As a couple of others have mentioned, I would highly suggest: .museum this is a relatively new "third level domain" that is available through the MuseDoma group, in collaboration with ICOM. go to http://musedoma.museum the important benefits of adhering to this service (with which I have no formal connection, so I'm not advertising or benefiting from this info) include a handy (centralized) reference source for web surfers looking for museums, an extensive category list allowing visitors interested in a kind of museum to find many in that category easily, and, if web sites already exist, the possibility to have a "re-direct" to your existing service without any disruption to your current web site or service. The service is exiting from the trial phase (during which, as you will see by clicking on "public index," many museums -- including my own -- already are listed; I'm happy to see that my suggestion for "house" as a category ["second level domain"] to serve historic house museums was adopted). I hope more of the museum community takes advantage of this service. Best regards, Star Meyer home: [log in to unmask] work: [log in to unmask] Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, Milan, Italy http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org ----- Original Message ----- From: George Garner To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 3:57 PM Subject: .com or .org? This may be more useful for a website developers forum, but since I don't know any of those I'll start here. I've been working with a group to start a webpage for a Museum organization. Some members have promoted calling us www.xxx.com, while others (especially myself) heavily favor www.xxx.org. The .com'ers believe that a number of people do not differentiate between .org and .com and are more likely to start with .com when blindly typing in a web address. I have yet to meet a person who looks for a museum under .com and always use .org. Is anyone aware of any studies or documentation about web users habits regarding .com and .org? Are all of the .org Museum websites out there losing visitors because they do not use or have not registered their name with .com as well? Is their a "stigma" attached to museum's using .com addresses, i.e. do they look more for-profit instead of non-profit? I realize this may not be the best forum, but if anybody has any answers, ideas, or suggestions I would be glad to hear them. Please feel free to respond on and/or off list. Thanks in advance, George Garner P.S. I'm hoping we can reserve both addresses to satisfy both "sides." The problem is what to use for our generic email address - we would have to list it as [log in to unmask] or .org. National Speedskating Museum and Hall of Fame George Garner, Director and Curator P.O. Box 3120, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 (518) 587-2609 ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).