Re: [nznog] Fwd: DNCL Second Level Consultation and Submissions

On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 3:47 PM, Ewen McNeill wrote:

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It occurs to me that "${DOMAIN}-${2LD}.nz" (for any existing 2ld of .nz, and domain in that 2ld) is probably nearly as good for phishing. For yet another unintended side effect. (Several other plausible variations, eg, ${BANK}bank.nz, ${BANK}-bank.nz, would probably also fool enough users to be worth the domain cost.)

Phishing is always high on everyones list, never mind the cause (IDNs come to mind). My last company had between 10 and 20 phishing cases a day, none of them were limited to any sort of pattern you could dream up. Opening up a second level will not increase anything in this respect.

In my experience phishing is all about the look of the page and how convincing the accompanying email is and nothing to do with the domain being used. (Most) Phishers aren't looking to leave the more obvious trail of paying for a domain and hosting and rather just look to exploit insecure websites and "hide" their dirty pages in dot prefixed directories. On 30 May 2012 16:21, Jacob Lister wrote:

As WhaleOil found this morning, what he thought NZ Firsts website (nzfirst.co.nz) currently has NZ First branding, a down for maintenance notification and a large photo of Justin Bieber. The site is not owned by the New Zealand First party (who have a .org with the same name), and speculation has it that the real owner is a Green party troll.

This illustrates a failure on WhaleOil's part. He obviously didn't have it bookmarked or use Google. Domain names these days are not there to facilitate guessing but are rather a branding tool (aside from their obvious technical purpose). Google it or click a relevant link - don't guess. On 30 May 2012 17:04, Gareth Davies wrote:

I think the domain name its self is becoming ever more irrelevant to the average user. People search for what they want, and many people think that the Google (or other provider) search box is the address bar.

Despite what I just wrote above, I still see merit in 2LDs. Knowing that .govt.nz domains for example are moderated means that when I'm on one of their sites I know it's (way more likely to be) legit. Even unmoderated 2LDs like .org.nz tell me something useful about the intent of the site.

That being said having a massive explosion of 2ld would cause me to question the validity and trust worthiness of some sites

Exactly. On 30 May 2012 19:12, Blair Harrison wrote:

So out of 480803 total registrations in .nz, we have 417188, or 86.7% of all total registrations being .co.nz, with the next two being 5.6% and 5.5%. Seems like some extra commercial type 2ld categories might be a good idea (tourism.nz, retail.nz, trade.nz?)

I agree that some new 2LDs could be beneficial but only in a controlled way.

Lumping the bulk of domains into .co.nz has already destroyed any semblance of hierarchy, so I don't really see much reason to argue about the sanctity of the old way of doing things. It's already well and truly gone.

I would argue the opposite in that the rarity of the non-co.nz 2LDs highlights that the hierarchy is working. If every man and his dog registered a .org.nz to go with their .co.nz then yes, .org.nz would then be pointless. On 30 May 2012 19:33, Sam Sargeant wrote:

On 30/05/2012, at 4:19 PM, Michael NEWBERY wrote:

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Hence, expanding the 2ld.nz is addressing an increasingly irrelevant problem, if it addresses one at all.

What if the problem was "growth of .nz registrations is slowing" ?

I don't see how moving up one level helps that? So now my new company Xavier Tucker Rural Accountants can't register xtra.nz rather than xtra.co.nz? People still have to come up with a unique domain name and as Michael and others have mentioned/implied, once you have the domain you work it into your branding and use SEO to make it findable. If you're not chosing a .nz domain then I would find it hard to believe it's because you "have to" have .co.nz and more likely that it's because you perceive other ccTLDs or a gTLD as more relevant to your brand/site purpose. I disagree with opening up 2LDs. Mark