6 ms·

Namecheap to Double EFF Donation if 25,000 Transfers Made Today

99 points by tnd 15y ago

mikegirouard 15y ago
Perhaps this is in response to Ghandi's similar offer? Who cares though, I'm happy to see them compete for such a great cause.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- Samuel_Michon 15y ago
  "Perhaps this is in response to Ghandi's similar offer?" It's the other way around: Gandi's offer was posted on Dec 29 [0], while Namecheap's offer was announced on Dec 27 [1]. [0] https://www.gandi.net/news/en/2011-12-29/539-gandi_supports_the_eff/ https://www.gandi.net/news/en/2011-12-29/539-gandi_supports_... [1] http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/27/move-your-domain-day/ http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/27/move-your-dom...
  - kbd 15y ago
    Yes, so as to 1-up Gandi, Namecheap announced today that they'll be doubling it if they make it to $25k. That's what this post is about...
    - Samuel_Michon 15y ago
      Ah yes, you're right. Now I see what mikegirouard meant. In any case, I already transferred 20 of my domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap yesterday. I only have some domains at GoDaddy with ccTLDs that Namecheap doesn't support, but I turned the autorenewal off for those domains while I'm looking for an other registrar to transfer them to.
swombat 15y ago
I transferred to DNSimple instead, based on the general impression that namecheap is just GoDaddy in another guise, and the reports from users of namecheap that their interface is just as bad as GoDaddy's. Gotta say I'm happy so far. DNSimple is the best DNS management interface I've found yet - well worth $3/month.
- tghw 15y ago
  I've used both and much prefer Namecheap. From all my dealings with them so far, they also seem much more above-board than GoDaddy.
- dangrossman 15y ago
  > general impression that namecheap is just GoDaddy in another guise In what way? I don't see any cleavage on Namecheap's site. We have GoDaddy that openly supported and aided SOPA, and Namecheap that openly denounced it. We have GoDaddy with a long history of hijacking customer domains after unfounded abuse complaints by IP rights holders, and Namecheap with a long history of ignoring or fighting such complaints -- meaning you better show up with a court order or they'll stand up for their customer. For two companies selling the same commodity product, they couldn't be any more different.
- commandar 15y ago
  >reports from users of namecheap that their interface is just as bad as GoDaddy's. Completely untrue. Namecheap's interface is barebones and is by no mean flashy, but that's what I like about it. It gets out of my way and lets me do what I need. GoDaddy's interface is a labyrinth designed to make you want to slam your own hand in a car door just to make the hurt stop.
  - jfaucett 15y ago
    gotta second you on this one, namecheap is simple, plain and a huge breath of fresh air (when your just escaping the godaddy labyrinth)
- swombat 15y ago
  Glad to see that "downvote because I disagree" is alive and well on HN. Not.
brlewis 15y ago
I transferred 7 domains today. What a great way to support the EFF at no cost to me. For those of you who think this costs something: the $6.99 price is for an additional year of domain registration that is added to whatever time remains at godaddy. If you were going to renew your domains at some point anyway, it's essentially free. I will have no downtime since my DNS is not at godaddy. If you use godaddy DNS see http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/582 http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/... I don't know for sure that namecheap is the world's best registrar, but I decided not to overthink it, since if choosing a registrar were really such a key decision I wouldn't have stayed at godaddy for years. And with transfer being so easy I don't expect there to be a problem if I decide to move elsewhere later. In the meantime I'm supporting the EFF and exercising meaningful opposition to SOPA.
- dabent 15y ago
  I transferred the few domains that I have on GoDaddy today. After their strong support of SOPA, the recent "reversal" of position wasn't enough to sway me. I'm leaving two domains there that will expire soon, not to be renewed. I did hit one snag. I have one domain I want to keep that expires within the next seven days. Apparently I can't transfer if that's the case. Any workaround to this that doesn't put money in GoDaddy's pocket?
  - cleverjake 15y ago
    I work as a hostmaster for a company - nope. Because it can take over that much time for the transfer to complete, it isn't allowed. You'll want to renew it at GoDaddy then transfer, which will renew it for yet another year.
- dwyer 15y ago
  > I don't know for sure that namecheap is the world's best registrar, but I decided not to overthink it I really wish people would. Who here ever heard of Namecheap before they blasted GoDaddy for ``breaking ICANN rules'' by restricting their whois access just before industry experts confirmed that it's standard practice for preventing abuse? It reeks of dishonesty and Namecheap seems to be doing whatever they can to stay viral. Registrars have always been a shady bunch and adopting one without research has never been a good idea.
dazbradbury 15y ago
Seems like this is getting main-stream community support: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/move-your-domain-day-namecheap-offer-6-99-4-53-transfer-1-year-extension-with-1-1104272 http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/move-your-domain-day-nameche... I posted onto HotUkDeals not knowing what to expect, but seems like people are very aware of SOPA. Well, that and the crowd are even more techie than I had anticipated. All of this mainstream attention perhaps caused this tweet (even if the news itself is old): https://twitter.com/#!/DrBobParsons/statuses/152473462399713280 https://twitter.com/#!/DrBobParsons/statuses/152473462399713...
jfaucett 15y ago
moved my domains today, glad to help along freedom as much as I can, as the article says EFF really needs it so come on guys!
OstiaAntica 15y ago
I'm trying to move names right now and am getting an error from NameCheap. I hope they are over-capacity on this special!!
xal 15y ago
These guys really milk the hell out of you guys. That's barely even a meaningful amount of money for them or for EFF.
- Samuel_Michon 15y ago
  >$50,000 is barely meaningful? Any charity would be thrilled to receive such a sum.
- jfaucett 15y ago
  "barely meaningful amount of money" come on according to this https://www.eff.org/files/eff-2009-2010-annual-report.pdf https://www.eff.org/files/eff-2009-2010-annual-report.pdf 2010 annual report</a> 50k might be a (really) small percentage but it would still cover EFF's taxes, Consultants, and Court Filings and Service Fee's.
- phil 15y ago
  It's definitely clever marketing. But consider that a coupon for the transfer plus a $2 donation means that they are losing money on these transfers, at least until they renew or sell you something else. I'm sure they expect that to pan out over time, but it's still a nice gesture.
pkmiec 15y ago
I just did 4 domains.
jamesbritt 15y ago
I moved my last (of those I'm bothering to maintain) today. That's a total of 25, I think, over the last three days. BTW, if you're pasting in the domain and EPP key, make sure there are no spaces around the comma. domain, key # bad domain,key # OK This seems to have tripped up my initial bulk transfer.
tnd 15y ago
Update: Namecheap hit 25,000 transfers today, set to make $50,000+ donation: http://www.elliotsblog.com/namecheap-hits-25000-transfers-today-0665 http://www.elliotsblog.com/namecheap-hits-25000-transfers-to...
GoldenMonkey 15y ago
Transferred All domains from GoDaddy today, after being with them forever! Feels great! Had been unhappy with them for awhile.

99 points by tnd 15y ago

Perhaps this is in response to Ghandi's similar offer? Who cares though, I'm happy to see them compete for such a great cause.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
Samuel_Michon 15y ago
"Perhaps this is in response to Ghandi's similar offer?" It's the other way around: Gandi's offer was posted on Dec 29 [0], while Namecheap's offer was announced on Dec 27 [1]. [0] https://www.gandi.net/news/en/2011-12-29/539-gandi_supports_the_eff/ https://www.gandi.net/news/en/2011-12-29/539-gandi_supports_... [1] http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/27/move-your-domain-day/ http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/27/move-your-dom...
- kbd 15y ago
  Yes, so as to 1-up Gandi, Namecheap announced today that they'll be doubling it if they make it to $25k. That's what this post is about...
  - Samuel_Michon 15y ago
    Ah yes, you're right. Now I see what mikegirouard meant. In any case, I already transferred 20 of my domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap yesterday. I only have some domains at GoDaddy with ccTLDs that Namecheap doesn't support, but I turned the autorenewal off for those domains while I'm looking for an other registrar to transfer them to.

swombat 15y ago

I transferred to DNSimple instead, based on the general impression that namecheap is just GoDaddy in another guise, and the reports from users of namecheap that their interface is just as bad as GoDaddy's. Gotta say I'm happy so far. DNSimple is the best DNS management interface I've found yet - well worth $3/month.

tghw 15y ago
I've used both and much prefer Namecheap. From all my dealings with them so far, they also seem much more above-board than GoDaddy.
dangrossman 15y ago
> general impression that namecheap is just GoDaddy in another guise In what way? I don't see any cleavage on Namecheap's site. We have GoDaddy that openly supported and aided SOPA, and Namecheap that openly denounced it. We have GoDaddy with a long history of hijacking customer domains after unfounded abuse complaints by IP rights holders, and Namecheap with a long history of ignoring or fighting such complaints -- meaning you better show up with a court order or they'll stand up for their customer. For two companies selling the same commodity product, they couldn't be any more different.
commandar 15y ago
>reports from users of namecheap that their interface is just as bad as GoDaddy's. Completely untrue. Namecheap's interface is barebones and is by no mean flashy, but that's what I like about it. It gets out of my way and lets me do what I need. GoDaddy's interface is a labyrinth designed to make you want to slam your own hand in a car door just to make the hurt stop.
- jfaucett 15y ago
  gotta second you on this one, namecheap is simple, plain and a huge breath of fresh air (when your just escaping the godaddy labyrinth)
swombat 15y ago
Glad to see that "downvote because I disagree" is alive and well on HN. Not.

brlewis 15y ago

I transferred 7 domains today. What a great way to support the EFF at no cost to me. For those of you who think this costs something: the $6.99 price is for an additional year of domain registration that is added to whatever time remains at godaddy. If you were going to renew your domains at some point anyway, it's essentially free. I will have no downtime since my DNS is not at godaddy. If you use godaddy DNS see http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/582 http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/... I don't know for sure that namecheap is the world's best registrar, but I decided not to overthink it, since if choosing a registrar were really such a key decision I wouldn't have stayed at godaddy for years. And with transfer being so easy I don't expect there to be a problem if I decide to move elsewhere later. In the meantime I'm supporting the EFF and exercising meaningful opposition to SOPA.

dabent 15y ago
I transferred the few domains that I have on GoDaddy today. After their strong support of SOPA, the recent "reversal" of position wasn't enough to sway me. I'm leaving two domains there that will expire soon, not to be renewed. I did hit one snag. I have one domain I want to keep that expires within the next seven days. Apparently I can't transfer if that's the case. Any workaround to this that doesn't put money in GoDaddy's pocket?
- cleverjake 15y ago
  I work as a hostmaster for a company - nope. Because it can take over that much time for the transfer to complete, it isn't allowed. You'll want to renew it at GoDaddy then transfer, which will renew it for yet another year.
dwyer 15y ago
> I don't know for sure that namecheap is the world's best registrar, but I decided not to overthink it I really wish people would. Who here ever heard of Namecheap before they blasted GoDaddy for ``breaking ICANN rules'' by restricting their whois access just before industry experts confirmed that it's standard practice for preventing abuse? It reeks of dishonesty and Namecheap seems to be doing whatever they can to stay viral. Registrars have always been a shady bunch and adopting one without research has never been a good idea.

dazbradbury 15y ago

Seems like this is getting main-stream community support: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/move-your-domain-day-namecheap-offer-6-99-4-53-transfer-1-year-extension-with-1-1104272 http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/move-your-domain-day-nameche... I posted onto HotUkDeals not knowing what to expect, but seems like people are very aware of SOPA. Well, that and the crowd are even more techie than I had anticipated. All of this mainstream attention perhaps caused this tweet (even if the news itself is old): https://twitter.com/#!/DrBobParsons/statuses/152473462399713280 https://twitter.com/#!/DrBobParsons/statuses/152473462399713...

jfaucett 15y ago

moved my domains today, glad to help along freedom as much as I can, as the article says EFF really needs it so come on guys!

OstiaAntica 15y ago

I'm trying to move names right now and am getting an error from NameCheap. I hope they are over-capacity on this special!!

xal 15y ago

These guys really milk the hell out of you guys. That's barely even a meaningful amount of money for them or for EFF.

Samuel_Michon 15y ago
>$50,000 is barely meaningful? Any charity would be thrilled to receive such a sum.
jfaucett 15y ago
"barely meaningful amount of money" come on according to this https://www.eff.org/files/eff-2009-2010-annual-report.pdf https://www.eff.org/files/eff-2009-2010-annual-report.pdf 2010 annual report</a> 50k might be a (really) small percentage but it would still cover EFF's taxes, Consultants, and Court Filings and Service Fee's.
phil 15y ago
It's definitely clever marketing. But consider that a coupon for the transfer plus a $2 donation means that they are losing money on these transfers, at least until they renew or sell you something else. I'm sure they expect that to pan out over time, but it's still a nice gesture.

pkmiec 15y ago

I just did 4 domains.

jamesbritt 15y ago

I moved my last (of those I'm bothering to maintain) today. That's a total of 25, I think, over the last three days. BTW, if you're pasting in the domain and EPP key, make sure there are no spaces around the comma. domain, key # bad domain,key # OK This seems to have tripped up my initial bulk transfer.

tnd 15y ago

Update: Namecheap hit 25,000 transfers today, set to make $50,000+ donation: http://www.elliotsblog.com/namecheap-hits-25000-transfers-today-0665 http://www.elliotsblog.com/namecheap-hits-25000-transfers-to...

GoldenMonkey 15y ago

Transferred All domains from GoDaddy today, after being with them forever! Feels great! Had been unhappy with them for awhile.