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Tell HN: Read this before buying a domain
17 points by ghoshbishakh 16 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments
We bought a ".online" domain for our small localhost tunneling tool. It was the worst decision for our service till now.

Beware, this and a few other TLDs (.tech, .site, .website, etc.) can be suspended without notice, and you won't be able to do anything about it. Our service has been down for 3 days, and we have not received any response from Radix.

We had no idea that the ".online" TLD is owned and operated by Radix (https://radix.website/), a shady company that has zero support and does not even respond to its users. Your registrar (namecheap / porkbun, etc.) will not be able to do anything. Radix has the ultimate control.

Our domain pinggy.online was suspended on 2024-04-26 12:39 UTC. The domain went to "Server Hold". None of our pinggy.online URLs were working. We detected the issue and submitted the first unsuspension request at 14:17 UTC. Nothing happened.

Later, we sent them more unsuspension requests, emails, and also tweets at regular intervals. The best thing we could get was, "Thank you for getting in touch with us. This automated email is just to let you know that we have received your email." The least they could do is tell us what we can do to resolve the problem.

Hundreds of pinggy.io users are unable to access their devices because of this outage.

I have also sent an email to their CEO. But of course, no one will get back, it seems.

I wish I had read this blog post before: https://rovity.io/why-radix-registry-suspended-our-domain-name/

You can track our updates here: https://pinggy.io/blog/domain_outage_incident_april_2024/




Looks like you're back 'online'? But this is sad to hear. I run a service that compares domain name prices (https://dot.bs if you're curious), and maybe it would be good to include something like a 'reliability' score or something per extension (ie registry).

I see (on https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db) that Radix also operates .fun, .host, .press, .site, .space, .store, .tech, .uno, and .website. So those could get some indication to start with. Does anyone know of any other 'less reliable' registries..?


The issue with radix is their silence before and after a domain suspension. We are also very new to this. We will publish our learnings in a future blog post.


Yes it is hard to find the right one, given some registries are passive. There seems to be a lack of active involvement coming from them, personally being in the industry. What is happening within it, is almost the same as the real-estate market. Individuals with lots of money owning, digital real-estate and earning passive income.

The lack of active involvement to grow the communities, is slowing things down for sure. This is coming from @ domain.cam


Are the registries not maintaining proper teams for support and maintainance? There should be some regulations or a point of contact to escalate.


Sad to hear this. Seems like, we need to check the TLD operator thoroughly now before buying any less conventional domain.


How can we be sure which TLD operator will be responsive and at least communicate before and after taking adverse steps?


Reputation of the company behind is rather important for me. I run the most important stuff on my .de domains. They are cheap and i can bang at someones door in the worst case, since the owners of it can be made responsible.




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