this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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People's Court

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Would like for us to get ahead of this instead of having to scramble

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

We have bought an alternate domain. We are trying to figure out what the migration process (for changing domain name) would look like before making an announcement about this.

EDIT: To add, we also need to figure out whether we should migrate preemptively or not. That is on the docket as well. If we don't do that, we need to figure out a medium of communication if shit hits the fan. That is on the docket too.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

According to the docs at https://join-lemmy.org/docs/administration/backup_and_restore.html, changing domain will break federation. Not sure in what ways, but best to be aware of that and mitigate as best you can. Good luck guys!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Alright good to hear, little spooky reading that post

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Something to consider. Since we have now been named in that shitty research we may have a larger target on our backs. We’re not likely big enough for any government agencies to take direct action (though that could change in an instant if we get linked to something larger than ourselves or explode in popularity), but we also need to be worried about private entities, liberal/fash/anarchist hackers and activists who could cause problems by lobbying our hosting provider to deplatform us or for the registrar of the domain to seize it.

The time soon could come we’re we are straight up called a hostile foreign operation by a hostile government. This makes choosing at least a registrar more important. As while losing hosting is annoying as long as you have your domain name everyone can find each other again once a new provider is found and a backup deployed. Whereas losing our domain name means many people may never come back but also links to good threads, debunking, resources are lost forever both inside and outside (as they will be with this move).

It’s not legally possible in most cases unfortunately to purchase domain names from registrars of socialist counties as most are under US sanction. Russia would also have been very high on my list because of their liability to tell the US to go fuck itself over any kind of cybercrime but with the war that’s out the window.

Just avoid countries that are super eager to cooperate with NATO regime (five eyes mainly but also fourteen eyes).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

yeah, honestly I'm really hoping that we won't have to change domains

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

What exactly is meant with "taking back"? Does that mean only entities connected to Mali will be allowed to use .ml TLDs? I looked through the Lemmy thread, the only sources cited for the whole thing was this, which just sounds like fearmongering about Mali being friendly with Russia, and this article about Gabon intending to delete "millions of domains" after getting the .ga back from Freenom, which cites this (archive link because website didn't load for me) official communique, which says it will "put an end to abusive practices", which I assume would be their stated reason for deleting the TLDs, but doesn't say they will outright delete every TLD or disallow foreign registrations of .ga domains.

Automatic translation of the communiqueNew international management of the .ga top-level domain

The National Agency for Digital Infrastructures and Frequencies of the Gabonese Republic (ANINF) informs the general public that from Wednesday, June 07, 2023, it will carry out a technical migration relating to the management of the national extension .ga.

This transition responds in particular to two (02) priority issues:

  • Offer quality services that comply with the reference rules of the registry operator profession;
  • Put an end to abusive practices, through the will and support of the Gabonese State, which have had a negative impact on the image of the country and its influence on the Internet.

This operation will cause disruptions to .ga holders. in Gabon and internationally. Also, the ANINF Registry wishes to reassure its users that all the necessary measures to promote continuity of service have been taken with the assistance of national authorities and international bodies in the sector.

In addition, several weeks ago the Registry began an accreditation campaign with registrars to ensure the switchover operation and management of the .ga zone according to the highest standards of quality of service and security.

However, Registrars likely to have current .ga holders as customers, as well as customers holding a .ga domain name via the Freenom Operator, are reminded that as of June 6, 2023 the international .ga zone will now be managed by ANINF. Also, the Registry invites them to contact its technical services, via the address www.mon.ga, in order to avoid any inconvenience after this operation.

Ultimately, ANINF recalls that this strategic decision is part of the continuity of its mission to offer its users quality, reliable and secure services. It also demonstrates its commitment to strengthening Gabon's digital sovereignty and ensuring responsible management of digital resources.

(Which is all about Gabon, a different country. But it can be seen as a precedent.)

My opinion? I don't think there is enough information to warrant taking such a drastic action as changing our domain preemptively. The only actual fact we know is that control of the .ml domain is going to Mali instead of a Dutch company. The linked Lemmy thread honestly reads like a bunch of Redditors stirring up panic. But there is actual reason for concern, since we simply don't know what they'll decide to do with existing registrations, and definitely should make a backup plan, for the case that Mali does decide to not let us have the .ml TLD.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wasn't exactly sure either. The fear is coming from what the FMHY instance owner is saying. I just wanted to make sure the admins were aware, if we had like admin mail I just would have sent through that

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I see. I actually think it's good you posted this on here, so that we all are aware that there might be problems/downtime in relation to this and possibly a domain change. I'm sorry if I sounded too annoyed in my previous comment, that was annoyance at some of the Redditor types over there, not annoyance at you.

Does the FMHY owner have any information on what exactly happened? Did they get notified that the registration for their .ml domain got canceled? Any stated reasons? Or it just stopped loading one day and they figured that it's related to that? It would be good to know, for deciding how big of a concern it really is for Lemmy. (Sorry if all this is a stupid question, I'm not sure how exactly domain registration works.)

I'm also kind of confused when this taking back is happening. The FMHY post says "ongoing", while the domainincite.com article makes it seem like it's a thing in the near future. Any actual sources (especially any official statement by the entities involved) would be good. Searching for phrases like "Mali taking back .ml TLD" or "Mali TLD transfer" doesn't find me anything.

Though it does find this weird cluster of recent articles suddenly complaining about people misspelling .mil as .ml:

(spoiler because the image takes up too much vertical space)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I found this earlier, seems like they really have no clue what exactly is happening either: https://very.bignutty.xyz/notes/9hf13it1ced3b2za

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Unless the domain was bought from a registrar the Malian government recognizes as legitimate there is no reason to think it won’t be seized if the rationale is similar. It’s unlikely they particularly want a bunch of western communists using their ctld or will see any value in allowing it especially if they’ve not earned one cent from this fact.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We should send a really nice letter to the government of mali asking to keep our website

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

lol "death to Amerikkka, France, and all other genocidal Crakkkers please let us keep using your domain :)"

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean why would it not work

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Who would we even send it to lol, some random government official?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Yes, exactly

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

All of them

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I feel like I accidentally thought-willed this into existence. I was randomly like “wtf is .ml anyway?” and looked it up to find it was Mali and apparently registering a domain was free. I was like “oh cool. Guess they either don’t see value in the domain or just don’t give a shit. But… what if they suddenly DO give a shit?”

I mentally shrugged it off because I know there are certain rules around domains that the world agrees on. Yoinking a domain without going through the process seems to be grounds for… well I guess that’s the problem. No enforcement? I mean really what can the world even do besides be pissy and move on? Seems like a bad play on Mali’s part anyway. There’s no telling how popular lemmy can or will get. Instead of yoinking domains back the capitalist thing to do 🧐 is simply extort the owners. Tell them that when times for renewal, in a year or whatever, prices will be set based on popularity. Basically the way other domains are bought and sold. It’s a shitty tactic, but we live in a shitty world, and free domains was probably always too good to be true if you’re honest with yourself. I feel like the domain lemmygrad.ml is probably not worth that much though. It’s only value is literally just this community here which has I’d say zero value for advertising and such. Just thought of consciousness typing now.

On a side note though, taking away the .ml which could he interpreted as Marxism-Leninism (and I absolutely always read it that way in my mind- sorry Mali), really sucks.

Alternative domain choice number one, imo, is of course .su . Yes, that is indeed the Soviet Union top level domain. Incredibly interesting factoid that the Soviet Union was around just barely long enough to be assigned its official top level domains (you know, like .us, .fr, .ru, etc.). Now I believe the Russian federation controls the .su and I don’t know the rules around obtaining one. Some countries are weird about it. Like to get a .us domain (they are very cheap) you have to agree to have all your information publicly available and not hidden behind the usual messages, whatever the wording is exactly, like “on file with the cloudflare registrar.” But anyway, .su is cool. Not as cool as .ml though. Feels bad.

Edit: for anyone interested, I went through the purchase process for a .su domain and they do indeed have additional requirements typical to country TLDs. You have to provide a valid Russian passport number. Interesting and disappointing (for non Russians anyway I guess).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was also looking into this recently and DDR almost got a domain as well. Would love to have a .dd domain these days in Germany. I also considered an .su domain but didn't get as far as you did just based on the price alone.

In terms of lemmygrad an AES domain (cn, vn cu for example), or if that's also too risky one of the newer TLDs that are more or less free to take for whatever a person wants.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Personaly I vote .cu, if it is able to be gotten, and it follows Cuban Guidelines to get. if I had to pick a first choice.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Would be funny if the Free Democratic Countries block access due to the domain. I think it's also important to consider that the main instance could also get revoked and that could be annoying for the rare non-Nazi communities over there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I looked it up too and was surprised this site even existed because Wikipedia said only third-level domains were allowed

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like lemmy.grad.ml?

Wikipedia also says .su is often used by cyber criminals, so, you know. Take that entire site with a grain of salt especially on fringe or niche thing like the .ml or .su domains lol

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.su

“The .su TLD is known for usage by cybercriminals.”

Literally the first entry under the facts stuff at the top. It’s kind of hilarious but not surprising. “Oh those crazy Russians with their crime!… of the cyber type!”

I wonder how many crimes are cited for the .us TLD 🤔

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.ml

Here’s the page if you want to see. Obviously needs editing

Also, lol that they’re scared about .mil vs .ml because “Mali is a close ally of Russia”

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

That’s actually just funny. I assume they didn’t write that to be humorous, but mentioning that people from the US side keep fucking up and sending emails to random .ml addresses instead of .mil is fucking funny. Hey crazy consideration for their IT team from a non-IT guy: don’t let people fucking email to any other TLD besides .mil or .gov or whatever. I mean that’s if I actually cared about them emailing secrets to Mali by accident which I don’t and it’s not Mali’s fault anyway.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago
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