Revision [1792]
This is an old revision of whyisitlengthy made by DustinSouers on 2008-09-18 01:00:23.
OpenNIC provides a service to its members. Reliable DNS resolution and a range of TLDs run by its members. At the heart of OpenNIC are its Tier 1 servers, these are the servers that hold the information about all OpenNIC TLDs. Running a Tier 1 is a long term commitment, as if these servers were to change all the time, it would disrupt our members DNS resolution. The OpenNIC TLD application process is lengthy to help protect our members from frequent change. It also serves other purposes (which will be discussed) to preserve the quality of OpenNIC and the services it provides.
If you have reached this far I will assume you are interested in running a TLD. Please don't let this process daunt you. In the end it is well worth it, and OpenNIC is all about patience. OpenNIC members need to know they trust Tier 1 operators, as they trust the information their servers provides is correct. This is a pretty strong trust our users have in the service we provide, so how can we trust you? First I would hope you have joined our mailing list. This is the first way to obtain trust. Introduce yourself to the community by emailing disucss@lists.opennicproject.org. It is also essential that you take part in some of the discussions on the list, this way we know you are interested in taking part in helping the project.
You will find most of the Tier 1 operators in the IRC room #opennic over at freenode. Come say hi! Find out who is who in there, and introduce yourself to a Tier 1 operator. You must get your GPG key signed by an operator so they know who you are. This is another key component to trust, your GPG key. Ensure you know how to use GPG.
This kind of project attracts people who after being with the project for awhile loose interest. It happens, people change there mind all the time. But if a Tier 1 operator does this, alot of configuration changes has to happen over alot of servers. Lets face it, by nature things move slow in OpenNIC, so a change like this could take a month to fix. Our users slowly start to get affected, breaking that important trust we have. This process ensures only the dedicated people are left, as by natural selection the impatient get weeded out. Thus OpenNIC preserves are reliable DNS service to its members.
If at all you have any questions about this, please send an email to support@opennicproject.org.
