.io Domains May Be Retired (But Probably Not)

[baldidiot]

Interesting read here: https://every.to/p/the-disappearance...nternet-domain

I suspect something will be done to protect existing .io domains, even if it means stopping new registrations, but at the same time weirder stuff has happened...

On October 3, the British government announced that it was giving up sovereignty over a small tropical atoll in the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos Islands. The islands would be handed over to the neighboring island country of Mauritius, about 1,100 miles off the southeastern coast of Africa.

The story did not make the tech press, but perhaps it should have. The decision to transfer the islands to their new owner will result in the loss of one of the tech and gaming industry’s preferred top-level domains: .io.

..

Once this treaty is signed, the British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist. Various international bodies will update their records. In particular, the International Standard for Organization (ISO) will remove country code “IO” from its specification. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which creates and delegates top-level domains, uses this specification to determine which top-level country domains should exist. Once IO is removed, the IANA will refuse to allow any new registrations with a .io domain. It will also automatically begin the process of retiring existing ones. (There is no official count of the number of extant .io domains.)


Officially, .io—and countless websites—will disappear.

[universal4]

Good catch on this story, if you guys think this should be in the Industry news section, just let me or Anthony know and we can move it over there with a 1 week redirect.

Seems like this might have an impact on a lot of sites.

Hope you are right and IANA will preserve it. The crazy and totally stupid and useless tld's that do exist, one would think it was logical this one is preserved.

Rick
Universal4

[big fish]

Hope they don't discontinue .io as I have many .io domains i've invested in over the years.

[Sherlock]

i do not see a reason why it should be phased out
several weird cctlds exist like .su https://www.inverse.com/article/8672...on-of-the-ussr

[MarkKnight]

Hope they don't discontinue .io as I have many .io domains i've invested in over the years.

What are the recommendations?

[big fish]

What are the recommendations?

what do you mean?

[baldidiot]

i do not see a reason why it should be phased out

Yeah I can't personally see it happening, but no one currently knows how it's going to play out (as far as I'm aware).

[universal4]

Agree with the basic sentiment that there should be no logical reason that they would not salvage the top level and keep it.

Problem is there are in fact government agencies involved, and we all know how they ALWAYS take action based on logic, right?

As for recommendations, at this current time if one were planning on buying .io domains, it might be prudent to hold off on that based on the uncertainty.

For those that already have .io domains, that is a tough call. Certainly having a backup plan for the domain "just in case" should be a consideration.

Rick
Universal4

[NoDepositCasinos]

Agree with the basic sentiment that there should be no logical reason that they would not salvage the top level and keep it.

Problem is there are in fact government agencies involved, and we all know how they ALWAYS take action based on logic, right?

As for recommendations, at this current time if one were planning on buying .io domains, it might be prudent to hold off on that based on the uncertainty.

For those that already have .io domains, that is a tough call. Certainly having a backup plan for the domain "just in case" should be a consideration.

Rick
Universal4

I know that sometimes decisions are made with little to no logic, but I don't see the point in completely discontinuing all the io domains. If anything, it should be done slowly and gradually.

I have several .io websites, and I'm going to bet on them and wait. What's the alternative? Sell them amid uncertainty for a few bucks? No, thanks. I'd rather keep working, diversifying, and trust that there's at least some common sense involved.

[CasinoDotReview]

Too new to post links, but I did manage to find this article where it says that the .io domains should be good at least for another 5 years.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/..._uk_mauritius/

[universal4]

Thanks, at least that removes the pressure of immediacy, and "likely" means something will get worked out with IANA to keep the top level, but who knows.

Rick
Universal4

[NoDepositCasinos]

Too new to post links, but I did manage to find this article where it says that the .io domains should be good at least for another 5 years.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/..._uk_mauritius/

Thanks for the update. Five years is a lot of time in the digital world and many things could change.