Mali is taking back .ml, might need to change domain

We have bought an alternate domain. We are trying to figure out what the migration process (for changing domain name) would look like before making an announcement about this.

EDIT: To add, we also need to figure out whether we should migrate preemptively or not. That is on the docket as well. If we don't do that, we need to figure out a medium of communication if shit hits the fan. That is on the docket too.

Something to consider. Since we have now been named in that shitty research we may have a larger target on our backs. We’re not likely big enough for any government agencies to take direct action (though that could change in an instant if we get linked to something larger than ourselves or explode in popularity), but we also need to be worried about private entities, liberal/fash/anarchist hackers and activists who could cause problems by lobbying our hosting provider to deplatform us or for the registrar of the domain to seize it.

The time soon could come we’re we are straight up called a hostile foreign operation by a hostile government. This makes choosing at least a registrar more important. As while losing hosting is annoying as long as you have your domain name everyone can find each other again once a new provider is found and a backup deployed. Whereas losing our domain name means many people may never come back but also links to good threads, debunking, resources are lost forever both inside and outside (as they will be with this move).

It’s not legally possible in most cases unfortunately to purchase domain names from registrars of socialist counties as most are under US sanction. Russia would also have been very high on my list because of their liability to tell the US to go fuck itself over any kind of cybercrime but with the war that’s out the window.

Just avoid countries that are super eager to cooperate with NATO regime (five eyes mainly but also fourteen eyes).

What exactly is meant with "taking back"? Does that mean only entities connected to Mali will be allowed to use .ml TLDs? I looked through the Lemmy thread, the only sources cited for the whole thing was this, which just sounds like fearmongering about Mali being friendly with Russia, and this article about Gabon intending to delete "millions of domains" after getting the .ga back from Freenom, which cites this (archive link because website didn't load for me) official communique, which says it will "put an end to abusive practices", which I assume would be their stated reason for deleting the TLDs, but doesn't say they will outright delete every TLD or disallow foreign registrations of .ga domains.

(Which is all about Gabon, a different country. But it can be seen as a precedent.)

My opinion? I don't think there is enough information to warrant taking such a drastic action as changing our domain preemptively. The only actual fact we know is that control of the .ml domain is going to Mali instead of a Dutch company. The linked Lemmy thread honestly reads like a bunch of Redditors stirring up panic. But there is actual reason for concern, since we simply don't know what they'll decide to do with existing registrations, and definitely should make a backup plan, for the case that Mali does decide to not let us have the .ml TLD.

We should send a really nice letter to the government of mali asking to keep our website

I feel like I accidentally thought-willed this into existence. I was randomly like “wtf is .ml anyway?” and looked it up to find it was Mali and apparently registering a domain was free. I was like “oh cool. Guess they either don’t see value in the domain or just don’t give a shit. But… what if they suddenly DO give a shit?”

I mentally shrugged it off because I know there are certain rules around domains that the world agrees on. Yoinking a domain without going through the process seems to be grounds for… well I guess that’s the problem. No enforcement? I mean really what can the world even do besides be pissy and move on? Seems like a bad play on Mali’s part anyway. There’s no telling how popular lemmy can or will get. Instead of yoinking domains back the capitalist thing to do 🧐 is simply extort the owners. Tell them that when times for renewal, in a year or whatever, prices will be set based on popularity. Basically the way other domains are bought and sold. It’s a shitty tactic, but we live in a shitty world, and free domains was probably always too good to be true if you’re honest with yourself. I feel like the domain lemmygrad.ml is probably not worth that much though. It’s only value is literally just this community here which has I’d say zero value for advertising and such. Just thought of consciousness typing now.

On a side note though, taking away the .ml which could he interpreted as Marxism-Leninism (and I absolutely always read it that way in my mind- sorry Mali), really sucks.

Alternative domain choice number one, imo, is of course .su . Yes, that is indeed the Soviet Union top level domain. Incredibly interesting factoid that the Soviet Union was around just barely long enough to be assigned its official top level domains (you know, like .us, .fr, .ru, etc.). Now I believe the Russian federation controls the .su and I don’t know the rules around obtaining one. Some countries are weird about it. Like to get a .us domain (they are very cheap) you have to agree to have all your information publicly available and not hidden behind the usual messages, whatever the wording is exactly, like “on file with the cloudflare registrar.” But anyway, .su is cool. Not as cool as .ml though. Feels bad.

Edit: for anyone interested, I went through the purchase process for a .su domain and they do indeed have additional requirements typical to country TLDs. You have to provide a valid Russian passport number. Interesting and disappointing (for non Russians anyway I guess).

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]