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Comment by chrononaut | Hacker News Reader

For context .yu was the ccTLD for Yugoslavia, and .me is the ccTLD for Montenegro, which is one of the states formerly part of Yugoslavia before its dissolution.

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How many .yu domains were registered when Yugoslavia broke up? Back in 1992 most people had never even heard of the Internet, especially in politically unstable third world countries. You could probably count the number of .yu domains registered on your hands.

By virtue of being a former Soviet satellite, .yu was second-world, not third-world.

Yugoslavia was communist but no Soviet satellite... See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tito%E2%80%93Stalin_split

In fact it was a founding member of the non-aligned movement which came to be called third world.

There is some doubt in that. Many suspect it was just a facade to trick the West.

The "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" (FRY) existed until 2003, when it was renamed to "Serbia and Montenegro", which split into separate countries of "Serbia" and "Montenegro" in 2006. "Serbia and Montenegro" was still using the .yu ccTLD until 2006.

.yu was retired in 2010. Still seeing some old outdoor ads with it here in Montenegro.

>Back in 1992 most people had never even heard of the Internet, especially in politically unstable third world countries.

I never remember Yugoslavia as being a third world country. Purchasing power wasn't as high as in US but it certainly wasn't third world level and no people died of hunger, or because they did not afford health care. Also, housing was affordable.

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