I cannot believe how many people are using the worst domain registrar in existence, even if you don't consider SOPA support. Out of all of the domain registrars, why GoDaddy?
I don't think markbao was referring to their morality in his post, simply their terrible, terrible usability. I think also cost is not the reason, especially for the low numbers we're talking about. I would say people use GoDaddy because of GoDaddy's successful online and on air advertising campaigns.
"I think also cost is not the reason, especially for the low numbers we're talking about."
While I agree that their campaigns have been effective, I tend to disagree that cost isn't an issue. Heck, even I was informed of other registrars a few years back when I was first starting to host my own sites but GoDaddy was cheaper than my webhost for domain registration. Plus easy to find coupon codes also give additional value. Why bother paying an extra 5-10 dollars when, for most people, there isn't much difference after the initial registration? (I ask that rhetorically)
Inertia. GoDaddy was great back when the other main option was Network Solutions. If you registered for multiple years, or simply forgot to transfer before the renewal period, it was easy to stay.
Not to mention that even many reasonably technically inclined people don't realize that you don't have to wait until your expiration date to transfer to another registrar.
That is not particularly rational. It makes moving hosting providers harder and many provide very different dns services. You might want an api or support for different record types that otherwise good hosting services dont provide. I use zerigo just for dns because they are really goid at it...
Managing DNS completely separately is fine, too. I just don't think it's a particularly good idea to use your registrar as your DNS provider unless you're also using it for hosting. I'd much rather point my registrar at my host's DNS than to have to update DNS records every time something changes on the host.
Every registrar that I have used in the last decade has come with free DNS. Why in the world do I need something cheaper than the ~$10 that most registrars charge?
