Revisiting the idea (the very stupid idea) of sponsored top level domains
Revisiting the idea (the very stupid idea) of sponsored top level domains:
ICANN loves "sponsored" top level domains. It has given us
TLDs for co-ops, Catalonian speakers, "professionals" (except for the
world's oldest profession), travel businesses, etc.
That world of "sponsored" TLDs is so exciting and vibrant!
And so useful too!
So in a moment of unrestrained excitement over sponsored TLDs, I have come up
with some ideas for new sponsored TLDs.
I'll begin with ".family". And by this I don't mean
some neutered and sterile Disneyesque kind of family. Appropriate
residents under my .family would present content describing how families
are created, including biological details, and methods for keeping control of
family size (which would, of course, include those providing abortion services.)
And then I'd add ".christian" (and other TLDs for other
major religions.) As sponsor I'd be able to say who is worthy to have a
name under .christian and who is not. For starters, I'd make sure
that the list of excluded names includes "Robertson",
"Dobson", "Falwell" - they would be vectored over to the .ElmerGantry
TLD.
And then there's ".fruitcake". This TLD would give
free names to those who claim to have been kidnapped by space aliens,
practice feline phrenology, or believe that "intelligent
design" should be taught in schools.
What is ICANN's policy about "sponsored" TLDs doing to the
internet? The best way to answer is to draw a parallel: What ICANN
is doing to the internet is similar to what would have happened had some 16th
century ICANN forced Gutenburg to use his new printing press to print nothing
but Sharper Image catalogues and Wal Mart flyers.