Poll

If you lived in or around a city called Baxley, GA, which domain would you think is better for a weather website?

BaxleyWeather.com
14 (73.7%)
BaxleyWx.com
2 (10.5%)
WxGA.org
2 (10.5%)
GeorgiaWx.org
0 (0%)
Other (list in comments please)
1 (5.3%)
BaxleyWeather.today
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 18

Author Topic: Which new domain name would be best?  (Read 1567 times)

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Offline lightmaster

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Which new domain name would be best?
« on: May 06, 2019, 01:39:38 AM »
I currently use the domain https://lightmaster.pw, which does not sound very much like a website to get reliable weather information from. Therefore, I am trying to decide on a new domain name to buy. I want something short-ish, but catchy and something people will remember when they think of the weather in my small town.

I know I'm taking a bit of a risk by showing interest in these domains online, so please, don't be a jerk and go buy one of these domains. If you do and you're looking to make a profit off me, I will not purchase the domain from you, so you'd just be wasting your money anyways.

If you're suggesting a different domain name not already in the poll, I've already ruled out .us domains since they do not allow WHOIS privacy protection for .us domains.

Mods, if there's a section of the forum that this would better fit in besides Chit-Chat, feel free to move it to where it will get better visibility.

Thanks,
William

Offline miraculon

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2019, 08:19:36 AM »
Assuming that you are going to display your data and give local forecasts, I think that the baxleyweather.com would be the best choice.

I am not sure that the general public really understands what "wx" means, other than mostly Hams and weather aficionados.

Greg H.


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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2019, 08:35:31 AM »
The struggle over a name is fraught with endless (almost) choices.  I agree with Greg thinking that most people don't know Wx, but I don't care in my name.  I set mine up for me, and tell those who want to look at it what it is.

To serve a larger audience, then you need to balance spelling out Weather and also the city name, against having a namesolongthatnoonecanrememberit, or makes errors typing it in if there isn't a hot link somewhere.

I know there are so many names out there, none of which is always something that an audience  you are trying to serve can recollect, so don't get too cute.

Baxley is easy enough to recall for those living there. 

Is .com the way you want to go, with the domain registration costing more?

While .info is a bit non-standard, it was cheaper for me.  Also .us and a few others are also out there, again non-standard but short and sweet.

Look into what the per year cost is for a registration, especially with the de-regulation of controlling prices announced by those who have a strangle hold on supervising the names and domains.

Just my thoughts.
Dale
ECWx.info
&
ECWx.info/t/index.php

Offline Bushman

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2019, 08:57:01 AM »
.info name prices are about to go way up in price FWIW.  While long-ish, I settled on EagleBayWeather.com  IME, dot com is most well known.
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Online PaulMy

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2019, 09:25:41 AM »
baxleyweather.com or .net  if .com is not available (or get both) no capitals.
The easiest thing for people to remember when you tell someone you have a weather station website and the name of it is to use your place name along with weather Baxley Weather.

Enjoy,
Paul


Offline nincehelser

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2019, 10:16:13 AM »
I like WXGA.org.

I would guess many radio stations in Georgia start with a "W" anyway.
It sounds like a radio station where you would go for information.
Sounding like a call sign lends it credibility, especially with the "pros" who know what "WX" means.
"GA" would obvious to Georgia residents.
The "X" is the only odd character, yet it's still popular and "cool".
You might develop a more state-wide community.
It's short, it's simple.

There's also no reason you can't have more than one domain name for a site... pick the second most popular as an alias.

Downside- (and it could be a big one) WXGA-TV exists.  There is an existing wxga.com site.

However, wxga.org is available!  Maybe you could develop it and sell it to them if they get persnickety.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2019, 10:27:04 AM by nincehelser »

Greg_M

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2019, 10:24:47 AM »
The shortest dot com address.
People always mistake my NET domain and they don't like typing in long names.

Offline Bushman

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #7 on: May 06, 2019, 11:43:53 AM »
..
Downside- (and it could be a big one) WXGA-TV exists.  There is an existing wxga.com site.

However, wxga.org is available!  Maybe you could develop it and sell it to them if they get persnickety.
...

Or they accuse you of cybersquatting and you lose it without compensation.  Years ago one of my domains was squatted by AOL and I took them to task.  They finally bought me out for a hefty sum.  :)
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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #8 on: May 06, 2019, 02:01:45 PM »
I wish they would restrict TLDs to their stated purposes.  The .com domain was supposed to be for commercial sites, doing commerce.

A site like you're asking about should be .org, .net, .info or similar.  There is a wide range of new TLDs you might want to look into.

If Baxley is a town in Georgia, I would construct the domain as BaxleyGAWeather.org

I'm not sure that letter case is relevant however in determining duplicates since most people type URLs in lower case only.




Greg_M

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #9 on: May 06, 2019, 03:30:27 PM »
And stop the squatters that get domain names just so they can sell them later on.
That's the only reason I had to get a .net domain. A jerk has been sitting on the one I wanted for about 15 years and has never done anything with it.
He wants $10,000 for it.

Offline lightmaster

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #10 on: May 06, 2019, 03:57:56 PM »
All the domains cost $12 with Google domains, so cost of .com vs .org doesn't matter. Do t want .us cuz .us doesn't allow privacy protection.

As far as .com being for commercial sites, that may have been the original intention, however at this point it is just the most popular and for whatever reason it tends to lead some amount of credibility. People tend to like .com sites more than other newer TLDs.

And yes Greg, there are way way too many parked domains and they need to do something about that.

Offline stevebrtx

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2019, 04:13:14 PM »
When I moved back up from Mexico I landed in Buchanan Dam, TX. The length of Buchanandamweater.com seemed a bit too much, so went with bdamweather.com.

Offline the beteljuice

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2019, 05:54:08 PM »
You don't say if the site will be dedicated to weather, or if it will contain other (local) content, or a redirect to a specific area of your server space.

This could affect the the way you want to name the site.

... also, ATM your weather page (site ?) only says anything about your location in the very last (copyright) line "  Baxley, GA Weather Station"

All of the previous comments of course - welloverlongname.confused, camelCase.what or under_score-hyphen.name 
I've seen multiple.dot.names.tv (although I think they may become more popular / accepted sometime soon)

An interesting TLD you may want to add to the mix: baxleyweather.today  (available) \:D/
Imagine what you will KNOW tomorrow !

Offline Bushman

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #13 on: May 06, 2019, 06:17:35 PM »
The .today is a great idea!
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Offline lightmaster

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2019, 07:08:15 PM »
You don't say if the site will be dedicated to weather, or if it will contain other (local) content, or a redirect to a specific area of your server space.

This could affect the the way you want to name the site.

... also, ATM your weather page (site ?) only says anything about your location in the very last (copyright) line "  Baxley, GA Weather Station"

All of the previous comments of course - welloverlongname.confused, camelCase.what or under_score-hyphen.name 
I've seen multiple.dot.names.tv (although I think they may become more popular / accepted sometime soon)

An interesting TLD you may want to add to the mix: baxleyweather.today  (available) \:D/

Thanks for pointing out the title of the site, I had changed it in a beta version I was running but forgot to change it on the main site.

Yes, it'll be strictly a weather site. And I like the idea about .today, definitely adding it to the mix.

Not gonna be doing the multiple or even single subdomain thing that some people do. It'll be domain.TLD and that's it. The key is being memorable and easy to type, and this.that.baxley.weather or stuff like that isn't.

Offline galfert

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #15 on: May 06, 2019, 08:25:39 PM »
FYI the domain portion of a URL is case insensitive. This is because DNS ignores case. So if someone types BaxleyWeather.com or BAXLEYWEATHER.COM or baxleyweather.com into their browser it does not matter. For the same reason you can advertise your weather site any way you want. I think it is common for domains with multiple words to capitalize each words first character when referring to the site. But it's done both ways. It is a personal choice. No right or wrong here.

When you register or manage a domain name depending on the registrar they may confirm the domain name to you in all lower case or all upper case as I've seen done. All of which makes no difference.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2019, 08:28:47 PM by galfert »
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Offline lightmaster

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #16 on: May 06, 2019, 09:17:58 PM »
FYI the domain portion of a URL is case insensitive. This is because DNS ignores case. So if someone types BaxleyWeather.com or BAXLEYWEATHER.COM or baxleyweather.com into their browser it does not matter. For the same reason you can advertise your weather site any way you want. I think it is common for domains with multiple words to capitalize each words first character when referring to the site. But it's done both ways. It is a personal choice. No right or wrong here.

When you register or manage a domain name depending on the registrar they may confirm the domain name to you in all lower case or all upper case as I've seen done. All of which makes no difference.

I know. But posting online BaxleyWeather.com is more human readable than baxleyweather.com. Same with emails, which is why my business signature is FirstnameLastname@Company.com.

Offline galfert

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #17 on: May 06, 2019, 09:53:23 PM »
I know you know. But others in this thread commented about case, which is irrelevant.
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Offline the beteljuice

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #18 on: May 06, 2019, 10:18:32 PM »
Quote
But others the beteljuice in this thread commented about case, which is irrelevant.
The remit was to be simple and memorable.
If viSitors aRen'T aWare oF tHe cUrrEnt synTax rUles they may suffer brain ache as well as eye-strain  :lol:
Imagine what you will KNOW tomorrow !

Offline galfert

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #19 on: May 06, 2019, 10:26:54 PM »
Beatlejuice I agree with you. And no it wasn't your comment. It was PaulMy that said to get both domains (.com and .net) and no capitals. It's that no capitals that was irrelevant. Unless he was expressing his view to not advertise it with capitalization. Not picking in him or anyone. I just wanted to inform to those reading and not necessarily posting that case is irrelevant when buying a domain name. How you use it thereafter is up to you.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2019, 10:30:41 PM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
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Offline lightmaster

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2019, 11:57:01 PM »
Thanks for all the input guys. Based on the responses here and asking friends and family in the area, I ended up going with BaxleyWeather.com. Its clear what it's intention is and it is simple for anyone to remember.

Offline the beteljuice

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Re: Which new domain name would be best?
« Reply #21 on: May 07, 2019, 03:18:10 AM »
As Paul said earlier ....

There's nothing to stop you having more than one domain name if you want ....

Glad to have been of no service  :lol: :lol: :lol:
Imagine what you will KNOW tomorrow !