Top all-time · #4818
Ben Metcalfe
Personal blog · benmetcalfe.com/blog · on HN as dotBenstartups
Ben Metcalfe's personal blog at benmetcalfe.com covers startups. Since 2007, 16 different Hacker News readers have linked it 27 times, most often “The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe”. The last post was in 2020, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ben Metcalfe's posts on the risks of .ly and other country-code domains, such as Libya seizing vb.ly, and on visa types for foreign founders applying to Y Combinator.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2010-10-06
- What visa type do you need, exactly, to legally participate in Y Combinator?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-02-03
- My GMail password scares me with its power2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-10-07
- /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-07-04
What Hacker News says?
Back in the very early 2000's I owned a domain and a month after renewing it, the registrar refunded me the registration fee and took ownership of it - the new WHOIS entry was for the owner of that registrar. Similarly; you are at the whim of the NICs, with the .ly domains being a great example of a TLD taking back domains for whatever reason. https://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-...
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/
on “Customer's 20-year-old email account shut down over unusual address”Submitted The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe as a story · 287 points
HN discussionAt least from what I've heard YCs position on this has been "not our problem". Frankly that has seemingly been their position on many concerns of founders e.g. housing. YC only leaves you 6 weeks or so from acceptance to start of the program which obviously isn't enough to get a work permit. http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2012/02/what-visa-type-do-you-ne...
Comment linking /blog/2012/02/what-visa-type-do-you-need-exactly-to-legally-participate-in-y-combinator/
on “Ask HN: What visa do foreign YC founders use to stay in US beyond 3 months?”Submitted My GMail password scares me with its power as a story · 86 points
HN discussionTo second the comment that itmag made, you are simply replacing one country with another. Recall the debacles that happened among the cute .ly TLDs when Libya decided that Islamic law applied to sites like vb.ly. http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-b...
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/
on “Uncle Sam: If It Ends in .Com, It’s .Seizable”Submitted Today Apple announced the death of the optical drive in its laptops as a story · 42 points
HN discussionThis is great news. I blogged about this back in October - glad to see Google have taken this issue on. http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2009/10/my-gmail-password-scares... It will be interesting to see how successful adoption of IMAP-via-OAuth will be.
Comment linking /blog/2009/10/my-gmail-password-scares-me-with-its-power/
on “Google officially announces OAuth support for IMAP/SMTP Gmail”Submitted What visa type do you need, exactly, to legally participate in Y Combinator? as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSure, So when we were finally able to email directly with NIC.ly (post deletion) they said that the domain was removed because they didn't like the 'scantily clad' lady on the front page (and only page) of the site (which was Violet, in this photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotben/3674835644/ ) They're essentially now changing their tune for PR reasons. The site's purpose was NOT to shorten pornographic urls, it…
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/our-response-to-nic-lys-statement-on-the-vb-ly-domain-deletion/
on “NIC.LY statement regarding the decision to block vb.ly”Submitted Musings about so-called ‘acqhire’ talent acquisitions as a story · 4 points
HN discussionWe've released a response to NIC.ly's statement, available at http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/our-response-to-nic-lys-...
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/our-response-to-nic-lys-statement-on-the-vb-ly-domain-deletion/
on “NIC.LY statement regarding the decision to block vb.ly”Submitted Musings about so-called ‘acqhire’ talent acquisitions as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSad story. I'd avoid a number of African TLDs, to be honest. Remember the .ly fiasco a couple years back[1] [1] http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-b...
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/
on “.ng is the most dangerous cctld”Submitted Vb.ly is dead, long live vbly.us as a story · 3 points
HN discussionyou can get some info here: http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2012/02/what-visa-type-do-you-ne...
Comment linking /blog/2012/02/what-visa-type-do-you-need-exactly-to-legally-participate-in-y-combinator/
on “[Ask HN] Applying to Y Combinator from outside the US - Some Questions”Submitted "The media and your users won’t understand or care you went for an MVP" (Path) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere's actually a lot of discussion at the moment on the security of RackSpace Cloud Sites product. A lot of the exploits we've seen have focused around WordPress because it's probably the most common use of an RS Cloud Sites account rather than anything specifically vulnerable in WP. http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/01/wordpress-to-be-currentl... and also http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1077311
Comment linking /blog/2010/01/wordpress-to-be-currently-considered-unsafe/
on “Techcrunch moves from Rackspace to Wordpress Hosting”Submitted The European startup scene as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf it were me, I'd purchase both the vanity tld of your choice along with .com/.net and use .htaccess rules to redirect content to one or the other. I'd be wary of .ly domains though.. http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-b...
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/
on “As HN: Startup name — dot com or not dot com?”Submitted PaperKarma, Craigslist and unintentional disruption as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOne should definitely be careful when registering domains that belong to countries which not really democracies. Remember that they can switch off your domain at any moment. And by no means build your business on it. vb.ly is a good example: http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-b...
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/
on “Getting a .by domain”Submitted Glad to see price increases for SxSW Interactive 2011 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionA lot has happened with that domain name. [0][1][2] [0] https://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-... [1] https://www.theregister.com/2004/04/13/libya_falls_off_net/ [2] https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/04/letter-ly-abrupt-ly-loses-...
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/
on “The Most Popular Startup Domain Suffixes”Submitted Helping UK startups get ahead in San Francisco and Silicon Valley as a story · 1 points
HN discussionFYI: Ben Metcalfe warned about problems with .ly domains back in October 2010. (see http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-b... )
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/
on “Should we trust .ly/local domains for our startups?”Looks like there is a crackdown on .ly domains. See also: http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-b...
Comment linking /blog/2010/10/the-ly-domain-space-to-be-considered-unsafe/
on “Official: vb.ly Link Shortener Seized by Libyan Government”I remember when this was a meme back in 2005 ( http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/2005/08/elevator-hacks/ ) I guess it's time for it to go round again for the next generation!
Comment linking /blog/2005/08/elevator-hacks/
on “Totally amazing hack: Use an elevator without stopping”
