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Comment by gr33nq | Hacker News Reader

I went through the process of registering a .gov domain recently and it definitely takes a couple of months. It requires a letter of intent, wet signatures from elected official(s) on official letterhead, a phone call to a publicly listed number of an elected official, 2FA enrollment for the management of DNS/WHOIS, and a period of time in between some of these steps for some behind-the-scenes verification to take place. Despite the many steps, I did find it relatively straightforward and appropriate given the exclusivity of the TLD. In fact, the most difficult part (that I'm still working through) is convincing management that we should make the full migration to the .gov now that we have it registered...

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What type of organization are you operating where you'd need a .gov? Is this a government organization (like a local government or city hall)? Or is it possible for even random non-government related non-profits to have legitimate uses for .govs?

Edit: I was mostly commenting on this.

> In fact, the most difficult part is convincing management that we should make the full migration to the .gov

It sounds like the most difficult part of getting a .gov is having a legitimate government entity and having a purpose that needs one.

I would hope that random "non-government related non-profits" aren't using .gov domains. Isn't the whole point of the domain that it's just for government entities?

even usps.gov just redirects to usps.com which I feel is a bit of a loss.

Lots of small towns have dot coms when they could have dot gov.

It does feel like the redirect should go the other way around.

Even weirder, https://anpost.ie redirects to https://www.anpost.com/

So apparently the Irish Post Office wants to be seen as an international player?

USPS I think from a branding perspectives wants to be compared to retail shipping and not come across and some stuffy/slow bureaucratic agency, even though they totally are.

They’re a lot more functional than UPS or FedEx.

USPS is (since 1970) an Independent Agency rather than an agency of the executive branch. This was sort of a semi-privatization measure that isolates USPS from the federal government, USPS operates mostly as a government-owned independent corporation. There are a number of other independent agencies as well, they way they relate to .gov domains varies. I don't think there's a well-settled policy on whether independent agencies should use .gov domains. Amtrak doesn't, the CIA does, NCUA does, Federal Reserve mostly doesn't (except the board which is a federal agency). I think it depends mostly on brand identity and how much they want to be perceived as private sector vs. government agencies, since independent agencies often straddle a line between the two.

Eligibility requirements are here [0]. You have to be connected to a government entity, no private nonprofits are eligible.

[0] https://get.gov/registration/requirements/#eligibility

You must be an official government entity at a local, state, or federal level. This can include cities, counties, special districts, joint power authorities, state offices, etc.

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