

Godaddy No Longer Just Doesn’t Support But Actually “Opposes” SOPA - sethbannon
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/29/burned-by-fleeing-customers-godaddy-no-longer-just-doesnt-support-but-actually-opposes-sopa/

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kstenerud
"Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic
requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and
Internet communities."

That's a pretty weak "opposition". Basically GoDaddy now "opposes" SOPA
because of a "lack of consensus", not because they oppose what SOPA stands
for.

This sounds a lot like "Wait! Come back! I promise I won't beat you anymore! I
was drunk and things just got out of hand!"

~~~
zach
Exactly — every GoDaddy "opposition" of SOPA seems like you could insert ",
while we still think it's a great idea, " somewhere.

This is like one of those apologies where the miscreants "apologize if anyone
was offended" or "are sorry that they were misunderstood" instead of admitting
what they did was wrong.

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crikli
GoDaddy does not get that this isn't like the elephant thing or using
moderately attractive B-listers to sell stuff.

Those things, while some find them objectionable, don't really reflect much
about how they view their customers in relationship to their core business
offerings, domain registration and hosting.

I've seen a few questions to the effect of, "Why do tech savvy people use
GoDaddy."

I can't speak for everyone else, but I used them because the customer service
people spoke good English, they were always helpful and polite, the services
were cheap, and the DNS control panel was constantly improving (we only use
them for domains, their hosting has always been crap).

But their support of SOPA made it now clear that not only will they happily
toss me and my clients right under the bus, but they'll put their name on
something that makes it easier for someone else to be the one doing the
tossing.

~~~
loupgarou21
The DNS control panel was really my big reason for sticking with GoDaddy for a
long time.

I gave namecheap's DNS control panel a shot. It's acceptable, but nowhere near
as nice to use as GoDaddy's

Someone was suggesting 1and1 to me and I cringed at the thought of using
theirs. 1and1 has about the worst UI I've ever seen.

If anyone can suggest a domain registrar with an excellent DNS control panel,
I'd love to take a look at it.

------
Zirro
"Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest
priority..."

If your customers had been your highest priority, you wouldn't be in this
mess. I promise you that. How many of your customers asked you to draft and
support a legislation which risks permanently damaging the Internet as we know
it?

GoDaddy has served media-companies and politicians, and not their customers.
And based on their weak "opposition", they are far from changing that today.

~~~
the-cakeboss
>GoDaddy has served media-companies and politicians, and not their customers.

I don't understand this claim. Since the beginning of this whole fiasco, I've
wondered exactly how SOPA would in any way benefit GoDaddy. But do you
seriously believe their support of SOPA is from some special relationship with
the recording industry? I don't see why that would be the case.

~~~
jaylevitt
The Silver Lake connection may explain some of it, but GoDaddy has
historically had a Rambo philosophy towards any content they deemed
objectionable. When I was working on a startup that would use trademark law to
shutdown phishers, 409s, botnets, and fake pharma, GoDaddy was eager to play
in that arena, and was considered a good friend to law enforcement in general.

There's a difference between

"If you want to see our server logs, you're gonna need a warrant!" and

"If you want to see our server logs, you're gonna need a warrant; the Eastern
District has pretty fast turnround and they know the landcape. Just bring that
warrant back over here, and we'll get you the data you need."

------
Bobby_Tables
I'll believe they "OPPOSE" SOPA when I see a commercial during SportsCenter
with Danica Patrick talking about the evils of internet censorship and telling
us to contact our Congresspeople.

~~~
dangrossman
A couple minor edits to GoDaddy's first superbowl commercial and it could be
repurposed as GoDaddy vs internet censorship instead of the original GoDaddy
vs broadcast censorship.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DQS8mqBYOM>

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mquander
Yeah, OK. Let me know when they _OPPOSE_ making serious decisions that affect
real people based on who needs the most sucking-up-to today.

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FuzzyDunlop
> “We have observed a spike in domain name transfers, which are running above
> normal rates and which we attribute to GoDaddy’s prior support for SOPA,
> which was reversed,” said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman.

Funnily enough, the people transferring domains made one decision, and most
likely, will stick with it and be able to justify it.

And to think, there could have been a market niche for a pro-SOPA registrar.
Imagine the features page for that.

~~~
akavi
Namecheap has been pretty successful at capitalizing on GoDaddy's SOPA
boneheadedness, I'd say.

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npaquin
Regardless of their SOPA stance, Godaddy needs to die. They have the Worst UI
ever, the CEO is a piece of excrement, their logo so god-damned stupid (If I
were an employee I'd be embarrassed to wear a shirt with that POS on it), and
their adverts remind me of 1990's "going out of business" furniture ads. It's
time for us to flush the waste out of the system.

------
viking
I will believe that Godaddy is opposing the legislation when they demand that
the exception for Godaddy is removed from the legislative text. An email is
cheap, especially one stating that they don't like "the current form".

------
drcoopster
GoDaddy's prior SOPA support isn't the only reason why people are leaving
them.

~~~
nextparadigms
Things like these seem to happen to market leaders, who hear complains for
years about certain stuff, but don't mind it because they aren't seeing their
customers leaving in droves. But that doesn't mean it doesn't add to the
growing frustration of their customers. They are only creating a ticking time
bomb, and when they do eventually go over the top with something, that's when
the bomb explodes, and then they wonder why there isn't anything they can do
to stop the customer exodus.

The same has been happening with Facebook and their privacy issues. This year
they finally got called out a little more on it, but probably not enough of
their users left to take it too seriously. So when they will screw up in a
major way again, they shouldn't be surprised if a lot of people walk away "all
of the sudden".

~~~
scrrr
About Facebook: There's probably no serious competitor for people to switch to
(Google+ isn't quite there yet) and the majority of Facebook's users are not
"techies" that care about SOPA. But yeah, who knows, in the future..

~~~
a_a_r_o_n
Coke's major competitor is not Pepsi, it's water. Coke's biggest challenge is
to get people to drink more Coke and less water.

Facebook's biggest competitor will never be another network, it will be "not
bothering with a social network." And eventually people will get bored with
these things. It may not be the current set of users, it might instead be the
next generation of people, just as today's kids supposedly don't use email.

~~~
daeken
> Facebook's biggest competitor will never be another network, it will be "not
> bothering with a social network."

I agree that this is their biggest competitor right now, but saying it 'never'
will be is a real stretch IMO. Not long ago, we would've said the same thing
about MySpace, and look where that ended up. The social networking space is
still wearing diapers -- naming the ultimate winner based on what you see
today is pretty short-sighted.

~~~
miahi
A new competitor on the social networking market will compete for almost the
same users that already have a Facebook account. It's very hard to find
features that will attract people from the "not bothering" group.

------
iamandrus
It's too late for sorry, GoDaddy. Take your medicine.

~~~
sounds
To anyone saying, "Hey, don't be vindictive! Don't we _want_ people to come
around and be forgiven?"

I see it as the difference between what a politician says and what a
politician does. (That metaphor is not really a stretch here.)

Saying, "We oppose SOPA," is not the same as opposing it.

GoDaddy participated in drafting the bills (SOPA, PROTECT-IP, and probably
COICA and ACTA -- remember, GoDaddy is the de facto recipient of ICS/DHS
seized domains).

GoDaddy laughed when their customers threatened a boycott.

Today is "transfer your domain away from GoDaddy day." And only today their PR
says, "we oppose SOPA!"

If a politician says they'll bring home the troops* ... do you forgive them
for the needless deaths when they say it? Or when they do it?

* I believe the USA has the best armed forces in the world, who then suffer the whims of both political parties shedding blood and treasure for pointless aims. Have we learned the lessons of Vietnam yet? I support the _troops_, but if you're not happy with my political metaphor, please use whichever political decision best fits for you.

~~~
iamandrus
Exactly. If we say we're going to boycott a company and don't do it because
they claim to have changed, that makes us look stupid.

------
raldi
The reporter from TechCrunch refers to GoDaddy's "new CEO Warren Adelman", but
according to CrunchBase, he's been in that position for over two and a half
years:

<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/warren-adelman>

~~~
oozcitak
The page was edited a week ago. He appears to be COO before that:

<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/warren-adelman/diff/12/13>

------
shuri
So what would you do if you were Godaddy? I say it would have to come from
Daddy himself. He would have to say something to the effect of: Obviously we
have mistepped here and we are taking it as a wake-up call. We are here
because of our customers and in the future we will do all we can to listen to
them and defend their interests and rights. Later actually do that.

~~~
motoford
I don't see Bob Parsons doing that, at least not with any sort of sincerity.

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sixothree
"Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers..."

At least it's honest.

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dkl
Opposes in current form. I don't believe they've changed their stance. It's
just a ploy to get people to stop transferring domains.

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csmt
Moved my hosting service out of Godaddy. Next is to move my domain name as
well.

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jgeralnik
So someone at Godaddy read a reddit comment about how Godaddy still doesn't
oppose SOPA, and interpreted that as "Godaddy hasn't used the word oppose."

That is not the main issue. Using the word oppose does not change your
position. Just as Godaddy's support of SOPA involved helping to write it,
Godaddy's opposition of SOPA - to show that they actually oppose it - must
involve active campaigning against the bill, and working towards making it
fail.

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daimyoyo
Sorry godaddy. You supported this trash legislation and only changed your
position once that support started costing you money. You've already committed
the crime. Now you have to deal with the consequences.

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brudgers
Why should I give a shit about Godaddy?

Godaddy doesn't have a vote in congress.

Anyone who wants to impact the companies actually responsible for the
legislation with their consumer choices should stop buying Disney videos for
their princesses, Nike's for the little jock, and Vitton for their spouse.

And of course cancel their cable/sattelite TV along with their iTunes account,
stop going to the movies, professional sporting events, and forgo all branded
electronics.

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wtvanhest
If we really wanted to hurt SOPA we would continue transferring domains to
make an example of the company. I will check my domains by Monday and transfer
any I have with go daddy.

I'd reconsider if they used their Superbowl ad to oppose sopa based on its
ridiculousness and explain why it is so bad for America and the world.

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paulhauggis
It's okay, the Internet mob that told everyone to leave Godaddy won't change
their opinion.

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ultramundane828
In my eyes, this is yet another reason to avoid GoDaddy. I wouldn't invest
alongside a known con artist, no matter how she tries to demonstrate her
changed nature.

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dasil003
I don't want them to oppose SOPA legitimately because that will make it harder
to hate them unequivocally.

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sitkack
Too late, too soon. Go kill more elephants.

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michaelty
In an email? Whatever.

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maeon3
I oppose my own plan to break into my friends houses and install noise
cancelling censorship devices (for my own profit) because there is a lack of
consensus.

Well, they are getting warmer at least. I get the feeling that the only thing
they are sorry about is that they got caught with helping the government
censor the Web to increase profits. I expect more sopa legislation more
cleverly hidden in the future from Godaddy.

Its easy to do Godaddy. One sentence: "censorship of the internet is wrong".
They wont admit that though.

