Attached: 1 image
Queer.af mastodon instance has been shut down by the Taliban (not a joke, they seized the domain name).
https://akko.erincandescent.net/notice/AenoDMPN0SdVXSq9ZY
This right here. I believe Vanuatu recalled all theirs not long ago. The average person can still register plenty of country tlds but if you do, be aware and ready for the day it gets recalled.
Some amount of centralisation in domain management is necessary, in order to agree who owns what.
Devolving control of TLDs to respective nations was actually a GOOD idea because it means each country can operate those TLDs in a way that fits their needs, which is already much better than all global TLDs being operated by a single organisation.
The main mistake is that queer .af chose to register a domain controlled by a government who was very likely to have problems with what they were using it for.
Nowadays there are a large number of ‘new’ TLDs which are not nationally controlled and may be a better choice.
Countries only control the tlds that represent them, af for Afghanistan, co.uk (obvious) .us (obvious), etc. The rest like the standard com, net, info and the others recently added like taxi, xyz, vip, etc are controlled by icann.org. Plenty of country tlds are freely available for anyone to use but buyer beware, there is precedent for a country to pull those domains back and not let others use them anymore.
The only ones subject to state power are the tlds that represent countries or states, counties, etc. The other tlds are controlled by another central body that isn’t connected to any country and it would take a judge ordering a seizure for a domain to be taken down.
Basically if they had gone with any of the other shit ton of tlds that aren’t for a specific country they would still be up and running. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have grabbed that tld given the chance but knowing it was Afghanistan I wouldn’t have used that as my main domain.
since domain is centralized and subject to a state power.
is it possible to change that or any workaround?
The national top-level domains are MEANT to be controlled by their relevant nation-states. They are not intended to be part of vanity URLs.
So there’s nothing to “fix” here. This is the system working as intended, basically.
This right here. I believe Vanuatu recalled all theirs not long ago. The average person can still register plenty of country tlds but if you do, be aware and ready for the day it gets recalled.
Some amount of centralisation in domain management is necessary, in order to agree who owns what.
Devolving control of TLDs to respective nations was actually a GOOD idea because it means each country can operate those TLDs in a way that fits their needs, which is already much better than all global TLDs being operated by a single organisation.
The main mistake is that queer .af chose to register a domain controlled by a government who was very likely to have problems with what they were using it for.
Nowadays there are a large number of ‘new’ TLDs which are not nationally controlled and may be a better choice.
Countries only control the tlds that represent them, af for Afghanistan, co.uk (obvious) .us (obvious), etc. The rest like the standard com, net, info and the others recently added like taxi, xyz, vip, etc are controlled by icann.org. Plenty of country tlds are freely available for anyone to use but buyer beware, there is precedent for a country to pull those domains back and not let others use them anymore.
another issue is migrating accounts losses post history.
Is there really no way to keep post history with same instance new domain name?
This is the internet equivalent of choosing to open a gay bar in Kabul instead of San Francisco.
There were plenty of safe spaces, they chose terribly.
The only ones subject to state power are the tlds that represent countries or states, counties, etc. The other tlds are controlled by another central body that isn’t connected to any country and it would take a judge ordering a seizure for a domain to be taken down.
Basically if they had gone with any of the other shit ton of tlds that aren’t for a specific country they would still be up and running. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have grabbed that tld given the chance but knowing it was Afghanistan I wouldn’t have used that as my main domain.