Queue the complaints about ICANN again…even though it’s not its fault.
dotgay LLC, an applicant for the .Gay top level domain name that was seeking community status, has once again failed (pdf) to convince an independent panel that it qualifies.
The company lost its Community Priority Evaluation last year, with the panel ruling in part:
“The applied-for string neither matches the name of the community as defined by the application nor does it identify the defined community without over-reaching substantially, as required for a full or partial score on Nexus.”
Essentially, the application tried to include a lot of people in the “gay” community that might not fit in the community.
dotgay LLC got a rare second crack at the process because ICANN determined the panel erred by not properly verifying letters of support.
But that didn’t change the merits of the case, and the second review scored the exact same as the first.
Economist Intelligence Unit made the decision based on guidelines set in the Applicant Guidebook for new TLDs, which were determined by the community.
Failing to gain community status in no way prevents dotgay LLC from running the .gay domain. It just means it will have to compete against other applicants in an auction or other settlement to determine who gets to run the domain.
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