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I've seen Bob Parsons lording over an elephant's carcass as if his contrived conquest of nature by a man with superior force and unlimited money was an incredib

I've seen Bob Parsons lording over an elephant's carcass as if his contrived conquest of nature by a man with superior force and unlimited money was an incredible accomplishment. I don't care if elephants are a pest in Zimbabwe, his glee over killing such a majestic animal seems out of place. If he wants to kill something, he's welcome to come to some wildlife areas here in Maryland and cull the deer population when we have annual bow hunting season. I've passively suffered through Godaddy's blatantly sexist use of women to sell the company's services. There is no other company that I do business with that runs this kind of advertising. Imagine the kind of hellstorm one of the Y Combinator sites would endure if they decided that a Godaddy-ish marketing plan was right for them as well. I've fought my way through the Godaddy site each time I've wanted to register or renew a domain, once even confused to the point where I've had to call their support line to make my way to something that should be obvious to find. I'm tired of breathless upsells, scary threats about needing things I don't need, and a ten-step process that attempts to push their lame-ass additional products. For me, Godaddy's SOPA support was just the last straw, the one that finally made me get up off my ass and do something about paying money to a company whose morals and practices I despise. Think about those other issues before you give Godaddy a pass for its SOPA reposition.

damoncali 15y ago
Politics and style aside, I don't get all the vitriol at their checkout process. Log in, click "ok" (or "next" or whatever it is) a couple times and you have a domain. It's not that bad. Sure, they try to upsell you, but the default click is always "no". I have had a much, much worse experience with vista print, for example, who signed me up for a subscription to Essence magazine (yes, a paper magazine aimed at black women - for which I am very much not the target), despite the fact that I opted out (yes, I had to) of that silliness. Think for a moment about how slimy the business practice is there. They aren't just upselling crap, but purposely distorting circulation numbers to rip off advertisers of their magazine partners.
- shawnz 15y ago
  Yeah, but vistaprint is a business card company! What could you possibly expect out of their domain registration services?
- newchimedes 15y ago
  I can't speak for Vista Print since I've never had the "pleasure" of purchasing with them. However, where I take issue with GoDaddy is the fact that they bury what you are supposed to do next in a sea of upsells and cross sells. I'm not sure if they do it anymore, but before the would automatically select 5 year plans for me and private registration. Trying to remove it was like an act of god. Whether it's intentional or not I can't say, but it sure seems like their goal is to trick unsuspecting buyers into buying something they didn't want.
rhizome 15y ago
Not to mention turning your own company into the elephant corpse.
dabent 15y ago
I listened to Parson's podcasts years back and learned a lot. He was a Silicon Valley outsider, who didn't attend an elite school, yet built two major companies from the ground up. I found him to be quite the inspiration and hosted my first sites with GoDaddy and went on to buy many domains through them. I had a lot of respect for Parsons, in spite of his controversial views on certain subjects. Then, his first Super Bowl ad hit. It was a huge success, not just because of the use of sex, but because it was a clever parody of the "wardrobe malefaction" that happened a year before. Somehow, though, over the years all of the tough startup work ethic and cleverness was lost in a sea of endless up sells, domain horror stories a dead elephant, and thin cotton shirts wrapped tightly around saline implants. It was just a matter of time before I left, and GoDaddy's seemingly inexplicable support of SOPA has was the steel I-beam that broke the camel's back.
tricolon 15y ago
Now I'm curious why you were ever their customer to begin with. Even their name and logo are enough for me to run far, far away. Were they much more "barebones" back then?

damoncali 15y ago

Politics and style aside, I don't get all the vitriol at their checkout process. Log in, click "ok" (or "next" or whatever it is) a couple times and you have a domain. It's not that bad. Sure, they try to upsell you, but the default click is always "no". I have had a much, much worse experience with vista print, for example, who signed me up for a subscription to Essence magazine (yes, a paper magazine aimed at black women - for which I am very much not the target), despite the fact that I opted out (yes, I had to) of that silliness. Think for a moment about how slimy the business practice is there. They aren't just upselling crap, but purposely distorting circulation numbers to rip off advertisers of their magazine partners.

shawnz 15y ago
Yeah, but vistaprint is a business card company! What could you possibly expect out of their domain registration services?
newchimedes 15y ago
I can't speak for Vista Print since I've never had the "pleasure" of purchasing with them. However, where I take issue with GoDaddy is the fact that they bury what you are supposed to do next in a sea of upsells and cross sells. I'm not sure if they do it anymore, but before the would automatically select 5 year plans for me and private registration. Trying to remove it was like an act of god. Whether it's intentional or not I can't say, but it sure seems like their goal is to trick unsuspecting buyers into buying something they didn't want.

rhizome 15y ago

Not to mention turning your own company into the elephant corpse.

dabent 15y ago

I listened to Parson's podcasts years back and learned a lot. He was a Silicon Valley outsider, who didn't attend an elite school, yet built two major companies from the ground up. I found him to be quite the inspiration and hosted my first sites with GoDaddy and went on to buy many domains through them. I had a lot of respect for Parsons, in spite of his controversial views on certain subjects. Then, his first Super Bowl ad hit. It was a huge success, not just because of the use of sex, but because it was a clever parody of the "wardrobe malefaction" that happened a year before. Somehow, though, over the years all of the tough startup work ethic and cleverness was lost in a sea of endless up sells, domain horror stories a dead elephant, and thin cotton shirts wrapped tightly around saline implants. It was just a matter of time before I left, and GoDaddy's seemingly inexplicable support of SOPA has was the steel I-beam that broke the camel's back.

tricolon 15y ago

Now I'm curious why you were ever their customer to begin with. Even their name and logo are enough for me to run far, far away. Were they much more "barebones" back then?