US citizens and residents can register a free name.city.state.us locality domain by acquiring Amazon Lightsail nameservers and emailing the delegated local registrar an Interim .US Domain Template.
Key Takeaways
Locality domains date to 1992; registration is delegated to various old-school ISPs and consultancies per locality, identified via a 2009 list.
You must have nameservers before submitting the registration form; Amazon Lightsail DNS zones are currently the only known free option for non-TLD domains.
The registration form (Interim .US Domain Template v2.0) is submitted by email; turnaround is days to weeks with no automation.
Undelegated localities are controlled by NeuStar and restricted to government agencies since 2002, with no sign of policy change.
WHOIS for locality domains exposes only registrar info, not the registrant’s personal address.
Hacker News Comment Review
Registrar reliability is a real operational risk: several commenters described locality registrars going dark, dying, or becoming unresponsive, leaving domains in limbo with no clear transfer path.
A newer online registration portal (localitymanagement.us) may replace the email method for some of the ~7,388 delegated zones, but it was immediately overwhelmed and showed login and UI issues.
.us TLD WHOIS privacy prohibition is a persistent objection; locality domains inherit this flaw, making them unsuitable for privacy-conscious personal use.
Notable Comments
@jumploops: mission.sf.ca.us already resolves to Noisebridge, showing the hacker community has been quietly claiming notable locality names.
@cormorant: Flags a Public Suffix List issue – locality domains group you with unrelated registrants on the same subdomain, with security implications similar to *.name domains.
