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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...
Answer
#2: Post edited
by
Michael
·
2024-08-29T21:07:46Z (4 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 (4 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/