42Experiment:FAQ
From 42Experiment
Welcome to the 42 Experiment FAQ. If you have questions you cannot find in this FAQ, please feel free to contact us, we are very likely to post them here :-)
Contents |
[edit] General
[edit] What is 42 Registry ?
42 registry is an experiment among others on the Internet.
It runs as a non-profit organization (as per the French so-called "1901 law"), whose aim is to provide a TLD (Top-Level Domain) around which a community can gather. We define this community as part of the "42 Experiment".
[edit] What's 42 ?
42 is a number. Six times nine in base thirteen, 101010 in base 2.
Most notoriously, it's the number Douglas Adams happened to choose in one of his novels (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) as the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Less notoriously, it's also the number around which we hope to gather a new community.
[edit] Why 42 ?
We did not choose this TLD exclusively out of nerdiness.
The fact that this TLD does not conform to standards poses many technical constraints that we are quite aware of (some are described further). It nevertheless brings a significant benefit: our TLD will never conflict with any potential TLD the ICANN would specify in the future. This kind of conflict could indeed put an end to the entire project. Choosing a numeric TLD presents known and calculated technical risks that we decided to accept. So when choosing a number, we thought: why not 42?
Moreover, there is already a whole nerdy community linked to Douglas Adams' magical number: the free software community.
[edit] What about the 42 Experiment ?
The "Free Software" notion is mostly known through the GNU/GPL license. Quoting Wikipedia: "Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and that manufacturers of consumer-facing hardware allow user modifications to their hardware." This is the sharing spirit we want to highlight.
We want to gather around the 42 Experiment not only the free software community, but everything that relates to science, technology or anything else that is free and open, while excluding the industrial aspect.
Research, free software, community websites, high-tech blogs: these are the topics we want to find behind every .42 domain. The goal is to guarantee to any individual using a service with a .42 domain that they will find constructive content, relevant to these topics.
Note that the profit aspect is not fundamentally prohibited. The purpose of a .42 domain has to abide by the charter, and not be focused on business and competition (you can use a .com for that). Also, the 42 Registry doesn't prevent any donation system. We want to promote openness, not hold it back.
[edit] Why should one use .42 ?
We would like the .42 community to steer towards openness and sharing. To register a .42 domain is to join this community, and therefore identify oneself as a provider of open content.
Our goal is clearly to encourage sharing, and therefore progress, by facilitating propaganda and community interactions.
We think the Free Software concept should inspire sectors other than computer science. Indeed, this concept allows for quick progress and high quality in resulting products. This can be explained by the fact that source code freedom encourages one to learn, for who those want to understand how things work; to share, for those who want to reuse a feature; to contribute, for those who want to help improve the project.
Obviously, not everything can be based on such open and non-profit principles, but undoubtebly it would be beneficial to put efforts into it.
And while we are not pretending we can boost such initiatives, we might be able to offer means of identification and recognition.
[edit] What about commercial projects ?
This is a much debated topic.
We would like to keep the commercial model out of the community, as much as possible. However, some of the applications we received made us realize that we might want to approve a few profit-oriented domains. They usually fall under the GNU philosophy. Indeed, as can be read on this page, "Redistributing free software is a good and legitimate activity; if you do it, you might as well make a profit from it." We would like to extend this logic to the sharing spirit we describe above. In other words, a commercial project, which purpose is to promote values that are dear to the .42 community, can be eligible for a .42 domain.
That being said, these are abstract and subjective notions that can evolve with the mood of the community. Therefore, as explained in the charter, every application will be examined and evaluated individually, and the 42 Registry's policy may evolve over time. This matter can of course be discussed with us.
[edit] In short?
In short, .42 is a means of recognition for open-source, scientific, hi-tech communities, scientific projects and so on. Created and maintained by volunteers, its aim is to foster collaboration and progress within the community.
[edit] Practical
[edit] What shall I do to get my .42 domain ?
You can create your account here and then apply for a domain. However, please bear in mind that we are a restrictive TLD. Each application is approved or rejected manually (ie. by a human being), based on charter compliance (that is why you need to fill in the Purpose field). We also try and detect abusive registrations (ie. 1 NIC, many domains, vague purposes).
[edit] What are the "Purpose" and "Notes" fields for ?
First of all, please make sure you have read our charter.
The "Purpose" field is one you should care for. We require that you indicate the intended purpose for each domain, regardless of the scope (public, private, or both). We encourage you to provide as much information as possible, even more so for domains that will not remain private.
Most importantly, the contents of the Purpose field will be made available to the public through the WHOIS system. When you describe your purpose, you are not just telling us why you think the 42 Registry should approve your request. You are in fact addressing the whole community and explaining what you intend to use your domain for.
If you wish to include further explanations regarding your application (eg. to point to an existing version of the content, ie. "I want mydomain.42 to host the content currently hosted at mydomain.org"), please use the "Notes" field. In fact, anything that is not directly relevant to your domain's purpose should go to the Notes field. Also, "Notes" are private and can only be read by the 42 Registry Staff.
[edit] Why do you need to know about the Purpose ?
As explained above, we intend to offer a free service: we are not looking for profit. We would like every domain to comply with the charter that every user understands and accepts. Our intention is to prevent abuse and to make sure that services and contents in the .42 zone are up to a certain quality standard.
[edit] Technical
[edit] This is confusing ! Is 192.168.1.42 an IP address or a domain name ?
Definitely an IP address. RFC 1123] clearly says a "host SHOULD check the string syntactically for a dotted-decimal number before looking it up in the Domain Name System". In other words, no host in its right might should try to resolve what is a perfectly normal IP address, because it makes no sense at all. Therefore, there can be no confusion.
