[Nottingham] Domain meaning

[Jon Masters]

On Tue, 20 May 2003, Martin Waryniak wrote:

> Just following on the previous thread about registering domain names 
> (thanks for all your help), does it really matter if you choose the 
> domain .org,, .co.uk , .com etc.?

I go personally with this:

	* .com for international commercial stuff
	* .co.uk for UK-centric commercial stuff
	* .org for non-prift of personal stuff

There are of course a quad-bazillion different domain possibilities out
there and some come with strings attached such as having to be of a
certain nationality, having a registered company in a particular country,
and many other petty rules. Personal websites tend to be popular under
.co.uk, .me.uk, .org and sometimes .net even thou that is not its purpose.

I have a bunch of domains like easypenguin.[co.uk|com] for one day
commercial ideas, jonmasters.[org.uk|org] for personal stuff, and a whole
bunch of others. I recently decided to loose some vanity registrations
like pantsless.org.uk and so forth so they are now DETAGGED.

> I think .com should indicate a comcercial (company) and .org a non proft 
> org but does it really matter nowadays or is there still a clear 
> distinction or best practise?

It matters only in the sense that there are some rules, and there is
common sense. There is also a horrible stigma associated with .com
addresses - which is a good thing. Too many .com registrations happen
purely because everyone else does so. There is namespace pollution in
almost every one of the domain registries - .ltd.uk is meant to be only
for limited companies for example, but I know of people who have
registered company names purely to get certain domain registrations[0].

Jon.

[0] I have met one person who registered a company so that he could have a
credit card with the nickname RATTY on it, which he signs Ratty...