I noticed the "Introduction of Two-Character Domain Names" thread.

This makes no sense at all.

2-char TLDs are historically reserved for country codes.

The proposals seem to be around allowing 2nd level 2-char domain names. 
I guess I don't care what people foolish enough to buy a TLD use for
names at lower levels; they can only hurt themselves and their
customers.  (Foolishness does tend to run down-hill.)  The worst that
can happen is that they pick names that some parsers reject; this may
cause them not to resolve, but any nameserver that fails as a result is
broken.  nameservers deal with garbage in the DNS all the time.  So I
don't see a (new) stability or security issue.  non-resolving names tend
to be self-correcting...

But, from the .GOP (picked at random) proposal:
> Permit the introduction of two-character .gop domains, while reserving
> two-letter domains that correspond to the two letter
> country code names.
So how are they doing that?  two-letter country code names are
unknowable - countries come and go, and ISO assigns codes.  E.g.
recently Sudan split.  Some folks seem to want Crimea to split.  Many
African countries have been renamed...

And some ISO assignments are flagrantly ignored (e.g. GB vs UK)

Then the GOP wants to use US state abbreviations, e.g. AL (.gop) for
Alabama.  AL is assigned as a CC to Albania.  CA (California) to
Canada.  And so on.  Did they read their own proposal?

This particular foolishness doesn't seem to be internally consistent...
isn't that the least one could ask for?

:-) -- or maybe :-( is more appropriate... sigh.

Timothe Litt
ACM Distinguished Engineer
--------------------------
This communication may not represent the ACM or my employer's views,
if any, on the matters discussed.