Automattic and .blog manton.org

@manton I actually had no idea Automattic owned .blog. Kind of wondering if I should pay more attention to who owns the TLDs I choose to use (but I won’t).

@cooperbike It usually doesn't matter who owns a TLD. There are a couple of exceptions, though, for country codes that might have too much influence on who can use the domain. People have run into problems with .ly (Libya).

@manton not to take away from your actual point, but wow am I glad that I got my .blog domain on the first day it was available and must have some grandfathered in pricing. And I'm glad I have it registered through 2029 for now.

@manton Appreciate your strategy here.

@jsonbecker Multi-year registration is a good idea. I wish I could afford it! 🤪

@manton "numericcitizen.blog" is available... should I? Where should it point to if I register, as an alias to blog.numericcitizen.me, another domain that I own?

@manton I think I only paid $20 a year so… a little bit different.

@manton Getting worried because a TLD is owned by Automattic is taking it to extreme. I don't think Matt's fight is with independent blogs.

@amit I agree.

@manton I hope you’re right about .blog, but you say “I mention this because I don’t see Automattic stabbing its customers in the back and shutting down domains, cutting off a revenue source. What would be the point?”

Matt has already done this exact thing multiple times over the past few months.

@dame.bsky.social He has? He's closed access to WP Engine and some WP contributors, but I don't view that as the same as cancelling Automattic subscriptions.

@manton He hasn’t cut off a “subscription”, but he has repeatedly over the span of many months continued to do things that harm his company, his image, his customers, and the ecosystem. Automattic’s valuation is on the decline. This is a man who does not act in good faith and is detached from reality.

@manton Not sure I agree with your assessment regarding Matt’s sanity given (more) recent events, but I love the resilience strategy, and how it now applies to your TLDs. Genius!

@jsonbecker "numericcitizen.blog" via Cloudflare would be 21$ a year. I'm just not sure if it is a good idea to buy this. cc @manton

@numericcitizen It's a slippery slope to having too many domains. 🙂 But I did get manton.blog and it just redirects to manton.org.

@manton Half of all computer problems are DNS. The other half is disk space.