> OTOH we have working tlds and root servers.
Richard, I never said your stuff wasn't working. In fact I have used
it. However, I am a seasoned Internet professional. I know how to use
it within the constraints I operate under.
Most people who use the Internet have little if any knowledge of what
domain names are or what they represent, structurally. Thus, if they
are presented with an address like tangled.web, no flag goes off in
their head saying "oops, that is not an IANA TLD, so I have to do
something different to respond to it." They respond to the address;
it fails; they perhaps complain to their ISP admins, who say "it's not
a valid address." You and I know that "validity" has something to do
with what TLDs they have decided to search for. However, the end user
is out of luck. They have no effective way of determining the validity
of this address for themselves.
How might this situation be rectified? By a detailed, organized,
effective campaign to promote and establish an alternative TLD
infrastructure. That hasn't happened yet, imho. Until it happens,
there is much less chance that the Internet community at large will
adopt it, particularly with people in the IAB being highly critical
of it.
I guess I am wondering what the point of alternative TLDs are. Do
they exist to provide service, or are they just for proof-of-concept?
I don't think anyone in the Internet technical community would deny
that they can't work; what is at issue here is if they can work with
the same level of stability as the IANA TLDs. Thus far, prominent
people -- people who the Internet community generally respect, by and
large, feel they do not.
--gregbo
