
GoDaddy competitor offers discounted domain transfers to save elephants - makeramen
http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/03/30/elephants/
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StavrosK
The video headline should actually read:

GoDaddy CEO helps with controlled thinning of population of dangerous animal
while still managing to appear masturbatory, insensitive and self-
aggrandizing.

~~~
freejack
More like "Godaddy competitor tries to capitalize on PR stumble with thinly
veiled promotional campaign"

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bherms
Zimbabwe is home to over 100,000 elephants, when they state the eco-system can
only handle half that many. The video even starts off with a "hunting problem
elephants". I also wouldn't call it hunting for sport when the village eats
every remaining bit.

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JoachimSchipper
Isn't this just a cheap shot? The video won't play on my computer, but I'm
fine with putting down animals that are attacking humans or human
civilization.[1]

Sure, sending Westerners over to do it is nonsensical, but presumably
profitable. GoDaddy has lots of real issues (e.g. Google "godaddy fyodor"),
but I don't think this private "sport" from their CEO is very relevant.

[1] You're allowed to disagree, but please keep a sense of perspective. Eating
a couple hundred domesticated animals a year and telling a vegetarian not to
kill one genuinely dangerous specimen is just silly.

~~~
geoffw8
They killed the elephants because they were damaging crops...

~~~
earlyriser
Why don't just relocate them? He has the money.

~~~
anamax
> Why don't just relocate them? He has the money.

Where?

Almost all of the comments on this subject are Western in the most offensive
sense of the word.

We see elephants as wonderous beasts. However, we're not living with them.

For the folks who live with them, elephants can be horribly destructive. They
don't kill many people, but they do cause food shortages and the like.

It takes a lot of nerve to say that our desire to have a cool animal somewhere
else should take precedence over their lives.

Elephants in the wild won't exist unless they're "good neighbors". That
requires making sure that they're profitable to the people around them.

Parsons paid them lots of money to kill an elephant that was going to be
killed anyway. Realistically, his alternative was to do nothing.

What have you done to help those people benefit from living near elephants in
the wild?

~~~
randylahey
Maybe they should take the hint and move the fuck away from elephant country?
Nah, easier just to kill them.

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itblarg
The swarm of locals butchering the elephant carcass while wearing GoDaddy hats
is by far the most disturbing part of the episode.

~~~
terrellm
Maybe they cut the scene where the other village were wearing Pittsburgh
Steelers Super Bowl XLV Champions t-shirts. A tacky hat still blocks the sun
better than no hat.

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protomyth
It doesn't really matter if it was ethical or not, it is a picture that will
offend people and sounds like a good topic for pundits on 24-hour news
networks to argue over. If you are a CEO, don't do this stuff.

~~~
jambo
Unless that is your M.O. and it has consistently worked for you.

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galactus
Is this the same guy who supported torturing prisoners at gitmo?

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kennethologist
Well I will never buy another domain name from Godaddy again! In addition to
being more expensive their CEO clearly has no heart!

~~~
dpcan
But what about all their employees who rely on us continuing to buy domains
from their company so they can have jobs? Are they all heartless?

So, you are against slaying a single elephant that jeopardizes an entire
villages food supply AND you are for not giving money to a company that pays
the salaries of hundreds of people.

Hmm.

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getpost
CEO Bob Parsons' sickening behavior is reason enough to quit Godaddy, but by
coincidence, I'd already decided to transfer my domains to Namecheap. Here's
why 1) Godaddy's domain admin web site in almost un-navigable. Beyond being an
awkward design, the site makes it difficult to avoid purchasing add-ons I do
not want, 2) Godaddy's grossly sexist advertising, 3) namecheap is cheaper,
even without this promotion, 4) namecheap has more features (e.g., mail
forwarding) included in the basic fee, 5) Goddaddy robocalls me. It's possible
to opt out of robocalling now, but that doesn't make up for all the robocalls
in the past.

Done. Checkout on namecheap is slow. I wonder if they are getting a lot of new
customers.

I feel sorry for Bob Parsons being so ignorant. Of course, I am ignorant too.
May everyone become less ignorant.

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Sindisil
Oh, for the love of Pete.

I use namecheap for all my domains, but this sort of pandering crap may well
be enough for me to transfer everything elsewhere. Don't know if I'm willing
to use godaddy or not, but I must may.

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gk1
Actual "live chat" with Namecheap's support:

Gregory: Hey Asia

Asia K.: Hello Gregory, you've contacted Live Support! How can I help you
today?

Gregory: I heard you have a discount for people wanting to transfer domains
from the scumbags at GoDaddy. Is this true?

Gregory: ...

Gregory: Wake up.

Gregory: ... Nevermind. With "support" like this, I don't think I want to use
Namecheap.

No thanks.

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schintan
Domain transfer's or not,they are getting enough eyeballs to make this a
successful promotion.

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binarysoul
fyi the discount code is BYEBYEGD and it's a discount on domain transfers. I
just transfered my domain from enom to namecheap. So you don't have to be
leaving go daddy to take advantage of this.

~~~
hoop
Isn't namecheap an enom reseller?

~~~
RyanAmos
No. See my response: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2392095>

~~~
dchest
After I transferred my domains, they are listed in whois as:

    
    
       Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R39-LROR)

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sucuri2
Hungry people or an elefant? I am actually on godaddy side on this one..

~~~
ohashi
Really? Because I am sure it cost a lot more money to fly over and shoot the
elephant himself than if he had just donated it to hungry people to buy the
food or means to protect their food supply.

~~~
true_religion
So you are arguing that the part of the money was wasted?

By that order of thinking, its always better to send monies to the native
population than to transfer even _one_ Westerner to the area since the cost of
their ticket would have been better spent on actual resources.... right?

No!

This is not a humanitarian mission---its a _vacation_ in disguise.

The man clearly wanted to kill elephants. Why he wanted it is of no
consequence. It's better to allow him to exorcise this bloodlust when there is
a positive benefit to humanity than it to either fester or be released via
investment into illegal poaching.

~~~
ohashi
I think you misunderstand my point. I was trying to say that if he was
concerned about the amount of good he was doing, just sending the money would
have almost certainly been greater than traveling over himself. The point
being, he didn't do that, he wanted to shoot an elephant and used this as an
excuse.

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ck2
Namecheap is a trap.

They get you in cheap but there is NEVER a discount on renewals, always full
price.

So be ready to transfer again in a year.

~~~
bkrausz
I wouldn't call it a trap: they don't claim renewals are taken at a loss (and
I wouldn't expect them to).

They charge $10.16/year to renew a .com (including the ICANN fee). Pretty
reasonable to me, plus they let you specify your own nameserver for the
domain.

I've been very happy with NameCheap: I was originally on GoDaddy (I was young
and stupid), moved to 1&1 (still young, still stupid), and I've been with
NameCheap ever since (~4 years).

~~~
ck2
Domain names are pretty much a set-and-forget thing.

You can get into a cheap registrar and pay for 10 years in advance.

I'm paying $7.75 elsewhere and perfectly satisfied.

Oh and by the way, NameCheap is essentially an enom reseller,

remember the registerfly/enom fiasco a few years ago?

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

~~~
PonyGumbo
Where are you paying $7.75? I've been looking for an alternative to Godaddy.

~~~
vladd
Search "register domain GoDaddy" on Google and click on their sponsored links.
They contain an embedded coupon code bringing down the .com price under 8 USD
(the ad is targeted for most countries).

~~~
PonyGumbo
It may have been unclear in my message, but I'm looking for an alternative to
Godaddy for reasons other than pricing.

