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12 February 2008

Crosspost from AskMe... →[More:]I'm considering registering a .ae (United Arab Emirates) domain name for my business. I'm aware of the UAE's record on Net censorship, which brings up two issues for me:

1. I'm a little worried that even though my business would not deal in anything prurient or critical of Middle Eastern governments (both against the rules for the domain), my website may be censored in some manner. I'm a professional blogger and the site would link to client work; who knows whether one of those sites might offend a UAE censor.

2. I worry that my using a .ae domain will imply that I endorse or condone the UAE's policies. For obvious reasons (see 1.) I wouldn't be able to protest these policies, even though I disapprove of them. Is this a big enough issue to preclude using the domain, or, can anyone think of a good way to demonstrate my disapproval without getting my site banned?

The domain itself bridges the dot, incorporating ae into a word, so using another TLD would not be an option for this particular name. I could probably come up with another domain name, but it wouldn't be as cool.

What do you guys think?

post by: me3dia at: 20:10 | 16 comments

Or am I overthinking this?

posted by me3dia 12 February | 20:15

Actually, I'd be more concerned that people would think you were up to some funny business. Like you were trying to circumvent some US law or reg by registering in a foreign country. "Who is this guy? Some kind of money-laundering, pornographer terrorist?"

posted by jrossi4r 12 February | 20:23

The way to demonstrate your disapproval is to give somebody else your money.

posted by box 12 February | 20:27

I would probably understand why you did a .ae to be clever. Like registering sandwi.ch for my site about the Earl of Sandwich. But there's a difference between getting a Swiss TLD and something from the UAE. There's some baggage attaching your domain to that country. The fact the UAE will let anyone on the planet except for Israelis have the domain would give me pause. And unlike having a domain in most countries, you'd always be wondering if something you said or linked to would offend the moral sensibilities of the Emirates. 99.9% of people woudn't even know it was the UAE's TLD so yeah, maybe you're (and now I am) overthinking it.

I would love to have the cajones to register al-qaeda.ae. But I only have the cajones to get cajon.es except some Spaniard named Felix Cajon beat me to it.

posted by birdherder 12 February | 21:05

Using .ae would probably confuse people used to going to .com addresses.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 12 February | 21:12

I have met me3dia. I can confirm that he is indeed a money-laundering pornographer terrorist.

That said, godspeed!

posted by mudpuppie 12 February | 21:13

Personally, I wouldn't be able to do business with them because I won't do business with anyone who says, "All are welcome, except THAT group over there."

posted by BoringPostcards 12 February | 21:13

I've always hated domains that span the TLD, but that's just me.

posted by eamondaly 12 February | 21:25

Yeah, the Isreal thing bugs me too. I'm not sure what to think of it... I imagine it's a party line across the Middle East.

I'm not worried about people being confused by the domain. I think there are enough domain names like that now that it's not an issue.

posted by me3dia 13 February | 00:42

Don't do it.
The risk of losing the domain seems, to me, to far outweigh a clever name.

posted by seanyboy 13 February | 02:53

Birdherder, so you like drawers (Cajones)?

posted by Wilder 13 February | 02:57

I had a .tm TLD for a while, and without warning they froze all TLD's to check for "bad words" which took them well over a year so in the end I just lost it because my time ran out and there was no way to re-buy the name while this was going on.

posted by dabitch 13 February | 04:37

Which is more important to you, your politics, or a jokey domain name that won't be funny to you in 3 months?

posted by Eideteker 13 February | 07:33

Or to be less snarky and condescending, let's say that this domain is a good business choice. Think about where the money you make will have come from, and can you live with having made your fortune off of this choice?

posted by Eideteker 13 February | 07:55

I wouldn't. I wouldn't want my Jewish friends and acquaintances (and in your case, clients!) to ever be feeling negative and possibly dissed by the site name, and they are the ones probably most likely to realize that it is the UAE TLD. Yes, they would understand the reason for the choice, but I still think that for most it wouldn't sit well.

posted by taz 13 February | 08:06

What taz said.

posted by deborah 13 February | 15:11

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