New gTLDs (.web, all that.)

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Username: worldthoughts

Date/Time: Tue, June 27, 2000 at 7:56 AM GMT

Browser: AOL Browser V5.0 using Windows 98

Score: 5

Subject: New gTLDs (.web, all that.)

Message:

< New gTLDs will be confusing enough to the ordinary users. So please, if you must stick to the principle of three letters for gTLDs! Please! >>>

   Okay, I have to take you to task on this. I have heard the argument, "New gTLDs will cause confusion" TOOOO many times.
   How precisely? I mean, reeeeaaaaaally think about this. Don't just spit out what so many others are saying. HOW can a .web, .bank, .food, .movie, .shop cause confusion?
   If people don't understand these things, I recommend that they go back to the earliest days of their education and examine what went wrong that made them so deficient in their language and thinking skills. As for the rest of us: should we disadvantage ourselves because others are incompetant? And I truly DO mean that. A person who is confused by what the various gTLDs mean, has a few issues, if the gTLDs are themselves clear--as in the cases indicated above. Personally, I resent having to have my world legislated to the lowest segment of society.
   Yet in all honesty, I think the statement, "New gTLDs will cause confusion" is more of an intentional smoke screen or a mindless mantra that's origin has long since been lost. Truth be told, I don't think many people will be confused. I have discussed the concept of gTLDs with more than a handful of people--some not the brightest or even a little bit tech savvy--and they all grasp .web, .shop, .movie, etc.
   Let's be honest. And as I said--if there are those among us who don't comprehend what a .movie means--let's bring them to our level of being mentally "with-it" . . . and not shape our world around their incapacity. Imagine if someone had said, "There will be those who don't understand what the Internet is. Let's not have one." Or better yet. . . Imagine if someone had said, "This wheel thing is going to confuse people. Let's stick with squares and oblongs."
Let's advance according to our needs and our imagination. Give the world a paradigm shift every few years. It's called evolution. It's called existence. Thus sayeth WorldThoughts.