.me.ss! You can't register emoji domains in South Sudan
It's useful to share negative results. Not every experiment has an amazing or successful outcome.
tl;dr you can't register Punycode .ss domains.
This also means Internet users in South Sudan can't register domains using their own writing system.
Read more:
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/07/hot-mess-a-new-emoji-domain/
Looks like the .ss ccTLD is going to be open for registration at the 2nd level!
€110 for .ss and €60 for .co.ss after landrush.
For reference, .me.ss is about €25.
More info soon, I hope, on https://nic.ss/
Here's a link to the official announcement
https://nic.ss/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ssNIC-Registry-Sunrise-Registration-Policy-July-2024.pdf
I haven't seen any news about this, which is surprising.
I've written this up in with a bit more detail:
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/ss-tld-opening-for-direct-registrations/
Looking forward to welcoming seeing more South Sudanese people & organisation carve out their slice of the Internet.
@Edent Can I put in a bid for data.ss?
@cholling I guess so. I've used https://www.afriregister.com/ for registering 3rd level .ss domains.
@Edent Unfortunately they won't let you register just at .ss, it has to be at .com.ss or .me.ss. So I guess I won't be able to tap data.ss after all.
@cholling sorry, it's in sunrise then landrush then early access. Only then will it be available generally. That's just how new TLD launches work.
@Edent It also occurs to me that you're in the UK, where they say "arse" instead, and might not have picked up on my pun.
@cholling your arse flew straight over my head 
Optimisey @Edent Well this'll be a bun-fight!
Any ideas on when the registration will open?
@Edent iboughtthisdomainunderdure.ss
@Edent Oh. This might be also great news for the right wing people around the world. Thinking people should register something like neveragain.ss #niewieder #niewiederistjetzt #neveragain
@Edent inb4 snakess.ss 
@Edent Uhhh ... I see work ahead for the German authorities
@Edent This combination of letters is largely banned from public use, with a few others that also have Nazi references. In some cases, its use is punishable by law. It will be interesting to see how the authorities will classify domains with clear connotations if the domain holder is from Germany.
@kiko yes, I understand that. Why do you think it is a new problem?
The .ss registry has already been operating for several years. Is there any evidence of abuse there?
@Edent Am I getting something wrong with the general availability this year, in November 2024?
@kiko Yes - did you read the blog post?
Various 3rd level domains like .me.ss and .com.ss have been available for years.
Is there any evidence of weird racist German groups registering them?
As I say in the post, we're still waiting for an up-to-date list of banned words for the top level .ss domains. The previous set of banned words included a lot of sex and political content.
@Edent They’re taking the pi.ss
@Edent my.precious.ss
@Edent The registry lists `com.ss` as 2nd level, not `co.ss`, see "What are the various .SS third levels?" in https://nic.ss/faqs/
@pmevzek I know. But take a look at the announcement at https://x.com/NCA_SSD/status/1811778704059547783/photo/1
@Edent Thanks for the source. So the registry website is not up to date... I find it always strange that people prefer to communicate in silos platform instead of just putting a link there going back to the only authoritative source that should be, their own website under their own name.
@Edent Sorry I didn't see your later post with the link on their website.