Why do so many Lemmy instances use weird TLDs?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨spongebue@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

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

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

cstine@lemmy.uncomfortable.business ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Because it’s no longer 1996 and there are domains beyond ccTLDs and com/net/org?

source
- Karlos_Cantana@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  It’s not 1996 anymore?!! Why didn’t somebody tell me? My license is probably expired.
  
  source
  - Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    One day it was just 1997. Damnedest thing, there was no vote or anything. Frankly I think it was a bad move.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    No way dude it’s gonna be 1996 forever… Forever… Forever…
    
    source
  - 5redie8@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    Shit, gotta get my car inspected too
    
    source
- Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  You can buy .zip if you want to now… that still doesn’t sit right with me
  
  source
  - cstine@lemmy.uncomfortable.business ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    I’m still waiting for .rar so I can buy unregistered.rar, which is the way it’s meant to be.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    From what I’ve heard, .zip is basically only used for malware
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    .app has been a thing for a while as well…
    
    source
  - DrQuint@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    Yeah, that domain screams scam emails to me.
    
    here, mr boomer target, click this file
    
    it’s a link that redirects to something else
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    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.
    
    source
- foggy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  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.
  
  source
  - ggppjj@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    I own candidvideosofouremployeesjerkingoff.com.
    
    Can’t believe it hadn’t been nabbed yet.
    
    source
InfiniWheel@lemmy.one ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
“Weird” TLDs tend to be cheaper. .social is also supposed to be made for this in the first place

source
- dandroid@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  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.
  
  source
  - echodot@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    That’s insanely expensive. I suspect that icream.socal is a lot cheaper.
    
    source
  - whoisearth@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    “cheaper”
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
1984@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
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.

source
- Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  Commercial sites have .COM
  
  Why do porn sites not have .CUM?
  
  source
  - TheInsane42@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    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.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - redballooon@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    Because porn sites are commercial sites.
    
    source
Chickenstalker@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
FOSS people have…weird taste in naming stuff. See: GIMP, GNU, et al.,

source
- collegefurtrader@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  Wtf is an ubuntu
  
  source
  - TurnItOff_OnAgain@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    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.
    
    source
  - Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    Wtf is lsmmy 🗿
    
    source
  - Wats0ns@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    It’s the home of a gnome
    
    source
- wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  
  FLOSS
  
  FIFY
  
  source
  - isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    A thing y’all need to do more
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- boringbisexual@lib.lgbt ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  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.
  
  source
  - mongoose@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    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.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
They’re available. Almost everything that resembles a word in .com has been registered for ten years now. Unless you want servers like EruptWiryReptilianGetting.com or tHEEGsg6VzJRTik8.com, you’ll need alternative TLDs for affordable names that still make sense.

source
- driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  How much this fucked up people hoarding interesting urls like menu.com and others?
  
  source
  - HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    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.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- seliaste@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  I managed to get seliaste.com for pretty cheap, idk if I got lucky
  
  source
moreeni@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
They look better and more quirky than the “usual” ones. Also, sometimes they might be even cheaper

source
- Empricorn@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  Uh, I think they’re always cheaper!
  
  source
  - bluefirex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    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
    
    source
koreth@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
lemm.ee is actually hosted in Estonia and its admin is Estonian, so that one at least makes sense.

source
Smokeydope@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
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. en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_Internet_top-level_dom…

source
- httpjames@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  Do not use Freenom. They notoriously revoke domain names on high traffic sites and without notice.
  
  source
  - NightAuthor@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    And ICANN let’s them?
    
    source
reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
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?

source
- CorrodedCranium@leminal.space ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  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.
  
  source
- BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  For me, it's the .zip domain. (recently added at the request of google)
  
  source
  - skulblaka@kbin.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    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.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - DontMakeMoreBabies@kbin.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    That's the best thing ever - next let's do .exe.
    
    source
- AProfessional@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  Most TLDs have no requirements. .gov is special.
  
  source
- Kbobabob@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  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.
  
  source
- knobbysideup@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  Because marketing dweebs in powerful companies now own the internet.
  
  source
- Vlyn@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  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 :)
  
  source
  - Eavolution@kbin.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    .ie is another one, you can't get them from a lot of registrars and have to prove you're genuinely based in Ireland.
    
    source
  - reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    It’s the way it used to work. Re-read my comment. That was my point.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- MooseLad@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  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.
  
  source
expatriado@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
i own a .xyz domain, the .com equivalent was 50 times more expensive

source
rar@discuss.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
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.

Personal theory of mine is *.itjust.works meant to stand for “It Just Works” until they decided to give their Lemmy thing a go.

source
- Taival@suppo.fi ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  
  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. youtu.be/nVqcxarP9J4
  
  source
theamigan@lemmy.dynatron.me ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Because people think domain hacks are cool, and also, ccTLDs are usually less expensive.

source
SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeo ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
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.

source
sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Money, money, money, money, moooneeey.

source
A10@kerala.party ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
What better place for people to get together and have fun? No … it was cheap and domain name was available.

source
i_lost_my_bagel@seriously.iamincredibly.gay ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
It’s fun

source
Veraticus@lib.lgbt ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
It’s fun! From lib.lgbt.

source
oleorun@lemmy.fan ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
I got lemmy.fan just a few months ago. I wanted a short, memorable TLD that stood out a little.

source
edgemaster72@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
more potential answers here: a.lemmy.world/lemmy.world/post/2010270

source