Registering a .coop domain advice

Questions
1

We’re looking at getting ourselves a .coop domain for Circle-A Studios. Can anyone’ who’s done this advise on the process and also what the advantages are? For us, it’s important to signal to our audience that we’re not just using politcal branding as a USP to make more money, so we think it’s probably worth it from that perspective alone, but interested to know why others have, or haven’t. Thanks!

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2

speak to domains.coop and check out the guidance on their website

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3

I think the main advantage is that a .coop domain is only available to co-operatives and people, campaigns and organisations that are directly related to co-ops.

A couple of effects of this that you might not have though of are that:

  1. There is still lots of availability of short domain names, for example you could get cas.coop if you wanted.
  2. Domain name squatters can’t take over lapsed .coop domain names, this situation with domain name squatters exploiting lapsed domains — any domain that is used to host anything of significance has to be paid for forever if you don’t want to see it abused, this isn’t the case with .coop domains as they are not available to squatters.
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4

The .coop TLD was always envisioned as a trusted and distinctive namespace, set apart from the likes of .com and .co.uk
It is only available to cooperatives and related orgs. I’ve used it since it became a thing, and although it costs a bit more than many others it is distinctive and adds value in many ways. For cooperative organisations I would say using .coop is one the simplest and best decisions you can make.

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5

I echo what others have said. In my experience most would want to use domains.coop but where co-ops haven’t is due to the cost implication, esp for smaller groups.

@ArtemisBear you can reach out to them about the process at support@domains.coop and check the availability of the name on their website Domains – Domains.coop.

Just also to say that domains.coop is a supporter of the federation. They have been a sponsor for Worker Co-op Weekend and other events in the past and run workshops on activities that are going on. So by going with them it’s also nice to know that they do P6 and invest resources into the worker co-op movement. So would definitely recommend.

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