Re: [opennic-discuss] [PROPOSAL] TLD Reliability Policies

I like the idea of this in principle... a number of TLDs I’ve browsed don’t
have adequate basic infrastructure.

On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 21:03 Jonah Aragon <[email protected]> wrote:

> Recently, I’ve been somewhat concerned about the reliability of some of
> our community members (regardless of their current intentions, see “bus
> factor”), and I want to make sure our top-level domains are protected, “DNS
> resolution”-wise in any case. I also noticed we don’t really have any
> policies regarding the ownership, transfer, and deletion rights of our
> TLDs, so I wanted to specify things a bit.
>
> I’m proposing the following additions to our current policies:
>
> ## Operator Activity
> -  Operators are defined as “Active” if at least one of the following
> conditions are met: (a) they are operating a working registration system,
> or (b) they have made a meaningful contribution to the community within the
> last 6 months (for example, contributing on the mailing list, IRC, wiki, or
> GitHub). Additionally, their Tier 1 server must reliably resolve their TLD
> zone.
>
> ## Deletion of top-level domains
> - TLD zones may never be removed, with the exception of an ICANN
> collision, which should be voted on (following “.free” precedent).
>
> ## TLD ownership
> - Top-Level domains should be considered the property of the
> administrative team responsible for its operation, provided they are
> aligned with all applicable OpenNIC policies.
>
> ## Voluntary transfer of TLD ownership
> - Active operators unfit for continued TLD operation must post a notice to
> that effect on the mailing list. A private transfer of TLD ownership is
> prohibited.
> - Any Tier 2 or Tier 1 server operator may apply (via the mailing list
> notice) for ownership, within a 14 day period following the initial notice.
> - A list of applicants will be compiled, and the community will vote on a
> new operator based on that list. The vote will last for 14 days.
> - Following a community vote, the applicant selected by the community will
> immediately assume operation and ownership of the top-level domain.
> - The applicant selected by the community is expected to maintain domain
> records that existed prior to TLD transfer.
> - TLD operators are expected to continue resolving their TLD throughout
> this process, until the ownership is transferred. In a case of urgency, any
> Tier 1 operator may assume interim operation throughout this process until
> a new operator is chosen. The TLD operator should reach out to another Tier
> 1 operator to take over the zone before posting the notice, to ensure
> continued resolution.
>
> ## Involuntary transfer of TLD ownership
> - TLDs may not be involuntarily transferred from Active operators.
> - Any Tier 2 or 1 operator may apply for ownership of a TLD owned by an
> inactive operator. They must send a discussion thread to the mailing list
> declaring this statement. Any Tier 2 or 1 operator may reply to this notice
> with a challenge, if they wish to assume ownership of the zone. This
> discussion thread will last for a minimum of 21 days.
> - Unchallenged claims will be voted on by the community following
> discussion in a simple “Yes, transfer ownership” or “No, retain the current
> operator” vote.
> - Challenged claims will be voted on by the community following
> discussion, accounting for every claimant as an option. Additionally, the
> community may vote for no change to the ownership.
> - Following a community vote, if a new owner is chosen, ownership of the
> zone will immediately pass to them. They must be ready to provide
> resolution at this time.
> - New operators are expected to resolve zones/subdomains of the TLD that
> existed prior to them gaining ownership, from the last available good
> backup of the zone.
>
> ## Inactive zone alternatives
> - Zones operated by an inactive member of the community should be
> considered for an involuntary zone transfer first and foremost.
> - If no community member is willing to adopt an inactive zone, the zone
> may be archived in a read-only state, as they are prohibited from being
> deleted.
> - Archived zones shall exist as a read-only master copy on every Tier 1
> server. Tier 1 servers are prohibited from adding records to an archived
> zone, but existing records may be modified or removed manually at the
> request of a record owner posted to the mailing list.
> - A zone may be nominated to be archived in the event of operator
> inactivity, on the mailing list. Any member may nominate an eligible zone
> to be archived. This notice includes a 30 day minimum discussion period.
> - Any Tier 1 or 2 operator may challenge an archive nomination within the
> discussion timeframe if they wish to take ownership of a zone. In this
> case, the “involuntary zone ownership transfer” policies outlined above
> take precedent, and the archive proposal ends.
> - Following the discussion period, the zone shall be archived immediately,
> assuming no Tier 1 or 2 operator wishes to assume ownership of the zone.
>
> ## Guaranteed Resolution
> - If a Tier 1 server has been unresponsive for at least 7 days, and the
> operator can not be contacted, any Tier 1 operator may assume interim
> operation of the TLD zone on their own server, and the root should be
> changed immediately. The assuming operator must post a notice to that
> affect to the mailing list. The assuming operator must operate their zone
> based on the last known good backup of the TLD zonefile. The assuming
> operator may not add new records to the zone. Zones that are being operated
> by an interim zone operator should be considered for an “involuntary TLD
> transfer” (see above), if applicable.
> - TLD zonefiles should be considered public information, and they will be
> posted to the @OpenNIC GitHub organization, which will serve as a backup
> repository.
>
> ## Notes
> - These notes in this section are informative and non-binding.
> - ModernTLD, operators of the .o zone, operated by myself, has volunteered
> to act as an interim operator for any zones that may require that service,
> as per the “urgent” voluntary zone transfer procedure listed above.
> - ModernTLD will be providing a backup of all OpenNIC zones hosted on the
> @ModernTLD GitHub organization, in case anything affects the long-term
> reliability of the OpenNIC official GitHub repositories.
> - “Owners” and “operators” should be considered synonymous throughout this
> policy, as zones are the property of their operators.
>
> I think most of these changes should be “common sense” policies, but I
> feel like they should be codified just so everything is clear.
>
> Jonah
>
> --------
> You are a member of the OpenNIC Discuss list.
> You may unsubscribe by emailing
> [email protected]
>
-- 
Rouben



--------
You are a member of the OpenNIC Discuss list. 
You may unsubscribe by emailing [email protected]