# Why has the bluelight URL the ".ru" extension?



## xxl

This may seem a naive question but ".ru" means Russia. Now as I understand BL is hosted in the Netherlands.


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## Slay

> Quick facts about Bluelight
> by Catch-22 and johnboy
> 
> Why does Bluelight's address have a "ru" at the end? What does "ru" mean?
> 
> Some countries have their own domain suffix (.uk is the UK and .au is Australia). "ru" is for Russia.



i think its because .com or .net or whatever was not suitable at the time and .nu was available (url used to be .nu but changed in 2005)


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## felix

because we're all communists here in europe. %) 

seriously, i think the main reason is cos it was cheap, and like Slay mentioned, the more well-known TLDs weren't available. 

there was a major security problem in the great crash of 05 when we were on the bluelight.nu domain so they had to change it to a different domain, i.e. bluelight.ru. 

no doubt an admin will come in and correct or expand on my recollection there.


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## Infinite Jest

I think .nu just got weird (too expensive or too insecure or something) but I wasn't here at the time. 

Like the others have said, the TLD's are gone or more expensive - e.g. kmart has bluelight.com.


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## xxl

I see. But it doesn't mean the servers or the data are kept in Russia. Because I wouldn't trust Russia to be very respectful of privacy.


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## Damien

And all this time I thought they did it for the lulz.


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## felix

xxl said:
			
		

> I see. But it doesn't mean the servers or the data are kept in Russia. Because I wouldn't trust Russia to be very respectful of privacy.


correct, they are in Holland. 

perhaps you would trust the US more to keep our privacy?  

we weren't based in *Niue *either when we were on the .nu domain...


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## anonymous1419

Infinite Jest said:
			
		

> e.g. kmart has bluelight.com.



I don't understand the connection between K-Mart and bluelight? 8)


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## Damien

From wikipedia:



> Kmart became known for its "Blue Light Specials." They occurred at surprise moments when a store worker would light up a mobile police light and offer a discount in a specific department of the store. The phrase "attention Kmart shoppers" also entered into the American pop psyche.


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## anonymous1419

Hmm. Makes sense now. Thanks, Damien


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## Damien

No prob bob.


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## L2R

ironically, a while back, if you went to the www.bluelight.com website, it's wallpaper was covered in "IK" love hearts.


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## xxl

felix said:
			
		

> we weren't based in *Niue *either when we were on the .nu domain...


I'm not very up to date regarding domain attributions. I thought the last extension in a URL always indicated a country of one of the "accepted" domaines like .com and .edu

I would trust Russia marginally more than the US for a drug-related site but I wouldn't rate it as best choice either.


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## alasdairm

^ .ru is the top level domain indicating the russian federation. this simply indicates that the bluelight site is registered there. the servers are physically elsewhere.

alasdair


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## MyDoorsAreOpen

Infinite Jest said:
			
		

> I think .nu just got weird (too expensive or too insecure or something) but I wasn't here at the time.



That's funny, because in the late 90s I came to associate .nu with warez and porn sites primarily. I saw it used for a lot of sites where it might be in the administrators' best interest to make their geographical location ambiguous.

So when did the mighty nation of Niue start feeling its oats?

I'd host an English language drug forum in Russia any day before the US. The language barrier would provide a bit more radar to fly under, and it would be a lot easier to get away with hiring a bunch of thugs to protect your physical location and its workers.


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## venkat20

xxl said:


> This may seem a naive question but ".ru" means Russia. Now as I understand BL is hosted in the Netherlands.


I Found the Domain name Registration in the site http://www.tucktail.com/


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## guineaPig

Infinite Jest said:


> I think .nu just got weird (too expensive or too insecure or something) but I wasn't here at the time.



i heard c-22 left and the next day BL got hacked and that's why we all had to change our passwords, and that's how some people lost their accounts.

heard about some other strange happenings in relation to those two events, but then again, this site seems to generate some sort of iFolk-lore or something so who knows what's true.


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## michael

iirc it had something to do with .nu domains not being transferrable while .ru domains were.


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## tathra

guineaPig said:


> i heard c-22 left and the next day BL got hacked and that's why we all had to change our passwords, and that's how some people lost their accounts.
> 
> heard about some other strange happenings in relation to those two events, but then again, this site seems to generate some sort of iFolk-lore or something so who knows what's true.



having been staff when c-22 started to lose his mind, i believe that.


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## Captain.Heroin

Who is C-22 and why did he lose his mind?  

Am I bringing up old BL history?


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## Rogue Robot

Captain.Heroin said:


> Who is C-22 and why did he lose his mind?
> 
> Am I bringing up old BL history?



he was a former admin (engineer, maybe?).

and yes, you are.


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## Infinite Jest

guineaPig said:


> i heard c-22 left and the next day BL got hacked and that's why we all had to change our passwords, and that's how some people lost their accounts.
> 
> heard about some other strange happenings in relation to those two events, but then again, this site seems to generate some sort of iFolk-lore or something so who knows what's true.



I don't remember those things happening at the same time, but I wasn't really around so much then. I'd go with Michael's explanation, seeing as of all of us, he was the closest to being staff at the time.


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## michael

the hack was perpetrated by an aussie, not c-22.


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## tathra

maybe my memory is screwy, but i seem to remember c-22 being an aussie.  maybe i'll ask chr1.5 next time i talk to him.


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## Infinite Jest

He definitely wasn't an Aussie. I think your memory is off


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## thelung

*bluelight.NU to bluelight.RU*

Some of you might remember when the site was bluelight.nu - 

Why did it change to bluelight.ru ?  Anybody know?  

I have no idea what forum to post this under so I went with Homeless Threads

Thanks!


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## Unknown

In Soviet Russa, bluelight _URL's_ you!


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## tathra

NOW i remember!  i actually spoke with Catch-22 once in #bluelight and #midgetporncentral on *austnet irc*.  its not often that people who arent from australia hang out on an australian irc network.  thus, the assumption that he was australian.

also, an aussie who regularly hung out on austnet all the time back then confirmed him being there regularly, and that he is indeed an aussie.

this fucking bothers me, so i'm gonna keep digging, since inquiring minds want to know wtf happened to him.


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## michael

seriously dude, he wasn't an aussie.


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## Cyc

your mom's an aussie


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## forgotten

C22 lived in Louisiana.


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## TheLoveBandit

Louisiana, Australia?  Near Queensland or Sydney?




C22 was not Aussie.  And for the bonus round, he did not perform the hack, either.


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## michael

it also wasn't the day after he disappeared.


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## forgotten

Of course he didn't perform the hack, he was a technological retard (he was even an AOL user).


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