What is this place?
This is the network information center (NIC) for the .p101 top level domain. This website serves to keep you up-to-date with news and other information pertaining to all of the webpages ending with “.p101” in the address bar. Every webpage under the .p101 domain is dedicated to Pirate101.
What is a top level domain (TLD)?
A TLD is the block of text furthest the right in the website address to your search bar, after the “dot”. TLDs you may be more familiar with are .com, .net, and .org. They are run by large organizations (governments, businesses, universities) that have the authority to delegate domains that can be registered as websites by individuals.
If it is so hard to get a TLD then how come you have one?
Organizations submit TLD applications to ICANN, the international non-profit that is responsible for allocating them. Up to ten years and $185,000 later, companies such as Google can then create websites like www.blog.google. Clearly this is out of the question for most individuals, such as myself, so I opted instead for a Handshake TLD.
What is Handshake?
Handshake is a blockchain protocol that seeks to liberate access to TLDs so that anyone can own one without needing to sell a kidney or take out a second mortgage. Instead of gatekeeping TLDs behind years of legal work and fees, anyone can open an auction for a new name and bid on it. Once you submit a winning bid, the name is yours to keep forever. You can resell it for profit, put a personal website on it, or even sell subdomains to other people. There is much more to Handshake than I can explain here so if you are interested in learning more, check out this introduction from the wonderful people behind Namebase.
How come I have never seen one of these before?
Handshake is a relatively new protocol, beginning only in 2018. This is compared to the World Wide Web, which got a head start in 1994. You may have heard of other non-ICANN TLDs such as .eth and .crypto, but these are more oriented toward cryptocurrency wallets instead of websites. As far as I am aware this is the first ever network of its kind: a non-commercial, community-specific TLD.
Why do I have to view this page with hns.to?
Handshake is not yet officially supported by most web browsers. For now you have to use specialized programs to browse websites that use Handshake. The easiest option is to use hns.to. It resolves Handshake domains for you without any extra effort on your part, you just have to include “hns.to” at the end of whatever website you are trying to access. There are some caveats with this method: it almost defeats the purpose of the Handshake protocol by relying on someone else to point your computer in the right direction. But in my opinion it is more work and decidedly less visually appealing. Namebase has a great tutorial on accessing Handshake domains, and if you are on Google Chrome the easiest option is probably this chrome extension: Bob Extension.
How much did you pay for .p101?
On April 1st, 2021, I won .p101 for 4.00 HNS. This was approximately $2.37 at the time.
Enough with the cryptocurrency talk, I’m here for Pirate!
I am also here for- and because of Pirate 101. It has been one of my favorite games since elementary school and the excellent community has kept me coming back. Unfortunately the game has received less attention from KingsIsle over the years and the community is dying. More and more fan websites have been disappearing so I took it upon myself to consolidate what is left into this fan network.
Are you affiliated with KingsIsle?
Nope, I am doing this all on my on accord. Do not blame them for any problems you may or may not have with websites ending in .p101.
Can I get website under .p101?
Of course! Normally, registering a website under .com or .net costs a yearly subscription. I am giving .p101 subdomains for free to anyone that wants one and commits to creating something for the community. These websites can be blogs, fan-fiction, fan-art, guides, wikis, compendiums, playthroughs, trivia, podcasts, game update suggestions, or even just places to talk Pirate. All you have to do is send me an email with your project idea, the domain you want, and how you plan on hosting your content.
How do I get started? (web hosting)
All of the websites on the internet have to be stored somewhere! You need web hosting to put your content in a place where it can be seen.
Probably the easiest way to host a website is to use tools that other people have already created specifically for that purpose. Blogger is what immediately comes to mind because so many great Pirate fan sites are hosted on that service. You login to Blogger and from there you can customize your website by writing posts, uploading pictures, and having users leave comments. The structure of your page is the same as all of the other pages on Blogger. The website is natively accessed with [your-website].blogspot.com, but with a trick I can make it accessible with [your-website].p101. There is nothing wrong with this method; it is easy and completely free, but you trust that Blogger will keep your website available.
The next way to host a website is also free, but it is a little more in-depth. WordPress is an open-source website manager that lets you control the design, structure, and content of your website. It is an industry-standard tool (check the bottom of this page) that can make for beautiful and engaging webpages with a little know-how (or a few hours of Youtube tutorials). There are two ways you can host a free WordPress website: through their free hosting service (recommended), or, if that doesn’t work, asking me very nicely to host your website on the same server that this one is using. If you plan on using just a few pages of HTML and do not need something as powerful as WordPress, you can use Github hosting or simply email me the pages to host.
The most advanced way to host a website (that I am going to detail) involves renting a virtual private server (VPS). A VPS is a computer in the cloud that you have full access to and that holds your website. Other people can view your content, but they cannot interact with the computer’s filesystem like you can (unless you get hacked, which is a real possibility). This website and all of the ones I brought back from the Wayback Machine are hosted on one VPS. If you are interested in web development more than just to post blogs about your favorite video game, this might be for you. It provides you with the most control over your content but it is not free like the other methods listed above.
All three of the above methods for hosting a website are valid, but if you put in the effort to learn web development at the level of the last method, you could easily make a career out of it. It is a worthwhile experience that I am glad I engaged in, because it lead me to creating this entire network without any formal training.
How are you hosting the websites with .p101 domains?
Most websites are accessible via an Apache proxy. This means that when you access website.p101, my web server is visiting website.com on your behalf, and then showing the exact same content to you under the new domain. For this reason, I recommend that when logging in to any website you may have an account for, use the native .com website instead. I would never do this, but theoretically I could view the login credentials you use for that website.
Occasionally websites go down and are no longer accessible natively. This mainly happens when website owners no longer pay for their domain or web hosting provider, which can add up to a lot of money over time. Archive.org’s Wayback Machine is a wonderful program that periodically archives webpages the way they looked at a set point in time. I found a tool that allows you to download an entire website from Wayback and put it back up. It is far from perfect but you can view the results yourself on the few I have brought back to life.
I own/manage a website you have created a .p101 domain for. What can I do with it?
Contact me!
If you want to officially support your website on a .p101 domain, I would be more than happy to give you control over the domain. Handshake domains do not yet have a great deal of support so consider yourself a pioneer! I can set the IP address of your server to be the destination of the domain as an A record in its DNS records. If you have the ability to create virtual hosts such as in Apache, create an alias for the .p101 domain with your original one.
If you are OK with your website being accessed through the .p101 proxy but want a slightly different domain, all you have to do is ask. I tried to give every website a domain that reflects its identity while also shortening it a bit to make it easy to remember. Keep in mind that not everyone can get their first name as a domain. I will delegate these domains where I see fit, usually to those who contribute a great deal to the community. See paige.p101 vs aaronstarheart.p101.
If you would prefer not to have your website proxied by my server, let me know and I can leave the .p101 domain up as a redirect. I respect your decision, I just wanted to demonstrate that .p101 domains can be more than redirects.
Will you do something similar with Wizard 101?
No, I do not plan on making a .w101 domain to host all of the Wizard content. I have tried Wiz in the past but in my opinion Pirate is the superior game. Besides, there is so much more fan content out there for Wiz that it would be a huge pain to aggregate everything for a game that I have no interest in. If you would like to take the initiative and replicate the network I have setup (for Wiz or any other community), I would be more than happy to help along the way. Currently the .w101 Handshake domain is being squatted on with the owner looking for 197.00 HNS.
Why is this website so ugly?
LOL. I am much more interested in getting things to function than making them look pretty. Besides, I am the least artistic person I know and have trouble coming up with designs. If you have a suggestion I would be happy to see it.