[dns-wg] RIPE NCC domain registrations

On 30 Jun 2015, at 13:41, Ralf Weber <dns at fl1ger.de> wrote:

> Is this considered bad practice now? Was there a policy change I missed?

Hi Ralf. AFAICT there has never been any policy in this area: that's another rat-hole we don't need to explore for now.

The NCC has from time to time registered domain names which were felt to be either a good idea or potentially useful at some point. Sometimes those choices have in hindsight turned out to be misguided. For others the domain names have long outlived their usefulness. So it's reasonable for the NCC to do some housekeeping and get rid of unwanted or unneeded cruft. It's good operational practice.

Consulting the WG about that is also to be welcomed, even though the WG should not micro-manage operational matters. Romeo's saying "Here are some domains that deserve to die. Any objections?".

If you or anyone else has objections to this approach, please say so and give good reason(s) for your PoV.

>> We now plan to release the following domains, which are not being
>> actively used by the RIPE NCC:
>> 
>> ripe-ncc.org
>> ripe-ncc.com
>> ripe-ncc.net
>> ripencc.com
>> ripencc.net
>> ripencc.org
>> ripelabs.net
>> ripen.cc
>> ripe.int
>> ipv6roadshow.com
>> ipv6roadshow.net
>> ipv6roadshow.org
> So we are talking about 12 domains. What is the hassle of keeping them?

Adding cruft for cruft's sake creates needless hassles and overhead. We should all be wary about asking the NCC to make open-ended commitments and at the very least review those sorts of requests/decisions from time to time. From that perspective, getting a sense from the WG about these domain names is a good thing.

> I'm pretty "confident" the new owners won't do as good things with it
> as the RIPE NCC.

Who cares? If the domains no longer serve any useful purpose or have no worthwhile affiliation with the NCC or the RIPE community, there seems to be little point in keeping them. Or as was discussed a few months ago, there would be no point rolling over their DLV keys. Since DLV is going away, that may well be the catalyst to give some of these crufty domains a one-way ticket to Dignitas.

Holding on to these domains and continuing to maintain them "just because" seems unwise. ICANN already has ripe.<gTLD> on a reserved list so there is no chance of them going to an impostor.

Personally speaking, I do not like open-ended commitments which are just allowed to drift. In this case, nobody appears to be sure why these domains need to exist any more or have a good reason to hold on to them. Romeo's asking the WG if there are good reasons, just in case there are factors which have been overlooked. If anyone knows of such considerations, please speak up.