Poll: Will you move your domains from GoDaddy today?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3403167

by B-Scan • 15 years ago

118 142 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

ROFISH• 15 years ago

I voted for "I don't have domains at GoDaddy" since I moved from GoDaddy years ago before all this mess.

B-Scan• 15 years ago

I was thinking to add option for people like you, but I think that "I don't have domains at GoDaddy" is enough.

gruturo• 15 years ago

Yes, 3 of them, I was just waiting until today to move them.

borski• 15 years ago

I wish I could. I still have to wait a few days because all of my domains on GoDaddy are less than 60 days old. Yeah, I decided it was the cheapest and assumed they had changed since '08. Boy, was I wrong.

clemesha• 15 years ago

I'm still on the fence. (should this be a choice?)

They do have an exceptionally crappy web interface, and their marketing is distasteful. On the other hand, I've called them several times over the last couple years for random support, and my experience with that has always been excellent.

So yeah, still on the fence. And all this Godaddy backlash has just a tad to much witch-trial feel to it. But man their web interface sucks...

kermitthehermit7• 15 years ago

Here's a tip: SWITCH, they suck ass.

Basically, the CEO hunts elephants ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/bob-parsons-godaddy... ), they helped redact SOPA & support it, they are exempt from SOPA, have a bad attitude, refuse to respond to requests at random / throttle ( http://rscott.org/dns/GoDaddy_Selective_DNS_Blackouts.htm ).

What else do you need to hear to not "be on the fence" any more?

P.S.: I don't have domains at godaddy and never will. I also don't tell you or anyone else to what company to switch, just to switch from them.

alexro• 15 years ago

Your experience with their support was excellent because mine was very poor ... in the sense that they charged me money and didn't gave it back - they have auto billing enabled by default.

So yeah, go enjoy on the expense of other people both money-wise and liberty-wise, support the damn bastard

blurbytree9• 15 years ago

No. But I think people should make up their own minds.

The process of whipping up an internet hate mob with the aim of destroying <person>/<company> etc is one of the parts of the internet I detest the most. It's ugly bullying.

It rarely concerns itself with facts, just how big the internet hate mob can grow to and whether they can succeed at destroying their chosen enemy.

jaysonelliot5• 15 years ago

So, despite the fact that GoDaddy helped write SOPA, never officially withdrew their support from SOPA, and even has special exemptions written into SOPA for themselves, it's a hate mob?

blurbytree9• 15 years ago

Yes. Regardless, protests like this never achieve anything apart from wasting peoples time.

If you don't like GoDaddy, or disagree with some of their policies, don't use them. It's the whipping people up into an internet hate mob unconcerned with any facts that I find distasteful.

daeken• 15 years ago

While GoDaddy is made up of complete schmucks I'd never do business with, and I believe all the hate is justified, it should be noted that there are no special exemptions for them in SOPA. The exemptions are for all registrars.

zbuc4• 15 years ago

> has special exemptions written into SOPA for themselves Source? I've been seeing that posted a lot today but haven't heard anything about that.

kermitthehermit7• 15 years ago

Hello, GoDaddy employee.

GoDaddy needs to learn their lesson for the mistakes they did in the past and for SOPA.

I wish I could have downvoted you.

blurbytree9• 15 years ago

I'm in no way affiliated or connected to GoDaddy. I don't have any domains registered with them. I dislike internet hate mobs, which as you say are designed to "teach them a lesson".

jader201• 15 years ago

I personally think GoDaddy has brought this on themselves. They have made it extremely easy for people to hate them, and I would bet that in most cases, those that are now publicly hating them have privately hated them all along -- long before SOPA.

And then they only made things worse by flip flopping on their stance with a thinly veiled, half-hearted attempt to win customer support back.

I think that's the difference between GoDaddy and most of the other SOPA supporters -- this hate was there all along, this is just bringing it out of everyone.

chippy• 15 years ago

My peer pressure / herd mentality / mob detection shields always get activated at times like this.

kokey• 15 years ago

Indeed, and I just got myself another domain Yesterday through Godaddy. They are really the Wal-Mart of domain name selling, disliked by snobs and hipsters but everyone will buy from them at some point.

blurbytree9• 15 years ago

They're cheap, they work, they're not going to go out of business....

Couldn't care less if their CEO likes hunting, or if they help the US government with its internet censorship agenda. Hate the US government for that, not random companies.

Karunamon3• 15 years ago

Thank you for denigrating everyone who chooses not to do business with a reprehensible company as a "snob or hipster", jerk. Go read their ToS. They suck for more reasons than the one everyone is talking about now.

nonototo• 15 years ago

I already did when Bob Parsons killed that elephant

mathias• 15 years ago

Hipster.

uulbiy• 15 years ago

Yes, but not today.

fuzzyman• 15 years ago

In the process of moving 24 domains.

jaysonelliot5• 15 years ago

I left GoDaddy earlier this year, when Bob Parsons made his childish Great White Hunter video killing that elephant.

With the stories I've heard since about how GoDaddy already handles copyright complaints and otherwise mistreats customers, not to mention Parsons' support of torture, and of course SOPA, I can't imagine why I would ever consider giving them money—especially with how well NameCheap has treated me since I joined them.

rauar• 15 years ago

Exactly the same for me. Except that I went with name.com.

cfontes• 15 years ago

It's amazing how much a person can bullshit to do stuff they want but they know it's not right... This Bob Parsons should be arrested.

diminish• 15 years ago

Every time i hear the name Godaddy, i remember the elephant killing.

olegious• 15 years ago

Moved to NameCheap after the elephant story broke.

mikiem• 15 years ago

Oh boy do I want to, but I need to figure out where to move them to! GoDaddy's support is in Arizona, clear, well trained, and answer the phone quickly, 24x7. Admittedly, I don't reedit often, but good/fast/easy support is important, and can be vital. I am not sold that the support will be acceptable with the others. I desperately want to move away from goDaddy, but don't know where to go to!

iamandrus3• 15 years ago

Namecheap. They're running a promotion right now, use promo code "SOPASUCKS". Have fun!

The_Sponge• 15 years ago

I've heard excellent things about namecheap. I'm going to be moving a few less critical domains to them as a trial.

techjacker• 15 years ago

moving them as I speak...

xinjiang2• 15 years ago

I moved all my domains when the former CEO shot and killed an elephant, then gloated about it on video. It was both shocking and saddening for me.

Now the elephant killing is kind of a Voight-Kampff test I use. Anyone who isn't bothered with the elephant shooting wouldn't be my friend. I wouldn't want that type of person as a business partner or employee either. I don't think I could trust them.

I certainly wouldn't want to do business with a company that endorses or associates itself with killing intelligent, peaceful animals.

Personally, I want GoDaddy to GoDead.

blurbytree9• 15 years ago

He killed the elephant because it was destroying the communities crops, and the community got fed well from the meat.

I don't think it's quite as one sided as you propose.

cyrusshepard• 15 years ago

He killed it for sport, the rest is an excuse. If he were concerned about the community food supply he could have donated food. Anyone who hires "booth babes" for spokespeople and is a fan of 24 (a show I used to work for) hunts because he enjoys it. Bob Parsons does not spend thousands of dollars to kill elephants for humanitarian reasons.

xinjiang2• 15 years ago

You bought that lie? That story was a PR cover-up to stop people from leaving GoDaddy. I guess it actually worked.

OstiaAntica• 15 years ago

Watch the video, he's killing the elephant at night far from any village or crops. The crops thing is an excuse.

nmridul2• 15 years ago

If you watched the original un-cut video, you would've seen the hungry villagers in Godaddy T-shirts and Caps skinning and chopping the elephant. That was disgusting. He thought of making it as a campaign, but when it backfired, they edited the video,

jaysonelliot5• 15 years ago

Do you really think there were a bunch of villagers sitting in Africa, saying to themselves "our crops are being destroyed by this elephant, and we are so hungry—if only a rich American could fly halfway around the world to shoot an elephant for us?"

chj• 15 years ago

No, I have more important things to worry about.

dutchbrit• 15 years ago

We need a "Maybe" option, eventually, maybe today - only have a few domains at GoDaddy, most are already at Namecheap.

madhouse4• 15 years ago

No, for multiple reasons:

* I never had problems with it.

* I registered my domains via google, I have no idea how to move to a different registrar, and I'm not motivated enough to find out.

* If I started to stop using services where I don't agree with either the company's decisions, or whatever their prominent staff members chose to do, I would have to stop using all such services, not only one. I would have to go offline and live in a cage, pretty much.

Just because I am using a service does not mean I agree with whatever choices the provider makes. As long as those decisions don't affect me, I honestly don't care, because doing otherwise leads to a path of constant anger and depression. Don't need that, thank you.

rplnt• 15 years ago

Exactly, a lot of us uses Apple products after all.

kermitthehermit7• 15 years ago

While your view might be acceptable for some things, it's not acceptable when it comes to godaddy.

Their CEO is a bad person, they do a lot of bad things, they're exempt from SOPA, they support it, they helped redact it, they never withdrew SOPA support for real.

They threaten the 1st amendment of the US constitution - except it wil affect far more people than just the people of the US, the people for whom the US constitution was written for.

Please take these arguments somewhere else where they hold.

madhouse4• 15 years ago

A lot of other companies were involved in writing SOPA, and even more support it still, that are not treated the same way GoDaddy is. There are a lot of other CEOs who did very bad things - but I don't see people boycotting them, either.

Just boycotting one SOPA supporter won't buy you anything, either.

Do tell me though, why GoDaddy is exceptional, and why the same treatment doesn't apply to the rest of the SOPA supporters.. because I honestly don't see the difference: they're all bad.

jimmyjim• 15 years ago

In the words of Elie Wiesel, "Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor. Never the victim. Never the tormented." It obviously doesn't feel quite right to equate this whole fiasco to what Wiesel was talking about, but I just cannot think of a quote more fitting than that.

Too often people think inaction implies neutrality . It does not. It's an enabling behavior. Passivity is a free permission slip for the status quo to persist onward.

In the end you do have to pick and choose your battles. For me personally, this time I simply had to do it -- I transferred. It was a very clear choice for me, frankly I don't see why it isn't also a clear choice for you either (it's not that difficult to make the change, if you have the docs handy, etc.), but hey, whatever suits you.

madhouse4• 15 years ago

It isn't a clear choice, because the service they provide is something I didn't have a problem with, and moving would mean extra work and effort I'm not willing to pay. Why am I not willing to pay the price?

Because, as I wrote, I'd have to do the same thing with every other company who's services I use, when I don't agree with their decisions, or find their CEO someone who should be locked away and never spoken of ever again.

If I'm starting to boycot companies based on what they support, then I will do it with all of them, not just a single one. However, that is not possible.

I'm not neutral, either. I'm not going to use GoDaddy for any more domains in the future (partly due to their support for SOPA, partly for other reasons). I just won't move my domains from there, because it's not worth the effort.

mekoka2• 15 years ago

So you found solace in the notion that apathy is the exemplary path to happiness? I'm not religious, but I'll borrow a saying

Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I find it unfortunate that more and more people are not granted that proverbial wisdom.

nixle• 15 years ago

I have my SSL certificates with them. These are cheap multi-domain certificates. But I'm willing to pay the extra buck, any suggestions?

elliottcarlson• 15 years ago

Gandi.net offers free standard SSL certificates with each domain name, however they don't have multi-domain certificates.

simonswords82• 15 years ago

Secret option number 5: I never used GoDaddy in the the first place as their marketing and UX are incredibly shoddy.

Lucadg• 15 years ago

Thanks to the SOPA mess I started transferring to NameCheap. I am glad I won't have to deal with their annoying UI for much longer.

rdl• 15 years ago

I've run an OpenSRS reseller/affiliate registrar thing for years. I've never understood why people don't do that.

jaysonelliot5• 15 years ago

I've never heard of OpenSRS. Can you elaborate on what it is, and the benefits?

gargalatas• 15 years ago

Companies are not political parties and therefore they cannot express political thesis. If they do, then they loose, it's simple. Music, Cinema and all these forms of Art are signs that we are civilized. Civilization means that the civilized person copies the behavior of another civilized person and customize it with his own way. So this is a similar situation like maths, and physics and science. Every scientist helps building the science by putting his own piece of stone to the great miracle of science. If you want people to copyright your Stigma of Civilization or "Intellectual property" (you call it like this) first you must pay your debts to Shannon, and Babbage and Euler and many many other great persons who passed leaving their signs for ever and not just for 1 month.

SeoxyS2• 15 years ago

What surprises me is that it took the SOPA fiasco to get people to move their domains from GoDaddy. A while back, I bought one domain from them and it took less than a month for me to transfer it out. The service was just that bad.

Not only is GoDaddy a morally reprehensible company, but more disturbingly they're not even a good registrar. They constantly try to upsell you, they plaster your domains with ads. They don't even allow certain certain kind of DNS records… (their UI doesn't allow for a wildcard CNAME for example). I don't need elephants or congress bills to stay far away from GoDaddy, their crappy product is more than enough.

dangrossman• 15 years ago

To be fair, editing DNS records has nothing to do with being a registrar. Free DNS servers aren't even a service all registrars provide, and they're one most customers don't use -- they use their web host's. For anyone building a tech business, you have no excuse for tying your DNS service to your choice of registrar.

SeoxyS2• 15 years ago

Most people running a tech business use an unmanaged VPS or dedicated server. Running your own DNS server is kind of a pain—so, when all registrar run their own DNS servers and most have pretty good UI for record management, why not use them?

For what it's worth, I use domainsite.com. They're a solid and cheap registrar, and though their UI isn't the prettiest, managing domains and DNS records is fantastic. I use them for everything.

cbs• 15 years ago

What surprises me is that it took the SOPA fiasco to get people to move their domains from GoDaddy

Yeah, they suck, but in the last 5 years I've logged into godaddy exactly 5 times to renew all my domains and then forget about them for the next 11 months.

Its easier than transferring.

jfoster2• 15 years ago

Not today, but within the next few days. Looking forward to joining NameCheap.

notyourwork• 15 years ago

Possibly add option for Yes but not today due to Holidays?

I plan on moving mine but won't until I settle back in at home after Holiday travels.

moe• 15 years ago

I tried to move a week ago but GoDaddy doesn't allow transfer when Whois-Privacy is enabled. Guess that means I'm locked in because I don't want my name attached to those domains.

pilgrim689• 15 years ago

I'm in the same boat same as you for one of my domains. I'd love to find a way around!

iamichi• 15 years ago

Can you transfer to another internal GoDaddy account in a different name (that you create) and then transfer them out?

profitbaron3• 15 years ago

It would have to be to someone that you know and don't mind being exposed to said domain as in accordance with ICANN you can't use fake whois information.

tytso• 15 years ago

Just disable the Privacy and unlock the domain before you do the transfer. See this tutorial:

http://hover.screenstepslive.com/s/hover/m/927/l/7788-GoDadd...

aeden2• 15 years ago

The issue is that exposes the OP's identity in Whois for a bit of time during the transfer.

Nogwater• 15 years ago

Maybe put in fake whois information for the day that the transfer is happening. Once it's moved, re-enable the privacy. The info doesn't even need to be fully fake, you can use a throwaway email address so that you're still reachable.

profitbaron3• 15 years ago

You aren't allowed to use fake whois information in accordance with ICANN.

nmridul2• 15 years ago

Any change you make to your contact details will lock your domain for another 60 days. That means, you will be stuck for another 60 days before you can transfer the name away from Godaddy. http://help.godaddy.com/article/418 - Browse to the bottom and you can see it.

ry0ohki• 15 years ago

I'll be moving them as they expire, because it would be a little expensive to move everything right away (plus some things I've already paid for years of registration).

I already moved a few that were close to expiry, but this whole thing started to feel like a witch hunt and a little hypocritical since I don't think I've heard anyone boycotting the Super Bowl because of NFL support or using AmEx because of Visa (two things that would be very easy to boycott).

jamesrom• 15 years ago

I could be wrong, but I had the impression that when a domain is transferred the date that domain is valid until stays the same, however you need to purchase another year on top of the existing expiry date.

loumf• 15 years ago

NameCheap is $6.99 for the transfer + 1 year on the expiry. Most include a year, I think, or else it would be hard to get transfers.

aeden2• 15 years ago

The purchase is automatic, at least for most, if not all, gTLDs. When you submit the request to transfer to the registry, and it successfully completes, the domain is automatically extended 1 year.

darkane2• 15 years ago

I don't think those are proper analogies. The reason everyone is so outraged by GoDaddy's stance is because they claimed there are no moral or technical downsides to the bill, and being so intimately involved with DNS, they should know that's simply not true.

So they either: don't understand their own business, they don't care about their customers, they have no ethical standards, or all of the above. Whichever it is, it's clear that they're run by truly horrible people.

profitbaron3• 15 years ago

When you transfer your domain to another provider, the existing time is still on the domain and they are extended by another year.

simpleenigma• 15 years ago

I've been moving my domain away for months as they expire ... I have a few that are ready to expire and I waited for today to do it ... Plus I'm going to move a few other important domains before the expire today ... The rest wilt have to wait till cash flow changes ...

christefano• 15 years ago

You bet. We're even hosting a Leave GoDaddy Day workshop at Droplabs, our coworking space in Los Angeles:

> http://droplabs.net/events/2011/12/29/leave-godaddy-day

The plan is to help anyone who drops by to move their GoDaddy-registered domains and GoDaddy-hosted sites.

kingofspain• 15 years ago

The only domain I have left with Godaddy (moved all mine a year ago) is one I set up for an ex-girlfriend so you'll have to forgive me for putting my own sanity ahead of the greater good :)

I have noticed a few promo emails from Godaddy in recent days though. More than usual I couldn't say - this whole situation may make them stand out.

hessenwolf• 15 years ago

I will just throw http://nametoolkit.com in here, for those looking for a more simple, less upsold alternative.

plusbryan• 15 years ago

The thing that surprised me most about this whole situation is that so many tech-savvy people use Godaddy. Their spammy marketing and variable pricing screams bush-league to me. I'll forgive my dad for using them cause he doesn't know he had options, but for something so fundamental, how does anyone trust them?

phzbOx• 15 years ago

For me, it's because it's a one time deal. I buy the domain, set the nameservers and never go back. But I'll still move them to name.com later on.

rjbrock• 15 years ago

I had my ~10 domains registered with them for a while because they were the cheapest registrar around (with the abundant coupon codes). Now that I am no longer a broke college student I moved right over to namecheap which has been an awesome experience

nhebb2• 15 years ago

It's because tech-savvy people are smart enough to click the "No Thanks" link. ;-)

swalsh• 15 years ago

I never really put much thought into my registrar before. Godaddy had everything I needed at a good price. They were also big enough that I was confident they wouldn't go belly up leaving me with a problem.

ereckers2• 15 years ago

A long time ago Network Solutions was the place to register domains for something like $30 a year (I can't remember), and Godaddy was the cheap, fast, up-and-comer. That's when I moved onto them, and everything after that was just an afterthought. I even got really good and completely ignoring the upsells and could navigate around pretty quickly. Some of it is legacy and if I was in the market for a first time registrar today, I may have chosen differently.

switz• 15 years ago

I agree with this. Plus GoDaddy you can always find domains for very cheap due to all of their "promotions" or "coupons". I've gotten so many $2 domains from GoDaddy that it's ridiculous.

But I moved my domains away about a week ago. No discount is worth supporting GoDaddy.

heelhook• 15 years ago

It used to be $35 a year at Network Solutions.

jaysonelliot5• 15 years ago

When I was moving all my GoDaddy domains to NameCheap earlier this year, I decided to go whole hog and take my Network Solutions domains there as well. I had about a dozen URLs with them, and at $35 a year, it would be worth the savings.

That's when I discovered that if you call Network Solutions in person, and tell them you're leaving for a cheaper registrar, they'll match the price. I kept my dozen or so domains there, and now have a locked-in price of $9/year with Network Solutions.

I still feel some loyalty to them from the early days when they were the only registrar. For some reason, I felt like they were more credible. I know they've actually got their own skeletons in the closet, but old habits die hard.

dextorious2• 15 years ago

""" I'll forgive my dad for using them cause he doesn't know he had options, but for something so fundamental, how does anyone trust them?"""

I hope this list is complete:

1) Cheap beats a lot of things.

2) They give you minimal trouble if you only use their registration services (I hear that their other offerings are terrible).

3) Popular and well known also attracts people -- "I need a domain name, hmm, this company sounds familiar, and almost everyone else is using it".

4) Domain registration is not something you're going to thoroughly evaluate. It's a 5 min process that doesn't cost that much anyway.

5) A hacker guy feels "clever" when he can navigate through all their extra offerings, specials, trap checkboxes etc and just order what he needs, like he somehow "beat the system".

6) Popular and hugely successful means they are going to stick around. People have been burned by web hosting/registrars/similar services that closed business after a while.

odilontalk• 15 years ago

Yes

miles_matthias• 15 years ago

Yes, if I get to them today.

joshmanders• 15 years ago

Don't have any domains at GoDaddy, although I do have an account... Just to transfer any domains I buy from people that are on GoDaddy to NameCheap.

I use NameCheap only, have for 6 years.

captaincrunch• 15 years ago

Too lazy.

reduxredacted• 15 years ago

My domain transfer completed today (interesting, since it said it would complete on Tuesday, but I'll chock it up to volume).

Immediately before the domain transfer, I received an e-mail indicating that GoDaddy was sorry to see my one sad domain go away. I replied asking if there is a way to completely eliminate my account with them.

As I don't expect a reply, does anyone know if GoDaddy provides a way to eliminate your account completely? I'm planning on removing saved Credit Card information and setting a random, max-length password. Far from bullet proof, but I expect I won't be doing business with them again and don't want some random hack to result in account disclosure and some troublemaker deciding to buy a bunch of services in my name. The probability is low, but the amount of anger resulting from this SOPA nonsense has to have made them a bigger target for such nefarious activities ... I'm thinking Sony from recent memory.

Karunamon3• 15 years ago

Short answer: No.

Long answer: The best you can do is delete all services on your account, delete your payment information, and trash the registered name and address.

squarecat• 15 years ago

For legal reasons, there is likely an ICANN policy regarding retaining of customer records for a period of time.

fredleblanc• 15 years ago

I'm still at GoDaddy, and I would like to leave, but I'm still doing research where I jump to. I'd rather not have to do this again for a long time, so I'm taking my time to make sure I get it right rather than jump on the first company that waves an anti-SOPA flag.

So "no" for today, but "most likely" in the near future.

brlewis• 15 years ago

Transferring may be less painful than you think. I'm doing it with zero downtime because my DNS is at Linode, not godaddy. If namecheap turns out not to be the place I want to permanently keep my domains, transfer out will be painless too.

Do it and I promise a high five at the next Salem build guild.

If your DNS is at godaddy see http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/...

mdirolf• 15 years ago

We're moving 8 domains over right now.

bradfriedman• 15 years ago

I'd love to, personally, but does anyone else feel like they're too busy working on their product to worry about this? Maybe in a month or two when our codebase is more stable.

varikin• 15 years ago

I have one domain that I manage at GoDaddy, but actually belongs to the restaurant that my in-laws own. I will be moving it soon, but I don't have the time at the moment.

paulhauggis2• 15 years ago

I won't because GoDaddy no longer supports SOPA.

paulhauggis2• 15 years ago

not sure if people are just mis-informed or just don't read the news:

http://mashable.com/2011/12/23/breaking-godaddy-no-longer-su...

cheap• 15 years ago

that doesn't matter to the immature mind that craves anarchy for the sake of pleasing the social status quo

rbanffy• 15 years ago

Did they convince you?

jtheory2• 15 years ago

This wasn't a threat -- "you'd better stop supporting SOPA or we'll move our domains".

That's fairly useless, because the damage is already done (and anything they put now in a press release is obviously -- even to senators -- just GoDaddy's PR folks "managing" those excitable internet users and their cause du jour (secret: say whatever you have to today, let it blow over, and go back to business as usual next month).

Instead, it's more worthwhile to watch the history of decisions, lobbying, etc. by a company, and avoid them as needed based on that. A company can change, to be sure, but not through vague press releases -- only through building up new history.

Sindisil• 15 years ago

I'e never directly given a dime to Go Daddy, for domains or anything else.

I don't give a rip about the low-brow ads or the elephant hunting - I just don't like supporting businesses that operate like Go Daddy, and I certainly have no interest in trusting one as skeezy as them for something as critical as domain registration.

brudgers• 15 years ago

No. Because I do not confuse consumerism with political action. Time spent moving domains from Godaddy in hopes of some indirect impact on SOPA would be better spent upon swaying my congressional representatives directly...despite the popular wisdom, they represent me within our political system, not various corporations.

To put it another way, moving domains as a way of expressing displeasure over SOPA legitimates the very logic which created it; that internet users in the US are merely consumers, not citizens. Move your domain day id premised on the idea that consumer choices are our most effective political act and accepting that premise is done at the peril of losing our legitimate political power.

supreme executive authority derives from a mandate from the people, not some farcical shopping ceremony to paraphrase Dennis.

jessedhillon• 15 years ago

The basic premise is to deny capital to the companies whose policies you oppose.

In a system where economics and politics so thoroughly mix, I can't see how you can draw such a line as the one you claim to draw. It would make you indistinguishable from an uninformed buyer. And essentially that's what you're saying: you make purchases as if you had no information as to how the money might be used, even when you know it may be applied to goals that you feel would limit your freedom (or however a person might phrase this.) Your only concern when making a purchase is getting the best value.

Moreover, registering a domain is hardly "consumerism", unless you want to conflate the term with any act of purchasing.

aroberge• 15 years ago

What about non-U.S. citizens who will be affected by SOPA and do not have a congressional representative to lobby? This boycott is much larger than you seem to think - and, because of its global scope, should be given more thoughts.

nhebb2• 15 years ago

No, but I will when the domains expire. The way I look at it, transferring all my domains now will just cost me more money for a service that I've already paid for. So part of the short term punishment is letting GoDaddy keep my money but no longer have to provide me with a service? There is the short term negative impact their SOPA support has reaped, and that's what everyone is focusing on. But there is also the long term impact, and I'll be part of that "movement".

tonyb• 15 years ago

It doesn't cost you more money at all.

When you transfer a domain the expiration date is increased by at least a year (more if you chose so). You do not double pay for the time that is remaining. It is basically renewing just with a different registrar.

websirnik• 15 years ago

Just did it. Thanks to this thread for remembering.

ereckers2• 15 years ago

I actually moved a friends hosting from Godaddy to my own servers just last night (he was about a week past expiration on a 2 yr contract).

One thing I haven't seen out of the hundreds of comments about moving off of Godaddy the last few days is any mention of Email. Call me stupid, but I was using Godaddy's email service for really simple email accounts (ie. catchalls on personal domains). I'm using Google Apps to manage some of my email, but I found just going with Godaddy to be much simpler on non mission critical stuff. Was nobody at all, not one person using Godaddy's email service?

Also, I'm on Name.com which I like a lot, but they use Google Apps for email, I've got some dumb domains that I want to run email through (as I described above). Can anyone tell me if Namecheap approaches email the same basic way that Godaddy had (ie. free email credits with each domain registered, pop3/imap, etc..).

greyfade• 15 years ago

I've been trying, but no one supports domain transfers on .de.

tokipin• 15 years ago

i won't move my domains since i don't have any domains. but the domains i'm setting up next month aren't going to be with them in the first place

jordonwii• 15 years ago

Hey, everyone who's moving or has moved: add the number of domains you transferred/transferring to http://www.boycott-godaddy.com/

I'd like to see how high we can get that total.

dextorious2• 15 years ago

So, despite all the surprised comments from earlier posts, of the type "Surely no HN guy would ever use with GD", etc, almost 1/2 of those responding to this HN poll use/used GD.

Sure, it's not 100% representative, given that people that have/had GD accounts are more likely to even opt to read the poll than people without those, but still, a large number of HN readers use GD.

nipper88souper• 15 years ago

"allegedly one or more of the domains some have purchased were removed for them or rather 'auctioned' elsewhere while they were still owned years ago to the very place[s] which were using their original birth given names as url re-direct to other companies already protected by the two year 'co. status'[this singular statement could be looked at neutrally] - ie: an 'upright above boards business or company should be able to own it's own intellectual property and name/domain name'. as 2011 some of these lost urls/domain names read as an internal error 404. this is the tip of a huge seemingly inanimate elephant in the iceberg room and if it [was me] i would have had nothing to do it. 'auctioned' would be a key word in this statement and nothing innocent 'auctioned off' unwillingly with 'possible' malice has ever been a good thing- even if the 1st to 3rd party is claiming simple ignorance or neutrality." however i am not really that smart and would have never seen any of this coming. lesson learned. things could have been worse fro some it wasn't for others. how to make things better is the question now. it is good to be alive. i have never worked for the co. mentioned in this poll, if it matters.

Poll: Will you move your domains from GoDaddy today?

Related Stories