This was quite the eye-opening video for me. His shared insights really showed me I'm not doing as bad in my life as some might say I am. In fact, it can even be celebrated as achievements! Very powerful stuff that I need to think more deeply about.

Still, I wanted to share this, because it could give some hope in these dark and chaotic times to my friends in the Fediverse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWlejDID4cI&list=PLzOvSIxafLWVnFHRxZsC4M2hmfYGm4uzi&index=40

it only takes 2 DNS records to fully disallow sending email as your domain to protect yourself from forgery

TXT record . ( example.com ) - "v=spf1 -all"
TXT record _dmarc ( _dmarc.example.com ) - "v=DMARC1;p=reject;rua=mailto:<your email>;adkim=s;aspf=s;sp=reject"

yall should do it

• the SPF record indicates that no mail servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain ( the -all specifies a hard fail, meaning that any email sent from this domain will be rejected )
• the DMARC record instructs receiving mail servers to reject any emails that fail DMARC checks ( the p=reject policy ensures that unauthorized emails are not delivered, rua tag allows you to receive reports about any failed authentication attempts ( which are optional and you can remove it if you dont want it ), while adkim=s and aspf=s enforce strict alignment for DKIM and SPF )

it can always be undone later, but if you dont have an email server running, its a smart idea to disable emails though these dns records

Does anyone have any knowledge about what countries and counties’ domain registrars are most likely to _not_ follow a domain takedown or seizure order coming from Trump’s administration in the coming years as pure censorship?

I have heard rumor the Netherlands doesn’t brook government censorship for other governments, but lack confirmation.

Maybe digital persistence has already crossed your mind too.

Interesting story from @tedium about an extortion scheme targeting prominent personalities on Bluesky who don't own their own domain.

"Cybersquatting is not a new issue, of course, but Bluesky’s decision to tie verification to domains as social proof shows the limitations of the strategy."

https://tedium.co/2024/12/17/bluesky-impersonation-risks/

I wonder how this would play out in the fediverse.

blog! “A few thoughts on domain verification for social media”

Both Mastodon and BlueSky have the concept of "self-verification". Rather than trust a central authority to assess your notability and then bless your account (as Twitter used to do), they let anyone self-attest using Domain Verification0. What does that mean? You tell the se…

Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/a-few-thoughts-on-domain-verification-for-social-media/
⸻
#BlueSky #domains #mastodon #SocialMedia

How to register just enough domains

I have a problem with registering domains. When I have an idea for a Web site, software project, organization, or sometimes just a pun or joke, I’ll go on a domain registrar site and see what related domains are available. I’ll brainstorm a bit in the search screen to try some different options for names or top-level domains, and if I find something in my price range, I’ll buy it, even if I’m not going to use the domain right away.

This leaves me with a portfolio of unused domains that are like reminders of unfulfilled dreams. Ah yes, the Web site for the Frito pie [en.wikipedia.org] restaurant I never made. Oh, right, I was going to start a social network for people in the Plateau de Montreal. Each year, as the renewal deadlines come up, I have to decide if I’m going to give up this little dream, or give myself another year to get started.

The fact is, I just don’t have the time or the energy to make as many social networks or Web sites or joke URLs as I’d like. I have a full-time job, a family, and existing responsibilities at the Social Web Foundation [socialwebfoundation.org], CoSocial.ca, and the Social Web Community Group [www.w3.org]. I can’t spend money on dreams I’m not fulfilling, just because I’m afraid to let them go.

So, I’m trying to change my habits and come up with a new strategy for using domains. It’s aspirational for now, but I hope I can use it to reduce some of my personal expenses on new domains and domain renewals. I’m sharing it here with you partially in hope that it can be useful, and partially to hold myself to the strategy.

Domain strategy

1. Register a short, personal domain name. I know, this probably doesn’t seem like a great first step, but bear with me! This domain is going to be the basis for a long term presence. Also, it’s a chance to get it out of your system, and put those domain registration superskils to use one last time. Use something that represents yourself, as a person, not a company or your personal consulting firm or design agency or whatever. I use https://evanp.me/ , which I registered a while ago specifically for this purpose.
2. Assign the root domain to a content-management system. For me, that’s this WordPress blog. Other people might want to use Drupal or Jekyll or a wiki or some other publishing system. You can even use plain old HTML, if that’s how you want to fly. The important thing is that you need to be able to create new pages on a path you like — preferably of arbitrary depth, but at least with user-defined pathnames.
3. When you want to register a domain for a new static website, make a page on the root domain instead. OK, now we’re into the part where we’re actually saving money. When you get an idea for a Web site, and you start searching for domain names, stop doing that. Instead, create a page on your personal CMS. So, for example, when I wanted to register a new domain for the ActivityPub book I wrote, I instead created a page at https://evanp.me/activitypub-book/ . This has two benefits. First, it keeps me from registering a domain for a project I’m not even going to start. Second, it keeps me from burning up all my creative energy on domain-buying, and gets me to use whatever momentum I have to write a first draft of the page I need, and possibly either share it out on my blog or on my social network presence(s). Note that using a short domain puts more emphasis on the page’s path than on the domain.
4. When you want to register a domain for a new Web service, use a subdomain of your personal domain name instead. There are a lot of Web applications and services that need specific server-side code and databases and can’t be run as a page on a WordPress site — like a Mastodon server, a MediaWiki site, or a NodeJS application I made up. A lot of people will never need to do this; as a software developer, this is something I do all the time. When I need to make a server that can’t run within WordPress, instead of registering a new domain, I create a domain name for my service that is a subdomain [en.wikipedia.org] of my personal domain. So, if I want to set up a Mastodon server (I don’t, right now) I’d make a subdomain at social.evanp.me and use it for the server. The benefit here is that I have a domain name to start off with, and also I don’t worry about starting to use it until I actually have a server available. One particular trick that has worked well for me is to use a wildcard DNS record [en.wikipedia.org] that points to a Kubernetes [en.wikipedia.org] cluster ingress. I can use the ingress to route between services, without having to create or update the subdomains. It saves a couple of steps in this process.
5. If a project needs to become independent, register a domain and move to it. This is the safety valve that lets me feel OK about not using the “right” domain for a project from the outset. Of course, “needs to become independent” is a hard to specify objectively, but some good rules of thumb are whether there are enough collaborators that I don’t feel comfortable giving them an account on my personal blog, or if the people who use the service or page ask why it’s still linked to my personal domain. At the point when a domain is actually needed, I can go register it, move the service or content to use it, and then use URL redirection [en.wikipedia.org] to move traffic from my personal site or service to an independent one.
   Having this as an option lets me worry a lot less when starting a new project. There are also so many top-level domains [en.wikipedia.org] (TLDs) available today that I don’t feel like I have to grab a domain just so it doesn’t get squatted by others. It’s OK to use one of the less popular TLDs if the project is becoming its own thing.

So, that’s it. Have a personal domain, put a CMS behind it, use that for publishing static pages, use subdomains of it for standalone services, and register new domains only when you need to. I think this kind of strategy is inherent in the idea of having “your own domain”, and a lot of people follow it to a greater or lesser degree, but I wanted to spell it out fully to make it clear to myself how I would deal with different circumstances.

Let me know if you have other tips for reducing your domain registration spending by committing to a good personal domain.

If you're wanting to create your own website or online service, you will probably need to buy a domain name at some point. (Domain names are things like "wikipedia.org")

I've done a beginner's guide to domain names, specifically aimed at non-technical people who want to get started with making their own online things:

https://growyourown.services/a-beginners-guide-to-creating-and-using-your-own-domain-name

If you have any questions, corrections or comments feel free to add them in the replies

If you're choosing a domain name for your own site, you might want to pick something that is easy to spell based on how it sounds.

There was a (now defunct) financial website called Kabbage and they had awful problems as they had to keep adding "spelt with a K" every time anyone mentioned their name.

Also if you're aiming for an international audience, worth checking with people who speak other languages if they can pronounce it and spell it based on how it sounds.

Today, I received an email from a client with a "60 Day Domain Renewal Notice" from Cloudflare.
I love getting these emails because it means I get to plan yet another domain transfer away from these vultures.

In case you haven't noticed, Cloudflare operates as a domain registrar, offering cheap domain prices, but there's a catch that isn’t even mentioned in the fine print, at least not that I could find last time I checked.

Unlike other registrars, they automatically link your domain to their "free plan services," which forces you to use only their Nameservers as your sole authoritative DNS.

That's right, you can't change your authoritative DNS unless you upgrade to a "USD400/month business plan.

Feel free to check it yourself; it should be a scandal.

There are many reasons not to use Cloudflare, and this is just another one: Keep your clients/friends away.

heaven.game
$1419.66 / year
premium / renews at $1419.66

Na thanks! Sadly I can't check the price for my domain since its unavaillable, thats bad because I just wanna how much it would cost.
#porkbun #domains

What do people use for domain registrations these days? I own far too many and need to find something cheaper (and with better service) than Squarespace.

Or start linking to my dormant Patreon page.

just realized i've had the mollywhite.net domain for over 10 years(!!)

related sneak peek into an upcoming piece: i firmly believe that if you're going to spend money on one thing online it should be a domain, particularly as online identity gets more fragmented. as platforms come and go, you can always find me there.

So I've run into a problem with my personal email. All the emails I send seem to be detected as spam. I don't really understand why this is happening.

The only cause I can think of is that I have a email redirect through cloudflare from my fleshsona's domain into my personal email. If anyone contacted me through that domain I would respond with my personal email. I don't see why this would mark my account as suspicious though?

Anyone have any ideas for why or how I can fix this?

(edit: The email that is getting blocked is provided by one of the tech giants under their domain. This rules out any DNS records as a direct cause)