This post is a thought experiment intended to provide a new alternative method for defining DNS Abuse – and the criteria to most effectively mitigate it. Our current definition of DNS Abuse was arrived at by identifying and categorizing online harms based on how the harm is executed. Instead, we propose that a definition could be derived by considering the attributes of how a harm can be mitigated. Through this approach, DNS Abuse is not a list of harms selected by their category, but instead consists of harms that are appropriately mitigated by the DNS. The rest of this post is an elaboration of what appropriate means in this context.