RETARDED.COM - Should this domain be auctioned in the largest domain industry convention?

[Internet.Domains]

Retarded.com - Should this domain be auctioned in the largest domain industry convention?

The term RETARDED is defined as "offensive" on Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.com, Vocabulary.com and Wikipedia.org. The latter one describes it: "The word retard was widely accepted in the late-1900s to refer to people with mental disabilities; however it is now more commonly used as an INSULT. The word has gained notoriety for causing a growing number of mentally disabled people to feel unfairly stereotyped."...

This insulting and offensive domain should not be part of the the largest domain industry convention. This reflects on sponsors and attendees alike. The auction has been advertised as "Super Premium" and there is nothing "SUPER PREMIUM" about offending and insulting mentally and physically challenged individuals. As a person who knows and works with autistic children I kindly ask for this domain to be removed from the sponsored industry event immediately. This domain does not and should not reflect on the entire domain industry, but at this point it does reflect, and it is insulting.... Here is a list of of the top sponsors for the convention that is promoting the auction with the offensive and insulting term to those that are physically and mentally challenged, through no fault of their own.

Uniregistry
RightOfTheDot
Namejet
Rightside
Verisign
Radix
InternetX
Affilias
GoDaddy
Escrow.com
101Domain
DomainSponsor
.WS
Donuts
CentralNic
.Blog

 

[usernamex]

IMO There are far more insulting, defamatory and harmful web site names than this. If this name were allowed to be censored, it would lead to more and more names being censored, and a bigger can of worms. There are many ccTLDs that censor already. Who would want this name anyway with the horrific nightmare of potential public backlash for using it?

I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/01/defend-say/

That being said, in cases like these I like the idea of donating it to a charity group for awareness.

 

[Bram C.]

Domain names do not hurt people, people developing the domains however can. It's the moral responsibility of the owner of the domain to use the domain in a good way.

The domain name itself comes with no context as many have said before. Unless there currently is a demeaning website on retarded.com I don't see how it should not be listed? For all we know the future buyer will build a site that posts silly jokes on it on a daily basis, using "retarded" in the sense of "foolish". Or they will build a site on it that explains that "retarded" is an offensive term when referring to people with mental disabilities. In that way it would be beneficial to society as it would educate some people to stop using this insulting term.

Rape.com, which was mentioned as an example before, is currently forwarded to some political campaign which is fighting against sexual violence and has a phone number listed to the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

Murder.com is a developed site for people who love reading about murder mysteries.

Just because a word is bad doesn't mean it can't be used in a good way.

Having said that, I don't like the domain and I doubt it will fetch a lot of money (if sold).

 

[deez007]

I totally agree that when the word is used in that context then yes it is highly offensive and should not at all be tolerated.

The thing is tough the actual word itself is not solely in reference to any particular group of people, I get that it is commonly used by insensitive and uneducated idiots to refer to autistic people. However, the word itself can be used for many other uses...

For Example:

Physics and engineering

• Retardation factor, in chromatography, the fraction of an analyte in the mobile phase of a chromatographic system
• Retarded potential, in electrodynamics, electromagnetic potentials generated by time-varying electric current or charge distributions in the past
• Retarded time, time when an electromagnetic field began to propagate from a point in a charge distribution to an observer
• Retardation time

I guess it's almost like a domain like FAG.com (this is an offensive term for Gay people in many countries however in the UK it's a slang for a cigarette)

Even a name like Dick.com (It's offensive because we all know what it can mean but it's also a popular first name)

I think if there is merit to show that the domain name can be used for other purposes other than the blatant offensive purpose then it should be allowed...

Just my 2 cents though....

 

[mad409]

I think this is the wrong place for a domain name like this to be sold, totally agree with the OP.

 

[NPer]

It depends on the context it's used in...

If I used the term to describe someone (specifically the person) as "retarded", it's offensive- no doubt.

Now if I described a situation, event, or action as being "retarded", it would have a different meaning in this context, and could actually add emphasis to what I'm saying. If someone did something bad and I said: "What you did is totally retarded", am I being offensive or am I just adding emphasis to my frank statement?

It's the same as the term "f*ck".. it can be viewed as negative if it's used in a negative way, yet it can be used in a non-negative way, or even in a positive way, to add emphasis to what is being said, e.g. "You did a great f*cking" job, congrats". See what I mean?

I think the older generation would be more likely to view this as a negative term in any context.

Nonetheless, when we are talking about a domain name as it is, there is no context; and to me it does not come across as positive at all. Now, depending on what someone might develop on it, the site would not necessarily have to considered negative at all.

Autism is not the only the reference for the term in todays times.

 

[GeorgeK]

There are also a lot of folks offended by the names of the sports teams Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians. Should those terms also be censored, because they make some people uncomfortable?

Constitutional protection of free speech rights is important because 'popular' speech doesn't need defending. It's unpopular and/or controversial speech that needs defending.

If we spend all our time avoiding words that might offend someone, we'll end up saying nothing at all.

Folks can choose whether or not to buy or bid on that domain name, and others shouldn't be imposing their own personal beliefs to remove that choice from them.

Personally, I don't intend to bid on that domain name, but I will defend the right of others who might want to buy it or register it.

 

[Internet.Domains]

IMO There are far more insulting, defamatory and harmful web site names than this. If this name were allowed to be censored, it would lead to more and more names being censored, and a bigger can of worms. There are many ccTLDs that censor already. Who would want this name anyway with the horrific nightmare of potential public backlash for using it?

I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/01/defend-say/

That being said, in cases like these I like the idea of donating it to a charity group for awareness.

There is no word more insulting to the autistic community and those that have similar medical issues.

 

[Nerevar]

Theoretically, there are ways to develop this domain in a non-offensive manner. The most straightforward way is to make a humane website that explains why this word makes some people sad and asks to think twice before using it in everyday conversations. So, a domain is not really something to fight against. Similarly, domains like nazi.com and the like: they could become nazi websites, academic history websites, or even websites that teach specifically why what nazi did was deeply wrong.

 

[Nerevar]

Care to visit "Rape.com"?

Absolutely. If it was developed to a rape-preventing website, it would be a huge service to society. All those who search for "rape" would see this website in the first search results, maybe visit it and become less inclined to do harm or to enjoy other people's harm. I think we cannot fight real-life attitudes by silencing people and erasing words from dictionaries. On the contrary, try to phohinit something - and it will become most famous exactly for that fact.

 

[mcahn]

Retarded.com - Should this domain be auctioned in the largest domain industry convention?

The term RETARDED is defined as "offensive" on Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.com, Vocabulary.com and Wikipedia.org. The latter one describes it: "The word retard was widely accepted in the late-1900s to refer to people with mental disabilities; however it is now more commonly used as an INSULT. The word has gained notoriety for causing a growing number of mentally disabled people to feel unfairly stereotyped."...

This insulting and offensive domain should not be part of the the largest domain industry convention. This reflects on sponsors and attendees alike. The auction has been advertised as "Super Premium" and there is nothing "SUPER PREMIUM" about offending and insulting mentally and physically challenged individuals. As a person who knows and works with autistic children I kindly ask for this domain to be removed from the sponsored industry event immediately. This domain does not and should not reflect on the entire domain industry, but at this point it does reflect, and it is insulting.... Here is a list of of the top sponsors for the convention that is promoting the auction with the offensive and insulting term to those that are physically and mentally challenged, through no fault of their own.

Uniregistry
RightOfTheDot
Namejet
Rightside
Verisign
Radix
InternetX
Affilias
GoDaddy
Escrow.com
101Domain
DomainSponsor
.WS
Donuts
CentralNic
.Blog

I think I will step in here since I chose this name in pre-bidding. I have sold many many controversial domainnames in my 21 years in this industry I certainly feel it’s about who buys it and how they use it not who sells it or if it should be offered for sale. This domain name can be turned into the most positive name depending on what the buyer does with it. It is a dead on keyword, dictionary term and extremely valuable in my opinion! We will see if it makes it to the live or online auction……

 

[NameOmnia]

I understand that it's a derogatory term, but business is business

Do you know how derogatory the terms "cu*t" and "bitch" are towards women?

Well this attitude is the clearest explanation of why this industry and the world are what they are.
Business is business but being a decent human being comes first at least for me that's why I would choose it over whatever amount of money coming from something disrespectful, derogatory or, worse, that implies, suggests, fosters violence, rape, pedophilia underage sex etc.

Not going over this anymore, some people should simply be ashamed.

 

[Kate]

Generally speaking, negative domains are not best selling items anyway.
I think the selection is not draconian enough.

 

[GeorgeK]

The NAACP owns N*gg**.com (they almost let it expire many years ago; they should redirect it, rather than letting NSI profit via PPC). It's all about usage, in my opinion, not being 'politically correct' and trying to 'ban' certain words.

 

[GeorgeK]

There is no word more insulting to the autistic community and those that have similar medical issues.

There are many who also find the word 'autistic' to be 'offensive', e.g. see:

http://autisticadvocacy.org/home/about-asan/identity-first-language/

As I said earlier, I don't believe 'political correctness' should be used to censor. I think some of the most offensive ideas or thoughts can also be sugar-coated, so it's a slippery slope to start taking words out of the dictionary, regardless of context.

 

[J.R.]

It's called morals, that's all. As the OP pointed out this auction represents the domain community as a whole, a domain like this should not be considered for this setting. JMO

How did you become the moral police? You contradict yourself, with your sense of superiority. Why? Morals is subjective in many contexts, as in this case where the majority of people see the slippery slope that censoring this domain brings; you fail to see how dangerous it would be to do so. So many of the SJW types believe they are the moral police, but a peek into their own lives would largely contradict this.

However, the over-sensitivity to the term retarded is typical PC censorship. Moreover, for those special snowflakes that are so absolutely offended; put your collective monies where your mouth is, and buy up these sort of domains, and create something that your PC sensitivity will approve of. But no, you will just complain and undermine someone else trying to make a living outside of the corporate hell hole…We live in an ugly, unfair, and complicated world; people are going to disagree.

The human rights organization, NAACP, wisely bought up N*****.com, and I just notified them that it is on PPC parking and should be unparked; so registry isn't benefitting from this ugly term. The NAACP did what they thought was right, and now they can control that narrative. You and your SJWs should do the same and purchase Retarded.com and make it into something positive. But my bet is that you will, complain and try to bully, but sit back and do nothing...

 

[Donald Wiley]

It's definitely an offensive word. Let's hope whoever purchases it does something positive with it. N*gger.com is owned by NAACP and not developed. Let's hope Retarded.com is picked up by an organization that will use it for information and education, or maybe buy it so no one else can turn it into BS.

 

[Corey]

In support I have changed my Avatar

Pledge to show respect to everyone - resources available @ R-word | Spread the Word to End the Word

Cheers
Corey

 

[NameOmnia]

IMO There are far more insulting, defamatory and harmful web site names than this

That's true but this is bad too. Murdering is worse than stealing but it does not mean the latter should be taken lightly or condoned.

 

[Internet.Domains]

I understand that it's a derogatory term, but business is business. The convention, or its sponsors, should not be held morally responsible for it IMO.

Do you know how derogatory the terms "cu*t" and "bitch" are towards women? Yet, look at the sales:

https://namebio.com/?s=gMwMzN3cTO
https://namebio.com/?s=gMyMzN3cTO

I actually think this domain would be a stellar buy for groups and associations related to Autism. They could make a defensive purchase, and redirect the domain to a page that informs the public about its negative connotations. A move like that could have a significant impact on furthering their efforts, raising awareness, and increasing their following.

At any rate, it would be much better than something like this: (*N-Word*.com). There's a link on there for "Funny Black Jokes"... *sigh*

There is a moral responsibility for the convention, its sponsors and even the attendees....Please visit R-Word.org to learn more.

 

[Nerevar]

Obviously many are not reading and following the entire thread. There's a huge push, I mean huge to do away with this term and NOT to be used as an informative site either.

Once the censorship of domains starts, there will be no way back. Please do not open this Pandora box, even having in mind the best possible considarations.

 

[Silentptnr]

Its a good discussion but at the end of the day I agree, the auction probably isnt a good platform to sell the domain. Negative word domains generally arent popular.

If i knew someone that was bothered by the word i would tell them to ignore it. Sticks and stones...you know.

Anyway, the world wouldnt miss words like that.

 

[RWD]

I think I will step in here since I chose this name in pre-bidding. I have sold many many controversial domainnames in my 21 years in this industry I certainly feel it’s about who buys it and how they use it not who sells it or if it should be offered for sale. This domain name can be turned into the most positive name depending on what the buyer does with it. It is a dead on keyword, dictionary term and extremely valuable in my opinion! We will see if it makes it to the live or online auction……

What a horrible response...

Retarded can never be used as a positive, anyone with half a decent education will understand.

Mental Illness is the correct term...

So many things wrong with this industry...Rick S. Refers it to retard the pizza dough...the name is retarded.com in question not retard.

 

[Nick]

That is a completely repulsive and ignorant statement. As mentioned on a blog, that response tells us a lot about you.

You've been here for like a day and you're throwing around words like "ignorant & repulsive" directly at members - yet, you're complaining about the auction of a keyword domain that you interpret to have a negative connotation. Do you understand the definition of hypocrisy?

 

[.NJ]

Alot of people like to think and dream that the namescon auction is some big ground smashing worldwide general public auction....

Truth is its just another domainer to domainer inside the bubble auction platform.

The keyword can def be construed as offensive if used in a certain way.

But let's be honest here.

It's just going to be bought and sold by domainers over and over and over again.

Development into the public eye of this domain has the same chances as .mobi making a comeback....

Just my 2 cents here.