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Comment by edw | Hacker News Reader

To this I feel the need to reply with a big "duh!" Whenever I see a see a product launch with an two-letter country code, I look it up if I don't already know it and ask myself: Would I be willing to trust my business to _this_ country's domain registrar?

Joyent's Node SmartMachine services (no.de)? Germany: Yes!

Twitter's URL shortener (t.co)? Colombia? _Hugo Chavez?_ Umm, not really.

There are real countries behind these country codes and companies expose themselves to risks associated with those countries—and are arguably supporting the governments of those countries—by using a domain name with that country code.

HN readers learn that GoDaddy's run by a megalomaniacal big game hunter and they run for the exits. HN readers discover a punny domain name can be had by giving Qaddafi or Hugo Chavez money (however indirectly) and they place their orders. Hello?!

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What does Colombia have to do with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez?

Hugo Chavez rules Venezuela, not Colombia. In fact, under his leadership Venezuela has been at times close to going at war with Colombia.

I think you have a point, but using such an example makes you sound a snob western who divides the world in "countries I am fond of" and "countries I am not fond of".

Yes, I am quite embarrassed by this error. Now, if I'd decided to register a Colombian domain name, maybe I would have done a little more research.

Regarding your second paragraph, I think you may simply have a chip on your shoulder. My comfort with a German domain name is based on my knowledge that Germany's been a stable democracy for the last sixty years. I know very little about South America and am therefore more leery of domains backed by governments there.

I am quite fond of the UK and France, but given the curious libel and intellectual property legal environments of those two countries, respectively—yes, from my American and therefore evil, small-minded perspective—I wouldn't want to expose my business to those environment by using a registrar in the UK or France.

So sorry to not be the racist cultural-imperialist Europhile you'd like me to be.

Reading what I wrote, I now understand that it both sounded too harsh and completely lost the sarcasm in "snob western" (I should have added a [;)]). Believe me, as an Italian living in Brazil I have too often been accused of "western imperialism" to know what it feels like, and I hate it. I am really sorry, please excuse me.

And as I intended to say, I was agreeing with you: I would not trust my entire business to a .LY domaim, and do believe that .DE is more stable than, say, .SO. I was saying that the lack os research combined with the Germany/Colombia example was not the best way to defend your position, particularly in face of those who would probably consider it a cultural-imperialist one.

I too apologize for being so thin skinned. I spend a lot of time trying to be understanding and open-minded, so I get pissed off when I feel like people assume that I'm "part of the problem" because I'm white and male and whatever. Not that you'd know any of that.

One of the things I've learned in my travels is that people are very good at identifying other people's (and other cultures') weaknesses and significantly less skilled at identifying their own. Mea culpa.

The above conversation is a perfect example of why the HackerNews community is order of magnitude better than any other community I know of. Brilliant.

To a degree you're right, but it's a valid concern. Do you want to trust the gateway to your business to a country and by extension, a government you feel is either unstable or will do your company harm because they don't like your government?

It's less of a west vs <insert government here> thing and more of an A vs B thing.

Venezuela -> .ve -> Hugo Chávez

Colombia -> .co -> Juan Manuel Santos

Are the .ve domains actually available? I tried to get one a while back and found out I couldn't register one.

Chavez is funding/protecting the Colombian rebels trying to bring down the country... So really edw is right.

I just ordered a .so domain, which is Somalia. I wouldn't trust that country's government with a quarter, but a domain name seems like am okay deal. The site is actually better than the dutch registrar authority's... http://soregistry.so/

> but a domain name seems like am okay deal

Yes, until you have half a million customers coming to your site every month, and they suddenly found out that your site "no longer works".

Who knows, if your primary audience keeps up with tech news you might want to do it anyway and keep a press release and backup domain name ready to go in case it does go down. If you're quick enough, you might become the headliner for companies affected by the conflict.

You know, going back and re-reading what I just wrote, it sounds pretty bad. I'll leave the moral resolution up to the individual.

I wouldn't trust Germany either, unless I'm German. Country code domains are meant for residents of that country. If you're an American use .us, if your Chinese use .cn, if you're Libyan use .ly.

Or use .com, .org, .net, .info

Despite the slip up on the country-leader pairings, you make several valid points. You have to be comfortable with the (small) risk of registering with a country's top level domain.

I don't think any of us predicted that Obama would go to war with Libya. This is Obama's war taking down .ly domains, and nothing at all to do with unstable regimes.

Problems with the Libyan internet began well before the US began active involvement.

The .ly ccTLD has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with unstable regimes.

What do you mean by problems? There was some censorship, but I have been using bit.ly successfully for years with no trouble whatsoever. The country's institutions (such as libyan spider llc) were all doing just fine until Western powers decided to intervene.

This is a silly argument. Egypt's Internet went almost completely dark despite a lack of overt Western involvement.

I think overt is not necessarily all that was going on.

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