Tell HN: Remember to migrate away from .name domain

38 points | by nikanj 2 days ago

10 comments

  • kiesel 1 hour ago
    Worth noting, this doesn't affect domain.name, thus 2nd level domains. I was actually unaware you could directly register a 3rd level domain... Got my .name in the sunrise phase of .name, though it later rendered obsolete by name change on marriage (but still got it).
  • wodenokoto 7 minutes ago
    Wait, so if you own Johnson.name you and use John.Johnson.name as your web address, that will stop working?
    • OtomotO 5 minutes ago
      I don't think so. If you own it, you can have any subdomain.

      At least I hope this is the case. I have a memorial page for my uncle under hisfirstname.ourlastname.name

  • victorbjorklund 14 minutes ago
    Unrelated. What happened with .io? Didn’t they say they would disappear or did that change?
  • pelagicAustral 39 minutes ago
    Biggest rug pull in the history of dns
  • nikanj 2 days ago
    In case you haven't heard about this, see https://domainnamewire.com/2026/09/03/third-level-dot-name/
    • jolmg 1 hour ago
      > His registrar informed him that his registration will be terminated in February (even though it’s paid through 2040).

      Wonder if registrars will refund to people's cards.

  • mindaslab 2 days ago
    Why re they doing this? Looks stupid to me.
    • nikanj 2 days ago
      By kicking old nerds off legacy.domain.name, they can relist domain.name on the open market and make an absolute killing.
  • mnd999 1 hour ago
    I have a second level and I’m in the process too. This kind of shitty behaviour warrants bankruptcy.
  • toomuchtodo 2 days ago
    Consider editing title to be "Tell HN:" Thank you for the PSA!
    • nikanj 2 days ago
      Good point, changed. Thanks!
  • moron4hire 32 minutes ago
    Jesus Christ. In 25 years of working on the Web, this is the first time I'm hearing of "third level domains". WTF? Where and when did this come from?

    No shade to the folks being harmed by this situation. Sorry. I'm just really non-plussed at the idea that the registrar is charging for what looks like should be a DNS prefix.

    • jeroenhd 1 minute ago
      .name has been doing this for 25 years so I guess you must've missed them right when you got started!

      For .uk, this scheme was the default until 2014 (a long time, considering it's first use was in 1985). Everything was .co.uk or .org.uk and you bought those directly with registrars. Then, in 2014, .uk registrations were allowed, and the .co.uk and .uk domains now coexist.

    • edent 28 minutes ago
      You've never seen example.co.uk? Many countries use them because the top level domains for gov, edu, etc are restricted to one country.
      • dspillett 7 minutes ago
        Those are not quite the same though, being something specific and short so essentially behave like a tld in their own right. For a long time you couldn't buy a <something>.uk, it had to be .co.uk or similar, so those _were_ the tld.

        The way .name worked you could directly register <name1>.<name2>.name instead if getting <name2>.name and setting up <name1> as a subdomain. It meant john.smith.name and dave.smith.name could be completely separate registrations. You can't generally register <name1>.<name2>.tld like that.

      • Symbiote 4 minutes ago
        There's two on the second page of active HN discussions, telegraph.co.uk and independent.co.uk.

        Should we mention fourth-level domains, like ci.east-palo-alto.ca.us or stanborough.herts.sch.uk?

    • TZubiri 10 minutes ago
      there’s nothing special about any level of domains, it was always a hierarchical protocol
  • kagouhui 21 hours ago
    [flagged]