Re: PAB How long domain names

Ron Fitzherbert (ron@penguin.net)
Tue, 2 Dec 1997 22:12:34 -0500 (EST)

My thought on this is that the current format for SLDs should be preserved
intact. It has seemed to work fine so far, and you are only eliminating
27 (A-Z, "-") or 37 (if you add 0-9) domains from the pool (on the
short-side. If anything I think the discussion should be towards the
maximum length of domain names, since a domain name exists to make it
easier for people to identify/remember an address (as opposed to an IP
address) I think 24 character SLDs is a bit silly.

ronaldmacdonaldsfries.inc is just a bit more than needed (IMHO).

On the technical-side of the minimum length of SLDs I do not know of any
technical reason not to use one character (or if there is I'm sure it
could be overcome) -- but on the "legal"-side I have a question, can a
single letter be trademarked? (I don't know, but I'd assume that at least
A and I can't be (as they are "common" words)?

And of course a whole other issue that is still out there is the naming of
the TLDs, but that is definately for another thread.

Ron

On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Antony Van Couvering wrote:

> Dear PAB,
>
> There is a discussion, started in CORE, now moved into POC, about how long
> second-level domains should be. This is precisely the kind of issue that
> the PAB should be debating -- a policy issue concerning the new domains.
> Thanks to Javier for alerting me.
>
> The question is:
>
> Should single-character domains be allowed under the new gTLDs? The hot
> question is really concerning single-character SLDs. Is there any
> technical reason they should be disallowed?
>
> How about two-character SLDs? Where and why should we draw limits.
>
> Thanks for your participation.
>
> Antony
>

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