN: Ishim – find available one-word domain names

#60

Post by phgn »

masterof0 wrote: post #37

I like the idea, and would use the service, as the domain is short and memorable. But, this is a low hanging fruit for HN critics, the argument of: "is an app so I dont have to worry about a website being down" is pretty poor, you can host your website assets on Netlify/aws amplify/firebase/.... many more.... , with close to 99.99 % availability. And also provide an electron app for those who prefer to use an app. I…

This may be more of a power user tool, you also wouldn't pay $49 for the app right?

What interests you about the app compared to searching directly at Namecheap etc?

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