---
title: "example.com is not porn - yay!"
date: 2002-12-01T21:02:56-05:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2002/12/01/ooocci/
author: Les Orchard
---

# example.com is not porn - yay!

Noticed <a href="http://example.com" target="_top">http://example.com</a> linked to via the <a href="http://rdfig.xmlhack.com/">#rdfig weblog</a>, and had this thought: Thank goodness that <a href="http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois?STRING=example.com&amp;SearchType=do">someone</a> had thought to register that domain, or else my boss would have more likely than not been viewing porn after clicking on a link it in our last meeting.
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shortname=ooocci

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
        <ul class="comments">
            
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085195">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.perceive.net"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=9e76d0bf99487acc610624122a6317f3&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.perceive.net">Eric Vitiello</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085195" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-12-02T11:03:01">2002-12-02T11:03:01</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">RFC2606 reserved example.com, example.net, example.org.. also test.xx invalid.xx and localhost.xx</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085196">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=2ac2cffd36ada8c734b90e02a1e5c1ac&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com">l.m.orchard</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085196" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-12-02T13:22:51">2002-12-02T13:22:51</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Things I feel like I should have known, but didn't.  Thanks for the pointer! :)</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085198">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://rc3.org/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=818fa877485f2f6d119675a536217e6c&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://rc3.org/">Rafe</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085198" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-12-02T13:47:41">2002-12-02T13:47:41</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">At one time, example.com was registered to someone and was used as something other than an example, despite the fact that the RFC clearly stated that the domain was reserved.  I don't know when it was returned to its proper usage, but it has been fixed for some time.</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085200">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://kalsey.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=79f874a58ccd440b448771ae1847d1d2&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://kalsey.com">Adam Kalsey</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085200" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-12-02T15:02:05">2002-12-02T15:02:05</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Searching Google for Localhost shows that there are many localhost.xx domains registered. localhost.net.au, localhost.be, localhost.net.ar...</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221085201">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://InternetAlchemy.org"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=0fb9bcc795ab3784fa3e64e6d9dbc29d&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://InternetAlchemy.org">Ian</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221085201" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-12-10T10:26:14">2002-12-10T10:26:14</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">.test, .example, .invalid and .localhost are only reserved as top level domains. e.g. ian.test is reserved, but test.ian is not.</div>
            
        </li>
    
        </ul>
    
        </div>