A firm here in my city once got all of their signage printed and installed _before_ securing the social media handles they’d put on them. The Instagram username they’d opted for was actually literally impossible to register as it contained a special character. That was about six years ago. The signs are still up.
Who are you doing this for? All the small children on HN who will be scandalized reading the word "porn" but are safe so long as the "o" is censored with an asterisk?
The obvious answer is that this user likely also comments on other platforms that do not allow using the word openly and instead of the mental overload of constantly deciding which site does and doesn’t allow spelling out the word they choose the safer option in every case.
Or their autocorrect has now learnt to respell it anyways.
Or, they didn’t really spend hours debating the pros and cons of using either spelling and just went with whatever felt ok at the time.
But why choose generosity when one can choose snarky ass instead.
Why do you follow your question by a refutation of the supposed response ? They probably doing it for themselves like people saying « gosh ». If you find that ridicule fine, but no need to strawman their intentions. You chances to get an honest, non defensive response are pretty low.
With country code TLDs, there is a key aspect that can be good to know. The process, technology and registration can literally be anything. It can be like what most people expect with normal digital registration where you send them your contact information and a small fee. It could also be a government department where you send envelopes with proof of ownership, cash bribe, and a process where the documents need to be stamped and re-stamped, and where registration can be first-to-apply or an most-deserving kind of thing. Fairly common requirement is also local presence, as in a local citizen or legal firm that operate in that country.
Thus, availability and price are somewhat undefined when dealing with ccTLD's. As a customer you may also be fairly protected from knowing the why or how.
As someone with a domain name on a ccTLD for a country most people have never heard of, I can only say "lolsob". It's managed by a guy who works for the post office, things take a few weeks to process, and there's a holding company involved.
They were lucky: Not all Cantons can do it at all, and the domain is not necessarily free (e.g. eSteuern.be may be taken for German-speaking part of Belgium?)
But not everyone who wants or needs to access it will be inside Switzerland? This doesn't fix anything, it would just make the whole situation even more confusing.
Still better than putting porn site address on children’s product (wicked). And they were able to buy the redirect. They should feel very lucky indeed.
I don't know/care to know how this played out. At the time I was thinking that if I was the owner of 'wicked.com' I would change my landing page and put a split-screen with one half linking to the toy (and away from the adult material), and to the other half a respectful/non-pornographic link for 'further in to my own adult material', perhaps adding a couple more hoops to minimize innocent souls being damaged.
Voters in Northern Ireland younger than 45 years prefer joining Ireland than staying in the UK, which means that .uk will stop being relevant within 50 years at most, once all boomers die.
I think the argument comes from the full title being "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". If you drop NI then the other three countries can already be grouped under the Great Britain term.
according to gandi eSteuern.BS is still free and cheaper (around 600 usd)... hn do the magic pls (I would definitely do it myself but I don't have 600 usd to spend on a practical joke unfortunately)
> There is not much time left: taxpayers will be able to complete their tax return for 2024 online as early as next week - probably with a slight detour via the Caribbean.
A "detour"? It's just a lookup in a database to resolve a name to an IP address. Unlikely that any person or any piece of technology in the Bahamas has anything to do with a Swiss person going to that website.
Maybe the article should have clarified that a little better. Now people will actually worry about their data, while none of it will even leave the country, if the server is domestic.
On Switzerland’s “leading” (in terms of pricing, and not in the good way) ISP’s own website nonetheless. So it is either incompetence or they think people are idiots.. or maybe just a healthy mix of both!
A firm here in my city once got all of their signage printed and installed _before_ securing the social media handles they’d put on them. The Instagram username they’d opted for was actually literally impossible to register as it contained a special character. That was about six years ago. The signs are still up.
Ahh unchecked websites in print. Two of my favourites are:
- The recent (Nov '24) mishap from Mattel printing a p*rn site on their Wicked dolls: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gz91pp5llo
- Or the numerous 'Click Here' or unreasonable long (e.g. https://example.gov.uk/some/sub/site/dGhlbi9hL3JlYWxseS9sb25...) that have appeared in UK government or NHS leaflets.
> p*rn
Who are you doing this for? All the small children on HN who will be scandalized reading the word "porn" but are safe so long as the "o" is censored with an asterisk?
The obvious answer is that this user likely also comments on other platforms that do not allow using the word openly and instead of the mental overload of constantly deciding which site does and doesn’t allow spelling out the word they choose the safer option in every case.
Or their autocorrect has now learnt to respell it anyways.
Or, they didn’t really spend hours debating the pros and cons of using either spelling and just went with whatever felt ok at the time.
But why choose generosity when one can choose snarky ass instead.
I don't think bhaney was being snarky. Censoring words that don't need censoring seems to me to be a recent phenomena. I'm glad there is push back.
Language evolves over time as a result of societal pressures. That’s what we are seeing here, and it has been happening since before recorded time.
Why do you follow your question by a refutation of the supposed response ? They probably doing it for themselves like people saying « gosh ». If you find that ridicule fine, but no need to strawman their intentions. You chances to get an honest, non defensive response are pretty low.
Did your mother watch over your shoulder as you wrote this comment?
Did you understand what was meant? If so then you really have no basis for complaining, beyond pettiness
You can say "porn" on HN, more so when the linked BBC article itself is titled "Mattel 'deeply regrets' porn site misprint on Wicked dolls".
With country code TLDs, there is a key aspect that can be good to know. The process, technology and registration can literally be anything. It can be like what most people expect with normal digital registration where you send them your contact information and a small fee. It could also be a government department where you send envelopes with proof of ownership, cash bribe, and a process where the documents need to be stamped and re-stamped, and where registration can be first-to-apply or an most-deserving kind of thing. Fairly common requirement is also local presence, as in a local citizen or legal firm that operate in that country.
Thus, availability and price are somewhat undefined when dealing with ccTLD's. As a customer you may also be fairly protected from knowing the why or how.
As someone with a domain name on a ccTLD for a country most people have never heard of, I can only say "lolsob". It's managed by a guy who works for the post office, things take a few weeks to process, and there's a holding company involved.
> Users do not have to worry about security, SRF quotes Weber: "No data is transferred. There is only a link to the correct page."
Yes but how do you know you've resolved the right thing, it's still vulnerable to a compromise of another TLD.
They were lucky: Not all Cantons can do it at all, and the domain is not necessarily free (e.g. eSteuern.be may be taken for German-speaking part of Belgium?)
what is this German-speaking part of Belgium you speak of?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-speaking_Community_of_B...
I need to FIRE, so that I can spend my time making informative `<topic>.bs` Web sites, in the public interest.
`.bs` is the best TLD since the one that made `jabber.at` possible.
unfortunately, they know what they've got! Gandi has .bs renewing at $400 per year!
.sucks is "only" $200!
.wtf is "only" $5 on namecheap
It should be possible to geofence it such that requests from within Switzerland are redirected to the correct address.
But not everyone who wants or needs to access it will be inside Switzerland? This doesn't fix anything, it would just make the whole situation even more confusing.
Right, why would anybody ever legitimately want to access that portal from outside switzerland? /s
Geofencing is a typical techie "solution" that solves nothing and only brings headache to people.
Still better than putting porn site address on children’s product (wicked). And they were able to buy the redirect. They should feel very lucky indeed.
I don't know/care to know how this played out. At the time I was thinking that if I was the owner of 'wicked.com' I would change my landing page and put a split-screen with one half linking to the toy (and away from the adult material), and to the other half a respectful/non-pornographic link for 'further in to my own adult material', perhaps adding a couple more hoops to minimize innocent souls being damaged.
And minimize ads served? Unlikely
.co.uk solved this looong ago
Solved what? If someone forgets the final .uk on the flyer and don't want to reprint it, they will need to buy a domain in Colombia...
Curious how many times that has happened. And presumably there are typosquatters on .co domains corresponding to valuable .co.uk domains.
Voters in Northern Ireland younger than 45 years prefer joining Ireland than staying in the UK, which means that .uk will stop being relevant within 50 years at most, once all boomers die.
The country would still be called United Kingdom if it contained three constituent provinces instead of four
I think the argument comes from the full title being "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". If you drop NI then the other three countries can already be grouped under the Great Britain term.
Rename it to “United Kingdom of England and Scotland” and party like it’s 1707. Problem solved.
[angry Welsh noises]
according to gandi eSteuern.BS is still free and cheaper (around 600 usd)... hn do the magic pls (I would definitely do it myself but I don't have 600 usd to spend on a practical joke unfortunately)
Expensive for a joke, extremely cheap for international tax scams.
> There is not much time left: taxpayers will be able to complete their tax return for 2024 online as early as next week - probably with a slight detour via the Caribbean.
A "detour"? It's just a lookup in a database to resolve a name to an IP address. Unlikely that any person or any piece of technology in the Bahamas has anything to do with a Swiss person going to that website.
Maybe the article should have clarified that a little better. Now people will actually worry about their data, while none of it will even leave the country, if the server is domestic.
It's called "humour".
On Switzerland’s “leading” (in terms of pricing, and not in the good way) ISP’s own website nonetheless. So it is either incompetence or they think people are idiots.. or maybe just a healthy mix of both!