Sometimes It's Difficult to Become Master of One's Domain

Pursuant to the renewal of an old bit of fun, and to a novel cryptocurrency scheme, I hit Namecheap today to buy a domain. It's a domain I used to own, but let lapse, but which was available.

When I attempted to add the domain -- which sports the .us TLD -- to my cart, I was informed that due to "restrictive phrases," I'd have to ask, via support chat, for it to be added manually.

That got done, after I certified various things (US citizen, personal site, understanding that trademark infringement or illicit activity would result in loss of the domain without reimbursement).

Then when I went to my web hosting control panel to add the domain, I had to get with support again since .us domains are "restricted."

The first process took somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes (I multi-tasked while waiting on chat responses, of course), the second perhaps five minutes.

For a $3.98 (first year) domain.

I don't blame Namecheap. I've always had excellent service from them. Presumably they've been hit with enough complaints, litigation, etc. that it's easier for them to handle that TLD manually than to have to respond to that stuff later.