
Christians Bailing on GoDaddy Due to 'Immoral' Advertising - tortilla
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/christians-bail.html
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callmeed
Confession: I'm a christian entrepreneur and I purchase all my domains and SSL
certificates from GoDaddy. I never got the memo that I should boycott their
services.

I have no problem with groups (christian or not) choosing to boycott certain
companies because they object to their marketing practices. But I personally
don't have time to cherry-pick these companies myself and make a public
statement out of it.

I'm too busy trying to nurture my own family and business to worry about
GoDaddy.

One last note: when it comes to watching sports (which my daughters enjoy
watching with me), I find ads for E.D. treatments much more uncomfortable than
GoDaddy's.

~~~
blogimus
_I find ads for E.D. treatments much more uncomfortable than GoDaddy's._

You are certainly not the only one. Sports fan friends with kids mentioned
E.D. ads on sports games over the holidays. They like to watch games as a
family, but the ads make them think twice. I can't say I blame them.

I see this as part of a larger problem that the only way we currently have to
control the ads we see is to just turn off or change the channel.

~~~
tptacek
Am I the only confused as to how they can continue to run those ads? Didn't
the founders of that company get indicted?

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johns
Not _those_ ones, the other ones made by companies like Pfizer and Eli Lilly.
The "legit" ones.

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tsally
How about bailing on GoDaddy because they provide the exact wrong balance
between control and simplicity.

Also: <http://nodaddy.com>

And a comic I find particularly funny: <http://echopic.com/gnv>

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tortilla
I didn't care about the sexy ads, I bailed because of their car salesman
interface.

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sant0sk1
I was just on GoDaddy this morning trying to change some DNS settings for one
of my domains. I made the changes and clicked 'submit' only to find they
pushed an up-sell ad in there and made me click another 'submit' button to
make the changes. On a freakin' settings page!

What'd you end up switching to?

~~~
paulgb
I'm not the OP, but I switched to namecheap and never looked back. They
usually have a coupon for discounted transfers, if you decide to go for them.
(Try RetailMeNot or just google "namecheap coupon february 2009")

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phony_identity
I'm an atheist and a confirmed sexual libertine but those ads pissed me off
too. Too tacky even for the Superbowl, which is saying something.

Much worse, though, was the ad for some damn NBC crime drama which showed some
pretty young girl falling into the hands of a serial killer, then showed him
burying her in a shallow grave down by the river or something. Yet another
show about fear, pain and misery.

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TrevorJ
Anytime you take a strong position on anything you risk losing part of your
client base. A lot of people (myself included) feel strongly about how
portraying sexuality in certain ways can impact a societies attitudes in a
negative manner. The fact that those opinions affect purchasing habits stands
to reason.

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glomek
No, _some_ Christians are bailing on GoDaddy because of the ads. Many of us
just don't care.

A whole lot of Christians are not Fundamentalist Christians who want to
control your life and dictate your morals. Unfortunately, the sane ones don't
get nearly as much press.

~~~
randallsquared
Well, if a person's Christianity doesn't affect others, then it doesn't really
matter to others that they're a Christian, does it? Someone trying to control
my life is exactly the sort of thing I'd want to hear about, if it's
happening. :)

~~~
glomek
There are many ways to affect others. You can help them, comfort them, share
with them, remind them that not all Christians are fundamentalists, ...

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custie
I am unhappy with Hostmonster. They auto renewed my account 15 days before it
expired and it cost me $120 for a basic package. Sure, they probably told me
in fine print when I checked the renew option, but who can remembers what they
read in fine print 350 days ago? At least Godaddy only costs me $4 a month for
auto renew.

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astrodust
Christian Bale? I can only imagine his GoDaddy rant.

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giles_bowkett
who didn't see this coming? it all goes tribal. all of it. read "here comes
everybody" and "snow crash."

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giles_bowkett
you know when the Christians bail, they say, "professionally, we are fucking
OVER."

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ErrantX
This kinda stuff makes me really cross/sick; as someone _majorly_ opposed to
cencorship....

It's a fairly pathetic episode and a sad description on modern religion.

(as an addendum when I asked the Church at the end of the road to stop handing
leaflets/preaching to my young cousin as she walked passed I got into all
sorts of trouble for religious descrimination.... double standards!).

/rant over (sorry)

~~~
wheels
This isn't censorship, it's a boycott, and it's a perfectly valid way to
express your dislike for a company's PR decisions. I don't care about the ads,
but I wish _more_ consumers would put their money where their mouth is in
dealing with company practices they find inappropriate.

Censorship would be these groups lobbying the FCC to ban the commercials.

~~~
robotron
Censorship 2.0, then. Easier to create an uproar on the internet than bend the
FCC to your will.

Personally, I found the commercials stupid and I dislike GoDaddy for reasons
beyond their advertisements.

~~~
nonrecursive
Since you consider it censorship, would you prefer that these people continue
giving their money to a company they find morally objectionable?

~~~
robotron
They can take their money wherever they want. That's not what they are doing,
though. Rather, they would have GoDaddy adhere to their moral standards.

~~~
nonrecursive
What's wrong with that?

~~~
nonrecursive
Why am I being downmodded for asking someone to clarify his position?

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jcromartie
I thought the ads were stupid and tasteless... but come on, you're already
watching war porn (pro sports) and you are going to get upset about some
cleavage?

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unalone
That's rather a sensationalist way of putting it. Different people watch
football for different reasons. Yes, psychologically sports exist as a way of
channelling male aggression (which is a fascinating subject besides) but
people don't _watch_ it as an alternative to watching war. There's an element
to entertainment like the Superbowl that nothing else has.

Also, it's an old adage that America's fine with violence but hates breasts
and naughty language. See South Park/every anti-censorship comedy ever made in
America.

Also also, it;s fair enough to say you don't want to deal with a _domain host_
because they think the best way to advertise services is to _wave tits in your
face._ I'm regretting that I use it to register domains, because frankly I'd
like to hold companies to a slightly higher level of self-respect.

