

Verifed GoDaddy Employee is conducting an AMA on reddit right now - kefs
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nrptu/iama_real_godaddy_employee_amaa/

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jimmyjim
Go Daddy realizes it perfectly well the part Reddit played in this whole
fiasco and how much of an effect it can potentially have in the future for its
business, so it's very, very difficult to buy that this isn't a calculated PR
move.

Everything from a delicately created image of a conscientious, personable,
diligent, innocent worker who is ... well, just reiterating everything that
has been said in the past by Go Daddy's official blogs and elsewhere (a back
story to Parson killing the elephant that you don't know about, assurances
that Go Daddy doesn't support SOPA, an acutely indifferent, and sometimes
slightly apologetic explanation for the sexist ads--'they work!') ... to being
aware of all the nuanced mannerisms compatible with Reddit's culture and
playing them the right way. This is really actually their best damage-
controlling PR move on this thing.

~~~
Selfcommit
So being able to mimic nuanced mannerisms on reddit is now a marketable social
media skill...

~~~
dotBen
I'm sure there are PR flaks that would list that as a skill.

It's not a million miles away from startups and tech companies encouraging
their most personable employees to hang out on HN and other places to help
increase the profile of said company.

------
est
GoDaddy stories has been flooding Hacker News and technology.reddit.com for
quite a while now. I don't think this will be their last PR move.

~~~
billpatrianakos
Why is everyone so cynical around here? Even if the guy is from PR, which I
doubt, his story checks out. I know we all pride ourselves on being smarter
than the rest around here but I think popular opinion is wrong on this one.
The backlash against them for supporting SOPA seems to have put blinders on us
all. Their support was wrong and when they took it back it wasn't very
convincing. But they really didn't help write the bill. After they came out
supporting SOPA the media grabbed on to the narrative we helped create and now
all the stories are focused on them which is leading to a lot of this
misinformation we're taking as truth. What's worse is that our anger towards
them for supporting the bill won't allow us to see past the hype, realize that
yeah, all registrars are exempt, and no, they didn't help write the bill.

I know these facts cannot and never will be excusable but I think we need to
start putting this into perspective. Okay, GoDaddy are assholes, let's not
support them but let's also quit obsessing over them and get back to SOPA
itself. I don't think there's anything else we can discuss about GoDaddy that
will help defeat SOPA. Why not focus on what the committee is doing now
because I promise GoDaddy isn't the secret hand behind it all and watching
them isn't going to help us one bit.

~~~
cdcarter
Why is everyone so cynical around here? Because they think that PR is evil and
deliberate and not just a part of day to day life. PR encompasses everything a
company does publicly, not just spinning bad situations.

~~~
yuhong
IMO, top-down control of the message is just fundamentally flawed nowadays.
Moving away from it would go a long way toward allowing non-anonymous AMAs.

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redthrowaway
Maybe my tastes have just changed, but the quality of the discussion in that
AMA is far worse than i remember them being. About half the root questions,
and maybe 10% of the followup threads are decent. Maybe it's just because
GoDaddy is a hot topic on reddit right now, and so drags out those without
much to say, but it's sad to see.

~~~
mkopinsky
Agreed. Usually on these kind of things I find that the crap gets hidden, but
here it was very much present.

Only thing worth seeing: Employee: "... everyone I speak to at GoDaddy either
opposes SOPA or doesn't know enough to have an opinion." Redditor: "That's
odd. Among redditors it's usually both."

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gulbrandr
Sorry for the dumb question: what is an AMA?

~~~
asmosoinio
Ask me Anything discussion on reddit.com

~~~
gulbrandr
Thank you.

------
billpatrianakos
I'm so glad he came forward. Maybe now some of the hyperbole can stop. I've
been reading stories of the following 2 types:

1\. Blogs offering commentary on another story about GoDaddy's role in this
and pretty much saying "GoDaddy wrote the bill and gave themselves a bunch of
perks".

2\. The actual sources of those original blogs. It's funny how the sources say
no such thing and actually corroborate this GoDaddy employee's story.

If you just read the original sources you'll see that he's right in saying
that GoDaddy didn't write the bill and really did just ask to redefine a few
points. It's also totally true that all registrars get the exemption.

I've stopped commenting on these stories because the second someone introduces
a little rationality into the discussion the downvotes and gang-up start
flying. I'm no GoDaddy apologist. I think they're assholes for coming out in
support of SOPA like everyone else. But why are we focusing so much on them?
These stories aren't true. They simply mention GoDaddy and take on a life of
their own. Ever since GoDaddy got brought up we've totally gotten distracted.
Badly. I don't know why GoDaddy came out in support of SOPA. I'd guess it was
so they could hedge their bets in case it passed. It's still wrong but I'm not
about to go all conspiracy-theory and buy into any theory along the lines that
imply GoDaddy is some sort of oppressive evil company for some mysterious
reason.

Come on guys, let's be reasonable here. What the guy says is true. I've been a
long time GoDaddy hater but even I can't get on board with a lot of this
misinformation floating around. Sorry if it's not the popular opinion but it's
the truth.

~~~
wnight
> I've stopped commenting on these stories

Really? Not very well.

> If you just read the original sources you'll see that he's right in saying
> that GoDaddy didn't write the bill and really did just ask to redefine a few
> points. It's also totally true that all registrars get the exemption.

Oh, no harm done then. They only refined it, they didn't create it from
scratch.

> I'm no GoDaddy apologist. I think they're assholes for coming out in support
> of SOPA like everyone else. But why are we focusing so much on them?

There's more than one other person on HN, and people can do more than one
thing at once. "We" are focusing on a bunch of things.

> These stories aren't true. They simply mention GoDaddy and take on a life of
> their own. Ever since GoDaddy got brought up we've totally gotten
> distracted.

Not all of those stories are true, you mean. Because they did support SOPA.
And they did make some refinements to SOPA. Maybe their CEO didn't practice
satanic rituals before killing the elephant but the verified portions of the
story are still damning enough.

> It's still wrong but I'm not about to go all conspiracy-theory and buy into
> any theory along the lines that imply GoDaddy is some sort of oppressive
> evil company for some mysterious reason.

Of course not. They're an oppressive evil company because it's profitable.

~~~
billpatrianakos
Granted, I have commented on a lot of these stories but there are so many of
them filling up every page of HN lately that if you look at the bigger picture
I really have stopped because they all pretty much repeat each other. It's a
big echo chamber.

Now, I'm not saying there's "no harm done" because they only redefined the
terms. What I'm saying is that it seems like we're focusing so narrowly on one
SOPA related story and missing the larger picture. Hasn't the GoDaddy story
played itself out? There are other angles than GoDaddy and I'd be surprised if
anyone is learning anything new or benefitting at all from these new ones.
After the first 3 days of almost all GoDaddy/SOPA stories around here I think
we've said all there is to say about it. At this point its gone from
constructive discussion to just a lot of repitition and whining.

And yeah, I did mean not _all_ the stories are true. Why do people have to
nitpick? You obviously knew what I meant and I'm sure others are smart enough
to get it too. The stories I was referring to we're the ones implying that
GoDaddy wrote SOPA and that they gave themselves an exemption from it as if
they're the only ones getting that exemption.

My original comment was a perfectly valid and reasonable point. If you start
cherry picking tiny little details you don't agree with or that aren't
perfectly worded then you're missing the whole point. Let me state the point
very concisely and maybe you'll find you actually agree with me:

The GoDaddy stories have become repetitive and unproductive. The stories have
been polluted with misinformation and false assumptions. We've said all there
is to say and this is distracting us from stopping this bill from passing.
Boycotting them is a great way to protest but let's talk about some other
things we can do like we had been doing before the GoDaddy story broke.

This whole thing reminds me of how politicians use news cycles to their
advantage. Sometimes you can't get around bad press so you pick out one aspect
of a story to get the public all riled up this distracting them from the real
story. What is the real story? I have no idea and I'm sure I couldn't find out
on HN as it stands now because we're caught up in an infinite loop of the
"GoDaddy wrote SOPA and gave itself exemptions" story.

~~~
wnight
> Let me state the point very concisely and maybe you'll find you actually
> agree with me:

> The GoDaddy stories have become repetitive and unproductive. The stories
> have been polluted with misinformation and false assumptions. We've said all
> there is to say and this is distracting us from stopping this bill from
> passing. Boycotting them is a great way to protest but let's talk about some
> other things we can do like we had been doing before the GoDaddy story
> broke.

I somewhat agree. But the reason I was nitpicking is because those details
matter.

GoDaddy isn't blameless. In fact, while they didn't write specific exemptions
for themselves they did tweak it for their own good (undoubtedly). If they
merely get spanked a bit they'll be back to business as usual in a few weeks
and will continue supporting SOPA even if quietly. If they get put out of
business and every employee above janitorial is black-listed unless they
specifically renounce SOPA and the GoDaddy leaders then future companies will
be less willing to try this and future employees will be more willing to leave
instead of trotting out "but then who'd feed my kids?" excuses. That sort of
fear might actually change things.

In fact, I think we don't stand a chance in hell of stopping SOPA in the big
picture. If we do stop this specific bill they'll reintroduce it with a kiddy-
porn focus and we'll all be monsters for daring to speak out against it.

In the end our only hope is uncensorable technologies because as long as any
group is in control of communications technologies they'll find a need to
censor and limit them. Fighting SOPA seems to me like as much of a waste of
time as fighting GoDaddy does to you.

But if we could exact real, lasting, damage to some of its supporters it would
be harder for this sort of thing to be done again.

> Hasn't the GoDaddy story played itself out?

Does the CEO still get paid? If so, no.

> What I'm saying is that it seems like we're focusing so narrowly on one SOPA
> related story and missing the larger picture.

Some of us, yes. Others, no. Why don't you stop exhorting others to do what
you want, stop contributing to the noise, and go attack the bigger picture in
your own way. Then you'd have something to post to HN and you might win
supporters away from the GoDaddy hate-fest where you could never chase them
away.

