An email address from a country that doesn't exist

Tsunami · 28 Jul 2017, 01:28 AM

Always wanted to be a royal, and to have an email address that testifies you nobility?
Always wanted to have an email address from the most "exotic" place possible?
Look no further and get a Sealand email address!

The Principality of Sealand is an abandoned oil rink in international waters where some guy decided to establish a self-declared international nation. The British tried to stop this joke from going on, never managed to stop it, since the occupied oil rink is just outside of British territorial waters. Hence, the "country" of Sealand has been existing for 50 years and is still ruled by the guy who occupied it and his offspring.

You can now purchase a passport of Sealand from its website, or, a neat email account with a domain such as @sealandlord.org, @sealandlady.org, @sealandbaron.org, @sealandbaroness.org, @sealandcount.org, @sealandcountess.org ...
The account comes with 1 GB storage and profits go directly to the maintainance of the self-proclaimed "country".

If an email address doesn't suit your needs, you can also purchase a Sealand ID card or become a noble.

You gotta credit the "royal family" of Sealand for knowing how to capitalise on their "joke gotten out of hand"

Folio · 28 Jul 2017, 07:22 AM

Thanks, Tsunami, I enjoyed that. I think I’ll wait until they get their own TLD, though. For non-existing countries, the TLD .su (Soviet Union) is still active, but I don’t know if any email providers offer .su addresses.

Tsunami · 28 Jul 2017, 05:02 PM

Yes: http://www.email.su/ (run by NextMail.ru)

However, an unrecognised nation is a nation that de facto exists but lacks diplomatic recognition by other countries.
Think of Transnistria, Northern Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh, Somaliland, ...
Since a ccTLD is given based on country codes in, if I am not wrong, ISO 3166-1, it is unlikely Sealand or any other unrecognised nation is ever going to get its own TLD. Hence, the Sealand email service I mentioned is probably going to be the closest to a Sealand email that will ever exist, since it is run by the official website of Sealand.

That said, since anyone can apply for a TLD now (hence the launch of new extentions such as .ninja, .club, .bar, .top, ...), in theory the self-declared government of Sealand could apply for its own extention. It is very doubtful that it'd be accepted though, and since the people occupying the oil rink seem to be more about making money than spending money, they'll probably rate the procedure to get an own TLD too expensive

PS: there used to be a self-declared micronation called Lovely

That was a project by a British TV celebrity. The distinction is that that one fell under British law de jure, since it was just an apartment in London.
Sealand is in international waters, thus out of British jurisdiction.

Tsunami · 28 Jul 2017, 07:49 PM

EDIT: territorial waters of the UK have enlarged over the years. Sealand was founded in international waters, outside of UK jurisdiction, but since the UK territorial waters were extended, Sealand now lies within UK jurisdiction. Odd that the UK never tried to end the "occupation" of the oil rink and the self-declared micronation...

TenFour · 29 Jul 2017, 05:31 AM

Fun to maybe use such an email address for something, but certainly not for a main address. One of the beauties of email is "addresses for life" if you want them, and I have found that I like my domains to be stable and likely to last for a long time. It is a huge pain when an important email address suddenly stops working for some reason.

SideshowBob · 1 Aug 2017, 10:33 PM

The term is oil rig, an oil rink would be something like a skating rink where you wouldn't need skates.

Sealand wasn't an oil rig, it was built as a temporary sea fort in the second world war to protect the ports on the Orwell Estuary from German bombers.

Dutchie007 · 2 Aug 2017, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

Yes: http://www.email.su/ (run by NextMail.ru)

.

You can no longer registrate an account with nextmail.ru.

It was taken over by Yandex in 2016. I still have an account withnextmail with a .su TLD (which is pretty cool) that works...however if you log in you get the typical Yandex features and layout,which is fine by me btw.

I am still looking for an email service with the TLD ending of .dd...from the former German Democratic Republic (DDR). That would be awesome.

Dutchie.

Tsunami · 5 Aug 2017, 08:55 PM

That extention will only revive if a new country would come into existance and somehow gets the DD ISO code. Idem dito with former extentions such as .yu, .zr, .cs, .an, ...
This makes it all the weirder than .su has survived the existance of the country it belonged to for over 25 years and counting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SideshowBob

Sealand wasn't an oil rig, it was built as a temporary sea fort in the second world war to protect the ports on the Orwell Estuary from German bombers.

Thanks for clarifying. I've seen the term oil rig used in a lot of articles that deal with Sealand, never realised it wasn't built for that purpose.

In theory, with the extention of territorial waters, the UK could easily put an end to the whole Sealand story. But then I guess few people really care what a few funny people are doing with a construction that isn't used anyways. The moment they would again claim to be outside UK jurisdiction and start hosting websites with copyright protected material on it, they probably will get trouble. I would guess the "monarchs" of Sealand are clever enough not to ruin their whole running gag in that way.

I wonder though if anyone has checked the state that the construction is in. Knowing that the residential chambers are in the pillars that the platform lies on, thus surrounded by open sea, I can imagine maintainance is necessary to make it safe to reside in it.

28 Jul 2017, 01:28 AM	#1
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	An email address from a country that doesn't exist Always wanted to be a royal, and to have an email address that testifies you nobility? Always wanted to have an email address from the most "exotic" place possible? Look no further and get a Sealand email address! The Principality of Sealand is an abandoned oil rink in international waters where some guy decided to establish a self-declared international nation. The British tried to stop this joke from going on, never managed to stop it, since the occupied oil rink is just outside of British territorial waters. Hence, the "country" of Sealand has been existing for 50 years and is still ruled by the guy who occupied it and his offspring. You can now purchase a passport of Sealand from its website, or, a neat email account with a domain such as @sealandlord.org, @sealandlady.org, @sealandbaron.org, @sealandbaroness.org, @sealandcount.org, @sealandcountess.org ... The account comes with 1 GB storage and profits go directly to the maintainance of the self-proclaimed "country". If an email address doesn't suit your needs, you can also purchase a Sealand ID card or become a noble. You gotta credit the "royal family" of Sealand for knowing how to capitalise on their "joke gotten out of hand"

28 Jul 2017, 07:22 AM	#2
Folio Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Posts: 77	Thanks, Tsunami, I enjoyed that. I think I’ll wait until they get their own TLD, though. For non-existing countries, the TLD .su (Soviet Union) is still active, but I don’t know if any email providers offer .su addresses.

28 Jul 2017, 05:02 PM	#3
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	Yes: http://www.email.su/ (run by NextMail.ru) However, an unrecognised nation is a nation that de facto exists but lacks diplomatic recognition by other countries. Think of Transnistria, Northern Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh, Somaliland, ... Since a ccTLD is given based on country codes in, if I am not wrong, ISO 3166-1, it is unlikely Sealand or any other unrecognised nation is ever going to get its own TLD. Hence, the Sealand email service I mentioned is probably going to be the closest to a Sealand email that will ever exist, since it is run by the official website of Sealand. That said, since anyone can apply for a TLD now (hence the launch of new extentions such as .ninja, .club, .bar, .top, ...), in theory the self-declared government of Sealand could apply for its own extention. It is very doubtful that it'd be accepted though, and since the people occupying the oil rink seem to be more about making money than spending money, they'll probably rate the procedure to get an own TLD too expensive PS: there used to be a self-declared micronation called Lovely That was a project by a British TV celebrity. The distinction is that that one fell under British law de jure, since it was just an apartment in London. Sealand is in international waters, thus out of British jurisdiction.

28 Jul 2017, 07:49 PM	#4
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	EDIT: territorial waters of the UK have enlarged over the years. Sealand was founded in international waters, outside of UK jurisdiction, but since the UK territorial waters were extended, Sealand now lies within UK jurisdiction. Odd that the UK never tried to end the "occupation" of the oil rink and the self-declared micronation...

29 Jul 2017, 05:31 AM	#5
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,723	Fun to maybe use such an email address for something, but certainly not for a main address. One of the beauties of email is "addresses for life" if you want them, and I have found that I like my domains to be stable and likely to last for a long time. It is a huge pain when an important email address suddenly stops working for some reason.

1 Aug 2017, 10:33 PM	#6
SideshowBob Essential Contributor Join Date: Jan 2017 Posts: 278	The term is oil rig, an oil rink would be something like a skating rink where you wouldn't need skates. Sealand wasn't an oil rig, it was built as a temporary sea fort in the second world war to protect the ports on the Orwell Estuary from German bombers.