Verifed GoDaddy Employee is conducting an AMA on reddit right now
reddit.com
reddit.com
Everything from a delicately created image of a conscientious, personable, diligent, innocent worker who is ... well, just reiterating everything that has been said in the past by Go Daddy's official blogs and elsewhere (a back story to Parson killing the elephant that you don't know about, assurances that Go Daddy doesn't support SOPA, an acutely indifferent, and sometimes slightly apologetic explanation for the sexist ads--'they work!') ... to being aware of all the nuanced mannerisms compatible with Reddit's culture and playing them the right way. This is really actually their best damage-controlling PR move on this thing.
It's not a million miles away from startups and tech companies encouraging their most personable employees to hang out on HN and other places to help increase the profile of said company.
I know these facts cannot and never will be excusable but I think we need to start putting this into perspective. Okay, GoDaddy are assholes, let's not support them but let's also quit obsessing over them and get back to SOPA itself. I don't think there's anything else we can discuss about GoDaddy that will help defeat SOPA. Why not focus on what the committee is doing now because I promise GoDaddy isn't the secret hand behind it all and watching them isn't going to help us one bit.
Only thing worth seeing: Employee: "... everyone I speak to at GoDaddy either opposes SOPA or doesn't know enough to have an opinion." Redditor: "That's odd. Among redditors it's usually both."
1. Blogs offering commentary on another story about GoDaddy's role in this and pretty much saying "GoDaddy wrote the bill and gave themselves a bunch of perks".
2. The actual sources of those original blogs. It's funny how the sources say no such thing and actually corroborate this GoDaddy employee's story.
If you just read the original sources you'll see that he's right in saying that GoDaddy didn't write the bill and really did just ask to redefine a few points. It's also totally true that all registrars get the exemption.
I've stopped commenting on these stories because the second someone introduces a little rationality into the discussion the downvotes and gang-up start flying. I'm no GoDaddy apologist. I think they're assholes for coming out in support of SOPA like everyone else. But why are we focusing so much on them? These stories aren't true. They simply mention GoDaddy and take on a life of their own. Ever since GoDaddy got brought up we've totally gotten distracted. Badly. I don't know why GoDaddy came out in support of SOPA. I'd guess it was so they could hedge their bets in case it passed. It's still wrong but I'm not about to go all conspiracy-theory and buy into any theory along the lines that imply GoDaddy is some sort of oppressive evil company for some mysterious reason.
Come on guys, let's be reasonable here. What the guy says is true. I've been a long time GoDaddy hater but even I can't get on board with a lot of this misinformation floating around. Sorry if it's not the popular opinion but it's the truth.
A commenter on TC also linked to this http://t.co/HwNa8MEY post by VP Nima Kelly equating SOPA opposition to denying legal protection to "the established rights of fellow Americans" while ignoring the constitution and due process.
The company certainly has other smears that have been bundled in the bashing but don't equate it to unfair treatment. DMCA is already unfair legislation but the idea that we should let the copyright lobby police the Internet is fundamentally absurd.
Really? Not very well.
> If you just read the original sources you'll see that he's right in saying that GoDaddy didn't write the bill and really did just ask to redefine a few points. It's also totally true that all registrars get the exemption.
Oh, no harm done then. They only refined it, they didn't create it from scratch.
> I'm no GoDaddy apologist. I think they're assholes for coming out in support of SOPA like everyone else. But why are we focusing so much on them?
There's more than one other person on HN, and people can do more than one thing at once. "We" are focusing on a bunch of things.
> These stories aren't true. They simply mention GoDaddy and take on a life of their own. Ever since GoDaddy got brought up we've totally gotten distracted.
Not all of those stories are true, you mean. Because they did support SOPA. And they did make some refinements to SOPA. Maybe their CEO didn't practice satanic rituals before killing the elephant but the verified portions of the story are still damning enough.
> It's still wrong but I'm not about to go all conspiracy-theory and buy into any theory along the lines that imply GoDaddy is some sort of oppressive evil company for some mysterious reason.
Of course not. They're an oppressive evil company because it's profitable.
Now, I'm not saying there's "no harm done" because they only redefined the terms. What I'm saying is that it seems like we're focusing so narrowly on one SOPA related story and missing the larger picture. Hasn't the GoDaddy story played itself out? There are other angles than GoDaddy and I'd be surprised if anyone is learning anything new or benefitting at all from these new ones. After the first 3 days of almost all GoDaddy/SOPA stories around here I think we've said all there is to say about it. At this point its gone from constructive discussion to just a lot of repitition and whining.
And yeah, I did mean not all the stories are true. Why do people have to nitpick? You obviously knew what I meant and I'm sure others are smart enough to get it too. The stories I was referring to we're the ones implying that GoDaddy wrote SOPA and that they gave themselves an exemption from it as if they're the only ones getting that exemption.
My original comment was a perfectly valid and reasonable point. If you start cherry picking tiny little details you don't agree with or that aren't perfectly worded then you're missing the whole point. Let me state the point very concisely and maybe you'll find you actually agree with me:
The GoDaddy stories have become repetitive and unproductive. The stories have been polluted with misinformation and false assumptions. We've said all there is to say and this is distracting us from stopping this bill from passing. Boycotting them is a great way to protest but let's talk about some other things we can do like we had been doing before the GoDaddy story broke.
This whole thing reminds me of how politicians use news cycles to their advantage. Sometimes you can't get around bad press so you pick out one aspect of a story to get the public all riled up this distracting them from the real story. What is the real story? I have no idea and I'm sure I couldn't find out on HN as it stands now because we're caught up in an infinite loop of the "GoDaddy wrote SOPA and gave itself exemptions" story.
> The GoDaddy stories have become repetitive and unproductive. The stories have been polluted with misinformation and false assumptions. We've said all there is to say and this is distracting us from stopping this bill from passing. Boycotting them is a great way to protest but let's talk about some other things we can do like we had been doing before the GoDaddy story broke.
I somewhat agree. But the reason I was nitpicking is because those details matter.
GoDaddy isn't blameless. In fact, while they didn't write specific exemptions for themselves they did tweak it for their own good (undoubtedly). If they merely get spanked a bit they'll be back to business as usual in a few weeks and will continue supporting SOPA even if quietly. If they get put out of business and every employee above janitorial is black-listed unless they specifically renounce SOPA and the GoDaddy leaders then future companies will be less willing to try this and future employees will be more willing to leave instead of trotting out "but then who'd feed my kids?" excuses. That sort of fear might actually change things.
In fact, I think we don't stand a chance in hell of stopping SOPA in the big picture. If we do stop this specific bill they'll reintroduce it with a kiddy-porn focus and we'll all be monsters for daring to speak out against it.
In the end our only hope is uncensorable technologies because as long as any group is in control of communications technologies they'll find a need to censor and limit them. Fighting SOPA seems to me like as much of a waste of time as fighting GoDaddy does to you.
But if we could exact real, lasting, damage to some of its supporters it would be harder for this sort of thing to be done again.
> Hasn't the GoDaddy story played itself out?
Does the CEO still get paid? If so, no.
> What I'm saying is that it seems like we're focusing so narrowly on one SOPA related story and missing the larger picture.
Some of us, yes. Others, no. Why don't you stop exhorting others to do what you want, stop contributing to the noise, and go attack the bigger picture in your own way. Then you'd have something to post to HN and you might win supporters away from the GoDaddy hate-fest where you could never chase them away.