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January 18, 2011
A Modest Proposal: The ? Top Level Domain
Back in the Day, there were the Big Six Top Level Domains: .com, .net, .org, .gov, .mil, and .edu (also known as Categories). There were also Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), using the ISO 3166 two-letter codes for countries. This made sense as far as it went, though of course the usual confusion reigned, and RFC2606 even defined a few useful reserved TLDs (.example, .invalid, .localhost, .test) and .localdomain has been used as well, though it's not really part of the DNS so much as a hack to allow you to refer to localhost as though it had a domain part. Then came .nato, quickly followed up by .int (which made .nato unnecessary). Then in 2000 ICANN introduced .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name and .pro, each of which either ended up a wasteland of spammer "burner" domains or relegated to the usual practice of large brands buying their trademark in that TLD as well as all the others.
With the kerfuffle still ongoing about .xxx and .adult, and rumors of ICANN planning to introduce hundreds of new domains, thereby recreating the Usenet News hierarchy from the wrong end, I think it's time to put in a bid for what I consider to be the most obvious, useful, and necessary new TLD: ?
The ? TLD would work just as all the others, but with the convenient optimization that it need not be dot-terminated or separated (such would be assumed, so "foo.?." would simply be transcribed as "foo?"). This would allow grizzled security researchers to register quiscustodietipsoscustodes? (and variations on that theme), childrens' book authors to register whereswaldo? and whereintheworldiscarmensandiego? and put up Web sites to promote their wares and services without wondering whether .com or .org
or .info would be more appropriate. Fans of Roman history can gather at ettubrute? and nutjob Birthers can create thousands more Web sites asking variations on whereisyourbirthcertificateobama? Yiddish speakers can congregate around nu? and devotees of the classic Gallic shrug can chat at eh? (though the Canadians may want to register it first, eh?) I imagine a thriving shrine to Sly and the Family Stone at queserasera? and an online archive of MAD magazines at whatmeworry? Clint Eastwood fans would flock to doyoufeelluckytoday? and students of famed African-American and former slave Sojourner Truth could find extensive archives at andaintiawoman? Objectivists could obsess over whoisjohngalt? The current practice of certain media talking heads to ask questions as though they weren't trying to provoke a somehow incriminating denial could be accommodated handily.
The bottom line? The ? TLD answers a very real need for humans to ask questions of their environment and themselves and others; the hierarchical, noun-based Internet of hosts and labels is simply insufficient to reflect the yearning for answers we all feel to some extent or another.
The possibilities are endless. And the time is now. Please lobby your ICANN representative to consider this important idea.
Posted by schampeo at January 18, 2011 4:16 PM
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