This was supposed to be a post about how to migrate domains from Google Domains to Porkbun, but I spent too much time talking about the domains themselves, so now this is a post about domains. The "registrar migration" post will surely materialize eventually.

At some point in my adult life, I became an exceptionally boring person. I don't mean in the "really lame to be around" sense, more like a kind of accidental puritanical-ness. I don't really drink, I don't eat sweets or junk food. Hell, I even switched to decaf coffee a few years ago. That kind of boring.

But if I have any guilty pleasures whatsoever, it is this: I buy a lot of domains.

How many domains are we talking?

At peak, probably 60 or 70. I'm currently sitting at around 46, give or take a few stragglers I've forgotten about at shadier registrars at the edges of the internet.

The pattern is pretty simple:

1. Have an idea for a project
2. Come up with a fun name
3. Buy the domain name

Having a domain makes the project more real and exciting. The project isn't "some random thing", it's the more legit-sounding SomeRandomThing.lol.¹ It becomes an entity, takes on a life of its own. This tickles my brain in a very specific way, and makes it more likely I'll actually build the damn thing. And all for the low, low price of ~$10.

But of course, there's a bit of irrationality here, a sense that if I don't buy it right this instant, someone else will miraculously want (and steal!) the same domain shortly after. This is in spite of the fact that the domain was likely available for the ~40 odd years that domains have been available to register.² This is how I end up with domains like:

...and many more. And I want to be clear that I'm by no means squatting on any of these domains, even if most of them are blank at the moment. I've built full-fledged applications for all the ones with asterisks on them. For many of them, I just haven't polished them up enough (or secured them up enough!) that I'd feel good deploying them on the public internet.

Reining it in

At ~$10/yr per domain and 70 domains in the worst case, we're talking $700/yr ≈ $60/mo, which isn't cheap.³ But as far as niche hobbies go, it really isn't that terrible either. But still, the vast majority of these projects really don't need (or even benefit from) their own domain names, and I've let dozens quietly expire over the years,⁴ moving them to subdomains of other domains I plan to keep around.

My bsprague.com domain has really become a dumping ground in that regard, hosting janky Bananagrams implementations, SMS-based chess sites, hideous Wordle variations, other semi-functional word games, a Jackbox game chooser for the indecisive, and many more deeply flawed abominations.

The Lesson

I'm pretty confident there's actually no lesson here at all. Do whatever you want? Subdomains are just as good as normal domains (and cheaper)? All projects are worth sharing with the world? If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life? Truly no idea what I'm trying to say, thanks for stopping by!