Registering a domain

What do y'all use to register yr domains? O_O

123-reg.co.uk

rebel.com is where I did my last one.

dreamhost is g00d and they give me a free domain registration every year

What happens if you try to take your domain somewhere else? I've always been skeptical of plans like those.

yeah, common wisdom seems to be keep your hosting and domain registration separated

most good hosts will transfer your domain for you.. it's literally just changing an entry in the giant internet registry

i was considering Dreamhost, tbh

All I ever hear about dreamhost is complaints complaints complaints. Also, good hosts will transfer your domain for you as long as they're not paying for it in the first place.

ruh roh, complaints? why can't this be a thing where there's one clear market leader and everyone just goes to the same ppl? quality monopolies make choosing so much easier

Complaints usually comprise of "why can't I access my site/control panel?!" and "this customer service is fucking useless!"

ymmv i ssh into the server like a nerd and i've never really had a problem

I ftp a lot of things, but I like using the control panel usually once a day at least. If I can't get to it, anger comes.

thinkin' of going w/ Dreamhost, tbh -- anyone use it & been pretty satisfied? is it generally considered reputable?

also, any thoughts on GoDaddy? signed up last summer just to look around or something but i recall it being pretty cluttered and O_O

GoDaddy has dumb commercials, but really most domain registrars are bound by regulation to meet certain criteria. If you find the one with the price you like, you're pretty safe.

Hosting, on the other hand, is pretty much a shot in the dark.

thanking u

what do you mean by "shot in the dark" tho?

(pretty convinced i'll just go w/ dreamhost, tbh)

Reliable uptime. Bandwidth and data transfer speed. Usability. etc.

Like I said before, though, the only thing I've ever heard from friends about Dreamhost is "GAHD I FUCKING HATE DREAMHOST!"

Yeah, but they end up staying with it cuz it's too much of a hassle at that point to change over, right?

I'm with dreamhost, never had a problem (but the extent of my hosting is one tiny static almost empty site no-one ever looks at).

awesome -- at least in the beginning, i'm more or less not going to do anything complicated w/ it, so i don't need anything too crazy

Can someone advise a total noob/non-techie here?

I want to register a domain or two that I think I might one day want to use for a blog.

I don't plan to start blogging yet, at least under the domain I want to register. To the extent I do blog, I want to do so under another, similar, blogspot address, because I want the least amount of hassle and cost. Assuming I do build an audience through that or other means, I would later transfer the blog to or create it on the registered domain, and operate it through wordpress or some other means/host, possibly as part of a marketing or other profit-seeking endeavor (including maybe selling the domain if I don't make use of it myself, though that's more of a tertiary motive if that).

My question is, where do I want to register the domain now? I gather that namecheap or maybe hover is the best low-cost, little-bullshit domain registrar, or in the ballpark. But is there a reason why I wouldn't just register the domain with wordpress itself, especially given the distinct possibility that if I ever make use of the domain (which it's entirely possible I may never do) it would be for probably-wordpress blogging? One of my concerns is privacy - I don't want my name on the whois for at least one of the sites. Do I intuit that it's easier to avoid the loss of privacy through wordpress as opposed to a more traditional registrar or is the latter not that much of an issue with someone like namecheap and/or am I missing something?

US, .com, obv., btw, kthxbye

Help?

If wordpress would serve my interests better than a lower-cost registrar, I'm happy to spend a few extra bucks annually.

I'm not focused much on the details of this; I just want to get started on the blog(spot) with the alt domain registered as a safety, but don't want to make a big error in the registration.

intuit... correctly

most registrars allow you to hide your personal info for a few dollars extra. namesilo throws it in for free, I think.
whether or not wordpress plays nice, you ought to be able to have the domain redirect to wordpress in some fashion no matter where you sign up.

Indeed. I don't want a "wordpress" domain - I want to be [insert blog name here].com, which wordpress allows you to do - but my sense is that with some of these registrars there's a chance that if you fail to renew/pay a bill on time at some point, you might lose privacy protection, i.e. it isn't automatic the way I think (but am not sure) i understand correctly that it is with wordpress (which deems itself the registrar while giving you ownership of the domain?), which seems safer from that perspective. ???

unless they have a specific policy or something offering extra protection or promising not to be jerks, it wouldn't be any safer, though a lot of registrars are pretty jerky.

Hmm, I figured the size and breadth of the operation - they're not primarily a domain registrar, that being secondary to what they really do - might offer extra protection.

Thanks.

aiui domain registration privacy services are mainly to protect you from spam and telemarketers. the one i use just replaced all my public registration info w/ forwarding information, and if i've ever renewed it it must have been as part of my regular domain renewal (so like every year or two). if you're looking for stronger anonymity you should definitely do some research/actually ask potential registrars whether e.g. they'll just hand out your contact info to anyone who calls.

i would just register the domain separately from any hosting plans, since at this point you're not even sure you'll use the domain—you just want to park it

Thanks. Right, I wasn't planning on a hosting plan. I went through hover, which builds privacy into the basic service and renews automatically. I'm less concerned with spam/telemarketers than individuals who go out of their way to whois.

fuuuuck this

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexkantrowitz/a-private-equity-firm-is-trying-to-buy-the-org-domain-now