[glenstein]

I would invert the question. What's wrong with more options?

The thing that really strikes me every time the new TLD subject comes up, is that there's always a percentage of people who want to forbid creation of certain TLDs for unpredictable, idiosyncratic reasons.

[tunap]

"What's wrong with more options?" Linux distro/desktop/display protocol forks come to mind...

This feels(IMHO) like more noise coming on the line for registrar profit goodness, marginal benefit to registrants & a flood of bad choices(one-offs/deliberate mimicks/etc) for the rest of the unwary netizens.

[Retric]

Automatic spam filters and search engines are going to down rank them heavily. It's hard to automatically evaluate domain names such as xkcd but anything under .ecom is probably trash.

[glenstein]

That's supposed to be a reason for forbidding it?

Anybody could have any number of reasons for wanting a particular domain. Maybe someone will make the next del.icio.us? Maybe a TLD you don't like completes a word or phrase that makes a good brand, or is part of the next big viral trend that goes on to shape our culture in ways we wouldn't have anticipated.

Maybe people are just okay with being penalized by search engines because that's counterbalanced by other objectives. etc.

[Retric]

I was not suggesting that we should ban those domain names. However, using one is probably a bad idea, which makes adding them a waste of time. In the end there being added because companies know they can sell those domain names not because there useful.

A more useful option IMO is to have things default to .com if someone does not enter a domain name like how you can avoid country codes or area codes when dialing long distance.

However, by adding a huge list of TLD's your removing that option. Even worse while .edu means something WTF does .cow or .zzl mean? At best there is simply going to be another .com land grab except now seeing yourbank.bank or yourbank.bnk does not mean it's actually yourbank.

So yea, I do think it's a bad idea.

[glenstein]

As if to prove my point, you're using really random, idiosyncratic reasons to prevent creation of TLDs, and neglecting to consider that they might have any number of values we are yet to anticipate.

They don't need a reason to be added, other than offering more choice and more possibilities. You can not like them all you want, that doesn't mean they won't have value or that people shouldn't be free to explore the possibilities as they please.

[BrindsleyQuives]

>>Maybe someone will make the next del.icio.us?..

Let's hope not. I could never remember where that first dot went and usually took at least a couple of goes to find the site. Thankfully they can now be found at the less 'look how clever we've been', but infinitely easier to remember delicious.com

[glenstein]

It launched a catchy brand that was for a time the most dominant social bookmarking site on the internet. I don't think they would have chosen to do anything differently with respect to their original domain name.