Imgur.com: Why We Dumped GoDaddy

Velcroman1 writes "On the eve of what has been dubbed "Dump Go Daddy Day," imgur.com — the massive image hosting site responsible for an astonishing 28 terabytes of bandwidth and nearly 200 million page views per day — has already changed its registry entries, foreshadowing the potential negative effect of a boycott set to begin Thursday morning. GoDaddy.com originally supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) but quickly recanted its position when the call for a boycott circulated. 'The outcry kind of forced our hand,' imgur founder and owner Alan Schaaf said. 'I'm against the SOPA act and imgur as a company is against it. We just feel it is terrible that GoDaddy.com would support this legislation.'"

Comments

Yea, well...

[Black Parrot]

GoDaddy.com originally supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) but quickly recanted its position when the call of a boycott circulated.

Nothing like money-at-stake to reveal whether someone has a spine.

Re:Yea, well...

[Arancaytar]

Better spinelessly stop supporting evil than courageously continuing to support it, though. Boycott worked exactly as intended, that's great news.

Re:Yea, well...

[Spad]

This is the problem with assigning anthropomorphic characteristics to companies; in the context of people, I would rather that someone have the strength of conviction to make and stick with the choice that they believe is right, rather than flip back and forth to fit the prevailing opinion (subject to the original decision having been made with all the facts).

With companies though, it's really not possible for them to ignore things like this because of the likely impact on their business, so while GoDaddy are just shamelessly pretending to drop support for SOPA to vainly try and appease The Internet, they don't really have a choice. Of course, they could have made the right choice in the first place, but they're dicks, so that wasn't going to happen.

Either way, their initial support for SOPA and helping to write it to get themselves immunity from its provisions mean that regardless of their recent actions, there's no way I'd ever give them my business now.

Re:Yea, well...

[rtfa-troll]

Boycott worked exactly as intended....

It's astounding how long a meme can keep going. Go Daddy has not changed it's view; it has not changed it's actions; it has just removed a couple of press releases about those actions and started to support SOPA behind the scenes. If Go Daddy had changed their viewpoint, and actually was opposed to SOPA now, then we should stop the boycott and concentrate on others who are worse. However, this is not a decision we need to make. Even as I post today Go Daddy's "general counsel and corporate secretary" has a blog posting up which clearly states her opinion in support of SOPA and is undersigned in her official role.

If Christine is acting against company policy then Go Daddy needs to be disciplining her now. Lets be clear; not because of what she believes, but because she has a representative role for the company, is directly opposing and contradicting company policy and is doing so using the name of Go Daddy to get publicity for that role. Also because she was involved in drafting SOPA and should take responsibility for the mess that it is which is a clear and visible failure to work in Go Daddy's customers interests.

If Go Daddy is still employing her without disciplinary action, and that blog posting is still up then Go Daddy is effectively supporting SOPA and should continue to be boycotted.

Re:Yea, well...

[Decameron81]

...I would rather that someone have the strength of conviction to make and stick with the choice that they believe is right, rather than flip back and forth to fit the prevailing opinion...

In this particular case, I do agree that GoDaddy has no merit in their change of mind - because they are acting consistently bad with their customers, and don't really seem to have changed their mind at all.

But it seems to me as if in our society we preferred that people stick to their decisions, rather than change their mind if there's overwhelming evidence that they've been wrong. Does it make sense?

Recognizing mistakes and dealing properly with them is IMHO a very rare and positive trait, which should always be encouraged. Think of how much better things would be if this was more widely encouraged.

Re:Yea, well...

[jellomizer]

People make mistakes (a company is a collection of people). For some odd reason our culture has become one that wants blood for every mistake. We hear about a security breach or data loss at Google or Amazon and we go "Well someone is going to get fired!" Why should someone get fired for making a mistake that anyone might have done. Was the person who pushed the button the did the work take all the blame, or should the whole organization be at blame because it was too easy to do that with a push of a button. I remembered early in my career I was cleaning out some temp files that emacs makes "ends with ~", I had a bunch of them so i did an rm -f * ~ vs an rm -f *~ So I ended up clearing out my project then continued onto my home directory. I felt bad I lost all my work, I didn't get fired my Boss asked about backup, I only had some a week ago. so had to work harder to get caught up, and in a few days I was back. But now I became very careful when using the rm -f command. People make mistakes and learn from them. If we need to punish people extra for mistakes people will not learn from them they will just be hostile to the organization that makes it easy to make mistakes and then severely punished for doing such.

GoDaddy wants a reputation as a reputable DNS register. They probably supported SOPA so their name will not be targets as a friend to people/organization who perform software piracy. Then people started protesting it and pointing out how the rules are too strict and can hurt the good guy, so they changed their position.

Software Piracy is a bad thing. If you believe that software should be free then go out and support GNU and other Free software projects. But pirating closed software and state you are morally right to do so, would also mean the people could violate the GPL and other Open Source Licenses using the same moral standards. However we are having a hard time coming up with a legal/technical solution to the problem with software Piracy that doesn't dramatically hurt the honest customers as well.

So if they Didn't Approve SOPA they could have been seen as a harbor for software pirates (That gives them a bad name, and making new customers worry about choosing them).
If they Approved SOPA they would would be branded to be against the small internet company who wants to make the next new thing (Pissing off their key customers)
If they took no position then they would be considered apathetic to the goings on in the internet world. (That would mean that if a regulation passed they may not be in compliance and thus go out of business, so customers will avoid them)
Or they swap position depending what they feel is public opinion (Then you get what happens now)

Re:Yea, well...

[Anonymous Coward]

When the court seized domains last year, it was Go Daddy that became the new registrar and hosted the "This domain has been seized..." page for ICE. They are opportunists who have been caught with their pants down on the wrong side of an issue whose importance to their client base they did not foresee.

But then, if they had any sense of ethics in the first place, they would have known what they were doing was wrong.

Re:Yea, well...

[shentino]

They didn't change their position.

Re:Yea, well...

[Alsee]

continuing to punish them after they've backed off of an unpopular decision

Did you even read their press release? They have not backed off on SOPA. The press release starts out stating that they consider the issue of the "utmost importance" and that they intend to continue "working to help" on the language of SOPA in some unspecified manner, and then astoundingly proceeds to declare "It's very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on [SOPA]". GoDaddy actually has the psychotic GALL to tell us how important it is that WE support this turd.

GoDaddy absolutely did not get the message here. The only message they got is that they are losing $$$.

GoDaddy has only temporarily withdrawn their public endorsement of the law. The press release states they feel SOPA is "worth the wait" and "Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it". GoDaddy still fully desires and intends to support SOPA in the future. GoDaddy expects US to get a clue and reverse our position to support it as soon as possible.

They haven't changed their position in the slightest. All they have backed away from is the shitstorm over their pro-SOPA press release. They are merely trying to use the new press release as an umbrella to hide under while they continue "working to help" on SOPA.

-

Re:Yea, well...

[Black Parrot]

It's like walking in on your best friend banging your wife, he looks up and says, "sorry, dude. I'm almost finished." then continues until done.

In an old shaggy-dog joke, King Arthur goes on a long rant at the queen for her lack of fidelity, and then says:

"And as for you, Sir Lancelot, the least you could do is stop while I'm talking."

Re:Yea, well...

[Alsee]

if someone is doing "wrong," and then changes their mind

GoDaddy didn't change their mind in the slightest.

if that change of mind is obviously [] insincere -- how are we supposed to respond?

The fact that they supported SOPA in the first place was bad, but forgivable.

Getting kicked in the nuts for it and still failing to Get A Clue, is even worse. It's generally rather unwise to forgive someone who is too stupid and stubborn to learn from their mistakes. But at least there would be some shred of respectability that they thought they were doing the right thing and being honest that they still think so.

However their obviously insincere response is unforgivable. They issued a threadbare and dishonest press release that they were withdrawing support in the hope that we would be gullible enough to be fooled by it while they continue "working to help" on SOPA. They feel SOPA is "worth the wait" and they intend "Go Daddy will support it" in the future.

Seriously, how do you respond when someone makes an insincere apology to pacify you, and they do it with the full intention to continue the behavior? Do you stand there saying "Thankyou for your apology, please continue kicking me in the nuts from behind my back."?

-

Let me be the first to say

[Fluffeh]

Que seneveratis metes.

Or some such thing. My schools motto was that. What you sow, So shall you reap. One of those wonderful things that I recall as a kid I didn't think too much of. These days, can't be closer to home. GoDaddy, you fucked up. You got caught with your fingers in the cookie jar. All the advertisements on Australian TV won't help you enough. You have angered the internet. To you, we are anonymous. But we are not. We have domain names. We have money that you need. We have integrity. We have choices. You chose SOPA.

We choose someone else.

Re:Let me be the first to say

[mgblst]

You're so right. This one web address moving, imgur.com, is going to cost Godaddy millions, if not billions or karma. Or about $10.

This will change nothing, Godaddy have already started lying about changing it's stance, when it has not.

Are we still talking about GoDaddy?

[hcs_$reboot]

Yes. And I don't mind having a reminder every other day.
This is not just about SOPA...

Scr*w Godaddy

[Anonymous Coward]

I had all my domains in Godaddy but I was fed up with trying to find the hidden option to manage my domains in pages and pages of advertisements.

It seemed to me that, if I paid for a service, I don't want to be bombarded by ads every time I need to use this service.

I moved to Namecheap and never looked back.

Left GoDaddy Years Ago

[handsup]

This is not the first time GoDaddy is exposed. I remember transferring my domains from them years ago due to some other Bad Thing they did.

It surprises me that they still are used by many high-profile sites who are now only transferring.

Re:Left GoDaddy Years Ago

[Elbereth]

It's human nature. If someone screws over a customer, a few outraged people will leave, but many others will stay, because the company never did anything to them. A couple on the sidelines will be wondering, "What the fuck is wrong with you? Right from the start, I could tell that company was slimy." And someone, somewhere will say, "It was his/her own fault for getting screwed. The company was perfectly justified in doing what it did. They're not a charity."

As a smug asshole who loves to be right, this whole drama has been very fun. Not that I need the validation of the entire fucking internet coming around to my opinion or anything, but it's still nifty.

Re:Left GoDaddy Years Ago

[David Gerard]

> It surprises me that they still are used by many high-profile sites who are now only transferring.

The Wikimedia one was like:

"WIKIPEDIA! WHY YOU USE GODADDY?!?!!"
"... We do?"

It's plumbing. No-one thinks about it. Until it turns out their plumber is HITLER. [citation needed]

Re:Who dumped whom?

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite possibly, yes

Wikipedia also left GoDaddy

[Anonymous Coward]

Just so you know. (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=prev&oldid=467377954/)

Re:Who dumped whom?

[CharlyFoxtrot]

Imgur was created for, and thus heavily used by a little site called Reddit. Godaddy is the McDonalds of domain registration.

But..

[andrewa]

Boobies!
http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1633.html

Mor organised boycotts

[Kplx138]

Hopefully there will be a boycott and more boycotts if it fails to get the message across. Not something that should be given up on because it becomes all to hard and doesn't work the first time, after all how much do you value your freedom? Hell work to vote out every idiot that voted for it. Capitalism is supposed to be democratic, they tell you if people don't buy a product a company should understand that there's a problem with their product and rectify the problem or risk going out of business. Boycotts get that message across, worked well for south africa,

I swear schools should teach kids how to organise boycotts right along side the importance of voting. Generations of kids coming up willing to drop massive boycotts on companies for even looking like doing something evil. When someone says that the market will work it out naturally they mean it'll correct itself eventually and I'll a load of cash in the meantime... oh I'm slightly off topic now.

But they DIDN’T!

[Anonymous Coward]

They *said* they changed their position.
They *didn't* *actually* change it. And they won’t change it.
There's a difference.

Re:But they DIDN’T!

[Scutter]

They *said* they changed their position.
They *didn't* *actually* change it. And they won’t change it.
There's a difference.

They didn't even SAY they changed it. They said "we'll go look at it again" or some such nonsense. Weasel words.

Re:Who dumped whom?

[mdm42]

MacWho?

I'm actually glad that I hosted with them

[cptBongo]

...so I get the satisfaction of dumping them now.

Re:THIS is why free markets work

[Kplx138]

GoDaddy would have to cease to exist for me to believe the free market works, don't get me work I believe that free markets are a good thing but they need some amount of government regulation to balance out greedy dishonest a-holes.

A lot of people say if we had a "true" free market with out any goverment regulations or interference it would all work out in the end. Much like communists will tell you that most communist states failed because they weren't "true" communism. It's all the speak of a true believer.

Free Market Capitalism and Communism are really get theories but turn to crap when you add people to the equation, just like a computer program will work 100% perfectly until someone uses it then it'll just crash.

Re:This is all bull****

[Seumas]

Your comment is probably the most willfully ignorant of this entire topic. You don't think that any of them reallyc are about supporting SOPA or not and that it was probably just some random "hey do we support SOPA?" comment that lead to someone saying "sure, whatever" and then posting that on their website?

Then please explain GoDaddy's role in actively adding their names to the list of SOPA supporters.

Please explain GoDaddy's role in actually CRAFTING PART OF SOPA ITSELF.

Please explain GoDaddy's role in additionally crafting part of SOPA itself such that GoDaddy is exempt from it.

Re:THIS is why free markets work

[jez9999]

For the next year (or so), this will be my counter-example when I debate politics with people who argue that a centrally regulated economy is better than the free market -- as in, "I will happily agree with you, if first you explain this one annoying fact please."

OK, I'll try: domain registrars do not operate in a free market. They are regulated by ICANN. If they were in a truly free market, GoDaddy could (and almost certainly would) simply refuse to transfer any domains away from themselves.

When you hear talk of a free market working and really look at it, you almost always find that the market isn't TRULY free; it needs regulation, and if that regulation weren't there it would be a disaster.

I agree that domain registration is a relatively free market and this is an example of where a relatively free market works well. However it's not truly free; there's your explanation. In fact I suspect you'd be hard pressed to find any market that needs literally no regulation, to protect people's safety, or prohibit companies from screwing customers over.

One problem its who GoDaddy's customers are.

[robbak]

I mean, how do we get lowlife scum like typo-squatters to boycott? Who else would tolerate them?

Re:One problem its who GoDaddy's customers are.

[Myopic]

You, sir, have just given the reason why Free Market theories are wrong: consumers do not, in fact, give a flying fuck. Flying fucks are the underlying premise of all Free Market theories -- that consumers will act to get what they want. I have always maintained that consumers do not, in fact, act to get what they want, and you have just shown me right. Thank you! Remember, markets are good, but free markets are bad!

Re:Benefits for Go Daddy

[Grave]

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I think it's extremely selfish and stupid that people aren't willing to give up the rights that the founders of this country fought and died to give us. It's extremely shortsighted for people to think their freedom is more important than the almighty, benevolent, caring, giving corporation. How dare they! Long live the corporation!

Sigh...

Free market != Anarchy

[mangu]

If they were in a truly free market, GoDaddy could (and almost certainly would) simply refuse to transfer any domains away from themselves.

You seem to have fallen into the common mistake of thinking a free market is the same as anarchy.

Free market is composed of "free" and "market". Market assumes a certain set of rules, among them the right to property. If you have a domain hosted at GoDaddy the domain is yours.

GoDaddy refusing to accept transfer of domains would be like a commercial garage refusing to let people take their cars out. That would be theft, not freedom. What a free market means is that buyer and seller are free to negotiate among themselves the price and conditions of a sale. It does not mean someone is free to steal from someone else.

Re:Exactly

[Bengie]

That comedian recently sold his video online for $5 and DRM free. Was all over torrent immediately. He made over $200k profit in 12 days, and still selling. I fail to see how copyright is required unless someone tries to re-sell his stuff or pass it off and theirs in some other way.

Good riddance GoDaddy! I can't stand 'em!

[Frenzied Apathy]

As a web developer, I've worked on a couple of projects hosted at GoDaddy, and I can't stand anything about them - control panel overly confusing, unhelpful help section, horrible tech support, even their marketing (how can anyone take a web hosting company seriously that uses some hot chick to sell their business?). Every chance they get they throw some marketing pitch at you to get you to add on to your services.

They've had plenty of bad press over the year, too: The GoDaddy Saga Continues, GoDaddy Loses over 21000 Domains in One Day, GoDaddy Reverses Course on SOPA, GoDaddy VP Caught Bidding Against Customers.

Every new client I get I recommend they not use GoDaddy - if they insist, I tell them to find another developer...

SLASHDOT YOU MORONS

[Weezul]

Could you PLEASE STOP saying that GoDaddy recanted its support for SOPA!

GoDaddy has NOT withdrawn its official congressional support for SOPA