Interestingly this discussion seems to have reverted to the age-old question
of... "What does the market want?"

Whatever handle we choose to place on Domain Names... A Directory Service...
Not a Directory Service... Useful for locating businesses... not useful
because people use Search Engines etc. etc.... is superfluous... the bottom
line is that Domain Names are a saleable commodity, the value of which is
ruled by market influences.

It doesn't matter what rules we place on these names, because the market
will decide whether or not they offer value for money. The only impact of
any rule on commercial property is to attempt to influence market
acceptance... yes we like the rules so we will buy an .au domain... or no,
we don't like the rules so we will buy a .com or something else. The
challenge of those developing the rules is to decide what the market wants,
and hence they are clearly working in the area of marketing - not "business
ethics" or any other type of social reform.

The ethical debate (on what domain names should or should not be used for)
is certainly interesting from an academic perspective, however it is hardly
likely to influence the masses considering purchasing a domain.

So where is the market analysis?... where is the trend analysis?... Who is
conducting market surveys?... What does the market really want, and what
does it buy now?

As an exercise in market acceptance, I would like to ask the permission of
this list to conduct an experiment.

auDA is now a recognised domain with prominance on the world's Search
Engines (even though auda.net is running a close second). What would happen
if a web page were to be placed on the net, identified only by an IP
address, yet including a title such as "auDA - Click Here" (with a link to
auda.com.au so there is nothing improper about the site). The site to also
include Keywords and robot metatags such as "auda, australia, domain
registration" etc. etc. - Again, nothing improper about doing this.

What if the site were then promoted on the world's search engines using a
few of the "tricks of the trade" we are all familiar with.... which site
would get the most hits? - the one with the recognised domain name? or the
one identified only by an IP address, yet publicly promoted?

If this were to be a viable test obviously both sites would need to provide
an audit of hits visible to anyone... is this worth a try?

PS - Whilst on the auDA web site... guys, what gives? the site appears twice
in a browser... it's as though someone had updated the site by simply
copying and pasting the entire content onto the top of the page, yet leaving
the old stuff on the bottom (if you scroll down the page you will see what I
mean), plus double title tags at the top, and an end html tag half-way
down... the first time I loaded the page it crashed my browser... the second
time it worked, but messy...

CYA, Don