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Wikipedia To Dump GoDaddy Over SOPA
Reader jampola points out that Wikimedia's Jimmy Wales last week said clearly what was only hinted at earlier in the month; now "It's not only imgur (among many others) who are giving GoDaddy the flick; it also appears Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikimedia, will be making the change. While unsure to what effect Wikimedia utilizes the services of GoDaddy, I imagine this could very well be another public blow for GoDaddy in the wrong direction over their decision to support SOPA."
I can't but happy with their service. Clean, fast user interface with no horrible upselling like with GoDaddy. They are against SOPA and have worked great for years. I can only recommend them.
In response, GoDaddy will now have various pictures of Danica Patrick at the top of all of their site's pages, urgently pleading people to register domains with them.
The caption would be:
If everyone reading this registered 5 domains with us, we could end the internet today. Please read a personal appeal. Please help.
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
hover.com/tucows is another that has come out against SOPA. UI is decent. $10 to transfer a domain. No upselling.
Reply to That ||
What do you mean by "big"?
Do you mean:
"big"==" well known companies who use godaddy"
Or
"big"==" companies that have a large number of domanis and related services from godaddy" ?
Because there are people/companies with thousands of domains, which they could pull from godaddy and make a noticible dent in their profits instantly by making the switch, but they wouldn't inspire anyone else to do the same.
However wikimedia, may only have a few domains and services, but inspire others to do the same.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
A lot of people/companies movies their domains away, not just wikipedia or imgur, or the humble bundle people. A lot of people have done it. I wrapped up moving my domains today (started after the previous domain dispute wit godaddy that was reported on /.).
It would be more interesting to see what companies, specially those that rely on user contribution, decided not to move away from the shitty registrar called GoDaddy.
For who care, I moved my domains to Gandi. So far the service is great, the gratis DNS management is also ok (you can pretty much copy paste zone files). Gandi is a non-US company (French), they support EFF (and a bunch of other projects /.ers like), oppose SOPA: http://www.gandibar.net/post/2011/12/23/Gandi-s-Opposition-to-the-SOPA-Legislation
Wikipedia and imgur leaving GoDaddy isn't going to make them fold like Bear Sterns
I don't think anyone expects GoDaddy to go belly up over this. There will always be bottom-feeding morons who only care about prices and nothing else. The question is how much business will no longer be absorbed by the GoDaddy sponge and will be available for smaller competitors, and the significance of Wikimedia leaving is that their prestige may inspire fence sitters to follow suit.
Someone had to do it.
A few hours after I finished transferring all of my domains away from GoDaddy, they spammed me with an advertisement offering 25% off my next purchase of $75 or more. Not, "Hey, we'd like you back. What can we do to change your mind?" No, it was "Hey, you were a customer once and we'd like to milk you some more. Here's a not-very-good incentive to buy more services from us."
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
GoDaddy didn't reversed their stance on SOPA. They simply stopped actively supporting it in public. There is a big difference.
They don't mention GoDaddy, but it seems they are also moving away from it:
http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/12/29/possible-unreachable-time-tonight/
In their case they are moving altogether from the US. Are they paranoid, or is this the right move? With the US control of the ICANN, I wonder how much better would it be to use a non-US name registrar
p.s.: How can I change the text displayed when I use URL tag?, couldn't find that anywhere in the FAQ.
GoDaddy did NOT reverse their stance on SOPA. They only removed the publication on their supporting stance of SOPA. So they still support it, they just don't say it out loud.
GoDaddy stopped openly supporting SOPA; they did not reverse their stance. Maybe they should have considered this outcome before being all loud-mouthy and supportive of something which directly goes against what the vast majority of their customers want.
I applaud this move by Wikipedia and hope many others follow suit.
Hey, dickheads, yeah you, Mr Shakedown Artist politician. You and your dipshit friends jumped the shark tank with this one.
GoDaddy is just a precursor of what is going to happen to your political careers. It's a snack for us, a little bit of blood to tithe us over until we can mash the vote button for the other guy so hard it breaks. You can tell the other bums huddling around the burn barrel keeping warm. "I was a rich Congressman until I got fucking stupid and greedy. GOD DAMN YOU SOPA....I had a life!"
Yeah, it's going to be like that.
Take the Red Pill.
Can someone explain why GoDaddy would support SOPA in the first place?
1. Politicians and government no longer represent what the people want. The bribary by the copyright lobby has gone way beyond the pale, and the political corruption of government seems unstoppable.
2. Politicians and government are now costing businesses money. While traditionally the government has supported businesses more than individuals, this has now reached the point where business finds itself at odds with the customers that provide its income, and that is a terminal situation.
The messages are pretty clear. What's unclear is where this is going, other than sending SOPA to hell.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
GoDaddy helped WRITE SOPA...they're exempt from many of its negative effects.
Losing these a handful of big websites doesn't cost Godaddy more than $100 a year. The negative publicity affects them much worse.
I think what is really needed is to get all the big name companies together and sponsor research into an alternative to DNS that can't be touched by any government and you can't sue for trademark infringement. Perhaps some combination of public key encryption and p2p. Then webpages the world over could provide links to the public key to search for. Instead of being able to directly go to a website you would need to go through (gasp) a search engine, then forever hence your web browser could find the site. Perhaps the public keys could even be encoded in those newfangled 2d bar codes.
I wish I knew a few things before transferring my domains. I hope you find this useful.
There are at least 2 registrars who will donate $1 to EFF for each domain transferred to them:
1. namecheap.com (use coupon code SOPAsucks for a nice discount, I paid $7.17 per domain transfer + whois privacy) ...)
2. gandi.net ($8 for domain transfer + free SSL cert + free whois privacy +
I wish I knew that:
1. namecheap.com offers SSL cert for $1.99 extra -- that you can use for ANY domain including ones you don't register with them.
Since I didn't need SSL for the domains I transferred, I skipped this offer and am kicking myself for not getting a few certs
2. gandi.net offers SSL cert for free with each transfer and it only costs $8 (US) and they provide whois privacy
there were posts about gandi.net being more expensive than others, so I assumed the worst and found otherwise today
Now you know of 2 registrars giving you a domain name, SSL cert and whois privacy for under $10, PLUS they donate a buck to EFF.
I transferred around 12 domains to namecheap.com for $7.17/domain and will transfer additional domains requiring SSL to gandi.net for $8/domain.
If you know of other registrars (not owned by godaddy) who will donate $1 or more for each transfer, then reply here with their coupon code, etc.
Things to remember when transferring from godaddy:
1. First, unlock your domain at the godaddy website
2. Get your authorization codes from godaddy website
3. Cancel your whois privacy at godaddy's: DomainsByProxy.com
4. Make sure your Administrative Contact's email address is correct so you can respond
(note that some changes like Company Name, etc. will lock your domain for 60 days!)
5. And finally, initiate the transfer at your new registrar
I found these instructions helpful when transferring my domains today:
http://www.sitepoint.com/godaddy-supports-sopa-heres-how-to-transfer-your-domains/
Here's your chance to vote with your wallet AND save money. If you procrastinate, you'll probably end up renewing with godaddy the night before your expiration and pay them a heck of a lot more than these prices. Transfer today and benefit.
Funny coincidence, five minutes ago, the Wikipedia funding request hit my mailbox. Says they stop asking for funds every year once they hit a goal...but alas this year did not make it.
Really, it is a very impressive service to offer with, as the letter says, 679 servers and 95 staff. They keep it all very, very tight. I felt good donating this year, and that was BEFORE the SOPA thing.
It would be really handy to be able to easily identify web sites that are registered with GoDaddy. That way we could politely request that the admins use an alternative registrar.
No, but it is bottom-feeding to prefer price over other important aspects, such as the business ethics of the provider, the level of customer service, the features of the service, and the general principle that a near-monopoly is bad for both the marketplace and the technology and the obligations that result from the fact that consumers are (barring government) one of the only entities in a position to prevent such a situation from occurring.
Someone had to do it.
They did not change their position. They released some PR damage control to fool people; apparently it worked on you.
I personally recommend Name.com; they have a nice, clean interface, and they're giving a discount for transfers from GoDaddy with the code "NODADDY".
That's true for gTLDs, but most non-US CCTLDs don't fall under US jurisdiction. Technically as well, it isn't censorable from the US, because all the US could do would be to blacklist a whole country at the root servers level. So you can always host your domain(s) with those foreign cctlds. It won't be as generically nice as .com, .org, .info, ... but what's wrong with .de, .fr, .ru, .ua and so on?
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Amazingly, there is a specific exemption for a few sites inside SOPA, of which GoDaddy is one. -__- The corruption knows no bounds.
godaddy supports sopa because of exemption Quote,
"Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), the only member of Congress present at the hearing with any tech experience, having founded several web companies... Polis pointed out that SOPA and Smith’s amendment already excluded certain operators of sub-domains, such as GoDaddy.com, from being subject to shutdowns under SOPA. If companies like GoDaddy.com are exempt, why aren’t non-commercial domain servers exempt?” Polis asked."
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
Wrong.
GoDaddy, the domain register targeted by online activists in response to its enthusiasm for a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright bills, has finally denounced the legislation in response to a boycott scheduled for today.
Warren Adelman, the company's chief executive, said today that "GoDaddy opposes SOPA," meaning the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is facing a House of Representatives committee vote next month.
A GoDaddy spokeswoman confirmed to CNET this afternoon that "we oppose PIPA, as well." That's the Senate bill known as Protect IP, which will be debated on the Senate floor January 24. (See CNET's SOPA FAQ.)
There's a difference between bottom-feeding morons and bottom-feeders smart enough not to believe an advertising pitch and/or assume cheapness based on herd following behavior.
My bet is a large proportion of GoDaddy's customers either A) think they are using the cheapest option B) thought they were when they signed up but haven't bothered to switch or C) just think it is obviously the best service because "the market has spoken"
Someone had to do it.
How about this instead: http://en.gandi.net/no-bullshit
This philosophy alone wins against any other business model, hands down.
Now donating money to Wikipedia is especially powerful. It supports a public benefit org that sticks to its principles of openness, and takes money from GoDaddy which is a scumbag operation. And gives that money to GoDaddy's competitors, which sticks it to GoDaddy some more.
Want to help kill SOPA and the rest of the slaver culture working against us? Give to Wikipedia now. And help pay for all those articles you've been reading, too.
--
make install -not war
Can someone explain why GoDaddy would support SOPA in the first place?
http://GoDaddy-is-the-son-of-Satan.org/
I would have modded AC up, but that link wasn't clickable, so instead FTFY. It took me a couple of seconds, but once you get it, it is an excellent explanation why Go Daddy would love SOPA and it's ilk.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
I must have missed the meme.
How could you have the meme about typing a sentence but accidentally the verb?
Of course, Method320's post was a submeme of the original missing-verb meme, with a compound verb in the usual place, but the infinitive missing. Maybe that what confused you? Compound verbs too difficult for a lot of English-speaking people nowadays.
(And some of us now studying Engrish and Chinglish instead. Those languages will valuable in coming Chinese century. ;-)
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
uh, that redirects to godaddy.com
at least they're creative when buying up hate domains.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
So, the only thing they oppose is the fact that tech companies are boycotting them over it. They absolutely and unequivocally support the CONTENT of the bill. Their old statement said as much, they although they are withdrawing their support, they still absolutely agree with the bill. More-or-less that the only thing that they oppose is the backlash they're getting.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
They did not bow to anything. They just removed some supporting posts in the hope that would con some people (it seems to have worked in some quarters).
They certainly haven't come out against it.
Key members of their staff are still openly supporting it in blog posts (which the company would likely squash fairly quickly were they to be against the company position).
Well, colour me corrected. Ish.
Having actually ready your link, the word "oppose" is actually there.
But they are not against it because they think it is wrong, they are quite literally against it because others are and it is getting embarrassing. They stated argument against it?: "there is no consensus". That is like being against mugging not because the stealing and violence are bad per say, but because they are not seen as generally accepted.
Too little too late for many (far too late for me: I last dealt with that company some years ago, and have been recommending people go elsewhere for just as long).
I met a couple of execs from GoDaddy years ago (about '05) during an internet conference in Seattle. I don't remember if they were founding execs or just high ups, but they seemed pretty up there. They also struck me as slimy. Slippery. I don't know how to put it, but I wouldn't want them alone with my 6 year old daughter. I'm not kidding. They weren't... *right*.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'