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Never buy a .online domain

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Re: Never buy a .online domain

#111

Post by account42 »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #109
otterley wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(IAAL but this is not legal advice.) It’s not libel. Defamation requires a false statement of fact . Marking a website as “unsafe” is an opinion .

Google is stating in a position of authority. It's therefore being stated as at least a professional opinion with the equivalent weight of fact, or representing facts. If the opinion is meant to be just another opinion, then it shouldn't cause any blacklisting of any sorts anywhere.

Not to mention that the whole point of the list is for blocking in e.g. web browsers. Claiming it is just an opinion would be like a mobster claiming they didn't actually order a hit.

Re: Never buy a .online domain

#112

Post by jeroenhd »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #18

> The domain ... has been suspended due to its blacklisting on Google Safe Browsing Et voilà ... ! this is precisely the slippery slope I warned about a decade ago. The indirect censorship becomes direct censorship, defeating all the arguments about the morality of such a list. And: > Not adding the domain to Google Search Console immediately. I don't need their analytics and wasn't really planning on having any cont…

This is 100% on Radix, not on Google. Google and Microsoft can (and probably should) have a registry of known-abusive websites. False positives are inevitable, so these should be taken with a grain of salt, but in most cases they're correct. Their lists are a lot more reliable than those from the "traditional" antivirus/anti-scam vendors that will list anything remotely strange to pump up their numbers.

The external people treating these lists as absolute truths and automatically taking domains down are the ones at fault here. Google didn't grab power, Radix gave it to them without asking.

Re: Never buy a .online domain

#113

Post by voidUpdate »

blenderob wrote: post #49

Why was the domain blacklisted though? What can we do to prevent blacklisting in the first place?

If the domain is being given away for free, it will be used a lot for scams etc, so a lot of systems will just start blocking it immediately. When I got my first domain, I used one of the free TLDs and my university blocked it completely due to it being a scam. Not for any of the content on it, just the TLD being commonly used by scammers

Re: Never buy a .online domain

#114

Post by Serenacula »

swiftcoder wrote: post #70
inigyou wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if Google decides to nuke me from orbit, and my domain is registered there, the nuke can cross between my domain and my Google account.

Well, yeah, that's digital monopolies for you. I guess one can always create a dedicated google account to register each site with

Google ties your accounts together on the backend though if they realise they're related, so this isn't as easy as it sounds.

Re: Never buy a .online domain

#116

Post by rustyhancock »

dizhn wrote: post #52
AshamedCaptain wrote: post #18

> The domain ... has been suspended due to its blacklisting on Google Safe Browsing Et voilà ... ! this is precisely the slippery slope I warned about a decade ago. The indirect censorship becomes direct censorship, defeating all the arguments about the morality of such a list. And: > Not adding the domain to Google Search Console immediately. I don't need their analytics and wasn't really planning on having any cont…

That is the bit that jumped at me immediately too. Why would a registrar take it upon itself to suspend a domain that another entity entirely blacklisted as part of their own completely opaque process? Who is Google? God? On the flip side of the coin I cannot get a site removed that is a blatant rip off of one of our websites being actively used for invoice redirection fraud.

Well until a human can verify.

Which likely is slow without a poke it's reasonable to base the decision on whats available.

That's just how reputation works.

Re: Never buy a .online domain

#117

Post by ssiddharth »

kccqzy wrote: post #99
blenderob wrote: post #49

Why was the domain blacklisted though? What can we do to prevent blacklisting in the first place?

The big scary red warning page should at least tell you it’s phishing or malware or something else. OP didn’t have a screenshot of that. You can easily go to a safe browsing test site yourself at testsafebrowsing.appspot.com and find that Google does divulge the category of the blacklisting. OP says: > no gore or violence or anything of that sort That’s not even the right criteria. OP is confused about Google Safe Br…

I just wanted to cover all the bases. The site has one outgoing link to the App Store and 3 screenshots.

Re: Never buy a .online domain

#118

Post by zadikian »

But was this because it's .online? I got one and it was fine.

The only issue was the usual trap with all Namecheap domains: They tell you it's all set, and it works, until they randomly email you a week later asking for email verification. If you don't do that promptly, they suspend your domain until you trigger a resend. Which is easy to fix but also strange.

Re: Never buy a .online domain

#119

Post by riddlemethat »

avaer wrote: post #74
dizhn wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the bit that jumped at me immediately too. Why would a registrar take it upon itself to suspend a domain that another entity entirely blacklisted as part of their own completely opaque process? Who is Google? God? On the flip side of the coin I cannot get a site removed that is a blatant rip off of one of our websites being actively used for invoice redirection fraud.

It's like being unable to get a passport because Microsoft has you on The List, and Microsoft needs to see your passport to check why you're on the list. Considering that getting a domain is a normal part of business these days, this kind of thing should be illegal. Not to mention, why does Google have any say in this?

You know it's getting bad out there when corporations act like the government.

Re: Never buy a .online domain

#120

Post by jeroenhd »

g947o wrote: post #60
merek wrote: post #11

The TLD owner in this case was Radix, which also owns .store .online .tech .site .fun .pw .host .press .space .uno .website https://radix.website/

They seem to be almost always associated with scam sites. So, might as well to block entire TLDs and never buy a domain under those TLDs

These alternative domains are quite popular with the fediverse and other hobbyist-run groups. Affordable domains with somewhat recognisable names still available.

Scam websites will use any TLD in my experience. Based on the ones that made it to my Google search results, .it and .info are the TLDs I should be blocking. When I search for "free roblox cash", most websites are .com. "Free robux" also brings forth a few .ca websites. "Free steam gift card" leads to .org and .com.

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