Talk:Country code top-level domain

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[edit] .ct and .cw

Does anyone remember the talk some years ago about using .ct for Catalonia? Did this ever come about? Also, in recent times, I've heard whispers of .cw for Wales (what with every combination of .c[ymru] already taken). Any thoughts on whether these bear mention? Chris talk back 21:33, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

There are no such TLDs at present. Under the current system neither Wales or Catalonia would qualify for a ccTLD unless they became independent, as only then would they be assigned codes in ISO 3166. (There are non-independent territories with codes in ISO 3166, but that's because of geographic separation, which doesn't apply to Wales or Catalonia.) There is a long history of territories that don't qualify for ccTLDs trying to pressure the IANA into giving them one anyway, and this does deserve mention in the article. The ccTLDs .ac, .gg, .im and .je were the result of the rules being temporarily relaxed due to such pressure, and .eu got through in a similar way. I saw something years ago about an attempt to get .ct for Catalonia, but I don't know if this was done by the Catalonian government or just some random bunch of Catalonians; it would be difficult to make a sensible mention of this in the article without knowing which it was. I would be surprised if Wales had ever tried to get a ccTLD. --Zundark 23:17, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
As an aside, Catalonia now has .cat, which was introduced into the root in late December 2005. It is not a ccTLD, rather a sTLD (sponsored TLD) under ICANN policy. --kjd 22:26, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Although .cat is supposedly for Catalan language and culture, rather than for Catalonia. It remains to be seen whether this will make much difference in practice. --Zundark 23:33, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
It might not make much difference, but .cat is NOT a country top-level domain but a GENERIC top-level domain (that's why it has three letters as opposed to the two letter codes reserved for independent countries). It should not be included in this list. --J.Alonso 02:18, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
Why is this posted as a reply to my comment? I didn't suggest putting .cat in the list on this page (and in fact the list didn't even exist when I made the comment). --Zundark 12:42, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Let me just add that .gg, .im and .je are now not exceptions any longer, since the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man have recently been given ISO 3166-1 codes. —Nightstallion (?) Seen this already? 13:33, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] .eo and .el

I heard the other day that there were suggestions for .el (Earth Lunar) and .eo (Earth Orbital) that never went through. I did a bit of snooping around and all i could find was that someone named Dave Eastabrook proposed them but they weren't accepted. Anyone think this is worth mentioning? --ThrashedParanoid 23:36, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

No. If I e-mailed ICANN and asked for .zu, would that be worth mentioning? --Zundark 23:33, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] .uk history

The article reads:

The ISO 3166-1 code for the United Kingdom is GB, however JANET had already selected uk as a top-level identifier for a pre-existing naming scheme, and this was incorporated into the top-level. gb was assigned with the intention of a transition, but this never occurred and the use of uk is now entrenched.

Is there a citation for this? My conversations with people involved in the history is that .uk was deliberately chosen over .gb in the beginning due to cultural sensitivites. --kjd 22:26, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] CCTLDs that allow registration in the 2nd level to foreign entities

I've compiled a list of the CCTLDs that allow registration of 2nd level domains to foreign entities. --zobier 00:04, 26 January 2006 (UTC) (updated 2006-03-11)

And I made a few edits to the list today. I was looking for something similar (wanting to see which domains from a list allowed foreign registration) and compared the list to the respective articles on the ccTLDs themselves. Most were correct, but I there were three (.hn, .ag and .ac) that didn't match their articles in terms of allowing outside registrations (basically, if the article mentions "no restrictions" in the info box, then this corresponding list should have a * next to them. --Canuckguy 04:24, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Domains of convenience

Some countries allow anyone in the world to acquire a domain in their ccTLD, for example Austria (at) and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (cc).

A list of domains of convenience would be nice.

I have totally refactored the ccTLD listing. Enjoy :-)
— HopeSeekr of xMule (Talk) 16:59, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
This is sort of what I was trying to get to with the list (see above). There is a distinction between domain authorities that allow foreign registration of 2nd level domains and ones which allow foreign registration under designated 2nd level domains. I was only concerned with the former. --zobier 03:24, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] dra.hmg.gb

dra.hmg.gb is mentioned as the only currently existant domain name in .gb, however it doesn't resolve, nor does whois give any information about it. Its metion should probably be removed, or edited to show that it was the last domain name in .gb, if evidence exists to support that. --Nimakha 20:21, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

dra.hmg.gb itself doesn't resolve, but hermes.dra.hmg.gb does. I don't know if this is the only one, however. --Zundark 13:21, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Mh, curious. Usually, you can find all sites of a given TLD with google using "site:.??", but in this case, searching for "site:.gb" gives me no hits -- and the URL you gave doesn't resolve for me, either... —Nightstallion (?) 10:11, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
It's not a URL, it's a domain name. There's no web site there, so it's not surprising that you can't find it on Google. It resolves to 146.80.9.16. --Zundark 10:59, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
Ah, okay. —Nightstallion (?) 13:29, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] inconsistent inclusion of "." in the ccTLD

This page states the ccTLD is 2 letters long, and the Top-Level Domain page states a TLD is the letters which follow the final dot of any domain name. I understand this to mean that the ccTLD does not contain a "."

Throughout the article, there are examples of ccTLD excluding the "." and including the ".". This seems inconsistent - from the definitions given, all examples of ccTLDs in the article should not include the ".". Kromesky 21:44, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Technically, the dot is a separator which isn't part of any level of the domain (aside from the "root", beneath the first level, which is technically named as a "dot" by itself; however, this dot is actually after the TLD and is seldom written). However, in referring to a TLD, it's traditional (even if technically slightly inaccurate) to write it with the dot before it, like ".com" or ".us", so Wikipedia follows common usage in this; it helps for distinguishing articles on TLDs from all the other meanings of the various two and three letter initialisms. *Dan T.* 22:30, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

A CCTLD (or any TLD) doesn't contain a dot, but all domains (TLD/sub) are followed by a dot. The trailing dot of domain names is often truncated. The domain name for this host is "en.wikipedia.org." 220.233.94.208 06:10, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Other unused country-code TLDs

There's .cp for Clipperton Island, .dg for Diego Garcia, .ea for Ceuta and Melilla, .fx for mainland France, .ic for the Canary Islands and .ta for Tristan da Cunha. Worthy of a mention? Jess Cully 00:30, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

But there isn't .cp for Clipperton Island, .dg for Diego Garcia, etc. If they actually existed, they would be certainly be worthy of a mention, even if they were unused. But if a ccTLD does not exist, and never has, and is not even reserved (per RFC 920 and ISO 3166), then it's hard to make a case for it being worth mentioning. --Zundark 09:22, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
The codes are reserved by ISO 3166 MA, but are not recognised by IANA. It would be purely speculative to call them unused country-codes domains. --kjd 20:16, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Which ones have free domain registration?

Hi there, I think it would be a great idea to add to this list which ones someone can register a domain at for free, or for pay. Some countries setup their domain names just to get people across the world to sign up for free (and hopefully later, pay) websites. I'm not looking to advertise for any of them, just an information thing. Rob 19:18, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of "Country codes not managed by countries" section

I've removed this section (diff). See my comment to the editor (here). Content aside, this is a fairly clear case of unsourced material, and the wording is in the nature of an editorial. Gerard added the identical text in again, with an edit summary of "This is information provided by the representative of the Rwandan government at ICANN" (diff). It shouldn't be necessary to point out that an anecdotal report by an editor of a conversation with a third party is hardly a reliable source, and in any case the text is still commentary as written. If the fees of some country registrars is indeed a notable subject, there should be some reference to base a (better) paragraph on. If there is some specific ongoing dispute regarding the ".rw" registrar, again it should be easy to find sources (did this ICANN representative make a submission at the meeting, check the minutes, try Google, etc.), and the first step would probably be to incorporate any notable information in the .rw article. - David Oberst 20:55, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

The right honourable representative of the BSI and advisory board member of the Wikimedia Foundation, Mrs Debbie Garside was there with me when this was said. The discussion with ICANN was made in a private session; we spoke before this happened later in the day. The point why it should be written here and not at the .rw article is because this is not an exception. GerardM 02:51, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I appreciate that your contribution is probably well-intentioned, but you seem to be missing the point of WP:RS. Aside from that, as I pointed out, if there is some notable issue surrounding ccTLD fees, Rwanda, or whatever that you are trying to report on, either there is some other background out there than an unsourced one-sentence third-party paraphrase of an unspecified private ICANN session, or the issue is not ripe for an encyclopedic article mention. Before deleting I tried to track down anything further on this to try and expand, rewrite and source your contribution, but drew a blank. To avoid WP:3RR, etc., I won't delete again at this time, but I've tagged the "section" as unsourced, and will try and attract some other editorial eyes from Wikipedia:Third opinion and elsewhere. - David Oberst 06:48, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

(Third opinion). The first thng I noticed reading the section in question is the editorial tone of the writing. It obviously pushes a particular POV of the alleged issue. The section should be rewritten to reflect a neutral voice. Beyond that, if it is purely based on a private session allegedly witnessed by someone, it should be deleted outright. Wikipedia is not the place to report our own observations and findings. Information added must be verifiable in a reliable source. If this can not be attributed to a reliable sources, it does not belong in the article, no matter how "true". Vassyana 08:10, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Just explained Reliable Sources to Gerard (he's not usually on enwiki, so much for RS being essential to wikis ;-) ). Gerard just visited ICANN along with a member of the foundation advisory board, and I was prodding him to check the article for accuracy . If he trips up over some more of our (apparently) strange en.wikipedia rules, drop me a line, and we'll sort it out. Kay?

In other news, I have here a business card of one Peter Fullarton, Executive director of RITA (The Rwanda Information Technology Authority), who we could email, and he could probably make a statement for wikinews. (which we can then use as an additional source) :-) --Kim Bruning 10:47, 30 March 2007 (UTC) --Kim Bruning 10:47, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

  • Yes, this is probably the approach to take. Wikinews can cover with our original reporting rules (this makes emails admissable) and then act as a source for Wikipedia. --Brianmc 11:29, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I scanned through the reference (or "sauce") added by Gerard, and could find nothing especiallly relating to the cost of domains, Rwandan (or African) discontent with the existing ccTLD delegation, etc. Unless it is a secret sauce, a la Colonel Sanders, perhaps Gerard could indicate in more detail which section of this he feels has anything to do with his line of text?

This really isn't about strange wiki rules or anything, just the basics of reporting information. Who said what, to whom, where, when, why is it relevant, context, etc. This has none of that, and provides a reader (or editor) with nothing to go on. I'm not even clear as to what the issue is, other than someone somewhere seems to be agitating about ccTLD costs or control. - David Oberst 12:09, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

this artilce states:
"Several ccTLDs like the one for Rwanda are owned by companies who have policies and pricing structures that are inconsistent with the requirements of the country; the cost of a domain is more than what it costs to pay the average Rwandan for a year."
BUT
on the page .rw it states: "First registration free for citizens and companies/organizations based in Rwanda; others can register at a fee" Artlondon 17:46, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I've once again removed this section. - David Oberst 22:32, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article additions

  • I've started a "Delegation and management" section - more detail on the relationship between ICANN/IANA, the delegees and governments can eventually be added here.
  • I've arranged three existing sections regarding ISO-3166 as subsections of a new headin "ISO-3166-1 codes and ccTLDs", which could probably use a lead paragraph of its own eventually.
  • I've removed the "Rwanda" sentence/section again (see above).
  • there is another list of ccTLDs incorporated into List of Internet top-level domains. To avoid duplication and maintenance problems, it might be useful to explore ways to merge these two somehow, whether there (with a link from here to the subsection), here (and link from there), a separate List of Internet country-code domains, etc. Any suggestions or comments? - David Oberst 22:32, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
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