Mastodawn

.meow ∙ see ya around ^-^'Nov 3

Hello Fediverse -- let's have an #introduction and introduce ourselves :3

We're dotmeow, a queer-run community project to register the gTLD .meow. But not only for meows and giggles! The profits of this gTLD shall go to community causes, turning every domain into queer community support, especially focusing on trans issues.

While we've already passed the ICANN Application Support Program, we're just now launching our web & social media presence(s). So while there's not much to see here yet, follow us if you're interested in registering a .meow domain and potentially supporting us in the way -- crowdfunding TBA soon.

Outside of announcements we want to engage with the fediverse as regular fedizens and won't spam you with meaningless ads <3

Self-Censored Fake Girl Nov 3

@dotmeow will it have the same privacy invasive forced doxxing shit as with other domains or can one get one without any irl data?

.meow ∙ see ya around ^-^'

@littlerao Good question -- and honestly, I'd love to say no but cannot say right now. If we can make it so, we definitely will -- privacy is fundamental to safety, especially for queer folx.

That being said, I could imagine that this being part of the regulations put in place either by ICANN or the registrars. We definitely do not want your data, and if we can keep it that way, we do that.

(also I forwarded that question to people more knowledgeable than me, although I suppose they don't know as of yet either.)

.meow ∙ see ya around ^-^'Nov 3

@littlerao preliminary answer from the rest of the crew: Some data will be collected by the registrars that we cannot influence. Some things are regulated by ICANN as well. But there *are* differences between registries and, to quote:

> we will collect as little data from registrants as we possibly can while complying with the relevant regulations, including ICANN's rules. We haven't yet gotten to the point of identifying what that minimum is, though

IOW: If we can make .meow the least privacy-invasive gTLD, we're gonna do that! :3

Andrey {.ru account};Nov 4

@dotmeow @littlerao
Anyway, specifying fake personal data when registering a domain is a common practice (done at the cost of possible loss of domain in case of any verifications which afaik are virtually never performed)

Self-Censored Fake Girl Nov 4

@darkcat09 @dotmeow ist nur leider nicht mit meinem autismus kompatibel, regeln sind regeln und muessen eingehalten werden!

Andrey {.ru account};Nov 4

@littlerao @dotmeow
Ah, okay, then probably the solution with 2LD suggested later in this thread may be better for you. Also, there are hostings/registrars which collect exactly no data (njal.la i guess?), but usually they're very pricey

Self-Censored Fake Girl Nov 4

@darkcat09 @dotmeow renting a domain is always pricy!

I just wanna buy and own one!

@dotmeow @littlerao I know that some TLDs have WHOIS privacy by default, and you need to explicitly disable that if you don't want it (why would you???)

so if you can do smth like that, it would be great

.meow ∙ see ya around ^-^'Nov 3

@solonovamax @littlerao True! We'd rather not have that info at all, but this is a good default either way!

Self-Censored Fake Girl Nov 3

@solonovamax @dotmeow problem with that is, they have the info! saying they don't gonna share it doesn't matter at that point!

"The only safe database is the one that has never been collected!"

.meow ∙ see ya around ^-^'Nov 3

@littlerao @solonovamax Absolutely! It's still a good anti-doxxing tool for the data that, for whatever reason, must be shared. Maybe we can register meow.meow as a 2nd level domain with a simple service that's offering subdomains with less restrictions? Anyway, collecting least data is definitely our intention here.

Self-Censored Fake Girl Nov 3

@dotmeow @solonovamax that subdomain might work...

giving them any data is basically a deal breaker for us on getting our own domain (only got a subdomain of a friend)

.meow ∙ see ya around ^-^'Nov 3

@littlerao @solonovamax I'll try to keep it in mind, maybe we can even "promote" such a service on the main page after go-live for those looking specifically to fill that same need. We need to be a bit careful with that too, since registries must be neutral.

Either way, I'm sure such a service can be set up in some way. For any second-level domain that has to go through a registrar & registry we're unfortunately bound by whatever regulations are in place.

@littlerao @dotmeow there are also things like https://pages.gay/ if you want smth to put a website on

is queer-run
no megacorporations involved
cool domain

pages.gay - host static sites quickly and easily

host a static site for your project in minutes, all from the comfort of a source code repository.

pages.gay

Aris, third of their name Dec 20

@solonovamax @littlerao @dotmeow
I'm sorry to have to correct you, but GoDaddy acquired .gay a couple of years ago, and we have not seen any proof of their promise to continue the 20% of income donated to charity. In addition, .meow could be a bit more "subtle" or "for those in the know" than .gay, which may appeal to certain audiences.

Andrey {.ru account};Nov 4

@dotmeow @littlerao @solonovamax
I love the idea with 2LD, though i'd suggest page.meow

Andrey {.ru account};Nov 4

@dotmeow @littlerao @solonovamax
Or maybe .says.meow for personal pages

.meow ∙ see ya around ^-^'Nov 4

@darkcat09 @littlerao @solonovamax It's /likely/ that we aren't allowed to offer this service ourselves due to conflicts of interest -- but this is where y'all come in :3

Self-Censored Fake Girl Nov 4

@dotmeow @darkcat09 @solonovamax why would that be a conflict of interest? /g

@dotmeow
If you have to do that, make it .o.meow (then it looks intentional and almost invisible)

@littlerao @solonovamax

.meow ∙ see ya around ^-^'Nov 7

@curiousicae @littlerao @solonovamax it's likely that we cannot offer this service ourselves (regulations/conflict of interest) but someone in the community can do that (there are multiple people who showed interest in doing that) and we can definitely look into promoting them here! Also I want to see .owo.meow :3

@littlerao @dotmeow that is true, I'm just saying this with the assumption that it's smth you kinda have to collect

I absolutely agree that if you can avoid collecting it at all then don't collect it

or it can even be a thing where like by default the "WHOIS privacy" setting just won't even ask you for the info at all, and then if you choose to explicitly enter your info for some reason, then it shows it

@littlerao @dotmeow I'm sure there's like some weird corpo scenario where like you'd want someone to be able to look up some of your info in the WHOIS information (then again, fuck corporations, so)