ble.sh domain

[KaKi87]

Hi,

I would like to suggest buying the ble.sh domain name to redirect to this repo, like acmesh-official/acme.sh bought acme.sh to redirect to their repo.

Thanks

[akinomyoga]

If it were free, that would be an appealing idea. However, a three-character domain is expensive. In addition, once we start to use it, we have to continue to pay because it would be converted to a phishing site if it would expire.

[KaKi87]

it is unlikely to happen now because there is less incentive for malicious people to buy ble.sh for cheating now.

It will become likely to happen whenever your projects gets further traction. That's why there are fake VLC websites, fake LibreOffice websites, etc. It doesn't matter that the website was never certified as legitimate, as long as there are people who will stumble on it from their browser bar and believe it's the real thing.

[akinomyoga]

it is unlikely to happen now because there is less incentive for malicious people to buy ble.sh for cheating now.

It will become likely to happen whenever your projects gets further traction.

I wrote "now"; ble.sh is not as popular now. Also, I didn't write there is no possibility. I agree that there is still a non-zero probability that malicious people buy it now, but it's lower by an order of magnitude than the probability for an expired domain, where the malicious people can exploit the belief of the users who got used to typing https://ble.sh to visit the official one.

ble.sh is not as popular as VLC and LibreOffice (if you mean VLC player by VLC) now, and I don't think it would become as popular as them. There may be still a possibility that ble.sh will become more popular than now (even if it wouldn't compare with VLC and LibreOffice), but if we start to care about them, one cannot make any scripts ending with .sh public, or everyone needs to buy the corresponding domain in advance. That's impractical. Even if one buys one domain, there are many other variations in the domain name. For this reason, there are already many fake websites, and internet users are supposed to know that a website you found by randomly typing a URL in the address bar is not trustworthy. People instead rely on the search engine results, their memory about the URL, etc., where the situation with a hijacked expired domain is critical.

[KaKi87]

All true indeed.

[akinomyoga]

So I'd like to consider the planning for the ten-year maintenance before buying the domain. I'll have to again consider what to do after ten years, but I'll take care of it. There are still options.

• I'm not familiar with crowdfunding, but I still feel that crowdfunding seems simpler. It covers the case where the required price is not reached. If it doesn't reach, I guess the money will be automatically returned to the supporters. A non-trivial factor is whether a sufficient number of people support buying the domain.
• Or I might create a one-time contribution in GitHub sponsors and collect money for the domain. Then, if the value reaches the required price for the cheapest ten-year plan, we buy the domain at that point. Unlike crowdfunding, we can collect money for a longer time. I can start it the next January 1st. If it doesn't reach the price by Dec 31st, 2025, I'll have to pay an extra tax, but I'll cover it.
• Or you can raise funding by your PayPal account and collect money, since you are familiar with it. Then, you or I can buy the domain when it reaches the price.
• Or you can actually maintain the domain ble.sh (with yearly renewing) by yourself by collecting money by whatever means, if you are responsible with maintaining the domain for ten years (or finding another maintainer if it becomes difficult for you).

[KaKi87]

Alright, keep me posted.