Am I Crazy or is the Mali Government Reclaiming the ml Domain Now is too Convenient of a Time?

lemmy.fmhy.ml is down because of this, and lemmy.ml (which is one of the largest lemmy instance) might be next.

Is this a conspiracy?

  • kadu@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A conspiracy by whom? To do what?

    Top level domains are a significant source of revenue. As the “.ml” gets used more often due to “machine learning” of course the government will try and explore this further.

  • SilentStorms@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    A conspiracy to do what? Take down Lemmy? I swear people here overstate our importance. This is a comparatively tiny website.

    Wasn’t the contract ending causing the domain control to transfer to Mali known for quite a while?

    • SilentStorms@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Also, I’m now picturing a general in a war room in Mali saying “This Lemmy site is becoming too powerful. Shut it down. They should’ve known better than to mess with Mali! Muahahahah!”

  • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    They aren’t “reclaiming” the top level domain, they’ve always owned it. They are simply not renewing the contract which was ending with Freenom.

  • pacology@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    ml was managed by freenom for a long time. They made it available alongside tk domains.

    Freenom stopped operations for sometime and both Mali and Tokelau are in the process of taking over their registrars from freenom.

    It’s more of an example of a coincidence than a conspiracy.

  • Betty White In HD@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Am I crazy but is using a domain typically used by any government a really stupid idea in the first place?

    I get that it was free or cheap, but come on, nobody saw this coming?

      • redcalcium@c.calciumlabs.com
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        1 year ago

        It has happened before with the .ly domains about a year before the US invasion of Libya. Tech companies were scrambling to find a solution back then. Presumably they struck a backroom deal with the Syrian government.

      • Flax@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        My instance is .uk, many places use .gg or .io, ironically all of those are British

    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      This is so incredibly stupid… People who leak national secrets because they can’t be trusted to check their URL’s and/or email addresses shouldn’t be allowed to use those same communication methods.

      • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There’s this MD who I get so much privileged info that should be going to his practice, all because he’s pissed I got to google a decade before he discovered the internet. One of these days I’m gonna hippa the hipaa hippo his ass

      • TheWoozy@dmv.social
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        1 year ago

        People who use internet attached email to send classified information shouldn’t be allowed near classified information.

  • Gutotito@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I can’t imagine why. As much as I love the fediverse and what it stands for, it’s barely a blip on anyone’s radar at this point.

  • eee@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Buddy you overestimate the importance of lemmy i’m afraid

  • AlexisFR@jlai.lu
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    1 year ago

    No, that’s just the consequence of choosing a cheap domain name.

  • redcalcium@c.calciumlabs.com
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    1 year ago
    • A company somehow secured a contract with Mali government to manage .ml TLD
    • Said company then offer free .ml domain registration, with a catch (the domain is not actually yours). They also sell the domain and if you pay for it, the domain will be really yours contractually.
    • The contract between the company and Mali government came to an end, and the control of .ml TLD has been transferred back to Mali government
    • Mali government decided they want all those free domains back and did just that. Those domains will likely available for sale again later on.
    • why Lemmy.ml is not affected? I’m not sure. Does Lemmy.ml use the free domain service, or actually paid for the domain? Or does it survive simply because it has absurdly long TTL on it’s DNS entries?
  • Mereo@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    sigh, no its not a conspiracy. Lemmy is just a little speck on the internet right now.

    • Flax@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      They are taking it down because they always gave out .ml domains for free. Like just buy a domain, gosh. They only cost like £10 a year

  • Norgur@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If there was a conspiracy, then it would be because of the military mails thing that went public a few days ago. It’s not, the switch was to be expected, but still. They’re not after stupid Lemmy, if anything, they are after military secrets