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Comments (175)

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  anilgulecha
  The "one free domain per person" isn't the interesting part really - that will be hard to police unless domain name is a function of ID proof (avoids squatting).0) The actual intersting part of a new TLD can be growing reputation by post-facto taking away a domain without recourse in case of squatting. Instead of adversarial takedowns (which produce false positives as you noted), let anyone challenge an inactive domain in the first year or two.1) If they can figure out a mechanism for moving a domain from "assigned" -> "squatted".2) Domain must match (or derive from) a verified identity - e.g. your domain is a hash/slug of your government ID. Makes squatting structurally impossible because you can't claim someone else's name / gov (Sign in with passkeys linked to a national ID).3) Proof of human effort, reduced with time - require periodic renewal with proof-of-use (DNS TXt updates, through a flow hard to automate).4) Kill speculative market - domains are non-sellable and non-transferable - always go back to the free pool, and stay there for 30 days mandatorily.Some mix of these could be the right structure for a trule high-reputation, free domain.
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  goldenarm
  Remember when the .tk TLD became free 20 years ago ? Every hobbyist took one, then scammers followed, then Facebook and antiviruses started blocking it.I remember publishing a website for a class on my .tk domain, the teacher couldn't open it and I almost got a failing grade because of it.
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  vessenes
  Hi there. I've done a bit of work on specifying human-centric identity goals for the internet over the last 10 years. May I suggest you look at Microsoft Vega? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/vega-zero-know... (I have no affiliation).In brief, I think they aim to solve the most important needs for online identity-gated services in a maximally private way.For instance, I'd like to see .self offer the following: a single domain to any person in the world with identity blinded. I can imagine two 'tranches': say xxx.v.self for 'verified' and xxx.u.self for 'unverified'.Both would use a Zero Knowledge proof to confirm they had not already registered a domain; verified would register with you guys or a data broker some PII in case it was needed for verification / checks / etc, while unverified would maintain the promise of one domain = one person, but not allow the TLD or registrars to be able to unblind which person it is.Use cases like this would be really fantastic. And, obviously could be tested out and tried on a normal domain name while you make your pitch, and put in for the auction / however ICANN is currently managing TLD launches.
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  greyface-
  https://hccf.onmy.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/dot-self....> Everyone entitled to a subdomain at no costHow are you going to pay for the (substantial) cost of running a TLD without registration fee revenue? Is this a loss leader for other services? Are you operating on a 100% donation model?> No parking, squatting, or resellingHow do you plan to tell the difference between a parked/squatted domain and one in legitimate use but offering no public-facing services?
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  jerf
  I don't understand the naming scheme, or the apparent lack of it. I half expected it to be some sort of UUID which would at least makes sense. At one per person for 7 billion people that's a little under 33 bits. Make it a nice round 40 for a bit of future proofing (the scheme doesn't need to live forever) and to make a bit of space internally and that's 5 words from a 256-word list. That would seem to make a lot more sense then first-come, first-serve on something as easy to abuse as .self.However, perhaps more relevantly, it isn't clear why this needs a TLD and all the hassle associated with a tld when it could just as easily be attached to any convenient domain name lying around that you have access to, such as, oh, say, onmy.cloud.Then again I have this objection to almost all TLDs. But I'm not sure I'm wrong.At the very least if you want to show ICANN that you mean business I would strongly suggest just doing it on onmy.cloud, and tell people that if you get the .self you'll transparently migrate their onmy.cloud domain on to .self when you get it. Nothing says "I can do this" like actually doing it.
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  bananamogul
  Hold up...why isn't .self listed here:https://www.iana.org/domains/root/dbIs this just an idea at this point, or some kind of "you have to use our DNS to resolve .self domains" scheme - ?
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  mkl
  Site errored out and gave me three different error messages as I reloaded. I guess it's self-hosted on something underpowered, and dynamic where static would do the job?
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  9dev
  Shotgun on your.self! That’s going to yield a ton of great second level sub domains :)
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  samgranieri
  I’m just using .home.arpa for my self hosted stuff. Free, just have to deal with TLS root cert trust, but once that’s down; you’re golden.
• stanfordkid
  I don't fully understand how this works... who regulates and defines what is "self-hosted" or "ethical technology"... I feel you can't really solve the distributed consensus and governance problem by just introducing a new domain suffix.
• 2001zhaozhao
  The $1/year numerical .xyz domain is pretty affordable already, and there are multiple providers now with free DNS services.
• akerl_
  What is the premise for being able to do "one person, one subdomain" that isn't a privacy/security nightmare?
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  sudonem
  We should probably just bring back Geocities at this point.
• Grimblewald
  In this econimy? where google's full might is behind killing self-hosting? Be still, my beating heart --- there may be hope yet.
• foresto
  What is the expected price range for registration and renewal under this TLD?Will there be any assurance that renewal prices will remain fairly stable, rather than being significantly raised after customers grow attached to their domains (a practice that seems to be common with new gTLDs)?
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  LorenDB
  Looks like we've hugged it to death.
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  hananova
  It simply cannot be both free and free choice of domain.If it has both, it will be squatted to uselessness, and blocked everywhere because of phishing scams everywhere.You can either make the domains cost money, which seems counter to the entire point, or disallow choosing the domain, instead handing out free what3words style names.
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  artyom
  The reason why this won't work is right there, in the original link itself.They're allowing comments and obviously the first thing there is a scam.No way any goodwill on the Internet is going to prosper. Not anymore.
• prepend
  I tried to leave a comment and it errored out and said “please leave a valid email.” I tried 6 different addresses at prepend.com.It’s weird when sites have invalid email checks.
• spooneybarger
  I, as a human, find that website decidedly unfriendly to quickly getting information. Particularly on mobile.
• iamnothere
  Better charge an arm and a leg for it, or people will complain that it’s too cheap and argue for blocking it everywhere.
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  functionmouse
  .me is cooler, but...That all the cool 2-letter TLDs are designated as country codes was an extraordinary mistake that will have unpredictable and devastating consequences long into the future.
• anon
  undefined
• ronbenton
  Seems like a good way to get targeted by attackers
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  LelouBil
  Can someone explain how the "core features" would work ?How/Why is this linked to a TLD and not a hosting provider ?
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  pavel_lishin
  > One Person, One Subdomain> - Everyone entitled to a subdomain at no costOne subdomain, or one subdomain? Would I be entitled to something like "pavel.hosts.self"?
• robertlagrant
  Will Self[0] is going to love this.[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Self
• koolala
  A free tunnel would be a dream. This would be a great initiative.
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  cherryteastain
  In practice sadly many of these more obscure TLDs seem to be more expensive than more 'normal' ones like .org
• gpt5
  Feels like putting a flag on yourself that you are an easier target (security vulnerabilities, ddos, etc.)
• Pxtl
  If we're gonna futz around with self hosting tld stuff, can we get HTTP clients to allow self signing on dot local? It's my goddamned network stop warning me about my own servers and no I don't want to install new root certs I resent the need to do Deep Magic just to have a private NAS.
• PaulDavisThe1st
  Seems that my.self is already taken. Moving right along, then ...
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  arjie
  Just use cloudflare with static hosting for things like this. Doesn’t load for me.
• anothereng
  I think is a good goal to pursue.
• sikozu
  Wanted to find out more but it looks to be down. Unfortunate.
• kylehotchkiss
  Oh too bad will.i.am can’t spend $5,000,000 for a my.self domain :(
• DonHopkins
  SELF: The Power of SimplicityDAVID UNGAR (ungar@self.stanford.edu)Computer Systems Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 RANDALL B. SMITH† (rsmith@parc.xerox.com) Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, California 94304Abstract. SELF is an object-oriented language for exploratory programming based on a small number of simple and concrete ideas: prototypes, slots, and behavior. Prototypes combine inheritance and instantiation to provide a framework that is simpler and more flexible than most object-oriented languages. Slots unite variables and procedures into a single construct. This permits the inheritance hierarchy to take over the function of lexical scoping in conventional languages. Finally, because SELF does not distinguish state from behavior, it narrows the gaps between ordinary objects, procedures, and closures. SELF’s simplicity and expressiveness offer new insights into objectoriented computation.To thine own self be true. —William Shakespearehttps://bibliography.selflanguage.org/_static/self-power.pdf
• byte_0
  mine.my.own.my.precious.self
• fragmede
  I've been looking to get into the TLD game. It's gonna cost about $600k, and it's a coin toss as to whether or not you'll get your money back. The two I've been eyeing, is .ion and .ness. Anyone want to go in on either of those with me?
• mattrighetti
  my.self is going to be sold for millions
• greenavocado
  I use netbird.io for my home lab and all my connected devices are reachable to each other without manual firewall hackery
• 28304283409234
  treat.yo.self!
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  comrade1234
  Good luck getting your outgoing emails accepted by Gmail and outlook.
• anon
  undefined
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  quotemstr
  ICANN and its consequences have been a disaster for the internet namespace.
• dorianmariecom
  it.self
• TZubiri
  >One domain per personHow will you ensure this?
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  hosel
  gofuckyour.self
• CurbStomper
  [dead]
• focusgroup0
  [dead]
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  axus
  I've started using .internal