Show HN: Obl.ong, Free, quality domains for all

https://obl.ong

by reesericci • 3 years ago

54 68 3 years ago

obl.ong

denton-scratch• 3 years ago

No password required!
Login to continue to Obl.ong Don't have an account? Register

What did I miss?

542458• 3 years ago

Accounts secured with Webauthn instead of a password probably.

reesericci11• 3 years ago

Yep!

arcanemachiner• 3 years ago

They send you a one-time code.

reesericci11• 3 years ago

That's only for verifying email - it's WebAuthn/Passkeys.

jcoder• 3 years ago

I’m confused about what “quality domains” means here. I’d honestly never heard of the `.ong` TLD, it seems intended for non-governmental organization. If you’re going to sell subdomains as “quality”, why not get a `.com`?

Brendinooo2• 3 years ago

Oh, interesting.

https://thenew.org/org-people/about-pir/policies/ngo-and-ong...

The mission and purpose of the .NGO and .ONG top level domain (“TLDs”) is to serve the global Non-Governmental Organization (“NGO”) Community by supplying it with exclusive TLDs that will offer NGOs and associations of NGOs differentiated and verified online identities.

bozhark• 3 years ago

As a founder of one, this seems unlikely to ever be used extensively

rene_d• 3 years ago

.ONG was new to me:

"The PIR simultaneously applied for the top-level domain .ong, which is a similarly recognisable initialism for "organisation non gouvernementale" in French, and equivalent terms in many other Romance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian." [1]

So similar to e.g. NATO and OTAN.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NGO_and_.ONG

TrevorAustin• 3 years ago

And here Oblong itself is the NGO, so mysubdomain.obl.ong isn't that crazy.

"Oblong" is kind of an awkward word though. Anyone want to set up a fork at .bi.ngo?

Dang, now I'm going to be thinking of .ngo and .ong domains all day...

reesericci11• 3 years ago

It's just that .ong is not associated with spam, unlike say freenom which gives people .tk and is used extensively for spam.

sirl1on2• 3 years ago

not associated with spam yet. Another TLD for a target audience that will never use the TLD because of it's obscurity so it will only be used by people looking for the cheapest domain to spam and scam.

Brendinooo2• 3 years ago

The marketing site reads like it wants you to have short-ish, cheap identity; the code of conduct reads like it's trying to make a community. Which is more correct?

reesericci11• 3 years ago

The first one mainly. The Code of Conduct is just standard Contributor Covenant stuff for people who contribute back code.

Merlin04• 3 years ago

The former - the CoC was adapted from the contributor covenant which explains a lot of the community language, we figured it (heavily modified) would work well enough for domain content too. Thanks for pointing that out though, we'll work on it!

a9ex• 3 years ago

Is anyone using these free subdomains professionally?

A proper .com is only ~$8/year, quite a good deal — is free domains still a problem that needs to be solved?

candiddevmike• 3 years ago

It's a problem that needs to be solved for spammers and scammers, in my experience.

reesericci11• 3 years ago

That's why we have manual review.

p4bl0• 3 years ago

What does OBL mean? Is it just a play on word with "oblong" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oblong) ?

Anyway, I doubt depending on a unknown project may qualify as "quality" for something as important as you domain name. Especially since having you own domain name can cost less than $10 per year, I don't really see the value in something like this (and I never want to live the Freenom debacle again).

reesericci11• 3 years ago

To answer the first question, yep it's just "oblong".

We exist so people don't have to go to freenom when they want their own but free domain. I've used Freenom in the past, and they are the worst experience.

LoganDark4• 3 years ago

Does this only support hardware security keys...? Not exactly what I expected from "no password".

reesericci11• 3 years ago

No it doesn't. Firefox has terrible support for Passkeys at the moment. Try using Google Chrome/Edge/Safari/etc.

LoganDark4• 3 years ago

Chromium 114 here, it only gives me the option to use a physical security key, or Windows Hello (which then proceeds to also demand a physical security key).

Would prefer if they just accepted my randomly generated 64 character passwords, since I already use a password manager (KeePassXC).

skybrian2• 3 years ago

No specific hardware. It requires a password manager that supports passkeys. Password managers include major browsers. I’ve only tested with Chrome, but I’ve created passkeys on Android, an iPad, and a Mac.

There will be some way to authenticate to the password manager. On my iPad, it’s a fingerprint sensor. With Chrome on a Mac, I don’t know where it gets stored (keychain?), but it prompts for your Mac password. That’s not no password but it’s no additional password.

rodoxcasta• 3 years ago

on my firefox it didn't work, just keep asking to connect a security token, with no other option. Firefox 116, Ubuntu 20.04, had an Yubikey in the past, never used passkey.

I think it's asking for the old yubikey, but neither the site nor firefox give me other option or a link about what to do.

LoganDark4• 3 years ago

My Chromium 114 only allows me to authenticate with a physical security key, or Windows Hello (which then proceeds to also demand a physical security key). Not very user-friendly...

Would prefer if they just accepted my randomly generated 64 character passwords, since I already use a password manager (KeePassXC).

avdlinde• 3 years ago

I guess? After they get my email verification code I get a physical usb/nfc request - no idea what it's for/does. A "email login" would have been less of a blocker.

esskay2• 3 years ago

No its just super clunky for anyone not on a Mac using Chrome or Safari. Windows implementation right now is pretty basic, and Firefox hasn't really got theirs right at all either.

Honestly unless you have a security key, or a mac I wouldn't bother right now. Going all in on Passkeys when a significant majority of devices don't fully support it yet is a bit silly.

LoganDark4• 3 years ago

I could probably have a security key in as little time as it would take to flash one of my $3 Pi Picos. I just don't think it would be a very good idea.

andrewfromx2• 3 years ago

I love this idea. I've registered so many domains over the years only to have that project fail and then feel bad about the money I wasted on "the perfect domain". I would love to try stuff without spending (yes even $8) and get live on the internet with this + letsencrypt !

KomoD• 3 years ago

So take your primary domain you use... and make subdomains...?

andrewfromx2• 3 years ago

no it's like i get "new domain fever" and nothing can talk me out of buying thisgreatdomain.com even though yes I could use foo.myolddomain.com.

skybrian2• 3 years ago

To be clear, this is a way to get a free subdomain of obl.ong. No point in registering if you don’t want that.

antran225• 3 years ago

This is a misleading title. Not to attack the merit of the project (it's can still be used to host stuffs), this is not free domain, this is free subdomain.

The main difference is that I don't own the subdomain, and should the organization decide to forgo the domain, my subdomain is also gone. On the other hand, if I buy a domain, my name is attached to it in the registry to denote that I am the "rightful" owner of the domain, and it is going to be way harder for me to lose access to it (I read a post on HN sometimes ago that some governmental cybersec task force can just terminate access to your domain if they deem you are using it for malicious intent, but otherwise you can only deliberately lose the domain)

This is just like a github.io subdomain. IME the only true free domain service is Freenom.

reesericci11• 3 years ago

I mean couldn't a registry also shaft you?

paddim8• 3 years ago

If a registrar dies you could transfer to another one. That's not possible with subdomains since there can only be one issuer

antran225• 3 years ago

This should be less frequent and IMHO, under many circumstance, you are protected by consumer law (citation needed). You also have more freedom when picking the domain name (fuckmicrosoft.co is less than 2$ on GoDaddy, but good luck trying to get fuckmicrosoft.github.io).

Also one issue that I neglected to raise is this can be very unstable. If some scammer/malware use your service (I know that you have a review process, but you still won't know for sure), Google SafeBrowse may mark your whole domain as harmful. I don't know if you have a contingency for this, but you need one in place.

benatkin3• 3 years ago

Misleading? This is outright wrong:

this is not free domain, this is free subdomain

A subdomain is a type of domain.

antran225• 3 years ago

You misunderstood the definition of domain in my context. In terms of ownership, if I tell you I am owning a domain, I am owning something along the format of "${name}.${tld}". I can't say that I own the domain of "example.github.io", because, well, if somebody look up for example.github.io in the ICANN domain (provided it is not redacted), it's not going to be my name in there, it's going to be Github's.

In terms of "string that I can type in the Browser address bar to go to a website", I agree with your definition.

haroldp• 3 years ago

Also there is a Code of Conduct associated with it that's much more restrictive than, "We'll comply with law enforcement requests if you are doing something illegal with the (sub)domain."

Nope.

BrandoElFollito2• 3 years ago

you can only deliberately lose the domain

Or your can be me. For some convoluted reasons I had the contract email set to my company mail and the domain was paid for 10 years. I left the company in May and in September the registrar started to send reminders which were of course bounced.

Then around Christmas I realized something is wrong, tried to get the domain back but it was too late.

This was an unfortunate set of circumstances, all my fault, but "deliberate" is a bit too masochist :)

antran225• 3 years ago

I would like to first sympathize with you. That is a crappy situation to be in.

I also agree, "deliberate" is a bit too strongly worded.

So in order to lose the domain, there is just a very few modes of failure that has a 3rd party factor. In most case, the domain-owning entity is accountable for losing the access.

em-bee2• 3 years ago

how is freenom different?

tamimio2• 3 years ago

That’s subdomain though, not a donain. I remember back in the day .tk domains were completely free, good old days!

tamimio2• 3 years ago

Ok reading the comments seems .tk are still free!

overcast• 3 years ago

Can you imagine verbally trying to tell someone your new subdomain from these guys?

olah_1• 3 years ago

I would rather just use a public key. No need for an entity (no matter how benevolent) to manage my identity for me.

In terms of the vibe that something gives off, stuff is usually "cooler" when it seems like you didn't care that much. A random pubkey is as care-free as it gets.

shidayat• 3 years ago

if the system is like js.org maybe it will attract many people to use it including me because it is more transparent

Am4TIfIsER0ppos• 3 years ago

"For all" but from their cock, I'm sorry, Code of Conduct:

The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind

No porn and probably more

Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission

No saying the president of the united states lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

No t-shirts and jeans.

distributing or hosting any adult content, including but not limited to, pornographic images or videos

No porn again

content which may be illegal under German or Scottish law

No youtube-dl allowed!

This list is not comprehensive, and we reserve the right to revoke any subdomain at any time

So basically if you piss off the CEO he might wake up one day and boot you off. Say hello cloudflare.

Avamander• 3 years ago

To be fair most TLDs have similar rights and rules. Some don't and they're on most shitlists out there. In the end you're never buying a domain, it's always renting. Unless you're a TLD, then that actually is conceptually a bit different.

someone1829• 3 years ago

The people at https://nic.eu.org/ also provide decent free subdomains, only issue is they are manually approved, so may take a while to get a domain.

theanonymousone• 3 years ago

How do such services deal with the danger of getting totally blacklisted (or worse) because of one malicious subdomain? How do they avoid being held responsible for what happens in the subdomains?

isuleman• 3 years ago

No thanks. I'll Justs stick to .tk and .ga .. those are actually FREE DOMAINS.

Show HN: Obl.ong, Free, quality domains for all

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