Was there some sort of assurance that nothing was going to happen when the contract expired, and this expectation was changed? Freenom hasn't been registering domains since Jan 1.

It's seeming a little odd to me that this is catching people with their pants down.

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[–] rhythmicotter@midwest.social 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

It's very irregular for a country to take back top level domains. Even refusing to renew registrations is unheard of.

ML, tk, etc broke ground by offering free country code TLDs starting 10 years ago. This was possible until Meta sued Freenom this year for issuing domains to the majority of all sources phishing traffic.

Basically, the internet got used to getting TLDs for free, and that was great, except the issuers of said domains (African countries with not a lot of money) have no obligation and no incentive to keep doing that forever. Especially after it became a liability.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Basically, the internet got used to getting TLDs for free

That's a very general statement.

[–] rhythmicotter@midwest.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From the context of the other two paragraphs, you can narrow down what I meant. Stripped of context it is general, yes.

Not all country code top level domains were free, just a select few. And not everyone used free TLDs, just people with tight budgets who weren't expecting to make money on their sites, as well as scammers and people who wanted to stay anonymous for other reasons.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

You have a point, and it's a good discussion.

I just found it weird because the internet definitely got used to other free services, such as e-mail and photo blogging.

But you're right. In context what you said makes sense.

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