Comment by sambeau | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sambeau | Hacker News Reader

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If you want to keep the @name you could always go in reverse:

  com.example@abc

Although I think that would just confuse most of the world.

We could go oldschool with a newline:

  abc
  example
  com

;-)

More seriously, I wish there was an easy way to divorce the username from the server similar to how DNS works so I could move my provider without losing my identity. A separation of name providers and service deliverers would do this.

Also, do we need names to match domain names? Couldn't we start from scratch?

It would be interesting to see what we could come up with if we dropped .com, .net, .org, .name etc and went for something more abstract.

  .blue .horse .cheese .bang

While we may end up with just the same as now (but without the .com) it might be interesting.

You need a domain to get information about a person, such as where their server is.

That domain does not have to be the server they use for microblogging or whathaveyou. It shouldn't be, honestly. You can host your identity anywhere and point to the microblogging server using a link.

So, I can be wilkie@mydomain.net, as familiar as an email address which is REALLY important for usability; the UI can drop the domain if you think it is ugly or hinders readability, and we go on from there.

This is what webfinger + xrd gives you: http://code.google.com/p/webfinger/wiki/WebFingerProtocol

It's already used by status.net, rstat.us, etc etc. tent.io ignores it and wants to reinvent everything.

Now I can switch microblogging sites if I want by just pointing to a new one. But, just like changing your name is a hassle in real-life, changing where your identity is held is also hard. Using DNS and having your own server for at least your identity are ideal.

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