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Generally, anyone who owns a domain at any level can make up whatever rules he or she desires to apply to its subdomains. If you own ponies.example.com, you could for example sell access to subdoma...
#2: Post edited
by
Michael
·
2024-08-29T21:07:46Z (8 months ago)
Move footnote
- Generally, anyone who owns a domain at any level can make up whatever rules he or she desires to apply to its subdomains. If you own `ponies.example.com`, you could for example sell access to subdomains but decide to do it only if the subdomain is a color name (`brown`). In practice, almost nobody does this except the TLD owners.[^tld]
**`.uk` was the second ccTLD ever,** after `.us`, and only 7 months after the original TLDs. I *suspect* that the existing partition among (non-cc) TLDs was somewhat in mind when the delegated registrar started handing out domains.[^editorial] Several other countries also followed the original UK partition scheme for their ccTLDs, as [the comments have noted][comments]. See also: the [Public Suffix List][psl].- In 2014, the rules loosened such that you weren't forced into one of the strict second-level domains. If you had a `.co.uk` or similar, [you got first right of refusal][loosen] for the corresponding newly-available `.uk`.
- [^editorial]: I fear this is not going to be a very satisfying answer overall, because it doesn't claim special knowledge on the "why" question. If another answer had documents from early Nominet UK history, I would upvote that.
- [^tld]: Typically "You can only have `_____.foo` if you are a resident of Fooland," etc. There are exceptions like `github.io`, DDNS, and various "keep the net weird" kinds of groups.
- [loosen]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.uk#.uk_right_of_registration
- [comments]: https://powerusers.codidact.com/comments/thread/10012
- [psl]: https://publicsuffix.org/
- Generally, anyone who owns a domain at any level can make up whatever rules he or she desires to apply to its subdomains. If you own `ponies.example.com`, you could for example sell access to subdomains but decide to do it only if the subdomain is a color name (`brown`). In practice, almost nobody does this except the TLD owners.[^tld]
- **`.uk` was the second ccTLD ever,** after `.us`, and only 7 months after the original TLDs. I *suspect*[^editorial] that the existing partition among (non-cc) TLDs was somewhat in mind when the delegated registrar started handing out domains. Several other countries also followed the original UK partition scheme for their ccTLDs, as [the comments have noted][comments]. See also: the [Public Suffix List][psl].
- In 2014, the rules loosened such that you weren't forced into one of the strict second-level domains. If you had a `.co.uk` or similar, [you got first right of refusal][loosen] for the corresponding newly-available `.uk`.
- [^editorial]: I fear this is not going to be a very satisfying answer overall, because it doesn't claim special knowledge on the "why" question. If another answer had documents from early Nominet UK history, I would upvote that.
- [^tld]: Typically "You can only have `_____.foo` if you are a resident of Fooland," etc. There are exceptions like `github.io`, DDNS, and various "keep the net weird" kinds of groups.
- [loosen]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.uk#.uk_right_of_registration
- [comments]: https://powerusers.codidact.com/comments/thread/10012
- [psl]: https://publicsuffix.org/
#1: Initial revision
by
Michael
·
2024-08-29T21:06:59Z (8 months ago)
Generally, anyone who owns a domain at any level can make up whatever rules he or she desires to apply to its subdomains. If you own `ponies.example.com`, you could for example sell access to subdomains but decide to do it only if the subdomain is a color name (`brown`). In practice, almost nobody does this except the TLD owners.[^tld] **`.uk` was the second ccTLD ever,** after `.us`, and only 7 months after the original TLDs. I *suspect* that the existing partition among (non-cc) TLDs was somewhat in mind when the delegated registrar started handing out domains.[^editorial] Several other countries also followed the original UK partition scheme for their ccTLDs, as [the comments have noted][comments]. See also: the [Public Suffix List][psl]. In 2014, the rules loosened such that you weren't forced into one of the strict second-level domains. If you had a `.co.uk` or similar, [you got first right of refusal][loosen] for the corresponding newly-available `.uk`. [^editorial]: I fear this is not going to be a very satisfying answer overall, because it doesn't claim special knowledge on the "why" question. If another answer had documents from early Nominet UK history, I would upvote that. [^tld]: Typically "You can only have `_____.foo` if you are a resident of Fooland," etc. There are exceptions like `github.io`, DDNS, and various "keep the net weird" kinds of groups. [loosen]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.uk#.uk_right_of_registration [comments]: https://powerusers.codidact.com/comments/thread/10012 [psl]: https://publicsuffix.org/