YourFavoriteSite.sucks

April 11, 2015 6:55 PM

New .sucks domain stirs up storm over free speech. "Critics see it as a shakedown scheme designed to force companies and individuals to fork over cash to keep an unfavorable or offensive website offline."
posted by Chocolate Pickle (58 comments total)

Who's in for metafilter.sucks?
posted by eriko at 6:56 PM on April 11, 2015 [7 favorites]

That guy that just left, Mark or Matt or whatever, I heard he owns it and has big plans.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:00 PM on April 11, 2015 [27 favorites]

Who's in for metafilter.sucks?

Anyone who got banned, for about 15 minutes before they forget about it

Honestly this is not really a cash grab. Companies are not obligated to buy these domains. People are allowed to say you suck, better just live with it. Maybe companies should focus on making sure there's no basis for it instead of buying the domain names.
posted by Hoopo at 7:04 PM on April 11, 2015 [16 favorites]

It's .xxx all over again.
posted by furtive at 7:10 PM on April 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Hoopo u got a good point. The good people of dotsucks probably have a rigorous test for if the thing sucks or not. There's probably no reason why anybody would get a sucks domain for spiteful irrational reasons.
posted by boo_radley at 7:12 PM on April 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

hmmmm...


[mike@orion ~]$ dig primus.sucks

; <>> DiG 9.9.6-P1-RedHat-9.9.6-8.P1.fc21 <>> primus.sucks
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ANSWER SECTION:
primus.sucks. 3591 IN A 127.0.53.53

[mike@orion ~]$


posted by mikelieman at 7:13 PM on April 11, 2015 [14 favorites]

The point is that if the .sucks site is totally irrational it's not really an issue. Nothing a stopping anyone right now from starting a blog or Twitter account bashing some random company either
posted by Hoopo at 7:14 PM on April 11, 2015 [6 favorites]

I hope KMFDM and Primus are paying attention to all this...
posted by trackofalljades at 7:20 PM on April 11, 2015 [16 favorites]

If I were a company and so worried about that, my response to "mycompanyname.sucks" would be "mycompanynamesucks.sucks" (and mycompanynamedotsucks.sucks, and mycompanynamesucksdotsucks.dotsucks" etc...)

I bet suck.com is really sad, too.

Is there a com.suck?
posted by symbioid at 7:21 PM on April 11, 2015 [5 favorites]

Lagunitas too
posted by aydeejones at 7:24 PM on April 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

I bet suck.com is really sad, too.

I remember them! I always thought if I needed any graphic design, Terry Colon was going to by my first choice.
posted by mikelieman at 7:29 PM on April 11, 2015 [9 favorites]

I think EasyDNS lays out a reasonable case for it being a shakedown. The people who run .sucks are doing so in an incredibly sleazy manner.
posted by reluctant early bird at 7:30 PM on April 11, 2015 [6 favorites]

i am just holding out for the .isreallyshitty domains so i can do some real campin'
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 7:31 PM on April 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

I was kinda hoping for .blowschunks or .suckshairyballs
posted by Bovine Love at 7:34 PM on April 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

You know, I was going to buy some airline tickets from JetBlue, but I just did a little web searching, and turns out there is a site called www.jetblue.sucks, so I guess I'll take my travel dollars elsewhere.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:35 PM on April 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

BillCosby.sucks
JianGhomeshi.sucks
Cancer.sucks
Republicans.suck
Monsanto.sucks
Nickelback.sucks
TomCruise.sucks

Just brainstorming....
posted by Fizz at 7:36 PM on April 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

There's probably a long waiting list for Comcast.sucks... not to mention the names of every declared or hinting-at Presidential candidate.

But if Walmart is going to raise a stink over walmart.horse... hmmm... there is no further news, and walmart.horse is still up in its original form, so that was probably nothing more than a makework task for an assistant in Walmart's legal department.

Also, in the previous thread, I noted about certain other "new tlds"

somebody has already bought boughtthe.farm (and oldmcdonaldhada.farm)

then there's .rest
hmmmm....
gilligantheskippertoothemillionaireandhiswifethemoviestarandthe.rest?

...which has not been taken, nor has underar.rest, bareb.rest or brushyourteethwithc.rest

But a one-joke site isn't worth the $32 for .rest, and it's certainly not worth $250+ for .sucks. And $25 for a .horse domain? Webcomicking must be more profitable than I thought... imona.horse is still available.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:38 PM on April 11, 2015

Actually that pricing scheme in early bird's link stinks, these guys are jerks 100%, but really there's no more reason for someone to be concerned about a .sucks domain than a Facebook community about hating Google Chrome or whatever so I can't bring myself to give a shit. "premium" companies can give these assholes money if they want but I really don't see the problem with just letting .sucks slide
posted by Hoopo at 7:40 PM on April 11, 2015

BTW, there's a $2.88 (for the 1st year) sale on .ninja

Now that would be my price range for a gag site... or as an alternative to .sucks... "Comcast.Ninja : Fighting Comcast Like a Boss Since 2015"
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:43 PM on April 11, 2015

If I owned the .sucks tld I would have a rule that .sucks domains can't be owned by the person or company in question or any parent, subsidiary, agent, etc. That way there's no possibility of confusion (and thus no trademark argument): If you go to Comcast.sucks, you know that whoever owns it, it isn't Comcast.

But that would make it less lucrative for the tld owner, so.
posted by jedicus at 7:51 PM on April 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yourfavoriteband.sucks?

Maybe I'm just old, but the negativity of the .sucks just doesn't appeal to me and I hope they do all get bought up by companies and kept out of sight.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:57 PM on April 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Without touching 'free speech' I think the .sucks domain name is kinda stupid and not much there except $.
Sucks.sucks ... Indeed
posted by edgeways at 8:02 PM on April 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Is icann.sucks available?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:03 PM on April 11, 2015 [7 favorites]

the negativity of the .sucks just doesn't appeal to me

But it needn't all be negative. Electrolux.sucks might be just what the company needs.

(Holding out for .suxors myself.)
posted by octobersurprise at 8:12 PM on April 11, 2015 [6 favorites]

symbioid: “I bet suck.com is really sad, too.”

Oh, no. Suck.com was life. It hung on as an archive for so long, but it's gone now. They must have given up on it just in the last few months. Which is sad. I had a whole big FPP planned for the 20th anniversary this year.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:15 PM on April 11, 2015 [7 favorites]

if we want to be really negative, we need a .killedmydog domain.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:17 PM on April 11, 2015 [12 favorites]

I seem to remember there was a trend in buying up all the .com variants of sucks a while ago, as a way to defuse . Now somebody's gone to the trouble of registering a TLD so gigantic companies can do it all over again.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:19 PM on April 11, 2015

Yeah ob1quixote, I was upset to discover that too. Ah well....
posted by JHarris at 8:31 PM on April 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

This entire top-level domain expansion plan is a naked cash grab by shitholes hoping to nickel and dime trademark holders out of yet another version of their domain, so I don't see why we're singling out one of them. ICANN is unbelievably corrupt to allow this nonsense.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:35 PM on April 11, 2015 [14 favorites]

someone would have to have a shitload of hate to pay 2500 bucks for a foo.sucks domain
posted by pyramid termite at 8:46 PM on April 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

I say we take the internet full circle and start signing up .atemyballs domains.
posted by stevis23 at 8:55 PM on April 11, 2015 [6 favorites]

It really is beyond silly, who finds something with a domain name? Get google and the the other search engines to agree to boycott, that is just not index the inane domains and it'll quiet down. Wait, for less than 3 dollars I can get sams_a.ninja? Be right back.
posted by sammyo at 9:10 PM on April 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

PT, I think that "Hillary.sucks" and "Jeb.sucks" will get snapped right up.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:19 PM on April 11, 2015

kmfdm.sucks
posted by rustcrumb at 9:32 PM on April 11, 2015

hoover.sucks
dyson.sucks
chupachups.sucks
posted by Mister Moofoo at 9:35 PM on April 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

So only Google can put a stop to this? That doesn't make me any happier.
posted by monospace at 10:23 PM on April 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

pyramid termite: someone would have to have a shitload of hate to pay 2500 bucks for a foo.sucks domain

If you read the article, it's terribly expensive for trademark holders to get domains early, but dirt cheap for anyone else to register them later as a "Consumer Advocate Subsidized" account. The article suggests that it's a tactic to force the trademark holders to pay up, since anyone could buy them later for peanuts.

However, I kind of like the idea of a TLD for criticism only, where trademark holders can't get their trademark domains. But I'd respect it more if they just didn't allow trademark holders to get those domains at all, as opposed to blackmailing them. And it sounds like they're sleazy in other important ways.
posted by Mitrovarr at 10:29 PM on April 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

someone would have to have a shitload of hate to pay 2500 bucks for a foo.sucks domain

No hate, I just had to keep it out of the wrong hands.
posted by foobaz at 1:46 AM on April 12, 2015 [4 favorites]

Extorting corporations isn't sleazy, it is your patriotic duty.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:15 AM on April 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

Wait, for less than 3 dollars I can get sams_a.ninja? Be right back.

I just got ellieisaspace.ninja.

Why?

Because it makes me smile and giggle because it's so silly.

Dunno what I'm going to do with it beyond getting a mail account so I can give out a contact email. Just mail me at [e-mail]. (yep I'm giggling already)
posted by Jalliah at 6:11 AM on April 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm still waiting for .issomewhatnifty.
posted by eykal at 6:36 AM on April 12, 2015

The EasyDNS article is better and has more detail. The specifics of the tiered pricing are clearly extortionate. Here's the price of a .sucks domain:

$2500 to pre-register your existing trademark
$250 for a regular domain name you can simply use
$200 to own the domain but prevent anyone from using it
$10 for a "locked" domain that points to a web page you don't control

It's a naked form of extortion. The $200 tier is particularly alarming; I've never heard of a NIC offering domain names that you can't actually use, solely for the purpose of preventing anyone from using it. Backed up with that $10 threat that someone who doesn't like your brand will buy it up. Again, unprecedented, does any other NIC sell domain names whose name servers you can't change? What a subversion of the purpose of DNS.

I'm actually cautiously optimistic about how the TLD expansion has worked, in general. I think the dilution of the power of a specific name has mostly been a good thing. But in retrospect, it's surprising it took this long for some scumbags to figure out a way to turn DNS into a shakedown.
posted by Nelson at 7:34 AM on April 12, 2015 [4 favorites]

I've been trying to work out who is behind .sucks. The press articles mention the Canadian company Vox Populi and the CEO John Berard. Here's his ICANNWiki entry. The ICANNWiki entry on .sucks led me to Vox Populi's parent company, Momentous, which has a significant presence as a NIC provider and a remarkable statement of culture & values. "There’s no shackles, shareholder pressure or government oversight." Their CEO is Rob Hall.

Their marketing video for .sucks is appalling. I'm guessing Ralph Nader got paid? I feel certain MLK Jr.'s estate didn't. The claim this TLD is some great blow for free speech and consumer advocacy is disgusting.
posted by Nelson at 7:54 AM on April 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Their marketing video for .sucks is appalling.

Wow, that's pretty horrid. Promoting and commercial enterprise on the back of MLK Jr's legacy is sleazy, but that's something else. Do you think Momentous will be proud of that when some white supremicist group inevitably registers mlk.sucks or things even more offensive than that?
posted by thegears at 8:09 AM on April 12, 2015

Look at it another way: They are giving us, the small people, cheap domains, and making their money off giant, lumbering companies, who, quite frankly, probably deserve to be soaked for every penny they can spare. There isn't any rule saying you have to own every domain associated with your company; I don't think anyone is going to think that say, coke.sucks is the official website of Coke. The cost is just going to, hopefully, prevent all the good names from getting hoovered up by paranoid companies before normal people get a chance.
posted by Canageek at 9:31 AM on April 12, 2015

But they're not giving "the small people" cheap domains. A domain in .sucks costs $250. The $10 offer is not a real domain name. Not only can you not point it at your own servers, you can't even control the website hosted on the domain you gave them $10 for.

Here's a list of prices for many popular TLDs. Many cost less than $15. And that's not counting specials you can get from other registrars, like $3 for the first year of .ninja.
posted by Nelson at 9:45 AM on April 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Argh. I loved suck.com back in the day. I looked into it, and it looks like it wasn't squatted; it hasn't changed hands, it's just, maybe a hosting glitch. There's still a chance it'll get fixed.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:31 AM on April 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

It really is beyond silly, who finds something with a domain name?

That's kind of the truth of it. This is too little, too late to have much an impact. I don't like the way the web has shifted, but it has. Domains are close to irrelevant and getting more so every day. I see social media links going to content farms with nonsense names and very little branding.

Not to say there won't be old school folks at companies that believe they should spend the money to protect their trademark. They're just wrong.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 10:40 AM on April 12, 2015

Pronoiac: "Argh. I loved suck.com back in the day. I looked into it, and it looks like it wasn't squatted; it hasn't changed hands, it's just, maybe a hosting glitch. There's still a chance it'll get fixed."

Fingers crossed. Luckily I have it in dead tree form, too.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:41 AM on April 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ending with a whimper is consistent with the history of Suck.
posted by wotsac at 11:42 AM on April 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

someone would have to have a shitload of hate to pay 2500 bucks for a foo.sucks domain

But what if fighting foo is their job?
posted by Sys Rq at 7:49 PM on April 12, 2015

I've bought a few domains with the new tlds, just for shits and or giggles (mefight.club being one), but the whole thing just kinda rubs me the wrong way, to be honest. Crotchety internet grandpa, mumbling grumpily into his php.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:25 PM on April 12, 2015

wonderchicken.sucks
posted by Hoopo at 9:53 AM on April 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Maybe companies should focus on making sure there's no basis for it instead of buying the domain names.
I'm 100% on board with freedom of speech. But extortion is a real thing. There are companies that make money just by patent trolling.

I have no idea if this is akin to that. And I don't think there's any question the first amendment (in the U.S.) is preeminent, and that the more tools we have to hold corporations accountable the better.

Just seems like it's apt to create more noise tho.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:02 AM on April 13, 2015

High price of '.sucks' to be investigated. "unless the company has broken the law, it is not clear what powers Icann has over Vox Populi's handing of the sale of .sucks."
posted by Nelson at 12:36 PM on April 13, 2015

Never mind that. How soon can I buy a couple of .blows?
posted by octobersurprise at 12:51 PM on April 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've got dibs on 400.blows
posted by Nelson at 2:08 PM on April 13, 2015

wonderchicken.sucks

Hey, now.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:48 PM on April 13, 2015 [1 favorite]