This site began as “Chriswaterguy.net” rather than the “.com” equivalent. 2 reasons:
- This is not a commercial site. Nor is it an organisation. This is why my first choice was “.net”.
- I had no interest in paying money to domain squatters. It only encourages them.
I’ve been encouraged to switch to “Chriswaterguy.com” because it’s simply the standard form for a website. I would have already owned the domain if I’d thought to register the .com address sooner, before it was taken by a squatter. However, given the choice between paying a small fee to a parasite for a very marginal benefit to myself, versus allowing the parasite to pay domain registration fees indefinitely for no benefit, I chose the latter.
As search engines and their integration with browsers improve over time, web real estate becomes less significant, anyhow. Not completely insignificant, but I know that I’m extremely easy to find on Google. Probably even on Bing.
However, the squatter gave up, so I’ve registered the .com domain, and will move there shortly. (All old links and bookmarks will redirect.) Thanks to Malcolm Ocean (note: malcolmocean.com) for pointing this out to me. (I’d actually forgotten that I’d ever been in touch with the squatter.)