New internet domains for the Amarok project

[Mark Kretschmann]

Hi all,

lately I've been thinking a lot about the future of our project, which
inevitably led me to ponder the question of a decent Internet domain
for our site. Currently we're using amarok.kde.org, which surely isn't
a bad domain. But with the project's continuing growth, I foresee a
situation where we would very much like to have a "better" domain.

Please keep the following in mind: The later one acts in this regard,
the more expensive it is going to become. Today I've read about the
struggle of Opera Software with getting the opera.com domain, which
they tried to obtain way too late. Nowadays they have opera.com, but
it cost them big $$$.

My prime target at this point is amarok.org. This domain is currently
used by a single (AFAIK US American) guy for the sole purpose of doing
his private email correspondence. I know for a fact that our Jeff
Mitchell has already tried to talk to this guy a while ago, and the
guy "friendly denied" giving up his domain.

But I think the domain is so important to the project in the long run
that we should try again, and we should be prepared to offer a certain
amount of money for it. I'm personally thinking we could go as far as
$1000 for amarok.org at this point. (Of course we would first try to
bargain with him and not offer this sum right away.)

I'm fairly convinced that if we wait any longer, the price could only
rise. I wouldn't be surprised if the domain would cost us as much as
$10000 two years in the future.

Additionally, there are some other possible targets for us, some which
are not even registered yet:

amarok.be (unregistered)
amarok.info (seems to be a parking site)

...and maybe more.


Please let me know what you think, and let me stress again that this
topic might become more important in the future than meets the eye.

-- 
Mark