Re: [Membership] Re: Individual Memberships

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Wed, Feb 17, 1999 at 11:08:23AM -0500, Diane Cabell wrote:
> Daniel Kaplan wrote:
> 
> > (....)
> > To me, it does not sound more loony than creating an organization to better
> > manage domain names and IP addresses, and then forgetting who represents
> > the vast majority of users of domain names and IP addresses (ie,
> > organizations).
> >
> > Daniel
> 
> What data do you have for this statement about the user population, Daniel?
> 
> Diane Cabell
> MAC

Try the following exercise:  Go to alta vista, put in a common word 
like "dog", and do a search -- just did, got 3,376,184 hits.  Now, 
just start going down the list, looking at just the domain name part 
of each URL.  Here's the first 50 or so for "dog":

www.iconnect.net/home/cinemabxrdane/join.html
www.clarityconnect.com/webpages/etna/lake.htm
www.akc.org/bermtn.htm (American Kennel Club)
www.sporting-dog.com/friend.html
www.sover.net/~jnnelson/KANGAL_SITE/Page1.html
pages.prodigy.com/UWAM72A/nod.htm
www.puppynet.com/index.html (puppies for sale or trade)
www.naiaonline.org/resc95gc.html (the NAIA, whatever that is)
www.adognet.com/adognet/cgi-bin/chat.cgi
cis.nmclites.edu/~beyer/sam/recipe.html
www.lucky-dog.com/ (dog race betting)
www.topdogmedia.com/
www.doggiedoor.com/doghouse/
www.neurobellum.com/mauled.html
pages.prodigy.com/pomathon/pomtreat.htm
www.ozemail.com.au/~kap/newfie.html
www.ccampo.com.do/golf.html
members.tripod.com/~ICDOC/dogobed.html
users.aol.com/akluhas/true.htm
www.aspca.org/petcare/dog.htm
www.hotdogonastick.com/
www.tiac.net/users/smcgrath/dogsites.html
www.twics.com/~setad/dogpage/dogpage.htm
home.sprynet.com/sprynet/gpyrs/
pages.prodigy.com/MD/wfdt/wfdt.html
www.whakatane.co.nz/
www.wwns.com/nexus/intdog.html
www.plix.com/~com/dogpatch/index.htm
www.k9web.com/dog-faqs/lists/acronym-list.html
www.geocities.com/Heartland/6785/cards.html
www.aic-fl.com/gg/
www.bdsf.com/
www.leonet.fi/dictionary.html
www.erols.com/chomi/
www.merry-christmas.com/bippo.htm
www.kristull.com/stamps.htm
www.coil.com/~steve/small-dogs.html
ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/RichC/dogs.htm
www.dogzone.com/reading/aussie1.htm
www.ultimate-records.co.uk/PLANDOG.htm
www.bluesworld.com/Pekar1.html
www.dog-play.com/youth.html
www.californiamedia.com/boneappetit/sample.shtml
www.canismajor.com/dog/amerpit.html
ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tpollard/
home.inreach.com/maddog/
www.compushop.net/cgi-bin/dccorner/board.cgi
tiberius.fhcrc.org/home/dog.html
www.ludin.com.au/~hollow/dogrec~1.htm
www.digitaldog.com/breeds.html

There are many personal *pages* in this list, but no obvious 
personal *domain names*.  (If you look at the brief AltaVista 
descriptions that go with each page you get a much better idea about 
the intended use of the domain...)

I make no claim that this is a scientific sample, or that it proves 
anything, but it certainly is suggestive.  I urge everyone to 
conduct their own mini surveys...

I can also say from my experience in registering domain names for 
people that *every single case* of a single individual registering a 
domain has been in support of a real or anticipated business.

Now, I certainly know of personal domain names, but in my direct 
experience they are a tiny, tiny minority of the cases that one 
encounters in practice.

-- 
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair				"Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com				lonesome." -- Mark Twain