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.au's Reclusive Administrator Elz Deposed

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rug-out-from-under dept.

Disco Stu writes: "The Sydney Morning Herald has the following story: 'The reclusive programmer Mr Robert Elz has lost control of Australia's domain name system to a private-sector body after the Federal Government rejected his request for the Government to take over the custodianship instead.' I've had to wait months for this guy to get around to approving domains in the past ... but I still can't decide if this is good or not." Sounds bad to me -- or at least Elz sounds good, principled and unconventional.

3 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Yay - about bloody time he was deposed! by dustpuppy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've talked to several web hosting companies in Australia who have hosted various websites that I have designed and which have involved .org.au domain name transfers or creations and none of them have ever had anything nice to say about Elz.

    The words: obstructionist, rude, arrogant, overbearing (and others that are unprintable) have all been used to describe Elz.

    Whatever people may like to think about Elz and his policies (some of which were good), the fact of the matter is that the Internet is not (and hasn't been for several years) a private little network which can be run by an academic with no connection to the real world.

    Whether we like it or not, the Internet is an essential tool for many businesses, organisations and people - it is completely unacceptable that it could take months for register a .org.au.

    As far as I am concerned, and I'm pretty sure anyone who has had to liase with Elz would agree - it's a case of good riddance.

  2. Re:.au? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    One option would be for Australia to start from scratch with the .as domain name, and relinquish the .au domain to Austria, as drafted in this proposal.

  3. Quality versus Difficulty by ColdGold · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd like to speak in support of Mr Elz.

    I am Australian and I share a company with my wife. We use .com instead of .com.au because the au was just too hard to get. My wife owns the company but we wanted a different name because the company has changed in nature (from dtp to web animation). The registered name didn't suit.

    Anyone can have a .com. It is bloody hard to get a .com.au. You have to show company papers and everything. To have a .au is a sign of respect in Australia and I think that it should stay that way. It is only because of Robert Elz that this exists. Now that he is gone we are going to see names like sexsexsex.com.au and godownonyourgoodtimebuddy.com.au. Terrific...not!

    You don't live in Australia (mostly) but it is important to us to be proud and do things right. We make mistakes and our government (all parties fellers) does everything to make us seem like mental midgets. We still want to rise above our politicians and rise above our organistations who are a bunch of sycophants. Want to contribute as an equal partner to the world knowledge despite our IT organisations and despite our politicians.

    We think that we belong in the larger world but the people that we would have respected forty years are the ones who make us a laughing stock. Australians stand proud by the acts of individuals and are ashamed by the people who represent those individuals.

    Thank you Robert Elz. We respect what you have done and are grateful for your legacy.