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comment by lukeprog · 2011-08-20T07:55:15.819Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

.com can be used by anyone, not just commercial ventures.

People prefer Something.com because it requires only one slot in people's memory but Something.net requires two slots. This is because .com is default, and .net is an aberration from the default. If your website is Something.net then people have to remember that (1) your website is at Something, and (2) it's at something .net instead of .com.

Replies from: RobertLumley, jhuffman
comment by RobertLumley · 2011-08-20T14:12:46.958Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Perhaps this is my own bias then. Many, if not most, of my favorite sites are .net, and I have to specifically remember that this is not .net (not that it matters, really).

Replies from: Solvent
comment by Solvent · 2011-08-21T11:03:46.259Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

What websites do you use that are .net?

Replies from: RobertLumley
comment by RobertLumley · 2011-08-21T13:13:44.462Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

The big one is www.webdiplomacy.net. Diplomacy is a 7-player board game that I quite enjoy. Behind that would be www.survivingtheworld.net, a web comic a la xkcd. Those two sites probably account for ~30% of my internet traffic alone. Although that's a complete guess, really, and largely due to the fact that I will check WebDiplomacy repeatedly to see if I have any messages, even if I don't actually do anything there.

Replies from: kpreid
comment by kpreid · 2011-08-24T15:50:30.512Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Unsolicited advice:

Why not use bookmarks?

Replies from: RobertLumley
comment by RobertLumley · 2011-08-24T16:19:21.312Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Oh, I do. It just kind of makes me twitch whenever I see .com, since it's contrary to expectation, given my knowledge of the site.

comment by jhuffman · 2011-08-22T20:55:44.856Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

This is a good explanation. I have my own personal domain which is my firstnamelastname.com. People have asked me before why I used a ".com" when I don't use the site for any commercial purpose. The reason is just as you explained, only I have never stated it quite so well before.

comment by saturn · 2011-08-20T03:29:03.506Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

None of the original top-level domains are really appropriate for a site like Less Wrong; .net was originally intended for Internet service providers and other organizations related to Internet infrastructure. In the mid 1980s (before there were such things as web sites) it wasn't really envisaged that people would want to register domains named for specific topics rather than the organization that owned the servers. .info was supposed to fill that gap but due to mismanagement and perverse incentives it ended up being more associated with viagra and fake rolexes than with information.

comment by Incorrect · 2011-08-20T02:03:10.373Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

[With reference to .com] This is an open TLD; any person or entity is permitted to register. Though originally intended for for-profit business entities, for a number of reasons it became the "main" TLD for domain names and is currently used by all types of entities including nonprofits, schools and private individuals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains

Replies from: RobertLumley
comment by RobertLumley · 2011-08-20T02:07:27.772Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

But why did we (and by we, I mean, presumably Eliezer, I wasn't around when it was founded) choose to register as LessWrong.com and not LessWrong.net (Although I notice that the latter points to the former).

Replies from: ScottMessick
comment by ScottMessick · 2011-08-20T02:42:46.435Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I don't know if there's a big reason behind it, but because .com is so entrenched as the "default" TLD, I think it's probably best to be LessWrong.com rather than LessWrong.net or any other choice, simply because "LessWrong.com" is more likely to be correctly remembered by people who hear of it briefly, or correctly guessed by people who heard "Less Wrong" and randomly take a stab at their brower's navigation bar.

I admit this point may be relatively trivial since it's the first google hit for "less wrong" and that's probably how a lot of people look for it who've only heard of it.

comment by Clippy · 2011-08-20T04:29:52.212Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thank you, User:RobertLumley, for supplementing your accusations of trolling with such clear examples of non-troll posts.