Chocolate, Roses and Shared Domain Names for Couples: One of These Is a Bad Idea

Since we’re coming upon Valentine’s Day, and I find myself unencumbered (yet again) this year, I think I have the intellectual clarity and emotional distance to take on a touchy target in an objective fashion:

If you’re a couple, should you get a shared domain?

To my mind, the sheer folly of getting a combined his ‘n’ hers domain name (or his ‘n’ his or hers ‘n’ hers… whatever pertains) is only slightly surpassed by the folly of getting matching name tattoos.

I say “only slightly” because you can’t export your data from a tattoo. Then again, you can’t “rm -rf” a tattoo (rm is a UNIX command that recursively removes/deletes files), which may be good (or bad), depending on your point of view.

Now, I have married friends who do have shared domains. Some incorporate both of their names into the domain (e.g. “JackandDiane.name”), and others simply have their content together on their shared domain (e.g. “SwissFamilyRobinson.name”). And it seems to work out alright for them. So I’m not talking about them, okay? I’m talking about the other approximately 50% of couples who make up the US divorce rate.

And I’m definitely talking about those young couples experiencing hot love, who in the throes of unyielding passion, throw caution to the wind and jump recklessly headlong into a shared domain.

(Note: I have no idea how widespread of an actual phenomena this is or not. I suspect that most folks, especially the digital natives, are so conscious of their own individual online identity that they wouldn’t want to give it up to go halvsies on a shared couple’s domain. Or at least not exclusively — you can always get a couple’s domain, and keep your own individual sites. Just like having separate checking accounts.)

Then again, if you’re planning on keeping your own individual domain on the side, maybe getting a shared domain for you and your significant other could be a smart romantic gesture. Domains live longer than roses and outlast chocolate, and they’re also pretty cheap these days (especially if you, say, get in on a Valentine’s Day domain special that expires Feb 14).

Plus, if you pay year-to-year, you’re not out of a lot of sunk costs if things go sour later on. Think of it as the environmentally-friendly version of carving you and your beloved’s name into a tree.

However, if you insist on getting a shared domain as your primary Web presence, consider adding an item to your pre-nuptial agreement that lays out who gets the domain and associated data in the event of a breakup. Call it a contingency and disaster recovery plan. Heck, we’ve heard stories about couples splitting up and fighting tooth and nail over pets — your domains and data must be at least as important, right?

If you know of a Web 2.0 breakup that involved a shared domain, leave a comment and let us know what happened. Or, if you have a success story (even a glurgy, gooey, romantic one) involving a shared domain for a couple, you can tell us about that, too.

And, of course, if you’re looking for a gift of a domain for your honey, or even yourself, get on over to the Valentine’s Day domain special (expires Feb 14). Though if your Valentine’s Day doesn’t go over as well as you might have hoped and you find yourself needing a new solo domain, you can get in on the extended special that goes until Feb 25.