Governments aren't businesses. They don't, and really shouldn't think of making money first. Top priority should be the interest of their citizens. Besides funding public services and utilities through fees and taxes, governments can use those to incentivize certain behavior, either by making it cheaper than doing otherwise, or by making it more expensive, i.e. penalize it.

I get that (I went to to high school). And I don't have any objections here.

When you buy a fancy ccTLD from a foreign country, you are [most likely] dealing with a government, not a businesses. It is their perfect right to decide that their citizens should be prioritized. They increase the fees 4-fould for anyone without a citizenship to incentivize them to go elsewhere.

When you buy a fancy ccTLD from a foreign country, that's a risk you take and something you should be aware off. That's my whole point.

From my perspective the following happened: I did take that risk. One day, my domain hoster told me to either send them a copy of my Somalian pass port, or I'd have to pay more. So at first I thought, I'll just pony up some more cash then. I already thought that domain prices are mostly fictional, given what I'm really paying for, but then I got a bill that made me go "Smoley Hokes! Now that's a lot of money for a domain name!". I didn't react like you and divided it by 12, rather I started comparing the price tag to other things I would much rather buy for that money, then I started multiplying it, because it's per year and quickly realized that that's just a lower bound, since I have no guarantee, that there isn't another price increase in 2 years or so. So I thought "Well, it's just a personal website, I'll get a domain somewhere else then, better be safe and use a non ccTLD". Even now, if I divide it by 12, I'd still rather buy my favorite take away menu at the Vietnamese place across the street once a month for 6.90.

The registrar giveth and the registrar taketh away. There were no demands made, no tears shed, no curses uttered and no fists shaken. What it boiled down to on my side was a couple minutes of getting a fresh drink, thinking up a new domain name that made me chuckle a little and hacking away.

Seeing a link to a .so domain on HN a couple years later made me remember the whole story and peeked my curiosity. And sure enough, there was a commend devoted to the domain. I chimed in, posting a very brief description of my personal anecdote. I added an extra line, pointing out the new, domain name I got as a replacement, thinking someone might appreciate the joke (it got a few laughs last time I mentioned it, but to be fair, everyone involved was already slightly intoxicated). In my original comment I made no allegations against anyone. I did not discuss the motivations of any of the parties involved (including my own), or local politics in Somalia or any of the socioeconomic implications of this story. I tried to point out, using a personal annecdote, why buying a fancy, foreign ccTLD might be problematic, as a remark on a question asked, foolishly assuming that most of this should be clear and it would be enough to just provide the key details of my story.

I'm sorry if I picked the wrong words or something that have some weird semantics or implications that I wasn't aware of (not being a native English speaker and all), but I have the feeling that I'm suddenly in a situation where I have words put in my mouth and fingers pointed at me, being framed as a freeloading baddie, based on things I never intended to say. That made me slightly annoyed, so sorry if my earlier response was a little harsh.

// Goliath