Friday, February 9, 2018

Just noticed: the .RUGBY new gTLD

The world of Rugby now has its own identity on Internet: they are domain names ending in ".rugby" instead of ".com".

I just noticed that the registry launched a new version of its website: https://roar.rugby/ so I went through the procedure of registering a domain name and it appears that...it's working.

A strange launch phase
For those interested, here is the launch phase which explains WHAT, WHEN and HOW MUCH. I found - yet - no list of accredited registrars to .RUGBY domain names but I am confident that it is coming.

I first thought that .RUGBY was a closed TLD but it appears that it is open to all (...)

There is an interesting phase called "Limited Registration Periods" which is typically what a client for a registry would want to have for a TLD like .RUGBY and I understand this choice. Unfortunately these phases have proved that they just don't work in terms of registrations: no one buys domains when it is so restricted and complicated. This phase started in January 2018 already and there are 3 in total. They end on the 28 of June 2019! As of today, there are 19 domain names registered in total.

General availability
Anyone who will have been afraid by this launch phase will have access to .RUGBY domain names on the first on July 2019: in one year and 5 months. At this moment, there will sure be a huge list of accredited registrars since there's no better branding for any business connected to Rugby.

The problem that I foresee? The $100.00 price tag in general availability: it is the cheapest one advertised on the website and regular users...don't buy at this price.

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