There is a lot of alarmist stuff going around about .io ccTLD being "retired", fedi instances that use it having to move, etc. 👀
Keep calm. Here's the one thing you need to know about this right now:
👉 Even if .io ever gets "retired", it will take *years* for this to affect already delegated .io domains in any way at all.
I cannot stress this enough, we are talking years if not decades.
Soviet Union dissolved 33 years ago, but .su domains still resolve.
Deep breaths.
Carry on.
Q: You're just some rando on the Internet, what can you possibly know? 🤔
A: I used to work for the .IS ccTLD registry. I currently work for Quad9 DNS resolver. I happen to know a thing or two about DNS.
Q: Okay, but you don't have personal stake in this, do you? So of course you're not worried! 🤷♀️
A: My home domain – where my blog is, where my personal infra is, and where my hobby projects are hosted – is rys.io. Yes, a .io domain. I have a very personal stake in this.
Q: Does this mean .io domains will be around forever?
A: It is possible that the .io ccTLD will become a generic TLD, sponsored by some organization instead of being tied to a specific territory. It is also possible that it will get retired in some years.
Q: So what's your plan with your rys.io?
A: I will wait and see what happens. Once a decision is made about .io, I wil either just keep using it, or plan an orderly migration. I expect to have *years* for that at that point.
I'm following exactly the same plan.
@pmevzek because we know ICANN is in no way receptive to arguments, especially ones that happen to be backed by loads of money.
*cough* .zip *cough*
@rysiek IANA has made a specific policy about this because they don't want a repeat of .su or .yu. Most TLDs for countries removed from ISO3166 have been deleted from the root zone, e.g. .tp, .yu, .zr, and .an.
Under the policy retirement would take up to 5 years after ISO 3166/MA takes action, or 10 years if the registrar requests an extension.
there’s a nice summary at https://domainincite.com/30406-five-times-icann-deleted-a-cctld-and-what-it-means-for-io
the crucial thing is how Mauritius decides to handle the territory
if i were them, i would arrange to keep chagos separate enough that ISO 3166 MA agree it can continue to have its own code, and name chagos so it can keep the code IO
then insist to IANA that chagos should have sovereign control over the .io TLD, while keeping everything working
then use the income to compensate the chagossians
With the future of .io coming into question this week, with the news that the UK will return sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius, I thought it would be a good time to see how ICANN has treated disappearing countries and territories in the past. As far as I can tell, ccTLDs
@brad I would read it as more like it will by default be removed in five years, and there’s an option to extend it up to five more. There’s also the option reserved for IANA to shorten the deadline, but I can’t imagine why they would do that.
I don’t think it’s at all realistic to expect less than five more years of .io
@rysiek you pretty much said it. If France can still have what is effectively just another ccTLD for .aq, certainly the UK will not have a problem keeping .io alive for their claim.
That's not even mentioning .gb exists and hasn't been used for decades, with the UK only last year giving their intention to retire it
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
Michael W Lucas 
Patrick Mevzek
artemist
Tony Finch
Joby 
(he/him)
Brad Dougherty
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Andrew
McNeely
Robert Cassidy
Oleksandr Natalenko, MSE 
Jobu Tupaki
Erik Uden 🚩