[At-Large] Is the .FOOD poisoned?

[Evan Leibovitch]

Hi all,

One of the most recent gTLDs to be released has already been declared
"evil" before it even launches.

The .FOOD gTLD is what's called a "closed generic"; that is, its subdomains
are not for sale through the usual registrar channel to the public. Its use
is controlled by the company that owns the "Food Network" on television in
the US and elsewhere, and already has "food.com".

This article in DomainIncite
<http://domainincite.com/21271-food-goes-live-and-its-a-closed-generic>
calls the designation of .food as a closed generic to be
​"​
one of the new gTLD program’s biggest failures
​".

I'm not sure I agree. Outside of domain sellers and would-be speculators
who will be denied their transactions, will anyone in the outside world --
who will never know of the missed "opportunity" -- even care? After all,
hundreds of alternative TLDs already exist, and my instincts suggest that
gastronomic-minded registrants would still prefer a dot-com name first if
they could get it....

Personally, I would go so far as to suggest that such closed TLDs could
even be a good thing. Among a sea of conventional TLDs used for essentially
identical functions, a closed generic -- unbound from the shackles of
having to sell through registrars -- could actually bring some real
innovation to the DNS. Using subdomains as a catalog or archiving index,
with a consistent interface throughout the TLD, could be an interesting
experiment. And you won't likely find scammers and spammers under a closed
gTLD so it might actually gain more public trust than conventional "open"
ones....

I'm curious to know the opinion of others. Personally, in this case I am
happy to support the status quo and wish Scripps Networks luck in doing
something out of the ordinary. And I would oppose any efforts to get
At-Large to take a stand against this opportunity.

Thank you.

-- 
Evan Leibovitch
Geneva, CH

Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56
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