The OpenNIC "Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions."
Terry Pratchett, The Truth
This is an old OpenNIC webpage! Please visit the wiki ([alt]) for up-to-date information about OpenNIC.
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· Creating New TLDs
Proposing and Creating new TLDs through OpenNIC

Within the OpenNIC, a Top-Level Domain is an independent administrative body, responsible for governing itself and maintaining its own resources. TLD administrative groups are free to administer the TLD however they choose, subject to these restrictions:

  • each TLD must run at least one Tier 1 server which mirrors the root data of all the OpenNIC TLDs
  • each TLD must have a web site at "http://www.opennic.[TLD]" for registration and administrative information
  • each TLD must have the following email addresses:
    • hostmaster@opennic.[TLD]
    • abuse@opennic.[TLD]
    • webmaster@opennic.[TLD]
  • each TLD must publish and enforce a Charter for that TLD, which can only conflict with OpenNIC Policies by vote of the OpenNIC membership.
  • unless specified in the TLD description and authorized by vote of the OpenNIC membership, the TLD governance must be democratic and allow one (and only one) vote to each real person holding a domain registration in that TLD

Here are the steps for creating a new OpenNIC TLD:

  • join OpenNIC - at the moment this is accomplished by subscribing to the Discussion email list
  • form an admin team - gather a few other administrators to design and maintain the resources for the new TLD
  • propose the TLD - choose a TLD name and write a description of how it will be used; write a Charter for the new domain; post these to the discussion list
  • call for a vote - at any point in the list's discussion of the proposal, any member may call for a vote on the proposal; new TLDs will be established by collecting more than 50% of the votes cast (so if you don't like it, you'd better vote against it ...)
  • launch - make your DNS server(s) publicly available and start accepting registrations

All material on this site, and in the OpenNIC databases, is held as copyrighted by the users of the OpenDNS system and is managed jointly by the Maintainers of the OpenNIC. Please contact the OpenNIC webmaster for any further information about this site or its content. Thank you.
last modified 2001-06-03