Is the IEDR making an effort to thwart Jewish names as domains?

Seriously. Now that I'm in Ireland I want Siegel.ie. I don't mean to scare you with my name--I'm not religious!

I applied for Siegel.ie at LetsHost.ie--I don't recommend them--they've tried harder to stand in my way than to respond or assist--or even follow the rules. Ireland isn't like the US and .com domains. To get a .ie domain, you need to fall into one of 11 categories specified in the application process for the domain. But in reality it means having the secret handshake--or possibly being related to Lothar or whomever watches the IEDR inbound requests.

Why?

I've been denied the ability to apply for the domain four times. Three times by LetsHost and once by the IEDR (we'll get to them on the next post). Surely this must mean that they are strict! And all about ensuring quality, right?

Check out phone.ie:

It's Category 4, Registered Business Name. No offense to Phone.ie, but isn't that a domain park page that we eschew in the web sphere?

Well then, maybe they are strict to the letter of the rule, but not worried about quality. Then surely they'll keep everyone to the Categories 1-10 rather than the ambiguous Category 11. The "Discretionary Name" category, right?

Let's see:

The domain register mentioned above, LetsTalk.ie--their company is Digital Media Internet Services Ltd--so how'd they get the LetsTalk.ie name?

WOAH! It's a Discretionary Name.

What about DomainRegistry.ie--the alter ego of the IEDR?

HEY NOW! It's a Discretionary Name!

Come on--you got blocked by your own Category 1-10? And had to use sneaky #11? Why didn't you tell me! I'll do #11 too. In fact... one... more... ah, great! I just submitted to you a #11. Well, I submitted to you a #6 "Publication Name" with the required docs. We've already corresponded and you claimed that I did not have a long standing blog. Do you want to change your mind on that? This blog has been around for 5 years--as many years as you have published annual reports on your site.

I'm assuming you don't want to change your mind (I like to be stubborn too), so why don't you sneak me into #11 the same way you snuck yourself in?

Here's a few more discretionary:

- Talk.ie

- Budd.ie

- Drive.ie

- Hosts.ie

Hmm... it's hard to find domains that aren't discretionary.

So Lothar--if you are reading this--please, please treat me like you would yourself. Gimme my Siegel.ie. I ticked the boxes. And if you want to kick out my Category #6--I don't mind. Just pass me under Category #11.

And thank you for the prod to blog!