Neil Fraser: News: .name Termination Neil's News 2026 .name Termination Blockly AGC 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 .name Termination 3 September 2026 Nearly twenty-five years ago I registered neil.fraser.name to provide a stable presence on the Internet. It has been the home of this website, my email address, and a server for APIs. It predates YouTube, Facebook, and smart phones. Minutes after my daughter was born, I also registered beverly.fraser.name . On 15 April 2026 Verisign proposed the destruction of the entire 3rd level of the '.name' hierarchy in order to simplify their administration. Astonishingly, on 28 July 2026 ICANN approved this action . I found out about this a few days ago when my registrar emailed me. Now, it's worth pausing for a moment to discuss what '3rd-level domains' are. Many people will be familiar with shady operators selling domains like *.uk.co . In that case it's some random guy who bought the 'uk' domain from the country of Colombia, then resells third-levels. If that operator disappears, then so do all the domains he sold. As a result, 3rd-level domains have gotten a dubious reputation. However, '.name' is completely different. It was setup exclusively as a 3rd-level operation. One registers xxx.yyy.name from any registrar and there is a full whois record. Exactly like *.ny.us , or *.co.uk . One of my original reasons for choosing '.name' was that it was run by Global Name Registry -- more specifically, it was not run by Verisign. I had history with Verisign and did not trust them. Unfortunately, Verisign acquired Global Name Registry a few years later. This mistrust was validated by the numerous lies Verisign included in their above proposal to ICANN. So what does this mean? First, this website vanishes in February. Despite the fact that it's registered and paid for until 2040. Second, my email address also disappears. Third, all the IoT devices