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GoDaddy is the perfect example of a company killing it with the mainstream while getting (often unjustified) hate inside the tech community. If you look beyond

by zaidf 13y ago

GoDaddy is the perfect example of a company killing it with the mainstream while getting (often unjustified) hate inside the tech community. If you look beyond the common complaints against it, you'll find a company that has made smart product acquisitions that solve real painpoints for their small business customers.

adamors 13y ago
> often unjustified hate If there's one justified reaction in the tech community is the hate that Godaddy receives. Their interface that manages domains is so crap, that the tech support person had to get their supervisor to help me out. Even their tech support people are confused, that should tell you something.
- thenmar 13y ago
  After I registered a domain with them, they called my personal phone to sell me their hosting services...
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
Karunamon 13y ago
Unjustified? The hate I see on GoDaddy stems from a number of concrete, substantive things: * Skeevy, pandering advertising * Skeevy, pandering CEO * Bad behavior when it comes to transfers (i.e. wait to the last possible second to complete a transfer out because fuck you, that's why) * A checkout workflow that makes it very hard to avoid adding extra things to your cart that you probably don't want * Weak, script-bound CS * Shoot first, ask questions later attitude to third party complaints (whether they be copyright based or otherwise) * Their sponsorship of and carving out a fucking exemption for themselves on SOPA * Unintuitive, badly designed, and confusing management tools * Unlisted restrictions (their VPS services block certain ports outbound. This is not listed anywhere.) GoDaddy is the PayPal of web hosting. They're ubiquitous, but I'd bet a high number people who've been in the hosting/domain for any length of time have a horror story to tell. Network Solutions seems positively angelic by comparison.
- sharkweek 13y ago
  Almost every time I have to work on a client's site hosted with GoDaddy, their unintuitive interface basically requires I call into support (read: sales). Despite their attempts to pitch me, I always tell them that I'm just working on a client's site, but they still tell me "if you've got the access code, you can make these decisions." Yeah, that's a great way to keep my clients happy...
- nivla 13y ago
  >Skeevy, pandering advertising Agree with you on that, you have to jump though a bunch of product options before you finally see you cart. >Skeevy, pandering CEO Also agree with you on that especially the elephant and SOPA issue. >Bad behavior when it comes to transfers. Nope I have transferred over so many domains with absolutely no issues. Unlock, get your transfer code, give it to the next registrar and done. >A checkout workflow that makes it very hard to avoid adding extra things to your cart that you probably don't want. Disagree even though you have a ton of things offered, none of them are check by default, hit next > next > next and you are at the cart. Its a smooth checkout after that. > Shoot first, ask questions later attitude to third party complaints Disagree, even Namecheap has a list of blacklisted keywords that if your domain matches, cannot be transferred over or registered without the help of CS. Gandi has the a weirder TOS that can says they can pull your domain for any reason. Lavabit's or other major domains were located with Godaddy and it was never pulled. So Godaddy is on par with other domain registrations when it comes to complaints. >Unintuitive, badly designed, and confusing management tools. Agree but I haven't found better ones elsewhere either. >Weak, script-bound CS I had the opportunity to contact them multiple time in the past and they have been helpful and able to resolve the issue. >Network Solutions seems positively angelic by comparison. Then you have never had any experience with NetSol. They are most shadiest registrar in history.
  - Kequc 13y ago
    > I have transferred over so many domains with absolutely no issues. Unlock, get your transfer code, give it to the next registrar and done. It took me close to 6 months to transfer domains from there the last time I tried. Throughout the entire back and fourth, shit getting switched. Waiting periods, back and fourth emails and everything else I found it amazing that any of that was legal. In retrospect I could have likely transferred my domains away from them faster if I'd hired a lawyer. Why anyone considers that 'ok' is so far beyond me I can only come to the conclusion that you work for or have some kind of stake in GoDaddy.
joelrunyon 13y ago
A better way to put this is to say that Godaddy is a great company from an investor standpoint - but a terrible company from a user standpoint.
booruguru 13y ago
> GoDaddy is the perfect example of a company killing it with the mainstream while getting (often unjustified) hate inside the tech community. Either you're a shill for GoDaddy or you've never done a cursory Google search on the company. Hell, every month or so there's a horror story posted on HN about someone who got royally screwed over by GoDaddy in new and astonishing ways. And the common reply is along the lines of, "You're a tech geek. You should have known better." And I think the same could be said of you.
- zaidf 13y ago
  At GoDaddy's scale, a horror story is hardly any evidence of much. If we are going on anecdotal horror stories, every Fortune 10000 company would qualify. I couldn't be farther from a shill. My company directly competes with them. Most our customers have their domains and websites on godaddy and they pay us to upgrade.

by zaidf 13y ago

adamors 13y ago

> often unjustified hate If there's one justified reaction in the tech community is the hate that Godaddy receives. Their interface that manages domains is so crap, that the tech support person had to get their supervisor to help me out. Even their tech support people are confused, that should tell you something.

thenmar 13y ago
After I registered a domain with them, they called my personal phone to sell me their hosting services...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

Karunamon 13y ago

Unjustified? The hate I see on GoDaddy stems from a number of concrete, substantive things: * Skeevy, pandering advertising * Skeevy, pandering CEO * Bad behavior when it comes to transfers (i.e. wait to the last possible second to complete a transfer out because fuck you, that's why) * A checkout workflow that makes it very hard to avoid adding extra things to your cart that you probably don't want * Weak, script-bound CS * Shoot first, ask questions later attitude to third party complaints (whether they be copyright based or otherwise) * Their sponsorship of and carving out a fucking exemption for themselves on SOPA * Unintuitive, badly designed, and confusing management tools * Unlisted restrictions (their VPS services block certain ports outbound. This is not listed anywhere.) GoDaddy is the PayPal of web hosting. They're ubiquitous, but I'd bet a high number people who've been in the hosting/domain for any length of time have a horror story to tell. Network Solutions seems positively angelic by comparison.

sharkweek 13y ago
Almost every time I have to work on a client's site hosted with GoDaddy, their unintuitive interface basically requires I call into support (read: sales). Despite their attempts to pitch me, I always tell them that I'm just working on a client's site, but they still tell me "if you've got the access code, you can make these decisions." Yeah, that's a great way to keep my clients happy...
nivla 13y ago
>Skeevy, pandering advertising Agree with you on that, you have to jump though a bunch of product options before you finally see you cart. >Skeevy, pandering CEO Also agree with you on that especially the elephant and SOPA issue. >Bad behavior when it comes to transfers. Nope I have transferred over so many domains with absolutely no issues. Unlock, get your transfer code, give it to the next registrar and done. >A checkout workflow that makes it very hard to avoid adding extra things to your cart that you probably don't want. Disagree even though you have a ton of things offered, none of them are check by default, hit next > next > next and you are at the cart. Its a smooth checkout after that. > Shoot first, ask questions later attitude to third party complaints Disagree, even Namecheap has a list of blacklisted keywords that if your domain matches, cannot be transferred over or registered without the help of CS. Gandi has the a weirder TOS that can says they can pull your domain for any reason. Lavabit's or other major domains were located with Godaddy and it was never pulled. So Godaddy is on par with other domain registrations when it comes to complaints. >Unintuitive, badly designed, and confusing management tools. Agree but I haven't found better ones elsewhere either. >Weak, script-bound CS I had the opportunity to contact them multiple time in the past and they have been helpful and able to resolve the issue. >Network Solutions seems positively angelic by comparison. Then you have never had any experience with NetSol. They are most shadiest registrar in history.
- Kequc 13y ago
  > I have transferred over so many domains with absolutely no issues. Unlock, get your transfer code, give it to the next registrar and done. It took me close to 6 months to transfer domains from there the last time I tried. Throughout the entire back and fourth, shit getting switched. Waiting periods, back and fourth emails and everything else I found it amazing that any of that was legal. In retrospect I could have likely transferred my domains away from them faster if I'd hired a lawyer. Why anyone considers that 'ok' is so far beyond me I can only come to the conclusion that you work for or have some kind of stake in GoDaddy.

joelrunyon 13y ago

A better way to put this is to say that Godaddy is a great company from an investor standpoint - but a terrible company from a user standpoint.

booruguru 13y ago

> GoDaddy is the perfect example of a company killing it with the mainstream while getting (often unjustified) hate inside the tech community. Either you're a shill for GoDaddy or you've never done a cursory Google search on the company. Hell, every month or so there's a horror story posted on HN about someone who got royally screwed over by GoDaddy in new and astonishing ways. And the common reply is along the lines of, "You're a tech geek. You should have known better." And I think the same could be said of you.

zaidf 13y ago
At GoDaddy's scale, a horror story is hardly any evidence of much. If we are going on anecdotal horror stories, every Fortune 10000 company would qualify. I couldn't be farther from a shill. My company directly competes with them. Most our customers have their domains and websites on godaddy and they pay us to upgrade.