4 ms·

This is a company that runs Super Bowl advertisements. Your mom's uncle's, half-brother's, cousin uses them to register domains, and she's never heard of ReadWr

This is a company that runs Super Bowl advertisements. Your mom's uncle's, half-brother's, cousin uses them to register domains, and she's never heard of ReadWriteWeb, HackerNews, or Reddit. Not trying to be Debbie Downer here, but effort is a finite resource, and it seems to me that the anti-GoDaddy folks just hooked their cart up to the anti-SOPA horse. I don't have any domains with GoDaddy because they suck. I'd venture that anyone who is capable enough to move their domains on their own has already moved away from GoDaddy. Anyone not capable would have to pay someone else to do it for them. That's the fight the GoDaddy boycott folks are picking. And so the question must be asked, will this effort have a good return on investment? Will GoDaddy be swayed? If they are, what will the impact be? When I ask myself these questions, I come away with the impression that GoDaddy is the last thing anyone should be focused on. Congressmen need to feel the pressure from their constituents. Talk to your friends, and don't couch your language with domain registrar topics. It'll get you nowhere fast.

thesash 15y ago
Of course direct feedback to congress is a crucial part of fighting the legislation, but choosing where to spend our money is an extremely powerful method of indirect action to enact political change. Companies like GoDaddy pick their sides in fights like this because they believe they have something to gain from supporting it. If enough people ditch their product because of this, they will have no choice but to rethink their position on the issue.
mbateman 15y ago
I got my domains on GoDaddy because it's cheap, easy, and didn't seem important enough to invest time into. I'll be moving them off GoDaddy now. Even if small boycotts didn't accomplish anything (which I don't believe), I would move my domains on principle.
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  God, that attitude is just so woefully irresponsible, or something. "I was lazy." My only question is, was it "I'm lazy and I've ignored every single 'GoDaddy punched me and stole my lunch' post on HN", or was it "I'm lazy and just hoped it wouldn't happen to me, like every person who posted their horror story on HN thought"? Come on, if you're going to downvote me this quickly, tell me why I'm wrong. We're really going to accept "it was easy" and "I didn't feel like exuding effort" as excuses when GoDaddy has a well documented history of screwing business owners over? Or am I just supposed to believe that them supporting SOPA is so much worse than the callus attitude they have about a fairly important resource it terms of... you know, keeping your website available to the whole world. ITT: We don't care that we're regularly told that GoDaddy is bad and bad for startups, but we're outraged enough to fight a political proxy war that we'll move our domains. Please, help me understand this. The "rage" here is that SOPA will effectively yield DNS censorship in the United States. GoDaddy has, on more than one occasion, taken it upon themselves to censor the DNS of domains for the entire world, yet I am crucified for pointing out that THAT alone is worthy of ditching them as a registrar? Again, please help me understand this, because it doesn't make a lick of sense to me.
  - Permit 15y ago
    I have yet to meet anyone in person who has had a bad experience with acquiring a domain through GoDaddy. I've used them for a few years now and have no negative experiences to report. However, I moved my hosting from GoDaddy to EC2 some time ago because I couldn't get the customization I needed from them. After their voiced support for SOPA, however, I'll no longer be registering/renewing my domains through them.
    - drivebyacct2 15y ago
      Sigh, I fear I'll simply get downvoted again with no proper or discussionary reply. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+godaddy https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+... (And I dare you to make the search more narrow to "godaddy hosting" and see how much worse it is to use GoDaddy's hosting [it's expensive, underfeatured and terribly supported]) Since when was "ignorance is bliss" the motto of HN?
      - Permit 15y ago
        Most of those posts are related strictly to hosting issues. Websites going down and whatnot. That's a complete non-issue for me as I simply use GoDaddy to purchase domains on the cheap. Not everyone's experience with GoDaddy has been negative. Personally, I wouldn't trust it with a critical website, but if I had a personal website, I'd definitely consider using it. It's cheap, and sometimes that's an individual's number one priority. It may not be yours, but humor the rest of us for a moment.
        drivebyacct2 15y ago
        They're not even that cheap (namecheap and gandi are competitive, especially with their feature sets), and again that's missing my point. GoDaddy is cheap, SOPA or not. If you take a moral stand because of SOPA... why wouldn't you have taken a moral stand previously based on their voluntary, unilateral, world-wide censorship of domains. Look, I dislike SOPA and I dislike GoDaddy but this sense of "moral outrage" is just misplaced in my opinion. I'm not sure what sentiment I'm supposed to be humoring. "Cheap" (or lazy) is okay in the face of GoDaddy censoring domains themselves, but not in the face of a political fight about a bill that they happen to support that would let the US government censor domains? I guess my point is, I'm not surprised and I don't know why others are either.
CWuestefeld 15y ago
On the contrary, this is an excellent opportunity for the HN community. There's a clear opponent whose livelihood is the very things that those of us here have responsibility for. It's possible that HNers themselves can lead to GoDaddy backing down. And with a concrete victory there, it would certainly put Congress on warning that they could be the next ones to go down.
- zby 15y ago
  Yeah - if this succeeds it would make a very good story. This can easily get into the mainstream press.
bradleyland 15y ago
I don't disagree with all of the points made in the responses, but GoDaddy has 50 million domains registered. Fifty million! To hit them with 1%, that would require the loss of a half-million domains. Going after them is, in effect, going after your representative through a proxy. A big, giant, 500 lb gorilla proxy. Keep in mind that GoDaddy is same company whose CEO responded with "I'm not sorry" to the outrage over his elephant hunting incident [1]. I think it'd take more than a half-million lost domains for them to change stance here. I'll eat my words if this boycott results in any actual effect on GoDaddy's stance, but this is such a long shot that it seems irrational to even pursue. Sun Tzu would not approve of this tactic. At any rate, I strongly encourage everyone I know to move away from GoDaddy, just because of their business practices. This won't change that. If you have domains on GoDaddy, move them. Please. They're a horrible company with horrible practices, and a horrible product. 1 - http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/04/04/godaddy-ceo-on-shooting-an-elephant-im-not-sorry/ http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/04/04/godaddy-ceo-on-s...
- AlekseyKorzun 15y ago
  People usually own more than 1 domain. 100k accounts can easily represent million domains.
- RexM 15y ago
  I've been meaning to transfer my domains away from godaddy for some time now. Decided to go ahead and do it today based on these articles. -5 domains from godaddy, from me.
- pangram 15y ago
  You may be right on the absolute numbers. However, a) the HN readers that are most inclined to move from GoDaddy probably have control over more domains than the average person (either personal or via their responsibilities for their company), so the effect may be larger than you think, and b) if people send e-mail telling GoDaddy why they're moving (either oop@godaddy.com ("Office of the President") or suggestions@godaddy.com) then it may also have more impact than the raw numbers would indicate. At any rate, even if it doesn't change GoDaddy's behavior, at least some number of people will have taken the effort to move away from a company with questionable ethics.
drivebyacct2 15y ago
I agree, but I'll phrase it another way. You already shouldn't be using GoDaddy. There. Them supporting SOPA seems like less of a direct, immediate threat to anyone here's business than the other stupid moves they've made that have landed them on the front page of HN. I have to raise my eyebrows pretty high at the people that are "outraged" enough at GoDaddy to move now, but haven't been after every damn month seems to see another story of "I didn't think it would happen to me, but guess what, GoDaddy's a cheap lousy domain registrar!" Are you guys reading my posts as "I love SOPA" or what? I feel like I pissed someone off to have gained a dozen downvotes and no replies.
- marshray 15y ago
  Mainly I think you're just kind of missing the point, while at the same time bringing in a lot of unrelated negativity that doesn't add anything constructive to the discussion.
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    How am I missing the point? The point: SOPA is bad because it allows the US to censor DNS results. My point: GoDaddy supporting SOPA should surprise no one, and anyone "morally outraged" about censorship should already know better than to use GoDaddy, because they've repeatedly censored domains, Unilaterally, Voluntarily, for DNS around the World. Which part am I missing? I've genuinely asked 4 times now and I get silent downvotes and dismissive replies like "you're missing the point".
    - marshray 15y ago
      OK. This is just my perspective. The article is "GoDaddy's SOPA Support Sparks Calls for Boycotts and Domain Transfers". It's mainly about the phenomenon of people transferring their domains from GoDaddy and the boycott that's gaining momentum. Reviewing your comments, you seem to be making the point repeatedly that basically "GoDaddy sucks under normal circumstances and no one should be using them anyway". I will admit the same thought has occurred to me. But I didn't post it as a comment. Here's why: 1. It's negative and not in a 'constructive criticism' kind of way. More of like "aren't you dumb". 2. It doesn't seem like it will provoke any useful discussion. The main plausible answers are "OK, yeah" or "no they don't suck". In the first case the agreement is uninteresting. In the second case it becomes a simple disagreement about the quality of GoDaddy's service, which doesn't relate to the topic of the article anyway. 3. Your point that GoDaddy "repeatedly censored domains, Unilaterally, Voluntarily, for DNS around the World" could be adding something mildly interesting. But you've offered no references or links to back up this claim and you seem to be repeating it over and over more and more insistently. 4. A lot of HN readers probably do use GoDaddy. We needn't judge them for it as choosing a domain registrar is not supposed to be an act of great consequence under normal circumstances. Yet you seem to be basically accusing them of hypocrisy. My impression of HN is that people are trying their darndest to see it not turn into another Slashdot. They're trying to be pretty selective so if your comment doesn't get the love you were hoping, just give it a rest. It's happened to me too.

thesash 15y ago

Of course direct feedback to congress is a crucial part of fighting the legislation, but choosing where to spend our money is an extremely powerful method of indirect action to enact political change. Companies like GoDaddy pick their sides in fights like this because they believe they have something to gain from supporting it. If enough people ditch their product because of this, they will have no choice but to rethink their position on the issue.

mbateman 15y ago

I got my domains on GoDaddy because it's cheap, easy, and didn't seem important enough to invest time into. I'll be moving them off GoDaddy now. Even if small boycotts didn't accomplish anything (which I don't believe), I would move my domains on principle.

drivebyacct2 15y ago
God, that attitude is just so woefully irresponsible, or something. "I was lazy." My only question is, was it "I'm lazy and I've ignored every single 'GoDaddy punched me and stole my lunch' post on HN", or was it "I'm lazy and just hoped it wouldn't happen to me, like every person who posted their horror story on HN thought"? Come on, if you're going to downvote me this quickly, tell me why I'm wrong. We're really going to accept "it was easy" and "I didn't feel like exuding effort" as excuses when GoDaddy has a well documented history of screwing business owners over? Or am I just supposed to believe that them supporting SOPA is so much worse than the callus attitude they have about a fairly important resource it terms of... you know, keeping your website available to the whole world. ITT: We don't care that we're regularly told that GoDaddy is bad and bad for startups, but we're outraged enough to fight a political proxy war that we'll move our domains. Please, help me understand this. The "rage" here is that SOPA will effectively yield DNS censorship in the United States. GoDaddy has, on more than one occasion, taken it upon themselves to censor the DNS of domains for the entire world, yet I am crucified for pointing out that THAT alone is worthy of ditching them as a registrar? Again, please help me understand this, because it doesn't make a lick of sense to me.
- Permit 15y ago
  I have yet to meet anyone in person who has had a bad experience with acquiring a domain through GoDaddy. I've used them for a few years now and have no negative experiences to report. However, I moved my hosting from GoDaddy to EC2 some time ago because I couldn't get the customization I needed from them. After their voiced support for SOPA, however, I'll no longer be registering/renewing my domains through them.
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    Sigh, I fear I'll simply get downvoted again with no proper or discussionary reply. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+godaddy https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+... (And I dare you to make the search more narrow to "godaddy hosting" and see how much worse it is to use GoDaddy's hosting [it's expensive, underfeatured and terribly supported]) Since when was "ignorance is bliss" the motto of HN?
    - Permit 15y ago
      Most of those posts are related strictly to hosting issues. Websites going down and whatnot. That's a complete non-issue for me as I simply use GoDaddy to purchase domains on the cheap. Not everyone's experience with GoDaddy has been negative. Personally, I wouldn't trust it with a critical website, but if I had a personal website, I'd definitely consider using it. It's cheap, and sometimes that's an individual's number one priority. It may not be yours, but humor the rest of us for a moment.
      - drivebyacct2 15y ago
        They're not even that cheap (namecheap and gandi are competitive, especially with their feature sets), and again that's missing my point. GoDaddy is cheap, SOPA or not. If you take a moral stand because of SOPA... why wouldn't you have taken a moral stand previously based on their voluntary, unilateral, world-wide censorship of domains. Look, I dislike SOPA and I dislike GoDaddy but this sense of "moral outrage" is just misplaced in my opinion. I'm not sure what sentiment I'm supposed to be humoring. "Cheap" (or lazy) is okay in the face of GoDaddy censoring domains themselves, but not in the face of a political fight about a bill that they happen to support that would let the US government censor domains? I guess my point is, I'm not surprised and I don't know why others are either.

CWuestefeld 15y ago

On the contrary, this is an excellent opportunity for the HN community. There's a clear opponent whose livelihood is the very things that those of us here have responsibility for. It's possible that HNers themselves can lead to GoDaddy backing down. And with a concrete victory there, it would certainly put Congress on warning that they could be the next ones to go down.

zby 15y ago
Yeah - if this succeeds it would make a very good story. This can easily get into the mainstream press.

bradleyland 15y ago

I don't disagree with all of the points made in the responses, but GoDaddy has 50 million domains registered. Fifty million! To hit them with 1%, that would require the loss of a half-million domains. Going after them is, in effect, going after your representative through a proxy. A big, giant, 500 lb gorilla proxy. Keep in mind that GoDaddy is same company whose CEO responded with "I'm not sorry" to the outrage over his elephant hunting incident [1]. I think it'd take more than a half-million lost domains for them to change stance here. I'll eat my words if this boycott results in any actual effect on GoDaddy's stance, but this is such a long shot that it seems irrational to even pursue. Sun Tzu would not approve of this tactic. At any rate, I strongly encourage everyone I know to move away from GoDaddy, just because of their business practices. This won't change that. If you have domains on GoDaddy, move them. Please. They're a horrible company with horrible practices, and a horrible product. 1 - http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/04/04/godaddy-ceo-on-shooting-an-elephant-im-not-sorry/ http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/04/04/godaddy-ceo-on-s...

AlekseyKorzun 15y ago
People usually own more than 1 domain. 100k accounts can easily represent million domains.
RexM 15y ago
I've been meaning to transfer my domains away from godaddy for some time now. Decided to go ahead and do it today based on these articles. -5 domains from godaddy, from me.
pangram 15y ago
You may be right on the absolute numbers. However, a) the HN readers that are most inclined to move from GoDaddy probably have control over more domains than the average person (either personal or via their responsibilities for their company), so the effect may be larger than you think, and b) if people send e-mail telling GoDaddy why they're moving (either oop@godaddy.com ("Office of the President") or suggestions@godaddy.com) then it may also have more impact than the raw numbers would indicate. At any rate, even if it doesn't change GoDaddy's behavior, at least some number of people will have taken the effort to move away from a company with questionable ethics.

drivebyacct2 15y ago

I agree, but I'll phrase it another way. You already shouldn't be using GoDaddy. There. Them supporting SOPA seems like less of a direct, immediate threat to anyone here's business than the other stupid moves they've made that have landed them on the front page of HN. I have to raise my eyebrows pretty high at the people that are "outraged" enough at GoDaddy to move now, but haven't been after every damn month seems to see another story of "I didn't think it would happen to me, but guess what, GoDaddy's a cheap lousy domain registrar!" Are you guys reading my posts as "I love SOPA" or what? I feel like I pissed someone off to have gained a dozen downvotes and no replies.

marshray 15y ago
Mainly I think you're just kind of missing the point, while at the same time bringing in a lot of unrelated negativity that doesn't add anything constructive to the discussion.
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  How am I missing the point? The point: SOPA is bad because it allows the US to censor DNS results. My point: GoDaddy supporting SOPA should surprise no one, and anyone "morally outraged" about censorship should already know better than to use GoDaddy, because they've repeatedly censored domains, Unilaterally, Voluntarily, for DNS around the World. Which part am I missing? I've genuinely asked 4 times now and I get silent downvotes and dismissive replies like "you're missing the point".
  - marshray 15y ago
    OK. This is just my perspective. The article is "GoDaddy's SOPA Support Sparks Calls for Boycotts and Domain Transfers". It's mainly about the phenomenon of people transferring their domains from GoDaddy and the boycott that's gaining momentum. Reviewing your comments, you seem to be making the point repeatedly that basically "GoDaddy sucks under normal circumstances and no one should be using them anyway". I will admit the same thought has occurred to me. But I didn't post it as a comment. Here's why: 1. It's negative and not in a 'constructive criticism' kind of way. More of like "aren't you dumb". 2. It doesn't seem like it will provoke any useful discussion. The main plausible answers are "OK, yeah" or "no they don't suck". In the first case the agreement is uninteresting. In the second case it becomes a simple disagreement about the quality of GoDaddy's service, which doesn't relate to the topic of the article anyway. 3. Your point that GoDaddy "repeatedly censored domains, Unilaterally, Voluntarily, for DNS around the World" could be adding something mildly interesting. But you've offered no references or links to back up this claim and you seem to be repeating it over and over more and more insistently. 4. A lot of HN readers probably do use GoDaddy. We needn't judge them for it as choosing a domain registrar is not supposed to be an act of great consequence under normal circumstances. Yet you seem to be basically accusing them of hypocrisy. My impression of HN is that people are trying their darndest to see it not turn into another Slashdot. They're trying to be pretty selective so if your comment doesn't get the love you were hoping, just give it a rest. It's happened to me too.