@Scott M. Stolz In my experience, ‘das Land’ has no negative connotations, neither in the sense of the state nor in the sense of the area.

So there is nothing to be said against registering such a domain.

I believe that in the present situation, far-right parties and groups becoming stronger every day, "das land" would carry strong nationalistic connotation. (I'm living in or near Berlin, mother tongue is German.)

@phani00 (hubzilla) @Scott M. Stolz

would carry strong nationalistic connotation

I strongly disagree with that! That may be true for other terms (although I often think that's an insinuation from the outside), but ‘Land’ is a completely normal term that is used normally by leftists or extreme leftists, as well as by rightists, extreme rightists, conservatives and completely NORMAL people, without any ulterior motives being involved.

But this shows me that it might be better to keep your hands off the domain after all, because there are more and more confused people who suspect a ‘nationalist secret formula’ behind every term and a Nazi behind every tree (especially if he lives in the house with the house number eighteen, because that is also a Nazi code).

As a native of Spandau (the city next to Berlin), I'm glad I emigrated a long time ago, because Germany has become a kind of unthinking lunatic asylum.

Don't think I'm mistaken. I don't suspect a Nazi behind every tree but know there is one behind every third tree. At least here in Brandenburg, where I live now. (I'm originally from Spandau.)

I can't think of any left or far-left group that would use "the land," but of many right ones that would. May be wait for some other German speakers' input.

It should be noted, that such a site, if launched, would have strict prohibitions against National Socialism, Neo-Nazis, Fascism, or other hateful ideologies.

A lot of people think there are communists and socialists under every bush too. Should we ban the word "social" because of this?

@Scott M. Stolz In that case, I‘d go for it!

Reminds me of the Zapatistas who use the Mexican flag as a symbol for their social agenda (they = the people), so that it cannot be claimed a nationalist symbol by the right wing movements.

By using „Das Land“ while keeping off Neo-Nazis ans Fascists, you set a focus on the multi-meaning character of the word. Because it’s kept abstract, one could start thinking of a playground-like open space where one is „landing“…

You might consider offenes.land or weites.land as even better alternatives.

@Ema エマ A lot of propagandists like redefining words. Sometimes you have to fight back and redefine the word back to its original meaning.

Offenes land (open country or open land) or weites land (vast country or vast land) sound interesting, but das.land (the country or the land) has already been registered, and the domain owner is deciding what to do with the domain.

If it does get used as a social network, it would probably need a slogan or something that makes it clear what "das Land" is supposed to mean so there is context.

@Chris Shultz

A lot of people think there are communists and socialists under every bush too. Should we ban the word "social" because of this?

i'm not talking about banning the word "land," but not using the domain "das.land." not knowing the author or that hateful ideologies aren't welcome, i would associate the.land with nationalistic ideology...and i don't think i'm the only one.

@Ema エマ

You might consider offenes.land or weites.land as even better alternatives.

now that sounds much better. offenes or weites.land would associate open-mindedness to me, the opposite of nationalistic thought.

EDIT: didn't see your previous post before writing this one.

The other alternative is to make it a travel & tourism website, and have ActivityPub-enabled forums powered by Hubzilla.

Neither the Duden dictionary nor the DWDS (German-language standard works on the German language) contain any reference to a negative connotation with regard to the noun ‘Land, das’.

Nor am I aware of any right-wing propaganda peddling ‘das Land’. At some point it becomes impossible to communicate normally with a language because every word is somehow ‘ostracised’... maybe all that will be left is sign language with harmless emojis.

@phani00 (hubzilla) If you categorise every AdF voter as a Nazi, then you and I have no basis for conversation. BTW: I don't vote for them, because I no longer vote in Germany, but only in my new (Caution! Trigger warning! Evil Nazi word:) Heimat, where I've lived for over twelve years.

I think I'm out of this discussion.

"Land" might be also associated with "ländlich", rural, quiet, not densely populated, a bit behind modern times. A nazi connotations seems quite constructed in my eyes. I was born and raised up in the north east of Germany, Stralsund.

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

Neither the Duden dictionary nor the DWDS (German-language standard works on the German language) contain any reference to a negative connotation with regard to the noun ‘Land, das’.

Nor am I aware of any right-wing propaganda peddling ‘das Land’. At some point it becomes impossible to communicate normally with a language because every word is somehow ‘ostracised’... maybe all that will be left is sign language with harmless emojis.

I couldn't find anyone using "das Land" negatively when I searched the internet.

I can understand why some people may be cautious, but I don't think that is a reason to not use that domain name as long as the proper context is communicated.

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ then we don't have any basis for conversation.

@Einer von Vielen "ländlich," as in rural, quiet, would be what i normally associate "das.land" with, but not today, with extreme-right parties getting 1/3 of the vote in parts of the country.

Well, that escalated quickly.

escalated, and de-escalated, at least for me. i don't have to talk about politics to everyone and am not getting angry.

...as long as the proper context is communicated

exactly.

So, based on what I am hearing so far, it sounds like some people will make assumptions, which is natural, but if the proper context is conveyed and Nazis are banned, it would be acceptable.

So perhaps a hybrid website would be in order:

• Website has content on travel & tourism or some other neutral topic.
• Website has forums specifically related to that neutral topic.
• Political forums of any kind are banned.
• People can sign up for account to participate in the forums and post on social media.
• People can talk politics on their own channel, but anything pro-Nazi or otherwise prohibited would be deleted and the user banned.

this sounds ok to me, but i would still wait for input from other, level-headed german speakers. @Mark Nowiasz, @Mario Vavti (?), @Magic Cauldron come to mind right now, but there's lots of others. i don't really trust myself with this...

@phani00 (hubzilla) More input would be better. But, at the same time, I would rather be over-cautious. Based on this discussion so far, if I allow such as website on my servers, there will be conditions. As a web hosting company, I can set the rules about what is on my network.

... @Alexander Goeres , @RockyIII @Stefan Münz

@phani00 (hubzilla) the.land sounds like an instance for residents of Baden-Württemberg (THE LÄND) to me.

das.land, on the other hand, sounds like an instance for rural Germans.

@Jupiter Rowland You're absolutely right. THAT association comes to mind for me too. 😂

By the way, from an American perspective, it would be something like this:

"Das Land. Oh, I think that is German. I think I remember that from my German language class in high school. Das ist gut. And that is about all I remember. and wiener and some swear words."

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ It should be screaming yellow then.

IMO it is neither bad nor very sexy. am.land would be much better :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:

Although @Chris Shultz was probably joking, it is true that Americans would not have the same connotations about it and "das land" would be something taught in high school German class. To an American it just means "the land" in German. They probably won't know it could also mean country.

A travel and tourism website as @Scott M. Stolz suggested might work better, especially if it was in English or Spanish and targeted to American and non-German tourists.

It looks like the number of responses has died down. @Wiskano, does this answer your question?

@Scott M. Stolz Yes, this helps a lot. Thanks for asking your followers.

@Jupiter Rowland Come to think of it, I should make this into an actual picture...

@Jupiter Rowland it is a really good advertisment idea imo

Make what into a picture? And how would that be a good advertisement?

Well, am.land is available for $128.70 per year as a premium domain. But weites.land was registered in 2014. And offenes.land is available, but in English it sounds like offends, which is not ideal if you are attracting a bilingual audience. So das.land is still good. I have seen worse domain hacks.

@Mario Vavti And I'm done.