Can someone explain what this is, to someone who has never heard of the .name tld before?

Instead of registering your.name you would register first.last.name (nobody owned last.name). This was intended to allow more people to have personal domains with fewer conflicts.

Now, years later, they are undoing it and they're even breaking existing domains. ("existing third level domain names will be terminated") This kind of breaking change shouldn't be allowed.

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vidarh a day ago | parent | next [-]

Most critically, the intent was to offer email forwarding at lastname.name, so you could also get email at firstname@lastname.name.

That was the starting point - we started as a webmail provider letting people share lastname.sometld domains

Without that, it's just another name.

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mr_toad a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I guess they assume that nobody with a personal domain cares enough to sue them over this.

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badgersnake a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I currently have firstnamelastname.name which I use. I’m thinking I need to switch after this.

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jnwatson 21 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They are cancelling 3rd level domains, not the 2-level domain you have.

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subarctic 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Wait, if it was only firstname.lastname.name, how was he able to register firstnamelastname.name? Does it let you register 2nd level domains if you get there before someone else registers a 3rd level domain that uses the 2nd level domain that you want to register?

	▲	CodesInChaos 7 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		They altered the deal. Now they are altering it further.

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dpoloncsak 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Sets a bad precedent though, right?

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LawnGnome a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Same. That would be an ugly transition for me, but I guess I should start thinking about it.