Hi Vic, Kerry,

We seem to be in a loop... yes, advising people to register .com's may not
be in their ultimate best interest... however two obvious points arise from
this comment... firstly, are "we" in the best position to judge what "their"
marketing strategies should be? - Secondly, why are Australian ISP's
advising clients to register .com's?... Could it be because of the cost and
difficulties in registering .au domains? - Simply laying blame and making
accusations of "stupid and short-term focused" is hardly going to alleviate
the problem... more likely you will alienate those few who still do promote
the benefits of a .au domain.

Anyone who has checked-out my email address would notice that I do support
the .au name space... notice how concise and marketable it is?...
coolahddg.com.au ... I hope this means a lot to everyone, because it is the
only combination that would be accepted for .au registration... Our business
name is the Coolah District Development Group Incorporated (I guess we could
have used the full name as a domain... wouldn't that be nice to type as a
URL!).

The point being, tens-of-thousands of Australian organisations do not
manufacture or sell products. We have nothing to trademark (we are not a
manufacturer or retailer), and our business name reflects our
organisation... however is it proper that our Internet address should also
reflect our business name? (coolahddg)... This domain name is absurd, yet it
is all we were allowed to have... within Australia... and yes, we have
registered a far more appropriate domain name under .com... because under
Australian naming "rules" we were refused an appropriate name (once again
bye bye Aussie - except for diehard supporters of .au like me who hang on to
this ridiculous coolahddg.com.au domain in my e-mails).

Cheers, Don