Comment by jmtd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jmtd | Hacker News Reader

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> I started running a vanity domain name around 2000, for email and Web, and have a few thoughts based on that... > > Hosting chronology something like: home Linux box on ADSL, 2 different shared hosters, 1U in a colo facility, back to earlier shared hoster.

Much the same sort-of chronology and hosting story for me…

> For my real-name vanity domain, I went with a `.org`, since I didn't want to be a `.com` in personal life, though today I'd prefer `.net`.

I'm curious to pick your brains on that. I've gone the other way: I ended up standardising on a .net but I kinda wish I had the .org instead, my rationale is, .org is a closer match to what my site is: if I squint I can consider it to be an "organisation" of one, but I can't convince myself that it or I'm a network. I originally picked the .net because I thought it scanned better with my choice of domain.

I don't think I have any strong feelings on TLDs today. Especially when there's so many new TLDs, appropriations of the county code TLDs, and so many non-techies. I'm guessing many techies no longer know what the original TLDs meant, back before rules/conventions were relaxed, pre-ICANN. Either .net or .org original meanings, "of one", could work.

As an aside, I'm still slightly uncomfortable with the real-name domain name. I did it because I had some idea that this was a facet/presence of my real identity, which already had a name, and there's the idea of standing behind one's name. The discomfort is because my upbringing tried to teach me a flavor of traditional values, like not being boastful, not advertising your deeds, etc., yet the real-name domain name means I'm plastering my name all over, like some politician. Maybe why I went with it despite discomfort is that I'd gotten used to discomfort -- trying to reconcile upbringing (humble is good), with personality (still learning), with conventions in industry&academia (promoting name is accepted/required). I don't worry about it, and I do need some kind of identifier in this space, but I don't know whether I'll ever fully like the domain name.

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