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Comment by xmprt | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

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