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I posted last week about SOPA and what a broadly written and poorly constructed chunk of legal feces it is splattering on the pavement of technological democracy. Descending now into the maelstrom of controversy[reddit] is GoDaddy, whom among other things has been accused of “Writing the SOPA bill”, blocking ICANN transfers away from registrar, waffling, twofacedness, poor PR, Bad CEO, etc. It’s hard to say where the truth lies. [EDIT: Case in point, the hilarious Google SERP ad below:]
Godaddy PR seems to be stuck in deer/headlights mode; there was no official video response, nor any public facing efforts save a few choice private interviews with folks like Techcrunch.com and the official Goddady blog/press release. A bit anemic considering the amount of activity I have observed on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Youtube etc. A vocal minority? Possibly. Bandwagoners trying to up their page views? Certainly(Us included of course). People actually doing anything? I have seen little news coverage of that. It takes about a week in my experience to transfer a domain between registrars, and this is a cumbersome, technical and frustrating process. There are quite a few problem areas such as lock status, auto-protect, EPP codes, email of record etc and even when it goes smoothly for me it is firmly on the bottom of my “work I dig” list. An uphill battle for the neophyte which, let’s face it most of these Godaddy account holders will be. I would like to see some hard numbers on exactly how many domains have migrated from GoDaddy or to another registrar within the last week.
But soapboxing aside, what does Godaddy owe the public? An explanation certainly from the way they have appeared to flipflop on the issue. Fact #1 According to the original SOPA bill, GoDaddy.com was named as a supporter of the bill- their official testimony. Fact #2 Goddady no longer supports SOPA. This is a 180 which seems to be seceding to pressure- quite distasteful and offensive, little more than a lip service. Better PR would have been to shoot a video… either of the CEO or maybe some top brass, maybe Danica Patrick tackling the bull by the horns, discussing the issue in clarity, apologizing for offending it’s customers, and explaining the company’s stance. Best PR would have been proactively firming up the levee for this exact issue long prior. Other thoughts: Namecheap seems to be the beneficiary of lots of politically motivated transfers… is there a profit motive for corporate to sling mud? Are certain Reddit users getting compensated via Namecheap affiliate links? Who threw Godaddy under the bus and why? (None of the other supporters are getting as much heat).
So what am I doing? Well, I don’t like to make snap decisions. Long ago, I made the original decision to use Godaddy based on the fact that they were well advertised. This meant that every client I dealt with had a 99% chance of knowing who Goddady was, and thus their costs and value were legitimate. Maybe this is not so relevant anymore. The main issue I have with Godaddy is that their software and entire user interface sucks the worst ass out of any provider ever. I could easily write 1000 words on this topic alone but suffice it to say the primary reason my inventory is still with them is that it is time consuming to move it. Likely I will transfer the few personal domains I have renewing soon but I am not under any illusion that it will influence Godaddy in the slightest. Instead my decision will be motivated by price, UX and service. In closing, I will post(or email you) detailed instructions on how to change your registrar. If any past, present or prospective clients would like this service feel free to contact me. I am also happy to explain why SOPA is both a terrible law and an inevitable concept; what is really motivating Godaddy (Hint: Not the Consumer) and the implications for your online business.
Sources: Reddit | TechCrunch | SOPA Progress
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