• @davehtaylor@beehaw.org
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    10 months ago

    It’s really frustrating in general how TLDs have been misused and abused over the years. They used to have very specific meanings and usages. Now anyone can register a .net or .org, and don’t have to prove they’re a network service provider or a non-profit.

    People also forget that URLs designate a hierarchy, reading from right to left. For example, take the URL app.foobar.com This designates

    . -> There’s an understood period at the end that’s not typed. But it designates the root (or, well, top in this case) of the hierarchy
    com -> The commercial space (hence top level domain)
    foobar -> Company named Foobar in the commercial space
    app -> The app site/service/etc from Foobar

    If you’re using a domain like foobar.tv, you’re saying you’re an organization called Foobar based in Tuvalu. There’s still plenty of restricted TLDs (.gov and .mil e.g.), but everything has been thrown to the wind for the sake of cleverness, and spammers have ruined anything else that’s not .com for your average user. Your personal info site generally isn’t a commercial page, so .com doesn’t make sense. But other gTLDs get blocked by default by so many admins, it’s pointless to try.