16 Describe the applicant's efforts to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for gTLD string

Prototypical answer:

A number of operational and rendering issues may arise with the delegation, and subsequent operation and use of a new TLD. Some of these issues may be experienced just by the users of one or two particular TLDs, due to the nature or composition of the string itself; whereas other issues (such as software support) may be experienced across all new TLDs.
Evaluation of the potential operational and rendering issues for this TLD was delegated to ARI. ARI is experienced with:

– The operational issues of operating TLDs
– TLDs that offer registrations at the third level (eg .com.au, .net.au) and below
– The rendering and operational issues surrounding the introduction of IDNs

ARI has executed a suite of tests to evaluate any issues arising from the use of the TLD string. ARI configured a test environment that consisted of DNS software, web server software, and an email server configured for sample domains in this TLD. Where possible, ARI attempted to test many equivalent applications, however the number of and different versions of applications means that testing was limited to the most common environments.
The tests executed by ARI indicate that this TLD is subject to the same issues already experienced by TLDs in the root, which are neither new nor unique. A summary of these common issues is provided below.

- Some applications make assumptions about known valid TLDs and fail to recognize new TLDs
- Some Non-IDN aware applications require the user to provide input in A-labels
- Some IDN aware applications present the user with the domain name using A-labels instead of U-labels
- Some IDN aware applications fail to render IRIs in a manner consistent with user expectations.

To mitigate these issues, ARI will work with us to ensure that maintainers of applications are made aware of the delegation and operation of this TLD. When relevant, we will refer the maintainers to the verification code produced by ICANN in the area for Universal Acceptance of All Top Level Domains such that operational issues can be mitigated for other TLDs.
ARI and us will work with maintainers of applications to provide subject matter knowledge where required, and provide directions to the tools provided by third parties such as the International Components for Unicode project and other groups, that can assist the application maintainer in adding the required support. User education may be required enabling users to configure their applications for correct functioning of this TLD. An informational section on the TLD website will be considered to address questions raised by the Internet community.
The steps ARI will take to mitigate these issues are more than adequate. Thus, we do not believe this TLD raises stability concerns and there is no reason that it should be denied on an operational and rendering issues bases.

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