
How to damage your brand in one smooth shot - Way to GoDaddy - RiderOfGiraffes
http://jacquesmattheij.com/How+to+damage+your+brand+in+one+smooth+shot+Way+to+GoDaddy
======
c2
I guess I'll be the lone discenting voice and say I don't think it's that bad.
Bob Parsons has always run his company the way he wants, and he has particular
freedom to do so since he has zero investors and is the sole owner. He does
certain things for shock value, such as the super bowl commercials, which by
the way caused outage with a completely different demographic of people.

Slaughtering an elephant might offend some of your sensibilities, but hunting
in Africa is wide spread and as long as the elephant is not endangered, I
don't think your outrage has a leg to stand on. The elephant was used as food
and now crops are protected.

There are much worse things going on in America's food industry then this. In
fact if anything if that elephant could feed the village I'd say this was
actually a _good_ thing.

I can understand how this might offend vegetarians but even then, it's not
like the animal was wasted.

~~~
dpcan
Thank you. Agreed. He fed a village (or more), saved the crop, and it looks
like the people there find this to be a noble act.

Our U.S. grocery stores have stock piles of meat stacked in open
refrigerators, butchered behind closed doors. Animals are fed and bred to be
slaughtered so we can have a juicy burger and fries. Out of sight out of mind
I guess.

Now... MAYBE the CEO of a hugely popular brand should not have participated in
such an activity and filmed it for sake of his company, employees and
customers, but I'm certainly not moving my domains over this.

There are probably employees there that don't like what he did either, but I'm
not going to punish them for the actions of 1.

~~~
StavrosK
> I'm certainly not moving my domains over this.

Me neither. I'm moving my domains because this reminded me of the silent,
seething rage I have for Bob Parson's face.

When I go to a site that registers and manages domains, I don't want to see
your face. I also don't want to see ads about how great your company is. When
I buy a domain, I don't want to wade through five pages of bullshit you put up
in the hopes that I won't notice some default or will misclick somewhere and
inadvertently buy your useless services. I just want to _register_ and
_manage_ my fucking domains.

Seriously, GoDaddy is the expertsexchange of domains.

~~~
erreon
Just out of curiosity where are you going to move your domains? I own just
over 30 domains all at GoDaddy and I'd move them over the massive amounts of
cross selling and insanely cluttered UI.

~~~
vladd
Namecheap offers a 4.99 USD transfer special using the "byebyeGD" coupon code,
valid until 11:59pm EST 1st of April 2011:
<http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/03/30/elephants/>

~~~
chair6
... and just emailed me, as an existing Namecheap customer, letting me know
that I can help save the elephants. Nice fast-move marketing. :)

"It's not often that we would disagree publicly with a competitor, but we at
Namecheap are very disturbed by this video of a competitor killing an elephant
for sport. Check out the ABC News Report (Warning: Very Graphic!)

We've decided to throw our support behind our Elephant friends by offering
domain transfers at a price where we actually lose money.

Show your protest by saying BYEBYEGD again and transfer your domains to
Namecheap for $4.99 for the next 24 hours through 11:59pm EST on 3/31/11
(limit 10 per user, valid for all com/net/org domains).

On top of that, we'll donate $1 for each transfer to Save The Elephants at
<http://www.savetheelephants.org/>

Use coupon code BYEBYEGD and let's help the Elephants together!

Regards, Team Namecheap"

~~~
kolektiv
NameCheap are an ex-client (obvious disclaimer) back when they were a lot
smaller than they are these days. They were a decent bunch and while always on
the ball with marketing, I can imagine there being some genuine feeling behind
this - they weren't the type to stick branded caps on African villagers,
that's for sure.

------
mayank
As someone who has worked with ecologists in the field on a number of wildlife
projects in rural Africa, I find this to be truly repugnant. There are many
ways of controlling "problem elephants" other than killing them -- in fact,
killing an elephant is almost _never_ an option. If the villagers don't have
the financial resources to implement non-lethal control measures, I'm sure Bob
Parsons does.

~~~
Untitled
> As someone who has worked with ecologists in the field on a number of
> wildlife projects in rural Africa, I find this to be truly repugnant.

Really? You know that the majority of ecologists support Elephant Culling
(killing elephant family groups wholesale from helicopters)?

> There are many ways of controlling "problem elephants" other than killing
> them

There is an oversupply of elephants and an undersupply of space. Killing a
lone elephant bull is no problem.

I find it sad that a lot of damage is done to the ecosystem and to other
animals (which may not be as pretty as elephants) because some groups (such as
PETA) opposed elephant culling.

How long does it take for a tree to grow? How long for a beautiful Baobab? Do
you know how quickly an elephant fucks up a tree? Elephants are not an
endangered specie –they are often a plague (due to limited natural predators,
long life expectancy and the availability of water).

And unfortunately due to stupid laws (making hunting difficult and other
requirements) it is very expensive for private game farms to have animals.

I fail to see how anyone opposes elephant culling can label himself as an
ecologist.

\--PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE--:

<http://hubpages.com/hub/Elephant-culling-in-Africa>

~~~
fistofjohnwayne
There is an oversupply of humans and an undersupply of space. Killing a lone
human male is no problem.

I find it sad that a lot of damage is done to the ecosystem and to other
animals (which may not be as pretty as humans) because some groups (such as
the UN) opposed human culling.

How long does it take for a tree to grow? How long for a beautiful Baobab? Do
you know how quickly a human fucks up a tree? Humans are not an endangered
specie –they are often a plague (due to limited natural predators, long life
expectancy and the availability of water).

And unfortunately due to stupid laws (making hunting difficult and other
requirements) it is very expensive for private game farms to have humans.

I fail to see how anyone opposes human culling can label himself as an
ecologist.

~~~
jarin
This satirical response only applies if you value human lives and elephant
lives equally.

~~~
pyre
So true. The Bible says that we are created in God's image and that God gave
us domain to do whatever we like to animals... just so long as we don't
attempt to copulate with them. It should be a crime to even hint that an
animal's life could be valued as a human life... Except for my trusty dog
companion. </sarcasm>

~~~
epochwolf
Sorry if I actually subscribe to that belief. Neither did God give humans a
free pass on torturing less valued species. Animals are given as a resource
much like trees and oil. Animals also happen to have some capacity for emotion
and intelligence. Since they are similar to us in some way we should respect
them, lest we become callus with the taking of intelligent life.

As for pets, it's a cultural thing that we don't eat pets. The bible cautions
against following culturally aberrant activities provided doing so doesn't
infringe on your service to God.

I would hope you will have some respect for other peoples' beliefs in the
future.

(Sorry if I am less than clear, I'm typing this on my iPad and I can't edit
stuff in text boxes very easily.)

~~~
alinajaf
> I would hope you will have some respect for other peoples' beliefs in the
> future.

Some beliefs don't deserve respect.

~~~
Untitled
Look, you can be a smartass and try to criticize other's beliefs. But at least
know what the beliefs of others are.

Criticizing a group of people based on your own naivety of their beliefs is
both ignorant and arrogant.

Read this:

<http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/an-tpr-are-10.html>

Many passages in the Bible explain that humans are _stewards_ of nature.

------
run4yourlives
Wow. Just wow.

Having been to Africa and seen elephants in the wild up close, among other
animals, I simply can't stomach that I'm supporting a bunch of fat white
Americans flying half way around the world to destroy a magnificent animal
simply because they can.

I'll be moving my domains away from GoDaddy asap.

~~~
jhancock
>> I'll be moving my domains away from GoDaddy asap.

I moved all my domains, ~30, from GoDaddy about 18 months ago. It was a slog.
There was no "asap" to it. It took about 2 months to get them all moved over
to namecheap. Transfers gets curtailed for various reasons and the current
registrar is usually little help in solving the mysteries.

I'm telling you this not to take the wind from your sails but to prep you for
a bit more effort.

The reason for my move was the full-on "retail experience" of GoDaddy. It just
didn't work for me anymore. I wanted a more spartan registrar.

~~~
d_r
I also transferred all my domains from GoDaddy to NameCheap in the past year
and never looked back. I was tired of having to navigate a maze of
circa-1995-UI pages filled with upselling. Want to change your DNS settings?
Oh, look for that teeny tiny link in the corner. Want to turn on domain
privacy? That'll be another $9.95, and you have to log in to a different site
with a different username+password to manage that.

Admittedly, GoDaddy has a genius business model IMO. The confusing UI is what
probably makes them their bucks.

------
RiderOfGiraffes
Note: Submitted by me, by hand, after reading the posting and deciding it's
relevant to startups.

Branding is important, and what you do with your brand is important. Actions
speak louder than words. Google is still associated with "Do no Evil," but
that's starting to wear a little thin as some of their actions belie the
mantra. Similarly, you can get people chanting a slogan, but if you do
something wrong, people will notice, and the backlash can be severe.

I would add that this:

    
    
      > There is no way to explain all this in a way that does
      > not make GoDaddy and it's CEO look good, and plenty of
      > ways to interpret it as bad.
    

... appears to have either too many or not enough negatives. I suggest it
should read:

    
    
      > There is no way to explain all this in a way that makes
      > GoDaddy and it's CEO look good, and plenty of ways to
      > interpret it as bad.

~~~
kwis
This is a CEO who, in 2005, posted a blog article talking about why we have to
torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, because (mumble mumble) 9/11. He deleted
both the original post and a half-retraction shortly thereafter, or I'd
provide a link.

As such, I'm not surprised that he turned his personal hunting exhibition into
a marketing expense. He seems to have a deaf ear when it comes to brand
management. And that doesn't seem to have hurt him in any meaningful way.

I'm not sure what lesson to take away from any of this, except that he runs
his business differently than I do.

~~~
barefoot
Right, I find it difficult to believe that any of this was uncalculated (does
that make me a high-mach?)

They appear to target the bottom 90% who needs a domain name. And, they very
wisely get name recognition with non tech savvy business owners who often have
the ultimate decision in which registrar to use.

Look at it from the vantage of a typical conservative small business owner
here in America. Slaughtering a beautiful and rare animal is not deaf-ear
branding - it's shrewd marketing. GoDaddy is not afraid to kill to solve
problems. The association is powerful and on target.

~~~
pyre

      > GoDaddy is not afraid to kill to solve problems
    

Just don't forget to pay your GoDaddy bills...

------
d2
What I find most distasteful is the lie that he "saved a village and fed
them". That's just bullshit.

There are more guns in Zimbabwe than most other parts of Africa. If the locals
really wanted that elephant gone, it would have been machine gunned by two
guys arriving on foot.

What really happened here is that a hunting party arrived, killed an elephant
and left the carcass for the locals to eat.

What a hero.

PS: I spent my childhood and early 20's in South Africa and we hate this
great-white-hunter tourist shit, but it sure pays the bills if you're the
driver guide or booking agent.

~~~
Untitled
> PS: I spent my childhood and early 20's in South Africa and we hate this
> great-white-hunter tourist shit, but it sure pays the bills if you're the
> driver guide or booking agent.

Uhm... no.

Do you know how much money hunters bring into rural areas? Do you know what a
big shitload of game farms they fund?

I would argue that American hunters are the biggest boon for animal
conservation. I see many farms being turned into game farms. In certain areas
you cannot throw a rock without hitting a game farm.

American hunters put their money where their mouths are and pay serious $$$.
The so called "animal rights groups" pay basically nothing and expect animal
nirvana.

~~~
d2
There is no hunting in the Serengeti just north of Zimbabwe and consequently
it's the only place in Africa you can see a full wilderbeest migration. Game
farms have fences and are basically zoos that let you shoot the animals. They
are not a form of conservation.

~~~
Untitled
> Zimbabwe and consequently it's the only place in Africa you can see a full
> wilderbeest migration.

The biggest problem is space (for wildebeest migration for example). You need
large places - in many countries it is not possible.

Some private game farms can get quite big (easily over 20,000 hectares). And
yeah, it may be small when compared to large parks but it still fulfills quite
a few functions.

One example is ensuring genetic diversity - more space for animals, more
genetic diversity.

Another is breeding programmes - a good example is breeding of buffalo that is
free of Bovine TB (Bovine TB is dangerous for humans, spreads to domestic
cattle and threaten buffalo populations.

------
powertower
Let's see who this outrage is coming from:

1) Someone who has never gone hungry for a single day in his/her life.

2) Someone who has consumed 100s of chickens, many cattle, and many other
animals so far... Most of which have been literally tortured all their lives.

3) Someone who has never gone to Africa to help, but sits around all day
posting his/her opinion on how things there (and everywhere else in the world)
should be done.

I'll give you a secret. Want to change the world? Change yourself. It's the
only way. Stop complaining. Stop finger pointing. Stop exerting yourself on
others.

But yes... I do agree that it would have been best for GoDaddy to not post
this.

~~~
fjh
Allow me to point you to these:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring>

Not to mention that you are making an awful lot of unwarranted assumptions
about the outraged people.

~~~
powertower
You are using the above as buzzwords.

Making a valid and logical declaration based on personal experiences with the
society he/she lives in is not a logical fallacy.

A logical fallacy is incorrect reasoning.

An opinionated, consumption-oriented, and selfish society is not one that
produces people that have:

1\. Either fasted, or have gone hungry (even the povery line class has been
able to eat - a lot of food is cheap and there is also government and
community help).

2\. Do not consume animal products.

3\. Truly help others (or anyone but themselves).

~~~
fjh
> You are using the above as buzzwords.

I agree that my reply to you was not very articulate. I originally started
explaining why your points were not relevant to the question whether his
behaviour was morally acceptable, but then I realised that I would essentially
be explaining the above fallacies, even though there are already better
explanations available.

I may have misread your post, but to me it looked like you were trying to
invalidate people's criticism of his behaviour by making (speculative)
statements about their behaviour or character. I know at least one person who
is angry about this and is a strict vegetarian who has done lots of
humanitarian work in Africa. Anyway, if I misread your post and that was not
the point you were making, I apologise.

~~~
powertower
> I know at least one person who is angry about this and is a strict
> vegetarian who has done lots of humanitarian work in Africa.

Agreed. There are people like this in the world.

But they are few, and certainly not the majority.

My issue is not with what is moral, but with how easily people blame and
demonize others.

~~~
lwhi
.. and so you generalise and point your finger towards others as a response?

~~~
powertower
observing != generalising or blaming or finger pointing

I'm not sure how you are getting that from what I have posted.

------
rapcal
Unfortunately all my domains are with GoDaddy. Moving them ASAP. It is
unacceptable for such a big company to have its CEO involved in something like
this.

For years we've been discussing social responsibilities of the enterprise
(I've been on it since 1998 here in Brazil) and then we see something like
this. If it has the potential to make one disappointed and wonder if she
shouldn't give up the fight, it also makes one see that discussing the social
impacts and actions of businesses is still tremendously important and
necessary.

I'm proud to be on the right side of the fight. And I'm ashamed of having my
domains hosted with the slaughterhouse registrar.

~~~
dc2k08
I found an email in my inbox today from a competitor who are taking advantage
of the PR disaster by offering a discount and a charitable contribution to
anyone wishing to transfer their domains to them over this. Here's a
screenshot: <http://i.imgur.com/za7G6.png>

------
rriepe
I don't agree with GoDaddy's lowest common denominator branding strategy, but
it seems to have served them well over the years. It's hard to argue with
results.

Make no mistake though, this is just as much a part of their branding strategy
as their stupid, tasteless Super Bowl commercials. They'll probably make a
token PR apology to hedge their bets here, but this reinforces their "brand"
more than it damages it.

~~~
olefoo
To paraphrase P.T. Barnum "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of
the buying public."

~~~
chc
It's worth remembering that the producers of "Bumfights" went out of business
due to lawsuits, not because they had revenue problems.

------
locopati
So, to recap: sexist advertising campaigns for the benefit of the entire
company == OK; the CEO shooting an elephant == boycott. To be clear, I'm in no
way agreeing with his actions, but it was getting fed up with the advertising
that got me to dump GoDaddy for DynDNS long before anything like this
occurred.

~~~
namityadav
Umm -- YES! Sexist advertising campaign = Silly, but I am not going to choose
or drop a registrar based on that. CEO shooting an innocent animal = A company
that I don't want to do business with.

You aren't trying to say that showing some scantily clad women is equivalent
to killing, are you?

~~~
travisp
Almost every CEO in the country is responsible for killing "innocent" animals,
since most are not vegetarian. Most are paying others to do it for them and
are eating it themselves, but why is that morally better?

~~~
mc2k
This is a form of blood sport (i.e. killing for personal entertainment).
Animals that are destined for human consumption aren't generally killed for
entertainment.

------
elvirs
Why did the village need Bob to shoot the elephant? What, the villagers do not
have guns? or do not know how to use them? these guys use AK-47 since
childhood and those villagers are much better hunters than an american rich
guy who just arrived on a helicopter. The real story is that local villagers
are not allowed to kill elephants and are fined if they do so. the american
smartass bribed corrupted local government to let him shoot the elephant.
Local corrupted head of municipality gets a couple of thousands of dollars
(which makes him the richest man in the surrounding are) and the american guy
(and his brand) gain cheap publicity back at home. everybody wins, except the
elephant, but who cares about the elephant, right?

~~~
Untitled
> The real story is that local villagers are not allowed to kill elephants and
> are fined if they do so.

The real back-story is that Zimbabwe used to have a fairly urbanized
population. Many young people worked in cities and larger towns (and only
their parents had homes in rural areas).

Zanu-PF is strong in rural areas. The reason for this are numerous - it is
much easier to co-opt tribal leadership, easier to organize genocide (e.g.
Gukurukundi) and more difficult for opposition groups to organize in rural
areas. The opposition (Movement for Democratic Change) had its roots in the
trade union movement - which was undoubtedly urban.

By destroying the formal economy and urban settlements (e.g. Murambatsvina)
Mugabe forced urban people to do one of two things: 1\. Become illegal
immigrants in South Africa. 2\. Become subsistence farmers in rural areas.

With this he accomplished his goals – illegal immigrants in other countries
can’t vote and those in rural areas came under his power.

So this is what you are sitting with now: a large formerly urban population
busying itself with subsistence farming to try and eek out a living (while
living in squalor with a low life expectancy).

> the american smartass bribed corrupted local government to let him shoot the
> elephant.

There are actually two problems. Firstly, all Zimbabwean game farms are
basically completely poached of animals. People need food and bushmeat is as
good as any.

Secondly, expensive game (such as Rhino) was hunted illegally.

I doubt the second case is of concern – since elephants are not that
expensive.

------
jrockway
I doubt that even a video of Parsons raping small children would affect their
sales. As long as they are slightly cheaper than other registrars and offer
the same functionality, they will always have customers. People don't vote
with their wallets, and have very short memories anyway.

(DNS is something I consider too important to delegate to the lowest bidder,
but I am apparently a minority.)

~~~
forensic
It's strange that people will pay $5 for a cup of Starbucks for the
convenience and atmosphere, but insist on saving $3/year by going with the
most obnoxious DNS registrar.

You couldn't pay me enough to have to put up with the GoDaddy bullshit. I have
no idea why anyone does. It basically costs nothing extra to choose a
registrar that respects you and provides a non-ridiculous interface.

------
jonknee
The part that struck me the most odd is he claims that this is the most
fulfilling thing he does. He must be pretty hard up for fulfilling activities.

~~~
forensic
He sees himself as the hero of the village. Practically a superhero to these
Africans.

You don't see how a massive narcissist would find that fulfilling?

~~~
AndyKelley
I don't see how he'd find it more fulfilling than being CEO of a massively
successful tech company.

------
dools
In my opinion, the animal cruelty side of this pails in comparison to the
total and utter obtuseness of playing an AC/DC track over the top of a bunch
of people who are clearly starving scrambling for a hunk of meet like some
post apocalyptic nightmare!!

It doesn't really surprise me coming from this guy because the he is obviously
obtuse (NASCAR sponsorship, Pamela Anderson ads etc.) but I found the graphic
pictures of the slaughtered elephant far less confronting than the fact that
he turned the life or death struggle of these desperate people into a sideshow
spectacle for his PR exercise.

------
grandalf
Anyone who has had the misfortune of registering a domain with GoDaddy and
using its horrible user interface to try to adjust DNS settings will not be
surprised by this.

GoDaddy should have been out of business a long time ago just due to the
horrid usability of its product.

~~~
eli
_"Meant to buy 1 domain at GoDaddy; receipt also shows 3 yachts, a skank in a
tanktop, and 11 yrs of "WebPlus+ Turbo SomethingSomething™."_

<http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/status/1553046234>

------
raganwald

      It's not a crime to kill an elephant.
      It's bigger than all that.
      It's a sin to kill an elephant.     
      Do you understand? It's a sin.    
      It's the only sin that you can buy
      a license and go out and commit.
      That's why I want to do it before
      I do anything else in this world.
      Do you understand me?
      Of course you don't.
      How could you?
      I don't understand myself.
    

Clint Eastwood, "White Hunter Black Heart"

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100928/>

------
orbenn
This is stupid. If the elephant is going to be shot by a warden anyway, WHY
NOT let some rich american shoot it? Why does it matter WHO shoots the
elephant? It doesn't!

If you want to argue about whether the elephant SHOULD have been killed,
that's fine. There is plenty to debate there. But who does the shooting is of
no importance.

That said he's right that as a CEO you represent your company--especially when
you're handing out swag. Probably not a smart PR move.

~~~
Tichy
He explained it - it gives an incentive for marking more elephants as "problem
elephants" than needed.

I wonder if a couple of fence (electric) might be a better solution than
shooting the elephant. And all I saw in the video was a couple of square
meters of trampled grass. I wonder what animal court in the world would give
the death sentence for that.

~~~
bpodgursky
It might look just like trampled grass, to you, but it's Sorghum
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum>) which a subsistence farmer was
growing so he could feed himself, and to him it was the difference between
eating and starving. It's ridiculous to glibly dismiss the farmer's worries
about STARVING because you didn't see much damage in the video.

And do you really think a poor village in remote Zimbabwe is going to have the
electricity (and money) to put up an electric fence around all their fields?

~~~
Tichy
Would I be very far off if I would guess that a single photo safari for taking
pictures of living elephants would earn more money than the whole village
makes in farming the whole year?

Maybe they can't afford electric fences, but the GoDaddy guy surely could.
Also now I remember in the Zoo they also don't have electric fences. It sounds
doable to me - certainly not more effort than for example building those rice
terraces other countries seem to manage.

Maybe these farmers really have no choice, which would be a purely political
problem. They are definitely picking the wrong solution, though.

~~~
ars
Do they even have electrical service in that village - and more specifically
in some distant field?

~~~
Tichy
I don't think electricity is needed, just some wall or burrow. Or even just
some trees?

~~~
ars
Wood is in very short supply in that part of the world. And building a wall
strong enough to stop an elephant, and big (long) enough to cover a farm is
really really hard without power tools.

~~~
Tichy
Killing an elephant without power tools is really hard, too, yet they managed
it easily.

Even if your arguments are correct that the villagers are so poor that they
have no choice (which I doubt), it all crumbles down when the rich hunters
come into play. Surely they have enough money and tools to erect a wall.

------
maukdaddy
What a truly awful stunt & person. How can he even live with himself for this?

~~~
shanked
I think that attitude is a bit harsh. Does it make him a bad person? I
disagree. While I can't imagine doing such things, I understand that people
have vastly different values regarding many topics and aren't trying to be
evil regardless of how opposed the values are to others.

I agree that in this particular case its a bad move to release this publicly
because he is a leader of a major company and shouldn't invite such
controversy.

~~~
VladRussian
>Does it make him a bad person?

yes. While i think all killers are bad persons, i see how a necessary killing
may be up for debate. Jumping at the first chance to kill and doing it
willingfully indicates that the person is a moral trash.

------
tikna
Can't believe this thing. I bought a domain name just 5 minutes back, and now
I am feeling disgust.

I have around 60 domains with godaddy, and after watching this I don't think I
will go for any more. Let the unimportant ones expire this year, and I'll
transfer the rest to somewhere else.

Can someone suggest me a good registrar?

------
jaysonelliot
I have thirty domains registered with GoDaddy. I'm taking all of them
somewhere else now - just need to figure out who the best competitor to go to
is.

------
uptown
In the grand scheme of things, my 27 domains switched from GoDaddy won't
change much from their company's perspective, but I will not continue to use
them as a domain registrar because of this.

~~~
amitagrawal
Actually, it will. What if a 1000 customers like you who own 10 domains do it
at the same day?

They sure HAVE to notice it. I've already transferred my domains and I'll make
sure I won't buy any from GoDaddy again.

GoDaddy already has one of the scammiest UIs I've ever come across (with a
possible exception of, maybe, MySpace) and the recent elephant killing was the
last straw!

~~~
mitjak
But where to transfer to? NameCheap? 1&1?

~~~
eklovlfjkeos
Gandi.net seems to have a good reputation here on HN, and I like them myself.

~~~
__david__
I liked Gandi.net's attitude but I couldn't get over their prices. I ended up
at dynadot.com which has a fairly busy home page but a pretty clean UI when
dealing with your account. It's prices are more in line with what I expect and
they seem to have a good reputation.

~~~
eklovlfjkeos
Gandi is slightly more expensive than GoDaddy on domains with no extras, but
if you want to anonymize your whois data, the combined price of the domain +
the anonymization is cheaper with Gandi than with GoDaddy.

------
efnx
This is the final straw for me, godaddy has a horrible UI that looks like a
toplinks page and functions much the same I presume. I've been wanting to move
my domains from godaddy for years, but haven't due to laziness. What are the
best alternatives?

------
awesomea
Thanks for putting this out there. Just transferred my domains and hosting
away from GoDaddy. I won't even get into how I hate the needless killing of
ANY animal. There are almost always alternatives.

------
Artagra
Well, I'm pretty sure this won't be a popular response, but anyway.

Firstly, I'm not really referring to this specific case. I think the video is
tasteless and in many ways vile. However, I want to comment specifically on
trophy hunting.

In my opinion, allowing big game hunters to pay for trophy animals is an
important and integral part of animal conservation. In many impoverished
African countries, their is little to no government funding to conserve
animals.

Yes, there are risk factors. But personally, I believe the additional amount
of animals that are killed due to the argument of excess demand is a lot less
than the number of animals saved by the increased funding for poaching
prevention.

Furthermore, I believe the economic benefits of this to the local community
hugely improve the lives of the local people (who I believe are a lot more
important than the elephants, as important as I think the elephants are), and
that this improvement will decrease poaching.

To summarize: \- I agree that Trophy hunting can have negative effects. \-
However, I believe the positives for animal conservation of Trophy Hunting
offset the negatives in two major ways. \- Trophy Hunting decreases the ease
with which poaching takes place by funding anti-poaching measures. \- Trophy
Hunting decreases the extent to which poaching takes place by improving the
situation of the local communities.

So if you are pro animal conservation, and pro human rights, you should be pro
Trophy Hunting. IMHO.

------
juddlyon
How can you damage a trashy, publicity-stunt-driven brand by shooting an
elephant?

You can't.

GoDaddy is light-years ahead of the competition in terms of marketing.

He may have lost several thousand bucks do to some discerning geeks, which is
not the GoDaddy customer anyway.

Nothing to see here.

------
shakedown
This is terrible. Anyone have any suggestions for a registrar to switch to
from GoDaddy?

~~~
danieldk
I have been with Gandi for years. They are a bit more expensive than some
other other registrars, but offer good service, and donate proceeds to non-
profit projects:

<http://en.gandi.net/supports/>

~~~
elliottcarlson
Not to mention they have excellent support for domains with different tld's
and offer an SSL certificate free for one year with each domain.

------
imechura
I needed to purchase a name today.

BTW, I found this...

GODADDY.COM TRADEMARK LIST

Below find a list of Go Daddy's registered and pending trademarks. Please note
that these brand guidelines apply to, but are not limited to, the following
marks.

Registered Trademarks

Blue Razor® Blue Razor Logo Black/White Bob Parsons® CashParking® Cool Name.
Hot Prices.® Daddy® Domain Alert® Domain Name Aftermarket®
DomainNameAftermarket.com® Domains By Proxy® Domains By Proxy Logo with Star
Domains Priced Right® Express Email Marketing® Go Daddy® Go Daddy Head Logo Go
Daddy Logo with Star GoDaddy.com® GoDaddy.com Logo GoDaddy.com Logo on Black
GoDaddy.com Logo with Tagline Go Daddy Auctions® Go Daddy Cares® Go Daddy
Connections Logo Go Daddy Girls® Go Daddy Hosting Connection® Go Daddy
Marketplace® GoDaddy.tv® Hot Prices. Serious Support.® Mad Dog® Mad Dog
Domains and Cattle Company® Mad Dog Logo Make A .COM Name With Us!® Online
File Folder® Quick Blogcast® Quick Shopping Cart® Radio Go Daddy®
SmartRegistration® SmartSpace® SSL Certificate Logo Starfield® Starfield Logo
StealthRay® The Web is Your Domain!® The Web is Your Domain! Logo There's A
Name For People Like You!® Traffic Blazer® Traffic Blazer Logo Transfer
Concierge® Turbo SSL® Verified by Starield Secure® Verified by Starfield
Secure Logo WebSite Tonight® Wild West® Wild West Domains Logo on White Your
identity is nobody's business but ours.®

Pending Trademarks

4GH™ Claim Your Domain™ Data Center on Demand™ Data Widgets™ Domains, websites
& everything* in between!™ Domains, websites & everything* in between! Logo
Dream Design Team™ Dream Design Team Logo Expert Hands™ Go Daddy Savings
Network™ GoDaddy.co™ GoDaddy.co Logo GoDaddy.com SSL Seal Logo Social
Visibility™ Video.ME™ We Make Websites Easy™ Web Professionals' Day™ Website
Protection Seal Logo

------
baggachipz
Well, GoDaddy is getting mentioned on HN and Reddit, so... mission
accomplished?

Personally, I got fed up with their insulting commercials, horrible interface,
and crappy service long ago. I've since switched registrars and haven't
regretted it for a second.

------
craigmccaskill
GoDaddy has now lost all current and any future custom they might have had
from me.

------
cloudbrain
Facts: 1) GoDaddy has been doing crazy stunts forever (see rejected Super Bowl
ads) 2) GoDaddy is the largest registrar, with 31% market share
(<http://www.webhosting.info/registrars/top-registrars/global>)

Given the above, I would say: 1) He knows exactly what he is doing and why 2)
It is working*

*meaning growing the company, making lots of money, returning value to shareholders etc.

------
kqueue
I like the ad unit at the top of the blog page.

~~~
bretthopper
<http://i.imgur.com/ec4lM.png>

~~~
HowardRoark
Oh Google!

------
rottyguy
I'll paraphrase Justice Stewart: "I may never be able to intelligibly explain
human cruelty, but I'll know it when I see it". Looking forward to seeing him
on the news circuit dancing around like a, uhm..., wounded elephant.

------
Artagra
Well, I'm pretty sure this won't be a popular response, but anyway.

Firstly, I'm not really referring to this specific case. I think the video is
tasteless and in many ways vile. However, I want to comment specifically on
trophy hunting.

In my opinion, allowing big game hunters to pay for trophy animals is an
important and integral part of animal conservation. In many impoverished
African countries, their is little to no government funding to conserve
animals.

Yes, there are risk factors. But personally, I believe the additional amount
of animals that are killed due to the argument of excess demand is a lot less
than the number of animals saved by the increased funding for poaching
prevention.

Furthermore, I believe the economic benefits of this to the local community
hugely improve the lives of the local people (who I believe are a lot more
important than the elephants, as important as I think the elephants are), and
that this improvement will decrease poaching.

To summarize: \- I agree that Trophy hunting can have negative effects. \-
However, I believe the positives of Trophy Hunting offset the negatives in two
major ways:

------
pdx
I cringed seeing the neighboring villagers trampling the same field that the
elephants had been trampling. Talk about unintended consequences.

------
ericmoritz
GoDaddy is one skanky company. Buying a domain is a chore. You have to walk
through a minefield of up sells. The ads are gross. All that hassle is just
not worth the couple dollars I save every year.

~~~
mgkimsal
Not sure you really save anything anymore. I've moved most to omnis.com -
renewals are < $9 - even less with bulk discounts. GoDaddy is now >$10 for
renewals unless you scavenge some coupon. No coupon needed at omnis.com.

------
danielsoneg
What "Brand"? We ARE talking about the same company that puts out ads which
double as Cinemax's 11pm lineup, right?

~~~
pyre
Slaughtering an endangered species and women in tank tops are hardly on the
same level.

~~~
danielsoneg
Absolutely, but it's not like this should be the moment when it suddenly
becomes clear GoDaddy is a skeezy company run by scumbags.

~~~
pyre
No, but it's like they've been digging themselves into a hole. Then they break
throw to a seemingly bottomless pit, and decide it's a good idea to jump in to
see how deep it is.

------
mcherm
I agree that it's a horrible stunt, but I don't see how it can harm GoDaddy's
reputation. As far as I am concerned, GoDaddy's reputation is so far down in
the dumps that it is difficult for it to sink any lower, and that is based on
their behavior as a registrar, not stunts by the CEO.

------
motters
This merely ensures that I will never use GoDaddy's services, and I'll also
advise others not to use them.

------
mapster
Bad taste, up, down, left, and right. He removed any reverence of the hunt,
respect of the animal. Just him, his orange hats, his gun, his camera, his
killing, his audio track of choice, his vacation video. Ugly rich guy video
#93,275

------
navs
GoDaddy will need an extra sexy ad campaign to calm the crowd. Maybe Danica
Patrick will ride an elephant.

Elephant killing aside, I can't use GoDaddy's hosting/domain control panel.
Settings feel buried under layers of links and is just confusing.

------
olegious
Never using GoDaddy again. I'm not a vegetarian or a leftist, but glorifying
the murder of an endangered species is sickening.

~~~
olegious
Just finished transferring all my domains.

------
HowardRoark
There can be no explanation for this. I think we should all boycott GoDaddy.

------
fourstar
Godaddy sucks and has for... ever. I've been with Namecheap and I'd recommend
them any day.

------
kreek
Here's the NameCheap transfer offer

<http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/03/30/elephants/>

------
bitwize
Remember when Acclaim seriously considered advertising its games on
tombstones?

Yeah, way to top that in the lack of taste department.

Guess who I'm not registering domains with.

------
rokhayakebe
You have to wonder who is/are the animal(s) here?

~~~
jodrellblank
Could be worse... "The last license to hunt Bushmen was reportedly issued in
Namibia by the South African government in 1936. " -
<http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0102/feature6/>

------
rdl
This isn't something I'd do, but doesn't really seem like the biggest outrage
ever.

There is one rifle shot which would remove a clear threat to everyone in
Zimbabwe and the region. If the CEO of someone like Xe flew in and took that
shot, I'd be happy to transfer all my domains to his company. (Mugabe,
obviously)

------
knofun
I don't think this will have any tangible effect on GoDaddy's brand except for
maybe a slight increase in visibility via the free press you are giving them
right this second.

As far as actually shooting the animal, I'm not an African game warden so I
can't give any scientific or even remotely educated comment. That being said,
the only facts I know are these: Bob Parsons shot and killed an elephant in a
completely legal way, and was so proud of what he did that he had a
professional make and edit a video which he then posted on the internet. The
people in the video seem grateful and excited that he has done this. They are
also wearing godaddy hats. This morning, a lot of people who weren't there are
passing judgement.

I guess I'm just confused as to the source of the controversy?

------
jrspruitt
I would agree with most on here, this is par for the course considering the
companies branding already, which is pretty cheap low rent stuff. He's coming
across as the "dickish" "most interesting man in the world" here. And I agree
it should be a game warden duty to handle such situations, for the same reason
McD's wouldn't allow old food to be eaten by employees, because it would
increase the chances of there being more "old food." But the thing that really
bugs me is the end, why not have it properly butchered and dispersed that way?
Instead of something that reminds me of Bum Fights. Class is obviously not
part of their branding in anyway.

------
SeoxyS
GoDaddy had a positive brand before? I didn't realize there was anything left
to damage.

------
esmevane
I see that most of the folks here are choosing to discuss the morality of this
video; some are electing to defend, and some showing disapproval.

What I'm finding odd about these reactions is that, viewing other people's
reactions (outside of the delicate shell of opinion here), the clear
conclusion is that this is a PR disaster. From the Twitter search alone, in
the last 2-3 minutes, my feed has gone up easily hundreds of entries, all of
them agreeing about their distaste for this event.

Isn't that where the real knowledge is, here? Whether or not you agree that
this was a bad decision, it undeniably harms the brand in what could be a
catastrophic way.

------
ChuckMcM
Following in the footsteps of Thomas Edison? [1] I've never been a fan of the
phrase "Any publicity is good publicity." But damaging the brand? I don't know
that it rises to that level. Because the guy slaughter's elephants you think
he can't maintain a credible domain registry? Now if he was running a shelter
for abandoned big game animals, sure it would be a challenge but this is the
guy who uses large mammary glands as a marketing tool.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsy_%28elephant%29>

------
tikna
I dropped a mail to GoDaddy regarding this. Here's the response from their
side:

\----------------------

Our Office of the President has responded to your request, details of which
are described below:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for taking the time to express your opinion about Mr. Parsons'
recent trip to Zimbabwe.

As you may be aware Mr. Parsons has also made several comments regarding this
on his Vlog at BobParsons.me which you may wish to review. We hope this
information will be of assistance to you in making any final determination
about your relationship with GoDaddy.com.

We thank you again for your time and feedback.

Regards,

The Office of the President

\---------------------

------
monochromatic
This was a reasonable post when it was about it was stupid to mix up GoDaddy's
corporate image with this stuff. But this:

> It's a good thing that I have all my domains with another registrar or I'd
> be forced to move them.

is way over the top. Nobody's forcing you to do anything. If you choose to buy
into the "CEO image = corporate image" thing, then fine, move your business
elsewhere. But I kind of thought the point of the post was that it's kind of
silly, but yeah, people do conflate those things.

~~~
kongqiu
GoDaddy is essentially 100% owned by Bob Parsons. I've heard that their
marketing department dislikes the Super Bowl ads almost as much as the rest of
us, but the final call rests with Bob.

------
ALXfoo
Look at all these passionate discussions. Positively and negatively charged,
both sides full of fiery opinion.

I thought this was supposed to be a terrible publicity stunt. I say it worked.

------
girlvinyl
Whether or not someone agrees that killing the elephant in this particular
circumstance was warranted, I definitely feel like a CEO going into a foreign
country and culture, killing an animal and making it into a publicity stunt is
offensive and distasteful.

It also seems like many other CEOs would have been crucified for doing this.
But for some reason Parsons is getting much less flack than would the CEO of
Wal-mart, Monsanto or McDonald's. Why is that?

------
callmeed
So much for Groupon's Super Bowl commercial looking bad ...

------
Gaussian
So, Bob, how many customers is one dead elephant worth? Next time you could
leave the film crew at home maybe? Or would that subvert your whole point?

------
Tyrant505
Hi All,

Having been involved in wildlife conservation for nearly three and half a
decades and trying to address human-elephant conflicts for nearly 16 years
what I can say in all honesty is that elephant control is a double-edged
sword. There are no utopian answers or solutions to these issues either. When
it comes to human-elephant conflicts unlike in the proverbial biblical story
where the lion and the lamb lied down together, people and elephants cannot do
the same. One has to give away to the other. I think in regard to Bob Parsons’
affair everyone is too focused on what he did on the basis of the moral
implications of shooting an elephant as pertinent to western sentiments and
emotions and how elephants are perceived in the west. I really wonder how many
even paid the slightest attention or took notice of the farmer whose sorghum
field was destroyed or gave thought to how he and his family is affected or
for that matter the protein starved and raggedy rural masses that descended on
the elephant once it was shot. The average Zimbabwean is living in abject
poverty and I doubt their perspective of elephants is anywhere close to that
of the people of the west. Western colonization has destroyed traditional
African life to such an extent that they are now living in-limbo where they
are neither, westernized or Africanized and have lost their connections to
their own environment and nature. These are some of the repercussions for the
damage that has been done to them. Most of them live hand to mouth - only
caring about their daily survival. Since I live on both sides of this divide –
I’m fortunate to see both sides of this coin but also it is frustrating
because these completely opposing perspectives can be a huge hindrance to
addressing these issues in a realistic manner. For example if we can step
outside the western mentality box and look at it from a different perspective
(from a poor Zimbabwean farmer’s point of view) – probably Bob Parsons is in
fact doing a huge favor to the farmers. African elephants are not a threatened
species in any imminent danger of extinction. In fact they are now too many
elephants in the Southern African nations. But from a South Asian and western
perspective Bob Parsons has done the unthinkable – which is to kill an
elephant and then glorify it by putting it on public display! For that he
should be ostracized and penalized. There is no glory in killing an elephant
considering it is humans who have created the situation where they too are
fighting for survival. If an elephant has to be killed then it should be done
with dignity, respect and with the empathy it deserves.

The cost to immobilize and relocate a problem bull elephant in Sri Lanka cost
on average US$5,000. In Africa it could be more considering the vast distances
that need to be covered. I’ll try to get this information. In Sri Lanka trans-
locating problem animals is a futile exercise since you are basically
transferring the problem to another area. For example if earlier the problem
bull was terrorizing a 50 square mile area – after it is translocated it
terrorizes a 500 square mile area because now it’s trying to find itself back
to its home territory.

Welcome to addressing human-elephant conflicts in the truest sense.

Best,

Ravi Corea -

There will be a site for this but this just was emailed to me, trying to keep
speed

~~~
alexqgb
Hi Ravi,

You seem like a well-meaning guy, but this line of yours is total nonsense.

"Western colonization has destroyed traditional African life to such an extent
that they are now living in-limbo where they are neither, westernized or
Africanized and have lost their connections to their own environment and
nature. These are some of the repercussions for the damage that has been done
to them. Most of them live hand to mouth - only caring about their daily
survival"

For the record, starvation simply wasn't an issue under colonial rule. There
were plenty of other problems, to be sure, but getting enough food wasn't one
of them. Nor was there any problem with farming in general. Indeed, Rhodesia
(as it was then known) boasted some of the most productive farms in Africa,
which was no small feat, given that the land itself is a high and rocky
plateau, and not a lush, agricultural wonderland.

The rampant starvation is the singular product of Robert Mugabe, who has been
in power since 1980. Unlike the white farmers, he's actually responsible for
honest-to-god genocide (aimed at the Matabele tribe, who live in the southern
part of the country.) And by 'genocide', I mean murdering 10,000 men and
throwing the bodies down empty mineshafts. Also, all that hunger? Yeah, it
wasn't just the product of gross incompetence. Some of that was a matter of
policy - literally starving his political opponents into submission.

Seriously, Ravi, are you honestly not aware that this guy is one of the
nastiest dictators alive today? Do you not understand that he's managed to
turn one of the most prosperous sub-Saharan countries into one of the world's
severest basket-cases. How can you talk at length about the situation in
Zimbabwe without even MENTIONING Mugabe? That's like talking about The Great
Leap Forward while ignoring Mao Tse-Tung.

It's just ridiculous.

------
ndaugherty18
I really like how he through in some ACDC while all the hugry people are
fighting for the food. Classy.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Offered as advice: s/through/threw/

------
sdizdar
So it is ok to have show on cable TV where people shoot animals for fun (or
our politicians doing that) and but we are disgusted of killing animal for
food and protect the crops.

This is good very PR move because it hits the center of hypocrisy in wester
societies: our "love" of animals.

------
Kilimanjaro
I hate godaddy to death, guys, but I use them because they offer most tlds
around the world easily (me, ly, at, to, etc)(that's the only easy thing they
do)

If you can name at least five registrars with world wide reach please do so,
so we can have a better option next time.

------
fecklessyouth
I guess I'll leave this here: <http://mashable.com/2011/04/01/bob-parsons-
elephant-story/>

Caution: Ignore if you prefer the stereotype of an exposed rich white game
hunter.

------
CWuestefeld
I haven't watched the video (I'm at work now), but are elephants currently
protected? I recently read about a program where African elephants are being
sterilized because the populations have grown so large that they're becoming a
problem.

------
NZ_Matt
I blame Disney. Killing an Elephant that is clearly a pest is no different
than the thousands of businessmen that shoot Deer and Tahr for sport every
year.

Dickish move by Bob tho, he's truly testing the adage that "any publicity is
good publicity".

~~~
VladRussian
>Killing an Elephant that is clearly a pest

from the point of view of any super-human civilization, humans are clearly
pests of the planet Earth, not an intelligent civilization to have contact
with.

------
hncommenter13
Obviously late to the discussion, but surprised no one has posted a link to
this famous Orwell essay: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_an_Elephant>

------
beyonder
I feel for the hungry guys shown in the video but still looking at the way
those guys are cutting the meat and hovering over the dead animal's body just
reminds me of a quote from matrix by Mr.Smith: Humans are parasites.

------
raarky
ok, so who can recommend a good domain company I can transfer all my domains
to?

~~~
nhangen
Namecheap: <http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/03/30/elephants/>

------
technomancy
It's almost as if Achewood's 2011 predictions are coming true three months
early: <http://achewood.com/index.php?date=01052011>

------
damoncali
It's brilliant. They just drove away hordes of geeks - you know those pesky
techies who only buy the loss leaders without loading up on the profitable
stuff?

------
sigzero
Where do I think he went wrong? Passing out the hats. I was fine up until that
point. This isn't for a GoDaddy commercial. Sheesh.

------
rdouble
I thought this sort of thing died off with Teddy Roosevelt, so it was
interesting to learn what kind of people still do it.

------
rishi
the worst part about this is that it totally worked on me. I now know about
their video.me product.

------
SideSwipe
Any chance this is just an April Fool's joke with a whole lot of time put into
it? :P

------
dennisgorelik
There is no bad publicity.

------
karolisd
It's not April Fools?

------
neutronicus
Going falconing is on my bucket list, so I can't get too angry.

------
logjam
I will be on the phone with each and every person I know who has a domain.

We will discuss whether or not they happen to be using this cowardly
imbecile's business.

I will describe this horrible little gutless advertising stunt.

We will work to switch them over to another company immediately.

~~~
Aetius
Together, we can end violence against elephants!

------
matthewslotkin
If Bob is so invested in selfless help, why doesn't he drop some cash and
build a fence to permanently keep the elephants out?

Also, to those suggesting that killing this elephant is chill because it fed a
lot of people, I'm pretty sure there are more cost effective ways to feed
people than mobilizing an elephant hunting squad.

------
logjam
Having grown up around guns and hunting, I can tell you this guy's story just
sounds worse and worse. Laws and hunting ethics generally precludes use of
artificial illumination to hunt by, cf:

[http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/1321-namibian-
ph...](http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-africa/1321-namibian-ph-charged-
hunting-leopard-artificial-light.html)

[http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10366_37141_37704-3...](http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10366_37141_37704-31392--,00.html)

No "fair chase" here. Somebody quoted Parson's as claiming it was completely
dark as he lay in wait for a hungry elephant to walk right into a field of,
well, elephant food. If that's the case, he either used artificial
illumination to shoot, or there was no very good way for him to tell whether
he was shooting a cow with calf, a calf, or even one of the villagers he now
so adamantly (after he gets called on it) and frankly unbelievably insists was
the true mission of this hunt...a mission that just happened to come complete
with film crew and GoDaddy logo for everyone.

Sounds fishy. I don't fish (or hunt) anymore.

------
Aetius
Let's count the ways in which the media, twitter, and even HN can be
hypocritical:

Driving cars that pollute the environment and force the US to wage continous
war to secure oil. Supporting a food industry that is killing us. Support
raising my taxes so you can live a better life. Use an inordinate amount of
energy, water which is scarce. Live wonderful lives with nice furniture,
clothes, etc that are made by really poor people the world over. Take trips
all over the place, using more oil. Sit at home watching TV and being
entertained instead of being productive and fixing problems (yes, this too is
a sin). Have bad children that will grow up to be murderers, theives, leaches,
and knownothings because you're too busy whining about some guy hunting an
elephant. Have supported tons of politicians that serve to further their own
interests and that of their corporate sponsors.

I could go on and on and on before I finally get to:

 _Legally shot and killed an elephant which was destroying crops in an African
country._

If I switched my domains from GoDaddy for this, I'd pretty much have to
withdraw from American society for good, in order to be on decent moral
ground.

------
rlf
I think many of you are missing the point. One could argue both for and
against killing the elephants. I think what's important here, and this is just
a guess on my part, is that 1) I believe that Parsons was using this as an
excuse to kill some really big wild game in Africa to show how "manly" he is;
and 2) he clearly enjoyed it as evidenced by the big smile on his face in the
pictures. For comparison, American Indians used to kill buffalo but I don't
think they gloated over it as Parsons is doing. They had reverence for the
buffalo and demonstrated that by using every bit of each buffalo they killed.
Parsons, on the other hand, just did it for the thrill of the kill and that,
to me, is wrong.

By the way, I moved all of my domains off GoDaddy last year. I got tired of
paying above-market prices just so that GoDaddy could create those lame Super
Bowl commercials. Also, their UI sucks.

------
drivebyacct2
What amazes me is that anyone here cares about GoDaddy, and as much as it
pains me to imagine, there are probably people here that do business with
GoDaddy.

It's a shame really. Your loss.

------
ddemchuk
This is going to have about as much effect on GoDaddy's userbase and bottom
line as did all of the privacy concerns last year with Facebook.

A sliver of a fraction of GoDaddy customers will ever see that video or even
hear about it. Most people buy domains there because they have hot chicks in
super bowl commercials.

------
LudoTheGreat
Technically it was two shots...

------
dman
On the other hand NRA members might now choose GoDaddy as their registrar and
webhost.

~~~
protomyth
Well, NO. I believe in the bill of rights, but I do not condone the hunting of
elephants.

~~~
dman
What do you use a gun for if not killing people or animals?

~~~
dman
I dont mind the downvotes but I could like the education on what people who
believe in gun rights believe in.

~~~
staunch
If you're genuinely interested (and not just trolling):
[http://www.amazon.com/That-Every-Man-Armed-
Constitutional/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/That-Every-Man-Armed-
Constitutional/dp/0945999380)

~~~
dman
Thanks for the link. I shall read it. I wasnt trolling, but I come from a
country where we won our freedom with a non violent movement so the point of
guns is largely missing from my cultural upbringing. In my opinion 10 million
people uprising is sufficient for any government - with or without guns. That
being said I will read the book and will not comment on this conversation any
further so that it doesnt derail the original post.

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michaeldhopkins
This is perfectly acceptable, and all the bravado about moving domains looks
silly. Obviously, the local citizens (tour guides) in this video didn't want
to tell the warden about the elephant.

Additionally, I have no doubt the owners of many registrars do objectionable
things. The devil you know...

