I'm submitting this article for the discussion from the HNers. I don't necessarily agree with its content or how the content is presented.

I'd love to hear more about the "alternative methodologies" and why they're more "efficient, extensible, and far more economical".

Also, do people think the fees are that outrageous? A common complaint about the .com TLD is that it is too cheap; thus, making it susceptible to squatting. I've no idea about the real costs involved in creating custom TLDs, but I wouldn't be surprised if the fees are in part set high to avoid people buying custom TLDs, like .inc or .fb (facebook) and squatting them.

The best idea that I've heard so far was to just abandon the TLDs altogether. "http://google, "http://news.ycombinator.

For a smooth transition all .com owners could be handed their current name in TLD-form (except for those who own com.com and such, naturally).

Obviously that's never gonna happen. Not for technical reasons but because ICANN will not let anyone revoke their license to print money.

So, how do you plan to resolve conflict between http://ripe.com/ and http://ripe.net/?

Well, the old TLDs would have to stay operational, at least during a transition phase, perhaps infinitely. However, ripe.com gets the 'ripe'-TLD. And ripe.net gets to keep what they have.

whitehouse.com owners would be happy with your proporsal.

That sounds... messy.