Some adult operators want to boycott .xxx. Yeah, good luck with that.
I understand why some adult web site owners are upset about .xxx.
But trying to boycott the new top level domain name is a ridiculous idea.
Before its rally at the ICANN meeting in San Francisco the Free Speech Coalition said it would try to organize a boycott should .xxx pass. At the time I wrote:
If .xxx gets the green light anyway, Free Speech Coalition is calling for a boycott of .xxx. That would be difficult; surely competitors would snap up each others’ domain names.
Now Free Speech Coalition is following through with its boycott idea.
It won’t work.
It’s difficult to boycott a finite resource. It’s like American’s trying to boycott oil. What else will they turn to?
Scratch that. Boycotting second level domains under a new TLD is even more difficult than boycotting oil. It’s like your car can only handle one type of gasoline. If you don’t buy it someone who’s angry with you will, and then you won’t have anything to fuel your car.
Some types of boycott work. If I’m mad at a company and I have alternatives to its products, a boycott might work.
But there are no alternatives here. A boycott is one big game of chicken. It’s just challenging your competitors to buy a unique resource that will give them a competitive edge. Or at least hurt you.
It’s time for Free Speech Coalition to think a little bit more strategically. Perhaps it should consider applying for an unrestricted .sex when the new TLD round opens. Or .porn.
That’s something it could rally its base around.
MS says
Interesting to see what happens if Amsterdam would object to xxx, Amsterdam’s xxx have no relation to sex apparently
http://www.amsterdamlogue.com/amsterdam-xxx-both-meanings-explained-in-detail.html
todaro says
i myself have been boycotting broccoli for years. i don’t think it has stopped anyone from growing it but it is fun to do.
Domain Report says
All the complaining and protesting about .xxx is just giving the extension more exposure to people who have never heard of it. What’s that saying, no such thing as bad press?
John Berryhill says
The boycott of .museum seems to be working effectively.
Les Brown says
Need to start by suing ICANN and it’s members for receiving cash money for approving .xxx.
.XXX has been approved and denied for over a decade and that trend ain’t gonna change come this summer or next.
Boycotting is a good idea with this domain cause when a squatter takes a certain name and the pervert comes to the site and finds out it’s garbage he’s not going to pay. Why would he when he’s not paying now!
Steve M says
While a boycott won’t work, a girlcott just might. 😉
Darklady says
And here we see a major reason that the adult industry and FSC have NOT wanted this sTLD… it’s extortion!
I’ve never picked up a hint of concern for the industry from ICM Registry or Stuart Lawley and, in spite of their insistence that they’ll somehow make us honest online citizens, I don’t think they’re qualified.
RH says
The alternative Andrew would be already successful extensions like .com and .net.
isis says
Your analysis is flawed. ICM Registry justified/sold .xxx by claiming that this TLD is an effective tool in preventing children from accessing pornography on the internet; “easy filtering” is its raison d’etre. Consequently, it has been very easy for FSC to convince college/university administrators to instruct their IS/IT departments to block .xxx (the majority of porn consumers fall within the 18-24 age bracket). Moreover, based on early indications, it appears that it will be just as easy for FSC to convince ISPs, corporations, school systems, and parents to apply the same filter. (American Libraries seem to be the only hold-out.) So, while I understand your inclination to draw analogies to other TLDs and other “finite resources,” all analogies fail because no other product has been sold with a built-in boycott mechanism. If there are no .xxx consumers, what exactly is the value of a .xxx domain?