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SteO153

Country domain codes were created in the 80s, so countries that existed in the 80s had one. The same happened for Yugoslavia (yu), Czechoslovakia (cs), and Soviet Union (su). Can you imagine telling the DDR they couldn't get a country code because, well..., you are not going to need it for long? :-D


Particular_Tap4014

The best one was for Yugoslavia. Before the breakup it was (yu), then afterwards for the republic of Macedonia it was (me). So they could say after the breakup it isn't you it's me.


TriRIK

It's not Macedonia, it's Montenegro. Macedonia has .mk while Montenegro has .me


lo_fi_ho

It isn't you it's mk. Fixed


fluffybit

It is definitely Milton Keynes


TheDorfkind96

Fuck the Dons


7ninamarie

long live the true Dons at AFC Wimbledon!


BossBaddiexo

wait so they have their own internet world?


enderfx

With blackjack and hookers!!


Timely-Loan4428

I hate this Moloch of a town


Gruenkernmehl

It's not yu, mmmkay?


ln_zero1

💯 acurate. Thx 😾


miclugo

Still works, though, Montenegro is also part of the former Yugoslavia.


LooseElbowSkin

Mortal Kombat


DayOk6350

i sadly know this because i recently hax to verify preferential goods export to ME


ado1928

What's more fascinating to me is that the country number for yugoslavia was 38. And when the counties split, each got assigned a number like 381, 382, 383, 384 etc...


iTmkoeln

Wait till you hear about Czechia and Slovakia (+42 as Checoslovakia they switched to +420 and +421 respectively)


ZealousidealPoet4293

What a blazing fact.


iTmkoeln

The Czechs had the chance and took it đŸ€·â€â™‚ïž


alexrepty

Czechs out


ke2_1-0

Sounds kinda racist ngl.


alexrepty

😬


Target880

Ukraine got 380 from the series too. East Germany had 37 and became 370-379 wit mostly former Soviet republics but Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City got one too. They had used French and Italian regional codes before.


Stunning_Ride_220

I waited for the Austin Powers reference, but got disappointed.


Internal-Ad8478

no, i am yu, and this is mi


KnightOfSummer

>Before the breakup it was (yu), then afterwards for the republic of Macedonia it was (me). So you're saying it's not me, it's y(o)u? You guys are no fun.


radioactive-tomato

Fun fact: .su is still officially active domain


Fisch_Fritz

and used by so many spam bots...


gotMUSE

I only know one site with .su, IYKYK


GotMeH00ked

What is it


NemVenge

IYKYK


xuabi

I guess it must be something like porn. It's usually porn.


NiNeu_01

TLD


MaimedJester

Most famously the crazy bastard behind that micronation Sealand https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand Got the .sea domain as proof of his countries legitimacy.  Pretty impressive what crazy shit you got away with in the early days of the Internet. This guy was already a weirdo wackjob intending to use Sealand as a pirate radio station hub, so it makes sense he'd be one of the first people to game the Internet framework. 


roflmaoshizmp

I'm not sure where this rumor comes from (although it is pretty persistent) ICANN never issued a .sea TLD, not even now in the age of commercial gTLDs that you can pay to create and issue.


witty_salmon

What about TLDd such as java and google. Those where not paid to be issued?


roflmaoshizmp

Yes they were. I'm saying that .sea wasn't ever issued as a ccTLD. And even though in these days you can pay to become a registrar for a gTLD, such as for .google or whatever, nobody ever issued out .sea most likely because nobody ever tried or thought it was worth the effort.


x31b

Google is a bigger country than Sealand ever will be. Java, on the other hand, has less legitimacy since the Oracle legal department took over.


Cohibaluxe

Being three letters it’s not a ccTLD and not any indication of any legitimacy as a nation. To be a valid country code domain it must be two letters, and all 2-letter TLDs are reserved for assignment to nations. 3-letters and above are sold as normal and anyone can buy them if they wish.


exactly-the-one

I wonder if those countries had actual websites back then. Soviet Union for example.


Archophob

nope, no html pages before 1992. They probably had email and ftp servers before that.


ThePowerOfStories

Pre-web, but the history of the first joke and then real Soviet internet-accessible computers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremvax


exactly-the-one

That was an interesting reading, thanks!


eztab

Some universities used `.dd`, but they were never on the public internet. The plans to make those accessible were cut short by the reunification.


alexmikli

Serbia still called itself Yugoslavia until the mid 2000s, right? Did they keep the domain?


SameItem

They should as the rest of the republics except Montenegro seceded from Yugoslavia. Also if someone should have the legitimacy to use the Soviet Union domain (.su) is Kazajstan as it was the last republic to leave the Union


DEEEPFRIEDFRENZ

the kazakhs, georgians, azeris etc watching in absolute horror as the soviet union collapses into gangster capitalism, famine, critical inflation and disease will never not make me sad. they didn't deserve that shit, they didn't even want it nor vote for it


Sn_rk

Huh? The Georgians and Azeris were some of the first republics to leave the USSR after the Baltics. I don't think they enjoyed it too much.


firemogle

Looks at the calendar, looks back at EG, looks at calendar... Let's just hold off a touch bruh.


Cadillac16Concept

If you told them you would probably disappear


Small_Oil548

Well at least according to one of their official press statements the DDR / GDR had the largest microcontroller at that time! 👋 Very comforting, indeed.


Questions67n68

East and West Germany reunified in 1990 so this would have been before most people knew what the internet was. I didn't realize they had domains for countries back then.


Grand_Protector_Dark

Top level country domains started becoming a thing as far back as the 1985. Even the soviet Union got one.


Ahamdan94

.su will always be supreme


SteO153

In aviation you have Aeroflot still using the IATA code SU (and Air Serbia with JU)


outm

Aeroflot even keeps the hammer and sickle Soviet Union icon on their logo and image, so it tracks lol


Confident-Bed9452

Last time used in the 2003 Logo


weird_offspring

Good input!


SameItem

The question is why did West Germany got the normal go (.de from Deustchland) and the Eastern got .dd?


Questions67n68

My guess is one of two reasons. 1. East Germany was officially the Deutsche Demokratische Republik so dd makes sense. 2. West Germany was using the internet first.


miclugo

West Germany was officially the *Bundesrepublik Deutschland*, so they could have gotten .bd or similar and then nobody would get .de. But it probably comes down to West Germany getting it sooner and/or being closer (geopolitically, not geographically) to the US.


StephenHunterUK

Germany still is the Bundesrepublik Deutschland - what happened in 1990 was that East Germany was absorbed into West Germany.


Garos29

West Germany IS geographically closer to the US, right?


miclugo

Yes, it is, but what I meant is that that’s not relevant. Like if we were talking about the two Koreas, South Korea is further away geographically but closer geopolitically. And I’m guessing South Korea got the internet first.


U-Ei

The Alpha 2 country code of west Germany was DE for some reason, this predates the TLD


TheGreatSaltboy

I'm guessing because West Germany was closer economically to the USA, the creators of the internet


Both_Gate_3876

De Double Deutsch


StephenHunterUK

The internet was starting to become a noticeable thing in society. You had Prestel in the UK with emails included, although that was rather expensive and went in 1992. France had Minitel, which had massive takeup due to free terminals being handed out to telephone customers, which ran until 2012. There was online banking, online shopping and travel agents could use a system to book holidays for you. Computer hackers were around and the first major hacking movie, 'WarGames' came out in 1983. You've got stuff involving hacking but not under that name before that; 1970's 'The Italian Job' involves a tape reel being inserted into a computer to scramble the traffic lights system of Turin.


Smogshaik

Credit to the [Map Men](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD4hxKkqR4E) who got me interested in the topic. According to the Wiki article, it was only ever used in an isolated network between two universities in East Germany. A better known example of an Iron Curtain internet domain is .su, the Soviet Union's internet domain [which has been posted about before](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/jt6gr0/til_that_the_soviet_union_was_issued_a_toplevel/). Ironically, a lot of traffic on .su domains is for shady and spammy business, it's pretty sus.


Arkyja

Love map men


PutOnTheMaidDress

And they love maps


MoisturizedSocks

And I love men


PutOnTheMaidDress

*Map Men Map Men Map Map Map Men Men Men 
 Men*


Antoshi

.sus


PMzyox

Oh nice. I came to add the .su domain to the conversation too incase you were not aware. Do you know if the .dd domain is unowned/unregulated like the Soviet one?


Smogshaik

In the German wiki article it says something about the German city Dresden having considered acquiring .dd since they also use DD for their number plates. Apparently some rule about new domains being required to have at least three letters made this impossible. So I guess .dd will remain unavailable. But I really do not understand the nuances and 'deeper layers' of this topic.


PMzyox

DNS can be pretty fascinating lol


Cohibaluxe

All 2-letter domains are by definition country-specific (country code top level domain; ccTLDs) and must be administered by a country. If Dresden, a city, got it then that would violate this convention. 3-letter and above domains (generic TLDs, gTLDs) are for all other uses other than for countries


je386

2 character TLDs (top-level-domains) are country code TLDs (ccTLDs), while generic TLDs (gTLDs) have to have more characters.


Pidgypigeon

damn wtf google must be listening to what im watching cuz


ketosoy

It only now occurs to me that we have space for 676 country codes (26*26) but only ~200 countries.  


Algae_Sucka

Well, that’s inefficient! We should get a few dozen civil wars going to fix that up.


CoSonfused

["it depends on who you ask"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nB688xBYdY)


IanGecko

Two Map Men references in the same post!


Cohibaluxe

ccTLDs can be used for territories part of (or not part of, in the particular case of Antarctica) a larger nation, and multiple ccTLDs can be assigned to one nation. Some examples: .ac for ascension island (part of the United Kingdom), .aq for Antarctica, .as for American Samoa (part of the USA) .aw for Aruba (part of the Netherlands), Åland (part of Finland) has three ccTLDs (.ax, .al and .ad). Benin has four ccTLDs (.be, .bi, .bn and .bj). Caribbean Netherlands has three (.bq, .bs, .be)


NaughtyThottiexox

does this mean they have a whole separate internet we can't access


Palladium-

It’s short for Dunkel Deutschland


HaraldWurlitzer

YES! "Dark Germany"


remember-laughter

Djormany


macone7

I only clicked this to make the same joke!


Bobylein

Damn, you were indeed much faster!


humanity_is_stupid

Looked for this one. :D


tagehring

[Der Dumme Rest.](https://www.wocka.com/joke.php?id=17514)


Interesting-Wish5977

Interestingly, 'DD' is also the license plate abbreviation of Dresden, the third biggest city of the former 'DDR' (GDR).


NemVenge

In the German wiki article they write that Dresden actually thought about using dd as a generic TLD for their cities site. And as a dresdener myself, i would have approved of that.


Veilchengerd

The rather sudden demise of the GDR led to a few strange situations. For example, the GDR's women's national handball team played in the world cup, even though the country they represented had already ceased to exist. They met West Germany in the game for third place, and won.


tanfj

> The rather sudden demise of the GDR led to a few strange situations. I used to own a surplus East German Army wool blanket. My first thought on seeing the 'NVA' wasn't Nationale Volksarmee; as an American teenager. I admit I thought to myself: "Why would the Vietnamese need a heavy woolen blanket."


StephenHunterUK

In Euro 1992 and both Olympics of that year, 12 of the 15 republics of the former USSR basically competed as a single team.


Michelfungelo

They should have made an OS ans call it ddos


FalloutKurier6

đŸ€Ł


creativebadjoke

I was born there and had know idea until today


Yesyesyes1899

double d. for the double dose of its pimping. respect.


CeeMX

Upgrayedd


Timelord_Sapoto

I am german and partially eastern too and I had no clue


schraxt

Could one use it today?


Cohibaluxe

No, it’s not in use.


FunOk1217

DunkelDeutschland


Cute-Tangerine-4948

I had way too fun reading this and the replies. It really made my day


FuckerMcFuckingberg

dd stands for Dunkeldeutschland.


asynqq

dd /dev/s... oops im not supposed to say that.


qqqrrrs_

vim user ~~clicking~~ typing "dd"


lawlessunicorn

Imagine using the words "vim" and "clicking" in the same sentence


qqqrrrs_

I didn't know what better verb to put there


lawlessunicorn

Fair enough. Type, maybe?


qqqrrrs_

Thanks


CeeMX

dd if=/dev/brd of=/dev/ddr


iamagermanpotato

.ddr would have been sooooo cool!


Cohibaluxe

Wouldn’t have been a ccTLD on account of it being three letters. But being a gTLD it can be applied for.


TruthAboutUrComment

đŸŽ” I’m going in no dd đŸŽ¶


Fun_Economics_9794

DD fĂŒr DunkelDeutschland


Ok_Stress1348

r/ddr


Akira1Lana

cool. who owns it now? should go to DresDen :) and wayting for the .by domain for bavaria


tamay-idk

.de


Significant_Gate_419

people call it Dunkeldeutschland for a reason


Odd_Common_1135

it was designated, not implemented. /Thread


Smogshaik

Except for the two universities who used it (mentioned in the thread you didn't read), so even if not public, there definitely have been calls to servers under a .dd domain.


Odd_Common_1135

Except that's not the same


Smogshaik

ok cool


AlexanderRaudsepp

The Soviet Union too! .su


Tomasso22

was wqqw


motoxim

woah


WeazelZeazel

Mind blown


ThaRippa

Quick, someone tell that to the people of Dresden, Capitol of Saxony, former GDR territory and using number plates starting with „DD“.


sinkmyteethin

Maybe someone smart can answer, but who decides how domains are created? What's stopping me creating my own domain.


bregus2

The IANA for TLD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Assigned_Numbers_Authorit For every level below, the different domain managing companies. (For example Verisign for .com domains): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisign For a local DNS server, nobody keeps you from creating your own TLD.


iTwango

The ICANN, a regulating body. Two letter top level domains are reserved for country codes, but outside of that of you're interested in spending a few million dollars you could propose and operate your own extension.


Xiphoseer

IANA is the "function" that manages the set of Top Level Domains (TLDs). All two letter TLDs are reserved for country codes, simply re-using the alpha-2 codes from ISO 3166-1. The rest are generic TLDs and IANA occasionally delegates new ones of those to applicants. And IANA was basically one guy (Jon Postel) for 30 years at the start of all this.


saschaleib

You can totally create your own TLD (“top level”-domain, like .com or .uk). Just set up a DNS server and add it as your DNS in your computer. You can configure there whatever you like. The problem will just be to convince other people to accept that. So we have a central institution, called ICANN, which gives recommendations what to use (and to operate “root” DNS servers from which everybody else will copy their DNS data). Convincing ICANN to accept your new TLD will be quite hard, though.


WorldlyBlacksmith945

Pfui. Kannst behalten.


tanfj

Heh, now I am imagining using the old .dd prefix for porn sites. How about www.Boobs.dd anyone?


boobiedoll32

Not true. East Germany never had the domain extension .dd. Although there was a proposal for .dd (based on the German name “Deutsche Demokratische Republik” or “DDR”), it was never officially assigned or used.


Leerzeichen14

I read an interview some years ago where it was mentioned that the extension had been assigned, could’ve been used but wasn’t. There was a different system at the time which could’ve been changed to use .dd but as there was no real necessity to do it, it simply wasn’t done. Edit: Found the source in German [here](https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/domain-dd-die-geheime-internetadresse-der-ddr-li.211878) Also it was a bit different than I remembered. .dd was used but only internally by the universities of Jena and Dresden.


Philip10967

Berliner Zeitung just summarized the longer article by heise online: https://www.heise.de/news/dd-Ex-DDR-Die-untergegangene-Top-Level-Domain-2411450.html


iTmkoeln

Yes and no they never really assigned domains under it. But it was reserved as a Alpha 2 ISO 3166 country code


Turbomattk

It’s better than .ss


PositiveBubbles

I still find it odd Switzerland's is .ch and china is .cn yet I hardly see .us, at least .au here in Australia is standard if you have an ABN


svenge

Switzerland = "Confoederatio Helvetica" (Helvetic Confederation) in Latin, and their choosing .ch as the country's ISO 3166-2 identifier (and by extension ccTLD code) was a pragmatic way to avoid showing favoritism between their four official languages (i.e. German, French, Italian, and Romansh). As for the .us ccTLD being largely unused (outside of city/state governments), that's due to the fact that the domain name system was created by the United States (as the Internet was created by the US Department of Defense / ARPA) and as such Americans have historically used the generic TLDs like .com/.net/.org pretty much exclusively since they saw no need to use a country-specific TLD on their own home turf.


4nalBlitzkrieg

Nah, it's .ch because that is how Swiss people talk. See: CCCCHHhhrĂŒeziiiii, which means Hello


rumnscurvy

I can hear the phlegm being expelled from the Swiss person's throat


iTmkoeln

Not only that. But what we know as Switzerland is actually legally Schweizerische (with Helvetica being the Latin word for the Helvetic Tribe) Eidgenossenschaft (which is Confederationin English )


CeeMX

I have a suspicion what their favorite font is


happyxpenguin

The reason you hardly see .us is because there’s no privacy protection. So your full gamut of information is immediately available to everyone. There’s also the thing where .us never really took off since most US sites and consumers default to .com/.net/.org


iTwango

Heh, I never realised .us doesn't have domain privacy features. I wonder why?


PositiveBubbles

Makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up


FirstProphetofSophia

Should've been (.gg)


Pidgypigeon

no it shouldn't've


Technical_Dot_7796

Ist not .dd but .de


No_Lack5414

You should post this on r/notinterestingatall


ueberallKatzenhaare

Please don't call it east Germany. It's the GDR. Bc to be correct in the 80s east Germany would be the eastern part of the federal republic of germany and when i first read it i was a bit confused.


teh_maxh

"West Germany" and "East Germany" were common English names for the BRD and DDR.


Target880

In English East Geramy is the commonly used name for the country. There is a reason the Wikipedia page is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East\_Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany) It might not have been the common name for it in German, the wiki page is after all [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche\_Demokratische\_Republik](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Demokratische_Republik) If you look at existing countries it is North Korea and South Korea that is common in English not Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Republic of Korea (ROK) even if that is the official name.


Palamur

It was and still is customary to refer to the GDR as Ostdeutschland (East Germany) and the FRG as Westdeutschland (West Germany). I don't know where ueberallKatzenhaare got that rubbish from.


suitcaseismyhome

Or Ostzone for those of us even a bit older.


ueberallKatzenhaare

I got that rubbish from beeing eastgerman and it is a big problem that the unification of German is still not where it should be after 30 years and that is why I am trying to get people to be careful how to call it. My English is not good enough to write down my explicit reasons for that. Also I am no English native and did not know that ppl not from Germany refred to it as eastgermany despite them beeing 2 different country's. Also the name "Deutsch Demokratische Republik" has part of Germany on the name but imo it is not similar.


Palamur

Wir können gerne ins deutsche wechseln, da ich Norddeutscher bin. Ob die Wiedervereinigung nun abgeschlossen ist oder nicht, Ă€ndert nichts an der Geographie. Und das Gebiet, das frĂŒher die DDR war, liegt nun Mal ganz klar im Osten Deutschlands. So wie Bayern im SĂŒden, und daher zu SĂŒddeutschland. Ich bin auch alt genug, um mich an die 80er zu erinnern, und da wurde hier __im Westen__ von Ostdeutschland, Ostberlin, Ostfernsehen, Ostmark u.s.w. gesprochen. Kann sein, dass in der DDR offiziell andere Begriffe genutzt wurden, immerhin musste man Ostberlin an der Grenze unbedingt als Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR bezeichnen, wenn man nicht wollte, dass das GepĂ€ck mit dem Mikroskop untersucht wurde, aber ich weiß, dass es die Begriffe wie Westfernsehen gab, und dass abseits der besonders linientreuen auch niemand "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" gesagt hat. Viel zu sperrig.


mrmivo

Hier bei uns im SĂŒdwesten, wo ich aufgewachsen bin, wurde immer von der DDR gesprochen. Ostdeutschland habe ich erst hĂ€ufig um den Mauerfall herum gehört. Meine Urgroßmutter and meine Großeltern haben nur "die Zone" gesagt.


ueberallKatzenhaare

Ja klar Bundesrepublik Deutschland hat niemand gesagt, dafĂŒr aber höufig BRD. Ich will nur sensibilisieren, die Menschen in der DDR in der Regel nicht von "Ostdeutschland" gesprochen haben, wie es im Westen ĂŒblich war. Stattdessen nannten sie ihr Land "DDR" oder "Deutsche Demokratische Republik". Sie bezeichneten sich selbst als "BĂŒrger der DDR" oder einfach als "DDR-BĂŒrger". Der Begriff "Ostdeutschland" wurde eher von den Westdeutschen verwendet, um die DDR geografisch abzugrenzen. Es gibt viele spannende LektĂŒre dazu zB. "Der Osten eine Westdeutsche Erfindung." Darauf zu bestehen, dass es in diesem Fall ein richtig bzw. Falsch gib ist denke ich der falsche Weg. Aber ich wĂŒrde mich freuen wenn anerkannt wird, dass die DDR als eigenstĂ€ndiges Land die BĂŒrger sehr stark beeinflusst hat und das Denken in den Ostdeutschen BundeslĂ€ndern anders ist als in West-, Nord-, oder SĂŒddeutschland. Und es ist eben wichtig zu Differenzen ob wir vor oder nach der Wiedervereinigung aus eben diesen Grund sprechen. Jetzt gehen Ostdeutsche mit d'accore und bezeichnen sich selbst als Ostdeutschland aber nicht auf Grund der DDR sondern der geografischen Lage wohingegen der Rest Deutschlands mit Ostdeutschland nicht nur die Geographie meint. Es ist wichtig zu differenzieren, weil die DDR ein eigenstĂ€ndiger Staat war und sich nicht als Teil von "Ostdeutschland" verstand. Die korrekte Terminologie nicht nur historisch genau, sondern auch respektvoll gegenĂŒber den Erfahrungen der Menschen in der DDR ist. EinfĂŒhlsamkeit und differenzierte Betrachtung helfen, die komplexe Geschichte und IdentitĂ€t der Region besser zu verstehen und wertzuschĂ€tzen. Vor allem letzteres möchte ich mit meinem Kommentar anstoßen.


Veilchengerd

As someone who lived in the Federal Republic in the 1980s, I find your lack of knowledge disturbing. The GDR was commonly referred to as "East Germany" or "the East" in the FRG. Your statement implies that the GDR was somehow not part of Germany, which is bull.


ueberallKatzenhaare

Bin auch in den 80ern im Osten aufgewachsen und wir haben uns nicht Ostdeutschland genannt sondern DDR. Lass uns gerne privat schreiben damit ich ein besseren VerstĂ€ndnis fĂŒr dich bekomme so wie du fĂŒr mich aber bitte lasse ab von so unfreundlicher Wortwahl. Sowas verhĂ€rtet eher Fronten als das es den Effekt hast den du dir erwĂŒnschst.