[dns-operations] When TLDs have apex A records

[David Conrad]

Randy,

On Jul 9, 2009, at 7:52 PM, Randy Bush wrote:
> you repeatedly distort the point.

Apologies if you believe that to be the case, that is not my intent.

(My comment was actually attempting to indicate that in this context,  
I did not feel ICANN was a standards definition organization like W3C,  
but rather a regulatory body like FCC).

> no one is arguing for sitefinder.

SiteFInder-like services are a logical consequence of wildcards at the  
TLD level. I've asked for examples of other use of wildcards in top- 
level gTLDs.  As far as I am aware, no one has actually proposed  
anything other than SiteFinder-like services.  I'll ask again: do you  
know of any?

>> And what happens when folks who run TLDs either do not have very good
>> clues or, worse, have very good clues and are intentionally misusing
>> the feature?
> deal with the misuse.

ICANN did.  It resulted in a very expensive lawsuit that had (what at  
least I consider) significantly negative outcomes.  Jorge (and many,  
many others) has criticized how ICANN spends its money.  Do you  
believe another (series of) lawsuits on this particular topic is a  
good use of money?

In any event, ICANN's board reacts to input.  I believe the board has  
gotten advice that there was pretty much unanimity within the  
technical community that wildcards at the top-level were a bad idea  
and should not be allowed.  They acted to implement that advice.  If  
there is contrary advice that should be provided to modify the board's  
action, that would be good to know.

Regards,
-drc