Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

Macrons can be used in .iwi.nz domain names.

In 2010, New Zealand domain names became technically “able” to include Māori macrons ā ē ī ō ū.
The principal community of interest for macrons are those holders of .iwi.nz and .maori.nz domain names, though any .nz address can have a macron.

Most domain name providers have not made it easy to register addresses with macrons. The following are recognised as the most friendly providers by the Domain Name Commissioner:
Metaname www.metaname.co.nz 0800 780 902 support@metaname.co.nz
1API www.1api.de info@1api.de
GodZone Internet Services www.godzone.net.nz 06 357 8168 soa@godzone.net.nz

By default .maori.nz can be used with and with out a macron ie .maori.nz and .māori.nz, assuming that the owner has enabled their web site to read the macron address.

For .iwi.nz holders, the use of both a macron domain and a non macron domain should be considered. It does require two separate registrations and fees, but will avoid some confusion for your visitors who may naturally type a macron or who have autocorrect features that automatically place a macron in appropriate Māori words. In terms of Māori language revival and sustainability, it is also another key argument to have both versions or only the macron version.

If you choose to have both macron and non macron addresses, you will need to ask your technical web site provider to:

  1. Add a redirect of the macron domain name to your site, a Permanent Redirect is best so you can keep your search engine traffic results or similar for your web site
  2. Which address you would like to have as the primary address.
  3. To use Punycode for the address
  4. Whether you would like to use email or not for the macron address.

Registering a macron .iwi.nz name

It is currently a manual process to register a macron in .iwi.nz so you will need to visit email accounts@freeparking.co.nz with your account details and which .iwi.nz name you would like to register.

DISCLAIMER: This post is the personal opinion of Dr Karaitiana Taiuru and is not reflective of the opinions of any organisation that Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a member of or associates with, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

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