After many years and experiments, another conclusion I'd like to share:

{Insert Pasta Pun}

@jwildeboer I remember an essay a while back that things like wordpress are "easy" while things like static hosting are "hard", even if technologists bemoan the massive overhead of a whole running WP stack when static files would do (signing up for a wordpress site is simpler than learning how to set up hugo + S3 + cloudfront for the first time)

some of that has got to be the ease of onboarding

Mike Morris

@jwildeboer Also, in my experience, it's best to have your DNS served by someone *other* than the org you "buy" your domain from (ideally yourself, but that's an extra layer of complexity).

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@mikro2nd Sure. DNS is the ultimate source of truth and should be handled with as much care and trust as possible. That's why I switched my domain names to a trusted party, a small but reliable company that isn't as cheap as the big ones, but where I can talk to the owner if needed and he replies immediately.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

So how do we get more people to "own" domains and use them? I guess a lot of people have a lot of very different ideas. My initial idea is simple. Let's have regular DNS meetups, in person, where we simply meet at a nice place, help you to book a domain, configure it correctly etc. But I am sure others have even better ideas. Let's discuss. 5/5

Jarjan

@jwildeboer
I'd like to learn a bit more DNS! I have a couple of domains, even a few that I don't use at all (but like the names, so they're hard to give up ). Anyway, I've also ran in to some DNS questions and small issues. Maybe I can learn to solve them!

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Addendum: "Owning" your domain name and using it as the disambiguation point for many services also helps in decentralising the internet. Even if you just point your e-mail address at your domain to gmail or Apple and nothing else. It changes the balance of power slightly more towards you. Totally worth the learning curve, IMHO.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@jarjan I'd be happy to offer my help in the hope that you will share what you've learned from me to more people you know. Grassroots DNS training, a positive version of a pyramid scheme

Francesco P Lovergine

@jwildeboer
Totally agree about that, done maybe almost 30 years ago. And nothing is better than reading 'DNS and bind' by O'Reilly to understand how it works.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@gisgeek That bible is a bit much for those that are just starting, though IMHO the main basics to understand are how to use CNAME and A(AAAA) records and step 2 is MX records. With that knowledge you already solve 90+% of the typical use cases for "normal" people.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

Addendum 2: When discussing in the replies, please do try to write in a way that is accessible to non-DNS experts. I'd love to get more people interested in learning this. Deep technical discussions on details and special cases might not be really helpful

Aleksandra Fedorova :fedora:

@jwildeboer

Having DNS as an entry point is hard, because the target audience doesn't know yet that these letters - DNS - is what they need to search for.

So you need a better slogan. "Own yourself on the Internet" or just "Own the Internet", or something like that

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@bookwar DNS is often treated and described as some secret black magic, with incantations that are only known to the secret, initiated few I think it would be good to make that knowledge more accessible and common knowledge. It's, IMHO, fundamental knowledge that needs to be freed from its secrecy and "don't touch this unless you are an expert" reputation ...

Scott H.

@jwildeboer I was on Bluesky last year. I ended up leaving; however, one thing I liked is they will pin identity onto a domain you control. I don't see why Mastodon couldn't do that as well. Oh my, that would be a painful migration. Anyhoo: https://bsky.social/about/blog/4-28-2023-domain-handle-tutorial

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@acodrst We have self-verified links on Mastodon since many years Just check my profile page. There's also the .well-known URI approach [1]. But sure, BlueSky had to invent their own, new system instead of supporting existing open standards. #WhereIsMySurprisedFace

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-known_URI

Scott H.

@jwildeboer You are running your own instance, no? Are you parsing what I said? Am I just not understanding you?

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@acodrst I don't know what you understand or not, but promoting Bluesky's approach to their proprietary approach identity/domain pinning in this thread seems a bit ... off?

Petr Tesarik

@jwildeboer This is a nice idea, indeed!

I started in the 1990s, so I pretty much had to set up everything the hard way, but even the hard way was much easier back then. I still run my own email server, because adding the complexity step by step was manageable, but I don't think I could start from scratch today.

I never realized how much of my independence can be attributed to controlling my own DNS and not to running my own services.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@ptesarik If I would have gotten 1€ for every broken zone file I wrote in my life, I would be a Very Rich Person by now

Petr Tesarik

@jwildeboer Oh, how so? Do you run your own name server? Or, does your provider let you upload a new zone file without checking it first?

Petr Tesarik

@jwildeboer FTR I gave up running my own authoritative name server long ago.
First, since I have only one domain, it required glue record in the TLD zone anyway, so it didn't buy much in terms of independence.
Second, my domain is properly signed, but my provider saved me all the hassle with DNSSEC.