Re: unqualified domains, was ICANN to allow commercial gTLDs

[Paul Vixie <vixie () isc org>]

> Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 19:22:46 -0700
> From: Michael Thomas <mike () mtcc com>
>
> > that's a good question.  marka mentioned writing an RFC, but i expect
> > that ICANN could also have an impact on this by having applicants sign
> > something that says "i know that my single-label top level domain name
> > will not be directly usable the way normal domain names are and i intend
> > to use it only to register subdomain names which will work normally."
>
> Isn't this problem self regulating? If sufficient things break with a
> single label, people will stop making themselves effectively unreachable,
> right?

alas, no.  if someone adds something to the internet that doesn't work right
but they ignore this and press onward until they have market share, then the
final disposition will be based on market size not on first mover advantage.

if you live in the san francisco bay area you probably know about the "sound
walls" along the US101 corridor.  the freeway was originally built a long way
from where the houses were, but then a few generations of people built their
houses closer and closer to the freeway.  then their descendants or the folks
who bought these houses third or fourth hand complained about the road noise
and so we have sound walls.  no harm exactly, and no foul, except, noone likes
the result much.

here's this quote again:

        "Distant hands in foreign lands
        are turning hidden wheels,
        causing things to come about
        which no one seems to feel.
        All invisible from where we stand,
        the connections come to pass
        and though too strange to comprehend,
        they affect us nonetheless, yes."
                James Taylor, _Migrations_

good stewardship and good governance means trying to avoid such outcomes.