

GoDaddy Prepares for IPO - seancoleman
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304914904579439542130264508?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304914904579439542130264508.html

======
RexRollman
GoDaddy has too many bad practices for me to recommend them to anyone. I hope
the IPO falls flat.

~~~
ethikal
I feel the same way. I have to wonder - how much has negative sentiment from
the hacker community affected GoDaddy's earnings?

------
zaidf
GoDaddy is the perfect example of a company killing it with the mainstream
while getting (often unjustified) hate inside the tech community. If you look
beyond the common complaints against it, you'll find a company that has made
smart product acquisitions that solve real painpoints for their small business
customers.

~~~
Karunamon
Unjustified? The hate I see on GoDaddy stems from a number of concrete,
substantive things:

* Skeevy, pandering advertising

* Skeevy, pandering CEO

* Bad behavior when it comes to transfers (i.e. wait to the last possible second to complete a transfer out because fuck you, that's why)

* A checkout workflow that makes it very hard to avoid adding extra things to your cart that you probably don't want

* Weak, script-bound CS

* Shoot first, ask questions later attitude to third party complaints (whether they be copyright based or otherwise)

* Their sponsorship of and _carving out a fucking exemption for themselves on_ SOPA

* Unintuitive, badly designed, and confusing management tools

* Unlisted restrictions (their VPS services block certain ports outbound. This is not listed anywhere.)

GoDaddy is the PayPal of web hosting. They're ubiquitous, but I'd bet a high
number people who've been in the hosting/domain for any length of time have a
horror story to tell.

Network Solutions seems positively angelic by comparison.

~~~
nivla
>Skeevy, pandering advertising

Agree with you on that, you have to jump though a bunch of product options
before you finally see you cart.

>Skeevy, pandering CEO

Also agree with you on that especially the elephant and SOPA issue.

>Bad behavior when it comes to transfers.

Nope I have transferred over so many domains with absolutely no issues.
Unlock, get your transfer code, give it to the next registrar and done.

>A checkout workflow that makes it very hard to avoid adding extra things to
your cart that you probably don't want.

Disagree even though you have a ton of things offered, none of them are check
by default, hit next > next > next and you are at the cart. Its a smooth
checkout after that.

> Shoot first, ask questions later attitude to third party complaints

Disagree, even Namecheap has a list of blacklisted keywords that if your
domain matches, cannot be transferred over or registered without the help of
CS. Gandi has the a weirder TOS that can says they can pull your domain for
any reason. Lavabit's or other major domains were located with Godaddy and it
was never pulled. So Godaddy is on par with other domain registrations when it
comes to complaints.

>Unintuitive, badly designed, and confusing management tools.

Agree but I haven't found better ones elsewhere either.

>Weak, script-bound CS

I had the opportunity to contact them multiple time in the past and they have
been helpful and able to resolve the issue.

>Network Solutions seems positively angelic by comparison. Then you have never
had any experience with NetSol. They are most shadiest registrar in history.

~~~
Kequc
> I have transferred over so many domains with absolutely no issues. Unlock,
> get your transfer code, give it to the next registrar and done.

It took me close to 6 months to transfer domains from there the last time I
tried. Throughout the entire back and fourth, shit getting switched. Waiting
periods, back and fourth emails and everything else I found it amazing that
any of that was legal.

In retrospect I could have likely transferred my domains away from them faster
if I'd hired a lawyer. Why anyone considers that 'ok' is so far beyond me I
can only come to the conclusion that you work for or have some kind of stake
in GoDaddy.

------
gesman
Attempt to maximize profits out of deteriorating giant before it's too late.

Kind of "Upsell of a century"

------
seancoleman
I'm a product manager at GoDaddy helping to head up enhancements for web
professionals (hackers, web designers, SEO, etc.). I know we've had a
checkered past, but things are drastically changing and we're making huge
commitments to the web professional market. I think you'll find a different
company emerge over the next few years. It's going to take some time before
the outside world sees what the amazing talent inside is coming out with, but
it's coming, and it's exciting.

~~~
bashinator
So you're ditching the incredibly sleazy and offensive advertising?

~~~
seancoleman
Yes, it has all stopped.

~~~
bashinator
Good. The 2013 Superbowl ad in particular just made me feel embarrassed for
you folks.

------
ricardonunez
They will offer a .net, .org, ssl certificate and a private registration with
the purchase of 1 share. Jokes aside I'm wondering how their bad reputation in
the tech community will affect the IPO.

------
decentrality
I've read every single comment. I think there is 90% bias.

I've been a GoDaddy customer for a decade at least, and yes, it has sucked.
But in the past tense... when it comes to customer support, checkout ease of
use and honesty, etc.

SOPA? Right now even ICANN is a US only institution, so I am not expecting
registrars to be entirely respectful. The Bill & Monica factor works for
registrars too, like it does for married men in positions of power. I am
adamantly against what I see people do, but I don't ever expect it to change
unless it changes systemically first.

As I commented elsewhere, yes - domains get bought out from under me all the
time if I leave them in my cart and don't buy them immediately. Do I think
that's shady? No. I think my ideas are golden, and I treat it like - "if I'm
stupid enough to share before I just flat out buy - my bad." They've
capitalized on so many things, subtly. Key being subtly.

Their checkout process absolutely looks better, and is not like exiting
Tijuana and avoiding buying "chicklets" any more. It is radically different.
Their management interface too. Perfect? No! Way better? Absolutely. I am
almost to the point of recommending them to others. Now, I just say "I'll deal
with it" and use GoDaddy anyway. Not out of any real loyalty, just out of the
inability to really say there is anything better to the point of wanting to
migrate away hundreds of domains, or starting to monitor two separate
registrars. Call me lazy, but they haven't given enough incentive to leave,
and they do provide incentive to stay.

Case in point: my wife wanted to surprise me one day and saw that I had
domains expiring while I was out of cell reception on a business trip. She
obviously has all the necessary to verify she is my wife, and has access to my
domains. If she used this to do something bad, this would be a different
story. Instead, she was able to have a good conversation with someone who
ended up giving her discount codes because she "knew I used them, but didn't
know where to get them" and she wouldn't make the purchase until she saved at
least 35% as I always said I did, minimum. All my domains got renewed, with a
new card being added just to be sure it wasn't using money I didn't authorize
- no matter who called. She is afraid of breaking things and still got through
the process with positive experiences!

I am not finding the horror stories in my experience, now.

~~~
BESebastian
> Case in point: my wife wanted to surprise me one day and saw that I had
> domains expiring while I was out of cell reception on a business trip. She
> obviously has all the necessary to verify she is my wife, and has access to
> my domains. If she used this to do something bad, this would be a different
> story. Instead, she was able to have a good conversation with someone who
> ended up giving her discount codes because she "knew I used them, but didn't
> know where to get them" and she wouldn't make the purchase until she saved
> at least 35% as I always said I did, minimum. All my domains got renewed,
> with a new card being added just to be sure it wasn't using money I didn't
> authorize - no matter who called. She is afraid of breaking things and still
> got through the process with positive experiences!

Here's your horror story.

They allowed an unverified (by the account holder) third party to make changes
to your account.

That's fucking terrifying.

------
adam74
I haven't read the article. I wonder if it involves enticing people with
pretty girls.

~~~
ricardonunez
No, you will find coupons in FatWallet.

------
cicero19
I really hate how the link to this is a non-free article...

~~~
maxmcd
[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCwQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304914904579439542130264508.html&ei=K6AjU8ClBoi3kAeS8oGAAg&usg=AFQjCNFPuD4CVJMHDP1zHgeKR0P7CCBXDw&sig2=cShoatLGL_n_Wf_m_NbU-A&bvm=bv.62922401,d.eW0)

------
uvTwitch
I'll offer four dollars for 80% of their shares.

------
cordite
I would not buy it.

------
tobehonest
I know what I'll be shorting this summer.

------
Jugurtha
Haven't read the article (requires registration) but I am with GoDaddy for a
year. Frankly, it has driven my blood pressure up to the sky.

The is just bloated and slow. Why I must click on Sign In button on the right,
to get a drop-down thing with the inputs to the left ? Are you kidding me ? I
shouldn't click on a button to _unlock_ the form.

The cPanel ? You have to click through a shit-ton of buttons to do the
simplest things. Click My Account, click Hosting, then I have to click
"Launch" to get to the point...

When you try to register a domain, somehow, some things are checked by default
and God forbid you don't check how much money they're going to debit you
before you check out.. So you unclutter the order from all the crap that
magically got added. If I remember, they tried to charge me a second time for
the "Domains by Proxy" service (I'm not sure) which I already had (since it
was simply renewing my hosting, and not the domain which is still valid).

I don't know.. It just left a bad taste in my mouth, and bear in mind that
it's the first company I deal with, so I don't have any other reference point
of greatness to compare it to, still, I think it sucks.

Their support articles don't take into account shared hosting or something.
Nobody tells you that you can't do stuff if you don't have a dedicated server
unless you specifically ask, which you don't at first because you want to
figure things out before you bother a human being.. Which means countless
hours spent reading about an issue and searching the web. It's good in the
long run, since I'm learning, but the info should've been there. If you have a
shared account, you can't do this. One line that would've saved me so much
effort.

Click, click, click, click. Bloated interface that makes it really slow to
load. Bad UX design. I'm as mad as hell.

Next company will be SiteGround. I've seen the ad on htmldog.com. The site is
greatly done. I got the link from ESR's article (How to Become a Hacker). And
since ESR is referring htmldog, and htmldog is referring SiteGround, they get
points of confidence in my naïve, newbie opinion.

Grrrrrrr !

