My presentation for OERxDomains 2021 conference.

1. What I learned from 20
years of giving domains as
Christmas presents
Dominik.Lukes@ctl.ox.ac.uk

2. Outline
My story
What you
need to
know
What you
need to
avoid
What to
do with it
Dilemmas
What’s
new

3. 1998
•www.cuni.cz/~dlukes
2000
•bohemica.com
2005
•dominiklukes.net
2010
•strcprstskrskrk.com
2020
•30 domains later
My story

4. Metaphorhacker.net

5. Why I own 30 domains
Emails Websites Gifts Creative
Writing

6. Key concepts people don’t get
Every web page is a file in a folder
on a computer somewhere
Every computer on the internet has
a unique number (IP Address)
Domains are verbal shortcuts

7. From a presentation I did in 1998

8. Browsers are HTML file viewers

9. https://myserver.com/index.html
=
https://myserver.com
Web servers are just computers with folders

10. https://myserver.com/index.html
=
C://webserver/myservertopfolder
/index.html
Website address is a link to folders

11. Sometime the file is in a database
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roffie-
Microphones-Computer-Recording-
Conference/dp/B0878VGZZ5/ref=sr_1_5?c
rid=1TJK0MT6QNWF3&dchild=1&keyword
s=webcam&qid=1589195310&sprefix=24+i
n+%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-5

12. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roffie-
Microphones-Computer-Recording-
Conference/dp/B0878VGZZ5/ref=sr_1_5?crid
=1TJK0MT6QNWF3&dchild=1&keywords=w
ebcam&qid=1589195310&sprefix=24+in+%2
Caps%2C195&sr=8-5
=
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roffie-
Microphones-Computer-Recording-
Conference/dp/B0878VGZZ5
Sometimes, there’s other information in the link

13. subserver.myserver.com/
folderonmyserver/
fileonmyserver.html
=
123.56.39.10:576/
folderonmyserver/
fileonmyserver.html
Top level domains are addresses of computers

14. What to know about domains
Buy them via registrars
Different TLDs, different
prices, different rules
Country TLDs are fun but
expensive, capricious

15. .tv .so .ly .it .co

16. Lessons learned
10 years is
nothing
Separate domain
and hosting
Don’t let them
expire
Transferring is a
pain
Always think
about moving

17. Handy jargon
DNS
IP Address
MX Record
A Name and C Name

18. What’s new
Wordpress
Competition
Notion as a
website host
Cloudflare Reclaim
Hosting

19. dominiklukes.net
techczech.net
metaphorhacker.net
researchity.net
czechly.com
…