GoDaddy's SOPA Support Sparks Calls for Boycotts and Domain Transfers

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/godaddys_sopa_support_sparks_calls_for_boycotts_an.php#.TvN-BveSE0E.hackernews

by johnpaultitlow • 15 years ago

631 44 15 years ago

bradleyland3• 15 years ago

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• 15 years 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.

mbateman2• 15 years 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.

drivebyacct29• 15 years 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.

CWuestefeld• 15 years 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• 15 years ago

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

bradleyland3• 15 years 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-s...

RexM• 15 years 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• 15 years 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.

danssig• 15 years ago

It's not irrational to pursue; the longest journey, etc. People need to be off Godaddy in any case. SOPA or not.

bradleyland3• 15 years ago

> I'll eat my words if this boycott results in any actual effect on GoDaddy's stance...

Anybody got any ketchup?

drivebyacct29• 15 years 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.

marshray2• 15 years 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.

brandnewlow• 15 years ago

What's the best way to see what my local rep has said about SOPA?

aaronbrethorst• 15 years ago

Call them. http://whoismyrepresentative.com

edit: I'm 99% sure that my congressman, Jim McDermott, is opposed to SOPA, but I just called his office to make absolutely sure. It only took me a minute. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE call your congressperson.

hkmurakami• 15 years ago

Thanks for the link. I found that the congresswoman representing me is Anna Eshoo (D), who was part of the 11 member bipartisan group speaking out against SOPA last month [1]

While this means that I don't have to call her office to "change her position", I will still call to thank her / her office for being a vocal opponent of SOPA.

edit: Also, thanks to the HN users who have posted in other threads asking others to call the offices just to voice their support for their representatives, even if the congressman/congresswoman is already against SOPA. Without their words, I wouldn't be calling my representative today to say thanks.

[1] http://eshoo.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view...

innernette• 15 years ago

If you have the time, definitely give your representative a call, but you can also check out the Open Congress page for SOPA (H.R.3261): http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261

Also, be sure to ask about Protect IP (S.968): http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968

kadjar• 15 years ago

Here's a handy map:

http://www.spatialsituation.com/sopa-map/

DilipJ• 15 years ago

it's weird that it's because of SOPA that people want to transfer away from GoDaddy. Their incredibly misogynistic ads should have been enough...

corin_• 15 years ago

Have you ever been to a tech. trade show and seen the booth babes? If sexism (unless I've missed misogynistic adverts, it isn't a synonym for sexist) is enough of a reason for a boycott then there's a hell of a lot of companies you'd have to avoid.

fiblye• 15 years ago

Most people aren't easily offended. Also, I don't think a woman voluntarily choosing to be paid for being in an ad qualifies as misogyny, unless the women are self-loathing.

Godaddy's objectification of women isn't unique in the industry or world as a whole, and there are many other reasons to hate Godaddy.

stephen_g• 15 years ago

Yeah, I got one of my domains there about five years ago, and have wanted to switch for about four but haven't got around to it. Since I use external nameservers I haven't needed to log in there pretty much at all since then.

This will probably be the straw that breaks the camel's back - I'll take it to Namecheap with my other US domains.

nohat• 15 years ago

Actually I feel like people have had a thing against godaddy for a long time, and try to make a big deal about unimportant PR stuff. I don't care about sexy advertisements, I don't care about the CEO shooting elephants. I do care about questionable DNS behavior and SOPA.

arriu• 15 years ago

I am not using GoDaddy again and will encourage my friends and family to stay away as well.

slyspyderspy07• 15 years ago

Transfer complete.

gambler• 15 years ago

I'm bemused as to why it took this long for people to realize what kind of company GoDaddy is. They actively supported censorship for quite a while. Heck, simply looking at any of their ads or their website should draw a good picture of what kind of people run the show there. Besides, they are disproportionately big. The is nothing in what they do to warrant the size (and thus influence) they have.

holychiz• 15 years ago

i wish my domains were still w/ GoDaddy just so i can transfer them out to protest. Arvixe hosting provides better services and didn't have to objectify women to advertise.

codesuela• 15 years ago

I've just realized that this is a great way for us non-US citizens to show that we care about SOPA too. I have just a single domain with GoDaddy which I got through an auction (who in their right mind chooses GoDaddy as registrar anyway?). It's not much but better then nothing I guess.

prudhvis• 15 years ago

Accorting to http://latersgd.com/ there are about 93,000 domains transfered from GoDaddy to other registrars. Boycotts and Transfers seem to be catching up. For instance a few hours ago there were about 18,000 domains transfered off GoDaddy

GoDaddy's SOPA Support Sparks Calls for Boycotts and Domain Transfers

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