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ICANN Officially Approves .jobs and .travel TLD's

EyeMyke writes "As reported on News.com, ICANN has approved the .jobs and .travel domains, and is pending decision on .asia, .mail, .tel, and .xxx. One has to ask 'Will these new domains actually prove useful, or is ICANN just avoiding the real issues confronting them in regards to regulating domain registration?'" We've covered both of these domains before, but it would seem they are even more-approved now, or at least the process is important enough to warrant an official announcement from ICANN.

56 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. I can't believe they added .jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why does steve.jobs need a whole TLD? That man sure has an ego!

    1. Re:I can't believe they added .jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't worry - .nojobs is coming out shortly, they are just looking for somewhere to outsource it to.

    2. Re:I can't believe they added .jobs by over_exposed · · Score: 2, Funny

      Quick! Someone register www.steve.jobs and see how fast you get sued!

      --
      "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
  2. Are these really useful? by BluhDeBluh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does anybody really use their last lot of domains, such as .info and .coop? I very, very rarely see either getting any use, to be honest.

    1. Re:Are these really useful? by JohnGrahamCumming · · Score: 3, Informative

      The address of the New York Subway system (also called the MTA) is www.mta.info.

      John.

    2. Re:Are these really useful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know, but I think we ought to add some extra TLDs to make things clear: .spware .scam .ripoff

      etc.

      And for ICANN, .kerching

    3. Re:Are these really useful? by aslate · · Score: 2, Informative

      There are 5 UK free-to-air terrestrial channels. Channel 5 has: http://www.five.tv

    4. Re:Are these really useful? by Morlark · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yeah, .tv stands for Tuvalu. They were quite lucky that their ccTLD happened to be so useful. Many other small islands and developing nations tried to jump on the same bandwagon, and failed horribly.

      --
      Santa's suicide mission go!
    5. Re:Are these really useful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      .info is reserved for websites that have actual, usable information. That's why you see so few of them around the net.

    6. Re:Are these really useful? by pipingguy · · Score: 2, Interesting


      Montreal's transit system is www.stm.info. It's very useful and informative.

      The English writing at the above link (which is a history of the Metro system - i.e., subway) is excellent.

    7. Re:Are these really useful? by alex_guy_CA · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They would have been useful if they weren't 12 years to late. The problem is that during the boom .com got all of the attention and all of the advertising money. If they had had a few hundred TLD's from the beginning, (.doctor, .car, .tourists, .hobby, .etc...) then people would be used to the idea. As it is, I bet a lot of people try to type www.blue.aero.com because .com is so drummed into their heads.

    8. Re:Are these really useful? by aklix · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I beleive .ws was one, am I correct? .tk was pretty successful at giving out free ones, but I don't think many people actually paid for them.

    9. Re:Are these really useful? by 1u3hr · · Score: 2, Insightful
      There should only be a need for registering 1 TLD for the whole set. For instance, if i did register www.vettemph.com, I should only have to register as vettmph.TLD and automatically get all the com info travel doctor. I should have to use each TLD apropriately but I shouldn't have to spend extra just to block the squatters. I should automatically have obtained *.*.vettemph.*.*

      This is exactly backwards. If you own vettemph.com, you already own www.vettemph.com, info.vettemph.com, doctor.vettemph.com, xxx.vettemph.com; anything.vettemph.com. It's because of all these marketing idiots who create new secondary domains instead of tertiary domains (like company.com, company-sales.com, company-service.com, instead of sales.company.com, etc., which they can do for free); and those bullshit domain resellers who have tried to make the TLD for the island of Tuvalu into an ersatz "television" (.tv) domain, or Moldova into a doctors' (.md) domain, and so on that people seem to have forgotten, if they ever knew, how the naming system is supposed to work. The assholes who run it are only concerned at creating new TLDs so all the companies have to buy the corresponding ones in the "new" domain to prevent squatters setting up a porn site on it. All these new TLDs will either be spam, SEO crap, or when owned by a legit company, redirect to a .com or a CCTLD.

  3. Names by DarkHelmet · · Score: 4, Funny
    I for one can't wait until they approve .xxx. Here are a list of names I would snag up, both xxx and otherwise.
    1. whitehouse.xxx (It would of course refer to clinton as president... it HAS to)
    2. britneyspears.xxx (Imagine the hits you could get to a site like this)
    3. g.mail (nuff said)
    4. euthan.asia
    5. steve.jobs
    6. michaeljackson.xxx (Because I want the FBI at my door)
    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    1. Re:Names by ryanjensen · · Score: 2, Interesting
      You don't have to wait for .xxx ... New.net has been offering this extension for years.

      Which brings up an interesting question: can ICANN just usurp New.net's market in .xxx domains without compensating New.net for the destruction of their business? I believe this already happened with the .biz extension, which was originally offered by Atlantic Root Network.

      - Ryan

  4. Not enough by ites · · Score: 4, Insightful

    TLDs should not be restricted in this way. It creates an artificial shortage which simply acts as a tax. Is there any technical reason why TLDs cannot be created by anyone with the capability?

    --
    Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
    1. Re:Not enough by bersl2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Then it will start looking like the newsgroup hierarchy.

    2. Re:Not enough by way2trivial · · Score: 4, Informative

      and indeed, research public dns servers some time.

      you'll find there are MANY alternate tld schemes, including one which was using .biz- and that got destroyed by icann..

      http://support.open-rsc.org/.servers/
      You can freely use any of these servers instead of your ISP's nameservers if you want to be able to see ALL the domain names on the net, not just the ones in the US Government controlled nameservers. You will, of course be able to see all the "old" domain names like .com, but you'll also be able to see all the ORSC new top level domains, too. If you need instructions on how to use these please see
      for one example.

      --
      every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    3. Re:Not enough by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Google would take over, with a crappy interface.

    4. Re:Not enough by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Is there any technical reason why TLDs cannot be created by anyone with the capability?

      None at all. That's the way it currently works. Only ICANN has the capability :-)

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
    5. Re:Not enough by ceeam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because www.sony.com is probably less confusing then sony. Just sony. Or http://sony/ is you like. I bet there would be much, much more jammed namespace then even .com.

  5. I'm thinking... by ImaLamer · · Score: 5, Funny

    blow.jobs
    hand.jobs
    head.jobs


    Wait, let me get my credit card number.

    1. Re:I'm thinking... by Performaman · · Score: 2, Funny

      What if the company that makes the BlackBerry, RIM, were to register a .jobs domain?

      --

      I have gas, but my car uses petrol.
  6. Monster.jobs? by MSTCrow5429 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Clearly, monster.jobs is required, because monster.com has had such a low hit rate. And I suppose a few others. So we've created a top level domain for about 4 or 5 sites total.

    --
    Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
    1. Re:Monster.jobs? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 3, Funny
      You've nailed it exactly. Supposedly, each company will want to rush out to register example.jobs in addition to example.com, but that's just dumb. What's so hard about www.example.com/jobs, or jobs.example.com for that matter?

      I can't imagine a big push by webmasters to move their visitors off their primary websites onto another domain. They'd suddenly have a pack of extra issues to deal with, like realizing that their current authentication cookies that are set for .example.com won't carry across to their new site.

      I can almost see the utility in adding a small set of additional TLDs (as opposed to opening the TLDs and being done with it), but the ones they pick are invariably stupid special-interest projects that maybe 15 people will use. I could understand one for, say, .rest for the millions of restaurants out there. Why they labor and strive to bring us .giantballofstring is beyond me.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  7. .xxx is potentially bad news. by \\ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't really understand the point of a .xxx tld. You can usually tell from a domain name if you should be loading the url or not, it isn't like everything will be forced to use .xxx once the new tld exists.. unless..

    If the point of .xxx is to force adult web sites into using it, how long until adult sites are sued into the ground for using other tlds? What if I'm running a french or italian language site with occasional boobies on it on a .com tld, would some tool force me onto a .xxx? Or even a .uk site?

    Blarg. .xxx is perhaps more stupid than the entire artificial tld scarcity bit.

    1. Re:.xxx is potentially bad news. by \\ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      To make an analogy (uh oh) I probably should've made above, retroactively creating a .xxx is like trying to ban guns in a country that already has millions upon millions of guns already in circulation. It'll never work.

    2. Re:.xxx is potentially bad news. by Wordsmith · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Easy blacklisting, for school and library filters. Also, for scrupulous porn sites, it's good marketing.

      Let's say hustler.com simply becamed a redirect to huster.xxx. Any school/library filter would instantly know it's a no-no site, without having some schlub at the filter company check to see if its about tricking people on the basketball court.

      For various reasons, FORCING sites onto the xxx tld would be a bad thing - you'd have to put someone in charge of deciding what's pornographic, or adult, and that's a dangerous distinction to let any one group/person make. But the domain would be a great place for the sites that clearly acknowledge they're adult in nature -- after all, you'd know where to find them. It would be good marketing.

      For the seedy sites that try to fool you into visiting them, or that pretend to be one thing when they're really another, this doesn't do much.

    3. Re:.xxx is potentially bad news. by \\ · · Score: 2, Informative

      What about horror sites like stile project or ogrish or whatever that are clearly not pornography but don't fit into .xxx? Why not just make .nc17 or .mature or .adult or something?

      I really believe someone is going to eventually introduce legislation forcing adult content onto .xxx, or something specific, and I think that's a mistake.

    4. Re:.xxx is potentially bad news. by ImaLamer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If the point of .xxx is to force adult web sites into using it, how long until adult sites are sued into the ground for using other tlds? What if I'm running a french or italian language site with occasional boobies on it on a .com tld, would some tool force me onto a .xxx? Or even a .uk site?

      Maybe the first step is to just create the xxx domain.

      What I'd do (if I was ICANN or whomever):

      * Create the xxx tld and then take a select bunch of dictionary words and sell them to pr0n friendly bandwidth/hosting providers.
      * Make them the official registratrs for "free.xxx", "anal.xxx" or whatever.
      * This creates more imaginative and available pr0n namespace (pr0n is always going to be number one)
      * Allow ISP's or OS vendors to block xxx domain
      * Stop accepting pr0n sites for .com, .net, .org, (and .edu and .mil)
      ** Don't get into censorship, unspoken agreement.
      * Allow pr0n marketing on other tld's...
      ** Direct community of pr0n content producers to use the xxx tld when the content is obscene
      ** Example: playboy.tv is a site about the channel, but it doesn't have nude content. When you want nude you click into xxx tld, unless your parents blocked it.
      ** Example (2): Playboy.com is a portal to all xxx tlds but contains magazine content; all images are hosted on a xxx tld.
      * Only send form letters to .com owners when enough people vote for it or something...

      I think we can solve the "censorship" problem a lot easier that way. Make it transparent to content producers who want to go wild and they will adopt it fast, and that is all it takes. Build the porn, they will come (no pun intended).

      Some say this approach will cause it to become USENET 2010, but I say that depends on content producers. If they want to create pointy.boobies.bobs.image.xxx let them - but they will learn right away that won't work.

    5. Re:.xxx is potentially bad news. by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 2, Funny
      I really believe someone is going to eventually introduce legislation forcing adult content onto .xxx, or something specific, and I think that's a mistake.

      Exactly. And one man's adult content is another man's vacation photos from a topless beach.

    6. Re:.xxx is potentially bad news. by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can usually tell from a domain name if you should be loading the url or not

      whitehouse.org
      nice-tits.org

      Both not really the sites you might expect

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  8. It's not a dupe! by CHESTER+COPPERPOT · · Score: 5, Funny
    "We've covered both of these domains before, but it would seem they are even more-approved now"

    Whoah, back off people he's just applied a +4 magical dupe shield. Now we can't use our 4th level 'Cry of dupe' scroll.

  9. .COM is way too intuitive by CDMA_Demo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Two reasons I think these new domains won't make a huge impact.
    First because people can spell whitehouse.com better than whitehouse.xxx, due to the O ;)
    Second, .COM is largely seen as the sole TLD around which the web is based.
    When .mail, .asia and .xxx etc become available, people with .com domains would be seen as old timers in the field. I remember icann also approved of .pro. How many people do you know who actually use .pro? These extra TLD's are just another way of generating revenue for registrars. People who couldn't get sex.com and gave up on other names will want to grab sex.xxx in the future. Thats when google will be come a heavyweight in domain registration....

  10. Can we have a .dot, too while you're at it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would greatly improve slashdot's domain.

    http://slashdot.dot sounds great. Like morse code or something.

    1. Re:Can we have a .dot, too while you're at it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      It would be http://slash.dot, you insensitive clod!

    2. Re:Can we have a .dot, too while you're at it? by zaxios · · Score: 2, Funny

      http: slash slash slash dot dot dot

      Fabulous! Typing that URL is a superb introduction to Slashdot's essentially redundant nature. Soon you'll be posting stories that rephrase actual news sites, enjoying CmdrTaco repost them, reaffirming the evils of draconian copyright law in any mildly appropriate article and reusing the Soviet Russia meme. It all starts with the slash, followed by a slash, followed by yet another slash.

  11. Yes... by derfy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I see .biz/.info in spam all the time.

    Oh damn, I've depressed myself.

  12. No no no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What we REALLY need is a .blog and force them all onto it so we can exclude them from search results.

    Plus it'd be really easy for goverments to censor them all in one fell swoop! :)

  13. TLDs should be optional by tehshen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's always annoyed me how companies must register two or three domains, to pull in the users that only know .com. If you are a .org (like Slashdot) it's best to register a .com as well, so lost visitors get to your site that way as well; if you're a .co.uk (like the BBC) you also need a .com for the same reason. It shows that the TLD idea wasn't thought through, or was designed to make people register many domains, generating loads of money (not best for the end-user).

    Citing monster.com as an example again: it is a jobs site, so it should get a .jobs domain. But not many people have heard of .jobs, so it has to get a .com as well. But why do we need these - what's wrong with 'http://monster' by itself? It should go to the main monster jobs page. If I wanted country-specific sites, I would go to the monster.co.uk or monster.de subdivisions. Categorising things by their status just confuses things.

    I shouldn't care whether the site I want is a network, a company, or a non-profit organisation; usually I just want to get to the site.

    --
    Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
    1. Re:TLDs should be optional by Tom · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It shows that the TLD idea wasn't thought through, or was designed to make people register many domains, generating loads of money

      No, it shows that the TLD idea is from a time when net users were expected to have minimum tech knowledge. Once AOL entered the picture, the idea became too complicated for the average luser and broke down.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  14. At this point... by brainnolo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At this point the tld does not make any sense anymore. Sites are (were) classified in 2 big categories:

    - By language (.it, .de, .au, .uk, etc..)
    - By kind (and assumed language was english (.org, .com, .net, .edu)

    The first category is ok and works well. But then we come to the second. Having these 4 original category: .com, .org, .net identified Commercial sites, Organization sites (usually non-profit), .net i really never understood and .edu represent educational institues. So the .info was missing (but is largely unused) and they added it. Now .travel, .jobs etc are just confusing. How do i distinguish a travel agency from a informational site on travels from the TLD if they have the same TLD? This put in the same category completely different sites. I really thing the travel agency should be .com and the info site should be .info. Also .biz for me is a misterious entity because it could be interpreted as .com.

    So why can't people just use the 2nd level domain to describe who they are? The TLD is already composed of enough entries to distinguish the category.

    Slashdot should be .info in my mind. Or .dupes, but that is another story.

    1. Re:At this point... by Adelbert · · Score: 3, Informative

      At this point the tld does not make any sense anymore. Sites are (were) classified in 2 big categories: - By language (.it, .de, .au, .uk, etc..)

      What language do they speak in .au (Australia) and .uk (the UK) then?

      Originally, non-international websites were meant to use their own countries (correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a .us?). However, more and more companies, organisations and people just go for .com, .org, .net or whatever.

      Its not even consistent between countries. In Australia, they have .com.au, but the British equivalent is .co.uk.

      Now, with the introduction of .jobs and .travel, the whole thing is becoming more and more confusing.

      I'm still waiting for .spam, .l337~h4XX0r and .mockedupimitationusedforphishingscams

    2. Re:At this point... by brainnolo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thank you for pointing out :) .mil and .gov should be removed in my opinion because they are exclusive to the US while they should be available to other countries as well, or eliminated altogheter.

    3. Re:At this point... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Funny
      .l337~h4XX0r
      New Zealand has .geek.nz for that
  15. .SEX, .XXX, .KIDS Restrict Freedom of Speech by Ron+Bennett · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Below is one of several posts I made on Domain Name Policy List back in 2000 and to the Public Comment Forum regarding New TLD Applications.

    --------

    Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 23:52:50 -0400
    Sender: Owner-Domain-Policy
    From: Ron Bennett
    Subject: [ICANN COMMENT] .SEX, .XXX, .KIDS TLDs Restrict Freedom of Speech
    To: DOMAIN-POLICY@LISTS.NETSOL.COM

    First the problems with the proposed .SEX & .XXX TLDs:

    The proposed TLDs .SEX and .XXX seem well intentioned as a way of partitioning off adult oriented materials from minors, etc.

    But how does one exactly define adult oriented materials? -especially considering the internet is an international medium. What is considered adult oriented here in the United States isn't elsewhere and vice-versa.

    And what happens when ICANN or whoever decides to go the next step and restricts adult oriented materials to *only* certain TLDs - for example .SEX and .XXX only.

    And how would such content restrictions be enforced?

    In the end TLDs such as .SEX and .XXX will probably result in ICANN dictating content too.

    In regards to problems with the proposed .KIDS TLD:

    Many of the same points above apply to .KIDS too...

    How does one exactly define kid oriented materials? -especially considering the internet is an international medium. What is considered adult oriented here in the United States isn't elsewhere and vice-versa. For example, nudity in many parts of the world such as parts of Europe and Japan is not considered harmful to children. On the other hand, violence aimed at children is widely tolerated in the United States, but not content containing nudity.

    And how would such content restrictions be enforced?

    And as I said above, in the end TLDs such as .KIDS will probably result in ICANN dictating content too.

    TLDs should be used to better categorize content, but not to restrict it. While .SEX, .XXX, and .KIDS TLDs are well intentioned, all three of these TLDs are all primarily intended to *restrict* content as opposed to merely categorizing it. It's very important to keep this distinction in mind when considering new .TLDs.

    Bottom line is that TLDs should be for categorizing content, not restricting content which is what the proposed .SEX, .XXX, and .KIDS TLDs would do and thus they should *not* be added.

    Ron Bennett
    bennett@wyomissing.com

    --------

    More posts and comments by others involved in domain name policy regarding these issues:

    http://www.circleid.com/article/530_0_1_0_C/

  16. .xxx name clashes? by Gneral+Tsao · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While I applaud the .xxx TLD simply because I'm a male, I'm not sure it's going to help resolve any namespace conflicts. After all, one of the main reasons for adding new TLDs is because the old ones are getting too crowded (the other reason for this one being easy filtering). But the thing is, girlswithhorses.com is probably going to be just as pornographic as girlswithhorses.xxx. Can anyone actually think of a case (besides spoof sites like whitehouse.xxx or motel6.xxx that ride their .com counterparts' coattails) where this is going to resolve anything?

  17. Well... by RPD9803 · · Score: 2, Funny

    the owners of www.blow.com would certainly want to snap up the equivilent .info and .jobs tld...

    --
    Culture + Technology
  18. .travelcom? .jobscom.com? .xxx.cum.com? by Saeger · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Yay. More TLD's that nobody but spammers will use. Everybody else will continue to default to the "gold standard" in domain branding: the .COM.

    .COM has been-- and will be for a long time -- the most recognized and most valuable namespace.

    (Personally, I almost never care where a domain is hosted, because I use Google to search for my "bookmarks" and rarely type-in domain URLs manually. The new TLDs are just a limited opportunity for registrars to print new money, IMO.)

    --
    Power to the Peaceful
  19. Oh, I see 'em all right by jfengel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They're usually on spams. You know, the kind that wants you to think that citicorp.biz is the Citicorp web site and therefore you should give them your password and credit card. (As far as I can tell there is no citicorp.biz, actually, but you get the idea.)

    Actually, I see it most often on business cards from extremely small businesses. The kind where FooCorp has taken the .com name but some local consultant thought that FooCorp would be a cool name. Not fraudulent, but just a latecomer.

    Like another poster said, I never give personal info to a .biz web site if I can help it, and if dice.com and hotjobs.com want to open dice.jobs and hot.jobs, go ahead, but when I need to I'll go through the dot-com domain.

  20. Re:.xxx domain by One+Childish+N00b · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But what is your definition of pornography? is it going to be the same as Howard Stern's definition of pornography? is it going to be the same as the Relgious Right's definition? A lot of legitimate art contains nudity, or representations thereof - should art galleries be forced into the .xxx category? What about plastic surgery clinic websites with 'before' and 'after' pictures of things such as breast enlargement?

    Sure, filtering out hardcore pornography would be made a lot easier if all sites were forced to use the .xxx domain (it would sure make managing the blocklist for the average large UK college easier, *ahem*), but there is a lot of overlap and disagreement over what constitutes 'pornography' or 'objectionable content', and I don't think one organization or committee should be handed that much power, especially with the way the Religious Right controls much of the power in America.

    I'm personally of the opinion that the only person capable of making a judgement about what your kids can and can't see is you, and handing the power to do so over to a government committee is just letting the government raise your children for you, which would be a sad, sad day for parenthood. Just look at the furore Janet Jackson's nipple-slip caused amongst the Religious Right, who found it perfectly alright to proudly show 'shock and awe' footage of cities being devastated on prime-time TV - are these the people you want dictating what's right and wrong for your children to see? I consider the desensitizing effect of proudly showing off the devastation of enemies at war far more damaging to young minds than the odd celebrity nipple-slip

    A lot of people in the world have a seriously messed-up system of morals, and they've already got far too much power - don't jump on the .xxx bandwagon - hardcore pornography needs to be kept away from kids, but a dedicated TLD for 'objectional content' is the first step on a very slippery slope.

    --
    Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
  21. This is completely rediculous. by jleq · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I am absolutely appalled at this decision to create more TLDs. Not only will they create more confusion for the end user, but they will also make it much more expensive for companies to secure their name on the Internet. Why should I have to buy 10 domains with different TLDs to make sure that nobody will try and rip off my company's name online? Anyhow... how many sites do you actually *trust* with a .info domain? Most of them appear to be stupid advertisement link sites. There is no reason that we need any more than the basic TLDs we've always had... .com, .net, .org, .edu. .gov and of course the country domains (.uk, .nz, etc).

    It seems to me as though ICANN is being motivated to do this for unethical reasons. I can only hope that the community will understand how stupid this is and fight back.

  22. Dot triple X could be dangerous by backslashdot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Make no mistake, dot triple X is very dangerous. This fight has been fought before, but today without the conscience of the net's early pioneers .. we are heading into trouble.

    If the dot triple X domain is approved, the following worst case scenario is possible.
    I don't believe it will actually happen because so far, the people have always held freedom of speech up to be very important.

    Note, this is a worst case scenario. I don't believe it's all that likely to happen.

    Popular websites, such as playboy.com, will not switch to .xxx, however start up pr0n sites will realize it's easier to market the website with dot triple x. This is where the positive aspects of dot triple X end. Then the negative scenario emerges, some parent will stumble across playboy.com and their kid who they're supposed to be watching will come into the room and see it .. and they will claim the kid is traumatized for life now.

    Then you have the lawsuit.

    "I thought it was a safe site cause it was a dot com!" ....

    Maybe an intelligent judge will throw it out of the courtroom?

    But then you have the up and coming legislators out to get a few extra votes.

    The "Freedom Using Controlled Knowledge" Act.

    HR 31337 .. "All websites that contain indecent or pornographic content must be delegated to .XXX"

    ACLU sues the government .. Massive number of religious people protest the lawsuit saying God wouldn't want pornography to exist .. ACLU loses .. the supreme court finds no reason why websites cant be forced into .XXX, after all .. the argument will say .. strip clubs can be forced into designated areas.

    All content deemed pornographic is in .XXX, well some content is immoral and distasteful .. maybe those will be forced into .XXX or some other domain ".pariah" ? who knows.

    Next move, the same parent goes to playboy.xxx .. the same kid walks in on this.

    "Why doesnt my ISP block this??"

    ISPs start blocking .XXX and .pariah content to avoid lawsuits.

    Next move, the same parent goes to goes to a kiddie porn website.

    New agency starts tracking everyone who goes to .XXX websites. This tracking information will only be archived, so as to not violate the fourth amendment. Only in cases where crime is suspected will the data be looked at.
    Congress sees this as a good thing, and assures everyone that the fourth amendment is alive and well in some dungeon somewhere safely in their control.

    Small minority of net users use encryption and pseudonymity schemes to communicate freely, these people are branded potential terrorists and pornographers. Those who use encryption excessively are marked as being involved in illegal activity and as having something to hide.

    Ultimately though, pornography will survive but freedom will die.

    This is just a worst case, I believe the people's will to freedom will prevent the worst case from happening.

  23. Re:www.jobs by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Firefox is playing silly buggers behind your back. When www.jobs doesn't answer (try ping), Firefox adds .com and tries again. www.jobs.com is owned by Monster. Firefox should update the URL you typed in to let you know that it fixed it for you. (Can't remember what IE does.)

    It only seems to do that on domains that are entered by hand. It didn't do that when clicking on the URL that you posted.

    The really sneaky thing is that whenever a .jobs server goes down or there's a typo, Monster will get the traffic instead, and will no warning (in Firefox) to the user.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  24. Who'll be first to register... by O-SUSHi · · Score: 2, Funny

    goatsec.xxx or goatc.xxx
    hand.jobs
    time.travel
    youth-in.asia
    hot.mail
    hot.xxx
    in.tel
    ordering-wives-from.asia
    etc, etc...

    --
    Remember children, all generalizations are wrong.
  25. 5 years from now we wont even know what to type in by TheLittleJetson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't know about you, but I find myself typing a lot less URL's these days. Google gets used a lot. Firefox makes the address bar an I'm-feeling-lucky search if it can't resolve it, so you dont have to worry about monster.com/.jobs/.net/.porn you simply just say "monster jobs" and it goes there.