Poll: Did you transfer your domains from GoDaddy today? | Hacker News Reader

Poll: Did you transfer your domains from GoDaddy today?

152 pointsnh123 comments

In view of the recent GoDaddy and SOPA news, I wanted to see if people are actually taking action.

Poll is missing option: "I never used GoDaddy to begin with because of their bad track record"

I certainly understand your point but the point of the poll is to find out if GoDaddy users are actually taking actions (to find out if there will be a mass exodus).

"if GoDaddy users are actually taking actions"

There has been so much past idiocy from GoDaddy, that I'm surprised there are all that many HN readers left with them now anyway.

Domain transfers are a small pain in the ass, and your registrar is generally nothing more than a name and a number on a yearly bill, so past idiocy from GoDaddy doesn't really mean much unless it was offensive enough to motivate you to do some work to switch, and since I've rarely even been to their website since my initial registrations, it just never occurred to me.

I stopped registering new domains with GoDaddy several years ago, but until today, I didn't bother switching my old ones away from them (I had maybe a dozen there, and several dozen elsewhere). Now I have.

I've been with them for 10yrs and they have never wronged me. The only reason I'm considering switching is the moral reasons with SOPA.

When you have 30+ domains on a single registrar it is a little frustrating to go through each one individually and get the authorization code, unlock them, and request the transfer.

Also, for me, I have domains that I did 5-10yr registrations on, so the transfer and getting 1yr free isn't really that helpful.

I haven't got any GoDaddy domains so I haven't done it personally, but I think people on the other top story about how to leave GoDaddy had all that solved.

You could use the tools to export all your domains, get the transfer codes, drop those into NameCheap (with the SOPASUCKS coupon) all at once, then go back to GoDaddy and confirm the transfers to avoid a long wait. And they even let you keep the time you had registered.

Just fyi, you can generate a csv of your domains and authorization codes by doing:

Domain Management > Tools Tab > Exportable List > click Add New Export button > All your domains > and make sure to select "Authorization Code".

As for locking or unlocking, in Domain Management you should be able to just click the select all checkmark, and click the Lock button to set the lock level on all of them.

None of that should be an issue, even when transferring in, a bunch of registrars offer a bulk transfer option. The real pains start to set in if you have gTLDs which have special gotchas when transferring or changing contact information/ownership. I probably wouldn't even have been able to transfer my .it domains out of godaddy if not for the fact I have a dual citizenship which gave me some freedom with the regulations -- though it still took me hours of trial and error.

One slight irritation on GoDaddy -> Namecheap. One of these sites has a bug where it's either incorrectly generating ACs with embedded double quotes, like ABC"345"DE, or it's not storing them correctly. I did the bulk transfer yesterday, and this morning discovered that all such domains failed with a bad AC. I'm working with Namecheap support now to resolve it.

So it's still a constant-time operation, but the value of C is growing for me.

That's why the poll is missing an option. I've never registered a domain using GoDaddy, but, the way the question is phrased, I almost clicked "No", since I indeed "did not transfer my domains from GoDaddy today". Doing so would have skewed the results.

Technically I should answer "no" on the poll, because I did not transfer my domains from GoDaddy today. I never had them registered at GoDaddy. Perhaps a typical HN reader is not as pedantic, but I expect some are, so surely having the "never used godaddy" option would have made the results more accurate.

Technically you should not participate in the poll, since it clearly doesn't apply to you.

Some of us purchased domains during the era that godaddy was the best registrar. They were not always this bad.

Honest question: when was that, and what was the criteria for "best"?

I've been purchasing domains since the time when you had to mail in a check for the payment (and the grace period was like 6 months). I don't ever recall GoDaddy being any version of "best".

I remember switching to them from Network Solutions or Register.com, who still charged like $99 or $29 per domain (I forget which). It was amazing that they had $9 domains AND they provided DNS (it used to be you'd be stuck needing an ISP for this)

The first domains I got were from register.com at over $30/year. I assumed I was getting great service or something. When I finally had an issue, I sat on hold for over an hour and then got disconnected. I decided to switch to godaddy, the cheapest well known brand.

I moved my few domains off Godaddy last month after the following occurred:

1) Godaddy left me a voicemail out of the blue saying they needed to talk about my account.

2) I called back and spent 5 minutes on hold, and another couple minutes digging up my PIN, only to learn that

3) They had noticed I was using Amazon EC2 and wouldn't I like to consider switching to Godaddy webhosting?

I'm embarrassed that I chose Godaddy in the first place. Never again.

PS. I switched to NearlyFreeSpeech.NET and am very happy with them.

That's utterly unforgivable. Apparently not only do they consider customer time worthless, but they are actively tracking your usage for direct spam purposes. They're not even trying to hide it, and they're using the customer relationship as leverage (don't answer their BS calls and they'll probably just cut you off).

If you haven't done it already, I'd recommend a blog post about this, for everyone's sake. The only way I dodged the GoDaddy bullet was reading about nonsense like this.

And for what it's worth, thank you for being the example or all of us for why these clowns don't deserve our money.

For the record, I received a call from them last week too and didn't return it and have not been cut off.

Yup. I've been a little bothered by GoDaddy in the past, but they provided good service, so I didn't really stress it too much. Domain transfers are a pain in the ass, so when you have a bunch of domains, there's momentum working against a transfer. But, when they get on board with legislation that's going to destroy my industry, I'm done.

My initial excuse was "well, I just renewed them all, and I don't want to burn that much cash". But then I saw that Namecheap appends your transfer renewal year to your existing expiry, so my domains that renewed last month now renew in November 2013. So, I'm just shifting money I'd be paying anyhow upfront, rather than wasting registry time (as GoDaddy often tries to get you to do).

I decided to switch today, before I grew complacent. Almost 60 domains, but the last step of the transfer is now pending, and it feels great.

I'm not sure I understand this. I'm hesitant to move my domain because it's registered until 2019... am I worried for nothing?

Usually when you transfer a domain you buy an extra year on top of whatever time you have left... but you'll have to check with the company you are transferring to.

#4. Nope, already did long ago, due to their stupid commercials.

Agreed; when a company spends enormous amounts of money to brand themselves as childish and unprofessional, I'm going to take them at their word and steer clear.

I definitely moved mine from them long before this incident and many others. Yet I am still outraged. "I once used them before!"

I'll be switching the first thing tomorrow morning.. all 100 or so of my domains. Will be spreading the word to all my internet marketing friends as well.

I'm tempted to write a scraper script that finds sites registered with Godaddy (using public registration info/searching for "registered with Godaddy"), harvest emails, and tell them all about switching.

I could help with this, if you know of a site where it has lists of domains registered with godaddy let me know and consider it done, I already have an email harvester script I've been working on and can easily tweak it to do this, its multi-threaded so it can go to a lot of sites, crawl them and pull the emails in fast.

You could just get the .com zone file and scan them with a load of proxies for godaddy dns servers etc. Or write some Seti alike tool so more people can participate. [Place here spam warning]

well, if someone can handle this part, I've got the email scraping part down :) I don't have access to a lot of proxies to do this

Do not do this. Committing evil even for the sake of good is still committing evil. Do not spam Godaddy's users.

I'm not. I said I was tempted to.. but I'm too lazy to do it =)

Needs at least one more option: switched after past GoDaddy débâcles.

I didn't switch immediately after the elephant controversy, but did a couple months after that when half my domains were up for renewal.

Knowing now that Namecheap and other registrars will actually extend my expiration date no matter when it is, I'll definitely be moving my remaining domains ASAP (some of which I bought for 5-year periods not long ago, hence my prior reticence to switch).

Same here.... The elephant was it for me, too. This drives the nail deeper.

I switched away a long time ago, and frankly, I'm surprised how many otherwise intelligent people are still using them.

They're big, cheap and safe. Have you ever tried to rescue hundreds of domains from a reseller who is gong out of biz or from a company being acquired? I have and it blows. I'll stick with the evil I know and skip the headaches of smaller registrars.

Yep. Not even as a protest... I'd just rather not host domains with a company that thinks it's okay to "disappear" them.

Yes.

I had been wanting to participate in the Dec-29 mass de-activation protest but it just so happened that a handful of my domains were expiring on this 25th. Something I was very conscious about was the hoops and hassles Godaddy makes you go through for doing a transfer... I was not looking forward to wasting time figuring that mess out, but very thankfully the article from earlier today (http://blog.jeffepstein.me/post/14629857835/a-step-by-step-g... ) made that a hassle-free process.

I will be transferring some 50 or so domains over to Namecheap -- either because I own them, or have sway over friends/family who currently are stuck with them.

no because I also have hosting over there. if any of the ssh+git friendly competitors are willing to waive the hosting fee for the remainder of my contract with godaddy, I'll be more than glad to switch. otherwise I'll have to stick with them...

I disabled automatic renewal though - so I'll definitely leave them when I get my money's worth.

ps: don't dish me cause I don't want to move away due to money. sadly money is an issue for me these days... :(

No, I transferred them (all 65 of 'em) back in May. Solidarity with elephants, you see.

Seeing the threads on HackerNews homepage today, I'm surprised so many powerful websites were on GoDaddy.

Just did, but can someone please tell me how to cancel my GoDaddy account? The only KB article I can find about this on their website is either purposefully wrong, or woefully outdated.

I switched away a long time ago when I got a cold call from GoDaddy trying to up-sell me their hosting... when I told him I use Amazon for all my hosting the salesperson was convinced I was confused about what he was trying to sell me having never heard of Amazon Web Services.

Either way... I was stuck with some domains on auto-renew I couldn't transfer out right away but today turned out to be a good reminder that I still had those last domains to transfer. Bye Bye GoDaddy!

I'm unemployed in SF, as a web developer. I can't afford to.

Some would argue that you can't afford not to, if GoDaddy is supporting actions that potentially attack the underpinnings of your income source.

Waiting for the 60-day period after renewal to expire so they are eligible for transfer.

Their service has always been poor, so I never used them in the first place.

Their DNS/domain service is nothing to complain about, and their support is in fact excellent. I had to call support several times, to revert "accidental" auto-renewals and what not and the support people do their best to compensate for the bad impression created by GoDaddy's sales tactics. Zero hold time, settled all issues just as I asked no questions asked.

That being said I still switched two dozen domains from them to Gandi over a year ago. One can tolerate their obnoxious sales pressure only that much.

I had no complaints about their service (other than the fact that they send tons of emails trying to sell more...) but, as a Canadian, I felt that was one of the few ways in which I could do something to express my serious concern with and disapproval of SOPA.

If you have transferred (or are going to) domains away from godaddy because of their SOPA support, please could you add your domains to this list - http://stopsopa.mattbearman.co.uk

Thanks in advance

What exactly are you claiming copyright on? "© Matt Bearman Ltd 2011" gives me a rather bad impression, especially for a protest website like that.

You can't claim copyright on a list of facts anyway, at best you might have a database right.

The copyright message wasn't meant to be there, I'll happily give the database to anyone that wants it :)

Crap, honest mistake. I threw this site together in less than an hour, that is just the default footer in my Twitter Bootstrap setup.

This site has nothing to do with my company, it's entirely personal. And I claim no copyright to anything on it.

I've removed the copyright message now, thanks for pointing it out!

Better question wold be where are you all transferring to? And what garuntee do you have that your new register has the same 'morals' as you now and into the future? GoDaddy is the devil I know.

Question is, how many people here are going to boycott going to NFL games or watching them on TV (including SuperBowl) given that the NFL is one of the official supporters of SOPA?

13 transferred to namecheap.com just now! All of my new domains are with name.com, but I am giving namecheap a run since they have some coupon codes. Used this (which has codes):

http://blog.jeffepstein.me/post/14629857835/a-step-by-step-g...

Sorry but if I'm going to have to reevaluate all my tech providers each time some shitty tech legislation is beng voted on I'll have a lot less time to spend actually creating something useful for the world.

If we all had to analyze the political positions of corporations we do biz with we'd have a lot more to complain about than just SOPA.

I already had four at gandi.net, and yesterday I moved my two big ones from godaddy. I still have about 10 hosted at godaddy, and even though the process to transfer is painless, I have to pay $14 x 12 to get them all moved, and I'm currently in "don't spend a lot of money because I'm in a startup" mode.

No. I've wanted to for a long time but it's a pain. The domains alone are a bit of work but we have almost a dozen Wordpress blogs hosted by them as well. Migrating all of those is a bit more than I'm willing to take on. Maybe if I start slowly and get through one at a time.

Any tips on making that migration easier?

Transferred 1 expiring + 2 that had just autorenewed last month. You don't 'lose' the time remaining on a domain - Hover (probably all the registrars) just take the domain under their control and bill you when the current registration period is up (+ $10 a\per domain for transfer fee)

Moved all 18 of my domains two years ago after deciding their high pressure check-out page had pissed me off one too many times.

All my normal domains went to www.dyn.com and the few obscure country code ones I had went to www.eurodns.com. I've been happy as larry ever since.

I actually transferred away after the elephant incident: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/bob-parsons-godaddy...

I only have one domain there, which I renewed on reflex a month ago, so I won't bother.

I will change next time that domain is about to expire. To help me remember I made a filter in gmail to apply the label "change registrar" to all email from GoDaddy :)

I transferred mine a couple years ago after the last ridiculous thing GoDaddy did.

Is there a list of anti-SOPA registrars anywhere? Haven't been able to find one.

I switched everyone I know months ago when their coward of a CEO was doing his elephant-slaughtering thing.

Just sent out another batch of emails to other friends and colleagues who may still use them, and will help them switch.

I've thought about leaving for quite a while but never got around to it. Now - it would almost be more difficult not to with the step by step guides and coupons. Transferred my 6 domains from GD this morning.

Could there be an option "Still waiting to see if GoDaddy changes stance"?

Yes. This was the tipping point (and the fact there was a guide to do it made me).

Previously, I got sick of the hidden charges they had ("Business registration fee", added with each domain) that you may not notice.

I transferred everything to NameCheap today, but I should say, I've been wanting to transfer away from them for a while now for a variety of reasons, and this is what finally convinced me to do it.

I had all my domains on Name.com, I'm waiting to see what their position on SOPA is; if it's negative, i'll switch to Namecheap. I hate GoDaddy regardless of their stance on SOPA.

They posted their position about SOPA here:

http://blog.name.com/2011/12/getting-on-our-sopa-box-and-sav...

I'm still waiting to hear back from another registrar about transferring my domain - they don't yet support .de transfers, but are more than willing to take my money. :)

I believe I'm stuck within the 60 day policy due to recent renewals before all of this came to light (will have to double check). Will be switching as soon as possible.

I've got like 4 years left on one registration. Anyone know if there's a way to carry over the time I've already paid for? Are there registrars that will do this?

I have started the process for most of my domains. There are a few that I'm concerned about making sure don't cause any downtime while they're being transferred.

Letting Godaddy host your domains actually costs them money, doesn't it? They provide it as a free service hoping that you will renew your domains with them.

I transferred long ago, because of general "icky" vibes.

About 25 domains, though I found out there was a catch around transferring domains within 30 days of their expiration date, so it's more like 21.

I did. I've been meaning to for a while, anyway, just hadn't gotten around to doing it. This seemed like good motivation to go ahead and do so.

I transferred to namecheap.com over Bob's Elephant hunting controversy some time back. Now that doesn't seem like as big a deal in retrospect.

That's when I did it too. Otherwise I would have done it over this. Seems like an all-around shitty company.

I'd vote for "I'm letting my domain(s) on godaddy die, so there's no point in paying to move them." I guess "No" is the best fit for me.

I've been using them for awhile and have just been too lazy to transfer. That said, with this, I'll be swapping over on December 29th.

Yes. Just transferred 31 domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap. Would like to transfer more but Namecheap doesn't accept .asia domains.

Was meaning to switch due to their questionable ethics but was too lazy until now. Waiting on three transfer to namecheap now.

I moved 10 domains over which are not connected to email, to confirm the process. Planning on moving the rest over soon.

I switched all my domains. I've been meaning to for a while, but this was the catalyst I needed to stop being lazy.

Just found out that namecheap doesn't support .name TLDs. Graah. I'm not going to deal with two registrars.

I don't have domains with GoDaddy, but I did turn off autorenew for my one and only SSL cert through them.

Need to calculate the cost as I have several domains with them but I plan on moving very shortly.

I'm also based in the U.K.

Yes. I then emailed them regarding my transfer and they responded with platitudes. No real surprise there.

Over the past year I have been slowly migrating my domains from GoDaddy to Hover. Best decision ever.

No. Boycotting GoDaddy will have no effect on SOPA, nor will it make them change their tune.

nor will it make them change their tune

Clearly this depends on how may customers leave. Trust me, if a third of their customers walked then, yes, they would change their tune.

It is precisely this attitude that GoDaddy is counting on, BTW.

Just looking for the best provider. Hover.com seems the best I've encountered so far.

no, but i'm not in charge of it. I did suggest it and told my boss about SOPA though

Maybe you can add another option for people who don't have godady to begin with?

Yes a few to test out how easy the process is, transferring the rest soon.

Yes, I would have moved sooner, if i knew about the Elephant situation.

Nope, and have no plans on moving my domains to a different registrar

Everything but my .asia domains anyone know a good registrar for them

Gandi.net has .asia domains. I've used them for years and they've always provided excellent service.

Yes, transferred all of my domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap.

Are people who are voting 'yes' also closing their accounts?

Well... most of them. I have one .name address to move yet.

I have 1and1 ... is there a mass exporter for it? :)

No, I moved 60+ off there several years ago.

No, I transferred them away years ago.

I transferred about 25 domains.

Just started switching now.

favorite alternative poll?

my two domains will switched by the end of the year.

Yes. It's done!

doing it this weekend

Go-go-goodbye goDaddy!

Yes

No.

If you're being sincere, I would love to know why. Is it because you don't support SOPA, couldn't care less about SOPA and love GoDaddy, have too many hurdles to jump over, or some other reason? Just curious.

I'm in the same boat. I only have three domains on GoDaddy, but it doesn't feel like it's worth the hassle. I haven't had a bad experience with GoDaddy, maybe because I don't use them for hosting.

My own reason is that I hate internet-protests like this. Someone on Reddit gets some half facts, mixes in with some misquotations, then tries to whip together the internet mob to do their business.

A few geeks moving a few domains away from godaddy will have absolutely no impact on anything, and all it will do is waste the geeks own time.

I bet you are a go-daddy employee!

Yes.

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