back to article The .io domain isn't going anywhere anytime soon amid treaty

The .io country code top-level domain (ccTLD) will not disappear anytime soon, at least not within the next five years. Beyond that, its future is uncertain. Countries, territories, and the like have letter codes and these have been used as the basis for internet domains. The United States, for example, has the .us domain. The …

  1. Paul Herber Silver badge
    Alien

    There is a satellite of Jupiter looking out for a TLD ...

    1. Chloe Cresswell Silver badge

      ...attempt no landing pages there?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Well, it's rather difficult to define. Perhaps I'm just projecting my own concern about it. I know I've never completely freed myself from the suspicion that there are some extremely odd things about this mission. I'm sure you agree there's some truth in what I say.

  2. vekkq

    IMO .io should be made into a generic tld, given its country-unrelated adoption by tech bros.

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      No thanks, we have enough junk domains already without muddying the waters around the cc-tlds.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      All 2 letter domains are limited to country domains only.

      Even countries that aren't real - like us

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I agree. Though I'd go one step further. I'd make them to be used that way.

        I don't think all these agile web 3.0 bros live in the British Indian territories, after all.

        1. Jon 37 Silver badge

          Wouldn't you make countries use the proper code, such as .gb for the UK? The migration from.uk would be... challenging.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      github.io

      github.io hosts GitHub Pages, millions of GitHub-hosted static webpages associated with open source GitHub repositories. It doesn't impact just tech bros, but open source developers in general.

      Before anyone downvotes me on the presumption that the Venn diagrams of the two groups is a circle, I have a github.io page, but I am not male (the Guy Fawkes mask can be misleading), so the distinction isn't trivial or hypothetical.

  3. ThatOne Silver badge
    Devil

    Leverage

    > The .su country code still exists despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union

    Yes, but the British Indian Ocean Territory has no nukes!...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Leverage

      Yeah about that. Diego Garcia would like a word.

      1. Paul Herber Silver badge

        Re: Leverage

        Didn't he used to play on the right-wing for Barcelona FC?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Leverage

          He's a forward that started out at Real Madrid. The Culés will not be happy with your comment or the Vikingos. This is soccer ball. Go team sports.

        2. MyffyW Silver badge

          Re: Leverage

          I think you're confusing him with 1990's legend Julio Geordio

    2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Re: Leverage

      Russia doesnt have any nukes either or havent you watched the last 5 Satan missile tests ?

      1. ThatOne Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Re: Leverage

        Don't know about Satan, but AFAIK they have a lot of ICBM models (not to mention the submarine-launched ones), some of them are bound to work.

        1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

          Re: Leverage

          ThatOne: some of them are bound to work.

          cow: Missiles are a very complicated thing.

          There are several things we can learn from these 5 failed tests. THere probably have been more, 5 is what the american sats have seen, there prpbably have been more.

          ONe doesnt just leave any machine in the elements for 10 or more years and expect it to work perfectly. The fuel is toxic and extremely corrosive. Other radio active elements also require replacement.

          Even the R themselves know their missiles cannot be trust, and 5 fails in a row shows us this is true and more importantly it also tells the R that their stuff doesnt work.

        2. MyffyW Silver badge

          Re: Leverage

          It doesn't take many working ones for it to be a bad day at the office

  4. JessicaRabbit

    Retiring 1.6 million domains because of a political change like this would be ludicrous. I'm sure not all 1.6 million are being used for email but many will be and a person's email address is practically your identity these days. Many service provide no way to change your email address and locating every service you've ever signed up with would be a nightmare. Not to mention that this is going to break a lot of websites and if not carefully managed in advance, will open the door to copycat websites using other TLDs claiming to be the new official site. As the article states though, it does seem pretty unlikely they will actually retire it.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      We could always invade some other island in the India ocean and make a new territory

      1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

        Great idea... except for one tiny tiny problem

        They are all owned by the French.......

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          So we invade France. That generally works well so long as you avoid armourous teenage girls

          1. Yorick Hunt Silver badge
            Trollface

            They're no problem; just take a machete with you to get through the thicket.

            1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

              Armour not amour = important difference.

        2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

          Thats not true, the British gave Heard and MacDonald Islands to Australia a long time ago.

      2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

        THere are plenty of scotish isles, one of them must have a name that we could pretend maTches io.

        1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
          Joke

          The problem is, in Scotland it would be spelled aye oh

        2. Paul Herber Silver badge

          Why pretend. Iona.

      3. MyffyW Silver badge

        Isle of Man, just drop the "Man" bit to make it more gender-neutral and you've got .io

        Although given their fairly recent views on homosexuality, I do advise caution on entering Douglas

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      "As the article states though, it does seem pretty unlikely they will actually retire it."

      It would take a while. First the treaty has to be ratified - TFA says next year. Then it has to be formally handed over. Then - and this might be the big one - ISO has to change the standard. Only then does the 5 year retirement interval start.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not quite the same, but remember when all UK citizens lost their .EU domains? (unless they could find a proxy to own the domain on their behalf)

      Anyway, I think you're right. Domain dependency is far more important now than when those rules were written up. I'm sure they'll be amended

    4. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      No more ludicrous than the US media's never ending worshipping of Musk.

    5. TheBadja

      Politics isn’t meant to be rational. If Mauritius claimed the use of .io was neo-colonialism, it would be hard for the INIA (or ISO) to resist the political pressure to remove it. Unless, of course, there was money to be made…

      I expect .io to be retained, but control of the domain to go to Mauritius, who will re-negotiate the payment scheme with Bellevue.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It's colonialism

        The UK took control of the islands. They kicked the Chagossians out, left them with literally nothing. Suddenly .io became valuable. So Great Britain promptly stole the domain name from the people, and sold it to some VC company or other. The Chagossians got nothing.

        Suddenly this night change. And the British snowflakes are worried this might change their standing with the tech bros. Sure enough, you're complaining about being accused of neo-colonialism. Well guess what - you're colonialists!

  5. STOP_FORTH Silver badge
    Joke

    What about Farmer McDonald's website?

    eie.io

    1. Paul Herber Silver badge

      Re: What about Farmer McDonald's website?

      baaa.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: What about Farmer McDonald's website?

        Neigh!!

        1. STOP_FORTH Silver badge

          Re: What about Farmer McDonald's website?

          The ancients of moo-moo!

          1. desht

            Re: What about Farmer McDonald's website?

            That was a justified response.

    2. Jamie Jones Silver badge

      Re: What about Farmer McDonald's website?

      It's yours for a mere $53,000 !

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The United States, for example, has the .us domain"

    I thought the US had the .com domain for their love of communism.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Why do they get us ? They aren't us - they are barely even them !

    2. David Hicklin Silver badge

      I don't think I have ever seen an URL with a .us domain

  7. Blackjack Silver badge

    The domain itch.io is the only one I really care about.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      what about scorch.io ?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      raw.io?

      "The domain itch.io is the only one I really care about."

    3. Paul Herber Silver badge

      what about scratch.io

  8. benderama

    If domains like .google can exist, surely a home for .io can be possible too?

    1. Teal Bee

      .google is longer and has been allocated based on a different set of rules.

  9. phuzz Silver badge

    The should give the .io name to Mauritius and let them make some money off it.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Give and let someone else make money, surely pigs will fly before that happens.

      Given the funding of “not for profit” groups such as Nominet etc. I suspect unless Mauritius requests ISO to retain the .io abbreviation, simply changing it from being a shortened form of: British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius Indian Ocean Territory, ICANN will be tempted to auction the domain….

      As for the rules about two letter domain names, well ICANN can very easily change them…

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