Why should ICANN listen to some Ned from Flanders? "www.gov.diddly" FTW.

Living in the Netherlands, about 15km from this particular border, I sincerely hope this will happen and that it'll be .vla.

All this so Spit and Gob (the well known Flemish comedians) can have their own website...

I thought it was Nell Flanders

Stupid Flanders

Doh!

Living 4km on the Wallonian side I'm not so keen. I'm also not sure why you'd be pleased as the Flemish aren't that keen on the Dutch either :-)

From an IT point of view I don't really care. The main day to day problem is that the hard liners on the Flemish side seem to stir the rest up to the point of racism. One teenager said to me "I hate all French speakers...." I asked if she knew any, "no" was the reply. They claim the Wallonian economy is going in a different direction to there's (ie the French speakers aren't as rich), but they don't like it when you point out that the same can be said about Limburg.

Obviously the Franco-phones aren't completely innocent either, although theirs tends to be a sin of omission, in that they are too lazy to learn Dutch.

Anyway, just the views of an outsider.......

The Flems really do act like a bunch of kids sometimes. If it's not one thing, it's another.

For now, Flanders is part of Belgium, and so should make so with .be as their TLD.

If and when the time comes that they are an independant state, then let them apply for .vla or whatever. But for now, regions don't really get to have their own tld.

And when that time does come that they are an independant state, let them apply as any other candidate country for membership to the EU, and see how far they get with their right-wing policies towards minorities there.

www.hopjes.vla

www.chocolade.vla

www.bananen.vla

www.vaniglie.vla

... etc. etc.

http://lecker.dubbel.vla

If Belgium does split , why not assimilate the French-speaking Walloon region (population 5 million) into Luxembourg (pop. 400k)?

It's just a question of mathematics.

Paris, because she knows where to stick many things (except the Belgians).

I'd prefer: .pop

Lest we forget.

This would be the same belgian bastards who denied the release of ammo to the British during the Gulf war, overlooking the fact that if we hadn't bailed them out twice, they wouldn't exist?

Anyway, if you want to do business, you speak English.

MY dads from flanders and mum from wallonia... i cant deceide, but the french speakers are alot better crack so ill go with them. Some flemish are getting a bit to big for their boots and the hard liners are just left over failed neo-nazi's ... and yes they did sympathies with the germans too...

Happy days... glad the scots here arnt that militant lol...

me too having a dutch uncle does have some benefits, just dont let him hear me say that. Week on sunday my mum should be bringing me some back :)

I vote we get VLA sold in brittain :)

if they get vla as tld I call dibs on "drac.vla"

:D

The Scots have been refused their own TLD on numerous occasions as we are more than just a region.

As long as its not a separate country, it should not get its own domain.

If the do allow it, the Brussels should get .bru

First dibs on irn.bru

BTW, the article is wrong - 50% of Flemish don't want independence. It's about 10%.

Mine's is the one with a bottle of Duvel in it.

"Prime minister Peeters told the BBC this week he is not in favour of independence"

He's not Prime minister, he's Miniter President of the Flemish Community.

He's not in favour, he's just preparing it.

They went to govern the country with an openly separatist party, and 15 months later (yes), they realized (...shock !) it wouldn't work. Quick, let's change the subject with a global economical crisis.

Wait, don't they already use .FR?

Let them have their own TLD and make it .vlaanderen. It won't do them any good coz it's so long no one will ever use it.

Then give us .scot along with .eng and .wal or whatever.

Because they refuse to speak to each other in their respecitve languages!

Technically, Flanders (or Scotland for that matter) cannot get a country-code TLD (simply, it's not a country - yet).

Given the precedent of .cat (for Catalunya), both Flanders and Scotland may be able to get a sponsored TLD instead if they meet the criteria of the new ICANN rules and are prepared to pay the registration fees ICANN will extor... ahem ask.

On the personal side, generally I have no sympathy for separatist regions and separate TLDs, but who am I to influence ICANN's processes and policies.

And i say NO. Just for the simple fact that all Belgian websites are cheap and lame. Most of them look like a 12 year old made them that was either drunk or wacked out on crack. What they have now is good enough (.be). Don't blame the Flemish for being needy when we all know the French side is just as bad if not worse. All the walloons do is sit on their lazy arse. Their side of the country is truly filthy. I know, i live close to it. Luik is only about half an hour away and It looks like a complete dump and not to mention Hainaut. You just don't wanna know.

Anyway, Belgium won't split up. We can't afford it. It would destroy us. The taxes would rise immencely to compensate for the cut from wallonie and we already have 21% tax. Or atleast thats the story i'm sure they'll force down our throats whether its true or not does not matter in this country. They're choking this country to death as it is.