2y ago

Why do so many Lemmy instances use weird TLDs?

I get that some instances use the domain + TLD to make a word, like lemm.ee or to an extent, sh.itjust.works. But I've seen so many TLDs I had no idea existed, like .world, .zone, .social, and yes .works as well.

Is there any real reason for that? Trying to look cool or kinda underground-y? Cheaper and more varied domain options? Something actually kinda functional?

Interestingly, I started on vlemmy.net because I was a scared Reddit refugee and the .net TLD gave me comfort. Then it vanished a few days later without a trace. So here I am on lemmy.world

112 comments

Because it's no longer 1996 and there are domains beyond ccTLDs and com/net/org?
- It's not 1996 anymore?!! Why didn't somebody tell me? My license is probably expired.
  
  One day it was just 1997. Damnedest thing, there was no vote or anything. Frankly I think it was a bad move.
  
  Shit, gotta get my car inspected too
  
  No way dude it's gonna be 1996 forever... Forever... Forever...
- You can buy .zip if you want to now... that still doesn't sit right with me
  
  I'm still waiting for .rar so I can buy unregistered.rar, which is the way it's meant to be.
  
  From what I've heard, .zip is basically only used for malware
  
  Yeah, that domain screams scam emails to me.
  here, mr boomer target, click this file
  it's a link that redirects to something else
  
  .app has been a thing for a while as well...
  
  There are people who use (regex) blocking for the zip TLD and that other one that google released with it, for the reason that they can be very deceptive.
- It's not that hard. Because people out there are still buying domains like tomandkatesfamouspizzacincinattiohio.net
  Please don't work please don't work.
  I have a few .coms that aren't random letters, that are less than 8 characters. Got em mostly in the last decade.
  
  I own candidvideosofouremployeesjerkingoff.com.
  Can't believe it hadn't been nabbed yet.
"Weird" TLDs tend to be cheaper. .social is also supposed to be made for this in the first place
- icecream.social is available, and I really want it, but I just can't justify the $800 a year, even if the name is amazing.
  
  That's insanely expensive. I suspect that icream.socal is a lot cheaper.
  
  "cheaper"
The real reason is because it's expensive to get a short and good .com name and also because it's very corporate and boring.
- Commercial sites have .COM
  Why do porn sites not have .CUM?
  
  Ehm, .xxx works fine for them. (And there's more pr0n then male oriented hetro pr0n)
  Hmmm, x.xxx as mastodon server just to annoy extwitter.
  
  Because porn sites are commercial sites.
  hmm… lemmynsfw.com
FOSS people have...weird taste in naming stuff. See: GIMP, GNU, et al.,
- Wtf is an ubuntu
  
  Ubuntu is a South African ethical ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages.
  
  Wtf is lemmy 🗿
  
  It's the home of a gnome
- FLOSS
  FIFY
  
  A thing y'all need to do more
- I'm a fan of the ones that are just letters. uzbl...srcpy...others that I can't think of off the top of my head.
  
  I'm sure I read on the scrcpy readme at some stage that the author intentionally chose that name to be as unpronounceable as possible after their first big project, gnirehtet. Can't find a source now though.
- How much this fucked up people hoarding interesting urls like menu.com and others?
  
  There is an entire industry "domaining" that trades domain names like baseball cards. It usually boils down to two things:
  People register pdrq.com because they hope someone will have a wonderful new product named PDRQ later and will pay $10,000 for a domain that cost them $11.
  Even if there's no direct buyer, there are services that will run low-quality ads on the page. and you can more or less estimate traffic and revenue from typos or dead links pointing to the domain. A three character domain, all letters, will get more than 12 characters with random digits mixed in. If you get $12 a year of random clicks seeing ads for "hot singles in your area offering PDRQ", you're ahead and can justify holding it as part of a portfolio.
lemm.ee's admin is Estonian, so that one at least makes sense.
They look better and more quirky than the "usual" ones. Also, sometimes they might be even cheaper
- Uh, I think they're always cheaper!
  
  Definitely not. Some examples (actual prices I pay for my various domains):
  com: $18/y (gTLD)
  net: $19/y (gTLD)
  de: ~$5/y (ccTLD)
  re: ~$5/y (ccTLD)
  design: $49/y
  tech: $55/y
  blue: $23/y
  
  Where? I never see the weird stuff cheaper than gTLD’s
Cost of domain name tends to be cheaper with more obscure Top Level Domains (TLDs). .com .org .net TLDs are expensive because they are popular and high in demand. You have to rent them out most of the time. Many are already claimed so you either have to buy the owner out or wait till they stop paying and it expires if you really want it, .xyz is very cheap and uncommon on the other hand thus pennies on the dime per year to rent. Also depending on where you live and your occupation you can actually get a domain name for free through registering with specific services that actually for real own the Top Level Domains. If you are a citizen of a certain country you can get a .us or .cad or .eu .ml domain ect either for free or very very cheap.
Check out this list for all TLDs and if you qualify for one for free. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains
Heres a free domain name registar thats quite promising from the looks of it, most likely the one that lemmy.ml uses https://www.freenom.com/en/index.html?lang=en
- Do not use Freenom. They notoriously revoke domain names on high traffic sites and without notice.
  http://www.freenom.com/en/doc_tcpaid_freenom_v0100.pdf https://www.reddit.com/r/freenom/comments/107qzn1/freenom_is_out_of_order_and_it_made_my_domains/
  
  And ICANN let’s them?
i own a .xyz domain, the .com equivalent was 50 times more expensive
Why does ICANN allow so many weird domains to begin with? Domains used to be a good way to tell if you were going to the legit website.
.com - commercial entity .gov - government only .edu - educational entities only .net - network providers (ISP) only .org - non profit only
Those days are gone.
Now there’s Startrek.website and Startrek.com — how does the user know which one is owned by Paramount/Star Trek?
- I feel like that's been the case for a while now. You pretty much need a search engine and some sort of bookmarks tool to use the web.
  I don't know immediately if The Verges website URL contains a "the" or if BBC uses a .com or a .uk. I search both when looking for news at work so I don't accidentally end up on porn.
- For me, it's the .zip domain. (recently added at the request of google)
  
  That one in particular is a bomb waiting to blow. Is this link to a webpage or to a malicious download? Who knows! Guess we'll just have to click on it and see if anything starts downloading.
  Using file extensions for your TLD should be a big no-no for a lot of reasons, that being one of them.
  
  That's the best thing ever - next let's do .exe.
- Most TLDs have no requirements. .gov is special.
- Hasn't .com always been the commerce/business. Would a Google search for Star Trek actually bring you to Startrek.website? It seems like anyone with half a brain would know the difference. Legit companies/entities are going to stick to known domains.
- Because marketing dweebs in powerful companies now own the internet.
- That's not how the internet works. Any schmuck can buy those domain names except for .gov and .edu
  I'm not an ISP, but I can get any .net domain for $11 a year. And then put ads and malware on the site. If someone else hadn't snatched it already I could even register disney.net if I wanted to. There is zero guarantee that Disney is behind a Disney domain.
  You'll also find a hundred other Disney domains that are not owned by Disney. Big companies usually register a handful of domains for countries they do business in. And darn, some guy already registered disney.world :)
  
  .ie is another one, you can't get them from a lot of registrars and have to prove you're genuinely based in Ireland.
  
  It’s the way it used to work. Re-read my comment. That was my point.
- Well one is a forum with a little mouse at the top and the other one is a website with official logos, branding, a shop, and news.
  You're not gonna get recommended startrek.website unless you're specifically looking for it or a star trek lemmy instance in general.
New gTLDs have been released constantly since ICANN dropped the restriction. Also consider that a lot of Lemmy instances are run by individuals as a side project. That means they'll reuse or nab whatever cool sounding domain they can get to spin up their new instance as quickly as possible. Corporate websites might pause and consider a more "marketable" domain.
Personal theory of mine is *.itjust.works meant to stand for "It Just Works" until they decided to give this Lemmy thing a go.
- Personal theory of mine is *.itjust.works meant to stand for "It Just Works" until they decided to give this Lemmy thing a go.
  Yep it's referencing a meme that originated almost a decade ago. https://youtu.be/nVqcxarP9J4
Registration and renewal cost plus more availability, most shorter names are taken on the older tlds.
I came up with mine by scrolling through tldlist comparing prices and going with the first idea that popped in my head.
What better place for people to get together and have fun? No ... it was cheap and domain name was available.
Because people think domain hacks are cool, and also, gTLDs are usually more expensive.
It's fun
Money, money, money, money, moooneeey.
It’s fun! From lib.lgbt.
I got lemmy.fan just a few months ago. I wanted a short, memorable TLD that stood out a little.
more potential answers here: https://a.lemmy.world/lemmy.world/post/2010270

112 comments