[NA-Discuss] Statement on Pre-Registration: Draft for discussion

[Thomas Lowenhaupt]

John,

Another politician. Go on say what you think.

> City TLDs were a bad idea in 1996, and they're an even worse idea now. 
> Their only transformational effect would be to transform money out of 
> the pockets of the suckers who registered in one into the pocket of 
> the domain's sponsor.  (Well, if the past decade is any guide, they 
> will also transform the sponsor's investment into nothing.)

So just throw up your hands and say "Go ignorance, go speculators. We 
don't care."

You say there's no possible way, no matter how carefully a city-TLD is 
developed, that it will assist the residents and organization of a city. 
That there are no lessons to be learned from. That all hope is lost.

Come on John. If you tried, I bet you could write a City-TLDs for Dummies.

>
> Many of us have been around the domain world for rather a long time.  
> For example, I registered my first domain (in the city domain 
> cambridge.ma.us) about 20 years ago, and my .COM in 1993.  We are not 
> suffering from a lack of understanding; we probably understand the way 
> domains work as well as anyone.

That's why I'm hear asking for lessons from positive experiences. Are 
you saying you can't find a single one. None?
>
> This is the wrong place to look for naifs who are foolish enough to 
> imagine that that new TLDs are anything other than a speculative money 
> grab.

Are you absolutely certain you're not throwing the baby out with the 
bath water?

>
> Regards,
> John Levine, johnl at iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for 
> Dummies",
> Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly
>

Best,

Tom Lowenhaupt