I get that some instances use the domain + TLD to make a word, like lemm.ee or to an extent, sh.itjust.works. But I’ve seen so many TLDs I had no idea existed, like .world, .zone, .social, and yes .works as well.

Is there any real reason for that? Trying to look cool or kinda underground-y? Cheaper and more varied domain options? Something actually kinda functional?

Interestingly, I started on vlemmy.net because I was a scared Reddit refugee and the .net TLD gave me comfort. Then it vanished a few days later without a trace. So here I am on lemmy.world

    • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
      55·
      1 year ago

      I’m on lemmy.zip, has been swell.

      The whole zip malware hype never came to be. Try it out, your Outlook isn’t replacing xyz.zip with a link.

      I guess you could manually create a link, but those have never been safe before either as the text can be different from the URL.

        • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          It really doesn’t matter in my opinion.

          If you get an email and there is a link that just says “myfile.zip”, you wouldn’t click it, right? Email doesn’t support links for attachments, so it would be a web link either way. And behind that link it can be whatever, like “https://malicioussite.com/download/virus”. Actual email attachments have their own spot in your email client.

          On top of that, any URL can download a file. If you go to https://fakegoogle.com it doesn’t even have to be .zip or .jpg, the moment you get there I could start a download in your browser.

            • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
              3·
              1 year ago

              No it’s not that URL will download a file it’s that a URL can pretend to be a file download.

              Every URL can pretend to be a file download…

              I can give you https://mydomain.com/photo.jpg and then deliver you a webpage instead of a .jpg file. The web server decides what you get in return.