bmanning writes:
because, apparently, customers aka service operators are inferior to network operators aka plumbers. a $DEITY forbid that an TLD operator ego be brused by not being considered in the same class as plumbers. [...]
tongue partly in cheek.
perhaps there is the consideration that TLD ops are "special" in some unique way that preclueds them from fate-sharing with a plumber when the pipes break. e.g. they have not taken steps to distribute their service or content so that it is available over different carriers, on alternate power grids, in other countries. ... and perhaps ... using a variety of publishers ... instead of trying to run all that infrastructure in addition to operating the TLD. OR... why do tld operators have to have all the servers under infrastructure they run? when did this change?
Well said, Bill.
example: DEnic could have CNnic, BRnic, and CAnic run slave servers for them in their areas. Why is this a bad thing?
As Kurt Jaeger aka pi said in a previous posting (although in a different context):
That's a national security issue for some countries.
So it's all a matter of control. In a similar vein, see http://www.imconf.net/imc-2005/papers/imc05efiles/ramasubramanian/ramasubram... "Perils of Transitive Trust in the Domain Name System", V. Ramasubramanian and E. Gün Sirer, IMC 2005 Personally I don't share the opinion that more centralized control leads to safer systems, but then nobody asks me. -- Simon. Speaking only for himself, but partly getting paid for helping to operate some TLD nameservers.