Show HN: Obl.ong, Free, quality domains for all(obl.ong)
obl.ong
Show HN: Obl.ong, Free, quality domains for all
https://obl.ong
69 comments
Also there is a Code of Conduct associated with it that's much more restrictive than, "We'll comply with law enforcement requests if you are doing something illegal with the (sub)domain."
Nope.
Nope.
I mean couldn't a registry also shaft you?
This should be less frequent and IMHO, under many circumstance, you are protected by consumer law (citation needed). You also have more freedom when picking the domain name (fuckmicrosoft.co is less than 2$ on GoDaddy, but good luck trying to get fuckmicrosoft.github.io).
Also one issue that I neglected to raise is this can be very unstable. If some scammer/malware use your service (I know that you have a review process, but you still won't know for sure), Google SafeBrowse may mark your whole domain as harmful. I don't know if you have a contingency for this, but you need one in place.
Also one issue that I neglected to raise is this can be very unstable. If some scammer/malware use your service (I know that you have a review process, but you still won't know for sure), Google SafeBrowse may mark your whole domain as harmful. I don't know if you have a contingency for this, but you need one in place.
If a registrar dies you could transfer to another one. That's not possible with subdomains since there can only be one issuer
registry, not registrar
how is freenom different?
Misleading? This is outright wrong:
> this is not free domain, this is free subdomain
A subdomain is a type of domain.
> this is not free domain, this is free subdomain
A subdomain is a type of domain.
You misunderstood the definition of domain in my context. In terms of ownership, if I tell you I am owning a domain, I am owning something along the format of "${name}.${tld}". I can't say that I own the domain of "example.github.io", because, well, if somebody look up for example.github.io in the ICANN domain (provided it is not redacted), it's not going to be my name in there, it's going to be Github's.
In terms of "string that I can type in the Browser address bar to go to a website", I agree with your definition.
In terms of "string that I can type in the Browser address bar to go to a website", I agree with your definition.
> In terms of "string that I can type in the Browser address bar to go to a website", I agree with your definition.
That isn't a domain either. An address in there is a URL, a partial or complete one (it also recognizes search terms, but that's different).
It's actually really simple.
> In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is a part of another (main) domain.
Having a subdomain be a type of domain is really important for speaking concisely about web security. If I say "what's the domain of the cookie?" and the answer can't be "news.ycombinator.com", that's suboptimal. At the same time for security it is also important to know who the registrar is, but for that there is the term TLD.
That isn't a domain either. An address in there is a URL, a partial or complete one (it also recognizes search terms, but that's different).
It's actually really simple.
> In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is a part of another (main) domain.
Having a subdomain be a type of domain is really important for speaking concisely about web security. If I say "what's the domain of the cookie?" and the answer can't be "news.ycombinator.com", that's suboptimal. At the same time for security it is also important to know who the registrar is, but for that there is the term TLD.
You are still not looking at the definition of"domain name" in my context: the ownership context. I totally agree with you on the technical side, in most technical context a root-level domain or subdomain is largely the same thing.
In the ownership context the definition differs. Please if you want to challenge my notion of "subdomain" please only challenge this definition only. You don't own a subdomain as strongly as owning a root-level domain, because in the first case the only attestation is on the database of obl.ong/github.io/etc while in second case your ownership is attested by the ICANN registry, which is how things has been working for the past 20/30 years.
In the ownership context the definition differs. Please if you want to challenge my notion of "subdomain" please only challenge this definition only. You don't own a subdomain as strongly as owning a root-level domain, because in the first case the only attestation is on the database of obl.ong/github.io/etc while in second case your ownership is attested by the ICANN registry, which is how things has been working for the past 20/30 years.
you put "domain name" in quotes but in the title it says "domains"
> you can only deliberately lose the domain
Or your can be me. For some convoluted reasons I had the contract email set to my company mail and the domain was paid for 10 years. I left the company in May and in September the registrar started to send reminders which were of course bounced.
Then around Christmas I realized something is wrong, tried to get the domain back but it was too late.
This was an unfortunate set of circumstances, all my fault, but "deliberate" is a bit too masochist :)
Or your can be me. For some convoluted reasons I had the contract email set to my company mail and the domain was paid for 10 years. I left the company in May and in September the registrar started to send reminders which were of course bounced.
Then around Christmas I realized something is wrong, tried to get the domain back but it was too late.
This was an unfortunate set of circumstances, all my fault, but "deliberate" is a bit too masochist :)
I would like to first sympathize with you. That is a crappy situation to be in.
I also agree, "deliberate" is a bit too strongly worded.
So in order to lose the domain, there is just a very few modes of failure that has a 3rd party factor. In most case, the domain-owning entity is accountable for losing the access.
I also agree, "deliberate" is a bit too strongly worded.
So in order to lose the domain, there is just a very few modes of failure that has a 3rd party factor. In most case, the domain-owning entity is accountable for losing the access.
I was joking about this "deliberate" part - it was all my fault and a web of small mistakes/procrastination that led to that.
I’m confused about what “quality domains” means here. I’d honestly never heard of the `.ong` TLD, it seems intended for non-governmental organization. If you’re going to sell subdomains as “quality”, why not get a `.com`?
Oh, interesting.
https://thenew.org/org-people/about-pir/policies/ngo-and-ong...
>The mission and purpose of the .NGO and .ONG top level domain (“TLDs”) is to serve the global Non-Governmental Organization (“NGO”) Community by supplying it with exclusive TLDs that will offer NGOs and associations of NGOs differentiated and verified online identities.
https://thenew.org/org-people/about-pir/policies/ngo-and-ong...
>The mission and purpose of the .NGO and .ONG top level domain (“TLDs”) is to serve the global Non-Governmental Organization (“NGO”) Community by supplying it with exclusive TLDs that will offer NGOs and associations of NGOs differentiated and verified online identities.
.ONG was new to me:
"The PIR simultaneously applied for the top-level domain .ong, which is a similarly recognisable initialism for "organisation non gouvernementale" in French, and equivalent terms in many other Romance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian." [1]
So similar to e.g. NATO and OTAN.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NGO_and_.ONG
"The PIR simultaneously applied for the top-level domain .ong, which is a similarly recognisable initialism for "organisation non gouvernementale" in French, and equivalent terms in many other Romance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian." [1]
So similar to e.g. NATO and OTAN.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NGO_and_.ONG
And here Oblong itself is the NGO, so mysubdomain.obl.ong isn't that crazy.
"Oblong" is kind of an awkward word though. Anyone want to set up a fork at .bi.ngo?
Dang, now I'm going to be thinking of .ngo and .ong domains all day...
"Oblong" is kind of an awkward word though. Anyone want to set up a fork at .bi.ngo?
Dang, now I'm going to be thinking of .ngo and .ong domains all day...
Oh, now you got me started aswell. There are so many good ones.
k.ong - cool word, don't know what it would be for. Maybe the home of the mascot of the K language (I don't think K has a mascot from what I know but they should have one).
whats.wr.ong - find a therapist site.
Much harder to figure out any on '.ngo' I feel...
k.ong - cool word, don't know what it would be for. Maybe the home of the mascot of the K language (I don't think K has a mascot from what I know but they should have one).
whats.wr.ong - find a therapist site.
Much harder to figure out any on '.ngo' I feel...
dja.ngo - the web framework.
mo.ngo - the database.
flami.ngo, gri.ngo, li.ngo, ma.ngo, ri.ngo.
on the other side, how about str.ong?
mo.ngo - the database.
flami.ngo, gri.ngo, li.ngo, ma.ngo, ri.ngo.
on the other side, how about str.ong?
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bo.ngo, for physicists?
first .ngo I could think of: ta.ngo (probably will be registered within minutes of me posting this lol)
oh yeah, that one's good.
Kong is a pretty popular API management tool.
boi.ngo for airport wifi
As a founder of one, this seems unlikely to ever be used extensively
It's just that .ong is not associated with spam, unlike say freenom which gives people .tk and is used extensively for spam.
not associated with spam yet.
Another TLD for a target audience that will never use the TLD because of it's obscurity so it will only be used by people looking for the cheapest domain to spam and scam.
You can't get a .ONG without being a registered NGO.
I didn't know that, thanks. Hopefully it's strictly enforced.
Is anyone using these free subdomains professionally?
A proper .com is only ~$8/year, quite a good deal — is free domains still a problem that needs to be solved?
A proper .com is only ~$8/year, quite a good deal — is free domains still a problem that needs to be solved?
It's a problem that needs to be solved for spammers and scammers, in my experience.
That's why we have manual review.
"For all" but from their cock, I'm sorry, Code of Conduct:
> The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
No porn and probably more
> Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
No saying the president of the united states lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
> Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting
No t-shirts and jeans.
> distributing or hosting any adult content, including but not limited to, pornographic images or videos
No porn again
> content which may be illegal under German or Scottish law
No youtube-dl allowed!
> This list is not comprehensive, and we reserve the right to revoke any subdomain at any time
So basically if you piss off the CEO he might wake up one day and boot you off. Say hello cloudflare.
> The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
No porn and probably more
> Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
No saying the president of the united states lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
> Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting
No t-shirts and jeans.
> distributing or hosting any adult content, including but not limited to, pornographic images or videos
No porn again
> content which may be illegal under German or Scottish law
No youtube-dl allowed!
> This list is not comprehensive, and we reserve the right to revoke any subdomain at any time
So basically if you piss off the CEO he might wake up one day and boot you off. Say hello cloudflare.
To be fair most TLDs have similar rights and rules. Some don't and they're on most shitlists out there. In the end you're never buying a domain, it's always renting. Unless you're a TLD, then that actually is conceptually a bit different.
The people at https://nic.eu.org/ also provide decent free subdomains, only issue is they are manually approved, so may take a while to get a domain.
I love this idea. I've registered so many domains over the years only to have that project fail and then feel bad about the money I wasted on "the perfect domain". I would love to try stuff without spending (yes even $8) and get live on the internet with this + letsencrypt !
So take your primary domain you use... and make subdomains...?
no it's like i get "new domain fever" and nothing can talk me out of buying thisgreatdomain.com even though yes I could use foo.myolddomain.com.
What does OBL mean? Is it just a play on word with "oblong" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oblong) ?
Anyway, I doubt depending on a unknown project may qualify as "quality" for something as important as you domain name. Especially since having you own domain name can cost less than $10 per year, I don't really see the value in something like this (and I never want to live the Freenom debacle again).
Anyway, I doubt depending on a unknown project may qualify as "quality" for something as important as you domain name. Especially since having you own domain name can cost less than $10 per year, I don't really see the value in something like this (and I never want to live the Freenom debacle again).
To answer the first question, yep it's just "oblong".
We exist so people don't have to go to freenom when they want their own but free domain. I've used Freenom in the past, and they are the worst experience.
We exist so people don't have to go to freenom when they want their own but free domain. I've used Freenom in the past, and they are the worst experience.
To be clear, this is a way to get a free subdomain of obl.ong. No point in registering if you don’t want that.
I would rather just use a public key. No need for an entity (no matter how benevolent) to manage my identity for me.
In terms of the vibe that something gives off, stuff is usually "cooler" when it seems like you didn't care that much. A random pubkey is as care-free as it gets.
In terms of the vibe that something gives off, stuff is usually "cooler" when it seems like you didn't care that much. A random pubkey is as care-free as it gets.
> No password required!
> Login to continue to > Obl.ong > Don't have an account? Register
What did I miss?
> Login to continue to > Obl.ong > Don't have an account? Register
What did I miss?
They send you a one-time code.
That's only for verifying email - it's WebAuthn/Passkeys.
You're ok with cutting off a large number of potential users? Passkey isn't exactly working well on Firefox or Windows right now.
Can you imagine verbally trying to tell someone your new subdomain from these guys?
How do such services deal with the danger of getting totally blacklisted (or worse) because of one malicious subdomain? How do they avoid being held responsible for what happens in the subdomains?
The marketing site reads like it wants you to have short-ish, cheap identity; the code of conduct reads like it's trying to make a community. Which is more correct?
The former - the CoC was adapted from the contributor covenant which explains a lot of the community language, we figured it (heavily modified) would work well enough for domain content too. Thanks for pointing that out though, we'll work on it!
The first one mainly. The Code of Conduct is just standard Contributor Covenant stuff for people who contribute back code.
if the system is like js.org maybe it will attract many people to use it including me because it is more transparent
Does this only support hardware security keys...? Not exactly what I expected from "no password".
No specific hardware. It requires a password manager that supports passkeys. Password managers include major browsers. I’ve only tested with Chrome, but I’ve created passkeys on Android, an iPad, and a Mac.
There will be some way to authenticate to the password manager. On my iPad, it’s a fingerprint sensor. With Chrome on a Mac, I don’t know where it gets stored (keychain?), but it prompts for your Mac password. That’s not no password but it’s no additional password.
There will be some way to authenticate to the password manager. On my iPad, it’s a fingerprint sensor. With Chrome on a Mac, I don’t know where it gets stored (keychain?), but it prompts for your Mac password. That’s not no password but it’s no additional password.
My Chromium 114 only allows me to authenticate with a physical security key, or Windows Hello (which then proceeds to also demand a physical security key). Not very user-friendly...
Would prefer if they just accepted my randomly generated 64 character passwords, since I already use a password manager (KeePassXC).
Would prefer if they just accepted my randomly generated 64 character passwords, since I already use a password manager (KeePassXC).
on my firefox it didn't work, just keep asking to connect a security token, with no other option. Firefox 116, Ubuntu 20.04, had an Yubikey in the past, never used passkey.
I think it's asking for the old yubikey, but neither the site nor firefox give me other option or a link about what to do.
I think it's asking for the old yubikey, but neither the site nor firefox give me other option or a link about what to do.
No its just super clunky for anyone not on a Mac using Chrome or Safari. Windows implementation right now is pretty basic, and Firefox hasn't really got theirs right at all either.
Honestly unless you have a security key, or a mac I wouldn't bother right now. Going all in on Passkeys when a significant majority of devices don't fully support it yet is a bit silly.
Honestly unless you have a security key, or a mac I wouldn't bother right now. Going all in on Passkeys when a significant majority of devices don't fully support it yet is a bit silly.
I could probably have a security key in as little time as it would take to flash one of my $3 Pi Picos. I just don't think it would be a very good idea.
No it doesn't. Firefox has terrible support for Passkeys at the moment. Try using Google Chrome/Edge/Safari/etc.
Chromium 114 here, it only gives me the option to use a physical security key, or Windows Hello (which then proceeds to also demand a physical security key).
Would prefer if they just accepted my randomly generated 64 character passwords, since I already use a password manager (KeePassXC).
Would prefer if they just accepted my randomly generated 64 character passwords, since I already use a password manager (KeePassXC).
I guess? After they get my email verification code I get a physical usb/nfc request - no idea what it's for/does.
A "email login" would have been less of a blocker.
No thanks. I'll Justs stick to .tk and .ga .. those are actually FREE DOMAINS.
The main difference is that I don't own the subdomain, and should the organization decide to forgo the domain, my subdomain is also gone. On the other hand, if I buy a domain, my name is attached to it in the registry to denote that I am the "rightful" owner of the domain, and it is going to be way harder for me to lose access to it (I read a post on HN sometimes ago that some governmental cybersec task force can just terminate access to your domain if they deem you are using it for malicious intent, but otherwise you can only deliberately lose the domain)
This is just like a github.io subdomain. IME the only true free domain service is Freenom.