Namecheap to Double EFF Donation if 25,000 Transfers Made Today | Hacker News Reader

Namecheap to Double EFF Donation if 25,000 Transfers Made Today

elliotsblog.com

99 pointstnd35 comments

I transferred 7 domains today. What a great way to support the EFF at no cost to me.

For those of you who think this costs something: the $6.99 price is for an additional year of domain registration that is added to whatever time remains at godaddy. If you were going to renew your domains at some point anyway, it's essentially free.

I will have no downtime since my DNS is not at godaddy. If you use godaddy DNS see http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/...

I don't know for sure that namecheap is the world's best registrar, but I decided not to overthink it, since if choosing a registrar were really such a key decision I wouldn't have stayed at godaddy for years. And with transfer being so easy I don't expect there to be a problem if I decide to move elsewhere later. In the meantime I'm supporting the EFF and exercising meaningful opposition to SOPA.

> I don't know for sure that namecheap is the world's best registrar, but I decided not to overthink it

I really wish people would. Who here ever heard of Namecheap before they blasted GoDaddy for ``breaking ICANN rules'' by restricting their whois access just before industry experts confirmed that it's standard practice for preventing abuse? It reeks of dishonesty and Namecheap seems to be doing whatever they can to stay viral. Registrars have always been a shady bunch and adopting one without research has never been a good idea.

I'm not convinced deeply researching registrars is worth my time. I skimmed through the terms of service before switching to namecheap and that's it. They're a commodity. If the only thing distinguishing this one is that they might put out a press release about 25,000 Internet power users voting against SOPA with their money, that's enough for me. Considering that the only harm I suffered from staying with godaddy for years was a sense of dissatisfaction at being associated with them, I doubt namecheap will do anything in the next 60 days (after which I can transfer elsewhere) to make me regret switching.

If you've got a non-shady registrar and reasons to think it's the best, post something and maybe I'll transfer to them in March.

I have. Not that it means anything to you or anyone else. :)

I've been using namecheap for domains and dns for a number of years now without issue. I transferred a majority of my domains there after numerous people (on other social news sites) recommended them over GoDaddy.

Careful! namecheap has shown clever marketing. That's how godaddy made a business.

I tested their DNS today, and their email forwarding. They reject entire Comcast mail servers as spammers! Plus, they want ME to get comcast to follow up with their blacklist providers.

Anyone got a godaddy alternative to recommend that's not so, well, cheap and cheesy?

http://www.nametoolkit.com. Simple as it gets.

Yes, please do give it a look, we're currently A/B testing a new theme and we could use feedback. Namecheap are certainly better than Godaddy but they're still nowhere near as simple as using our service.

Thanks, Mark. But I don't see anything on your site about how to transfer a domain. Also, I need email forwarding, as well as the usual DNS stuff.

Good luck your new service! Congrat's on the press.

Gandi and Hover

Thanks, J. Although neither one has email forwarding (and namecheap's email forwarding is broken) Hover does have a phone number where SMART HELPFUL PEOPLE answer. She suggested that I use Google apps for my email. (facepalm, of course!) And coupon "SOPA" gives 10% off their $10 transfer (free Whois privacy). Renewals will be $15 (still free privacy).

I transferred the few domains that I have on GoDaddy today. After their strong support of SOPA, the recent "reversal" of position wasn't enough to sway me. I'm leaving two domains there that will expire soon, not to be renewed.

I did hit one snag. I have one domain I want to keep that expires within the next seven days. Apparently I can't transfer if that's the case. Any workaround to this that doesn't put money in GoDaddy's pocket?

I work as a hostmaster for a company - nope. Because it can take over that much time for the transfer to complete, it isn't allowed. You'll want to renew it at GoDaddy then transfer, which will renew it for yet another year.

Update: Namecheap hit 25,000 transfers today, set to make $50,000+ donation: http://www.elliotsblog.com/namecheap-hits-25000-transfers-to...

Perhaps this is in response to Ghandi's similar offer?

Who cares though, I'm happy to see them compete for such a great cause.

"Perhaps this is in response to Ghandi's similar offer?"

It's the other way around: Gandi's offer was posted on Dec 29 [0], while Namecheap's offer was announced on Dec 27 [1].

[0] https://www.gandi.net/news/en/2011-12-29/539-gandi_supports_...

[1] http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/27/move-your-dom...

Yes, so as to 1-up Gandi, Namecheap announced today that they'll be doubling it if they make it to $25k. That's what this post is about...

Ah yes, you're right. Now I see what mikegirouard meant.

In any case, I already transferred 20 of my domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap yesterday. I only have some domains at GoDaddy with ccTLDs that Namecheap doesn't support, but I turned the autorenewal off for those domains while I'm looking for an other registrar to transfer them to.

I moved my last (of those I'm bothering to maintain) today. That's a total of 25, I think, over the last three days.

BTW, if you're pasting in the domain and EPP key, make sure there are no spaces around the comma.

     domain, key # bad
     domain,key  # OK

This seems to have tripped up my initial bulk transfer.

Seems like this is getting main-stream community support:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/move-your-domain-day-nameche...

I posted onto HotUkDeals not knowing what to expect, but seems like people are very aware of SOPA. Well, that and the crowd are even more techie than I had anticipated.

All of this mainstream attention perhaps caused this tweet (even if the news itself is old): https://twitter.com/#!/DrBobParsons/statuses/152473462399713...

Transferred All domains from GoDaddy today, after being with them forever! Feels great! Had been unhappy with them for awhile.

moved my domains today, glad to help along freedom as much as I can, as the article says EFF really needs it so come on guys!

I'm trying to move names right now and am getting an error from NameCheap. I hope they are over-capacity on this special!!

These guys really milk the hell out of you guys. That's barely even a meaningful amount of money for them or for EFF.

>$50,000 is barely meaningful? Any charity would be thrilled to receive such a sum.

"barely meaningful amount of money" come on

according to this https://www.eff.org/files/eff-2009-2010-annual-report.pdf 2010 annual report</a> 50k might be a (really) small percentage but it would still cover EFF's taxes, Consultants, and Court Filings and Service Fee's.

It's definitely clever marketing.

But consider that a coupon for the transfer plus a $2 donation means that they are losing money on these transfers, at least until they renew or sell you something else. I'm sure they expect that to pan out over time, but it's still a nice gesture.

I just did 4 domains.

I transferred to DNSimple instead, based on the general impression that namecheap is just GoDaddy in another guise, and the reports from users of namecheap that their interface is just as bad as GoDaddy's.

Gotta say I'm happy so far. DNSimple is the best DNS management interface I've found yet - well worth $3/month.

>reports from users of namecheap that their interface is just as bad as GoDaddy's.

Completely untrue. Namecheap's interface is barebones and is by no mean flashy, but that's what I like about it. It gets out of my way and lets me do what I need.

GoDaddy's interface is a labyrinth designed to make you want to slam your own hand in a car door just to make the hurt stop.

gotta second you on this one, namecheap is simple, plain and a huge breath of fresh air (when your just escaping the godaddy labyrinth)

> general impression that namecheap is just GoDaddy in another guise

In what way? I don't see any cleavage on Namecheap's site.

We have GoDaddy that openly supported and aided SOPA, and Namecheap that openly denounced it.

We have GoDaddy with a long history of hijacking customer domains after unfounded abuse complaints by IP rights holders, and Namecheap with a long history of ignoring or fighting such complaints -- meaning you better show up with a court order or they'll stand up for their customer.

For two companies selling the same commodity product, they couldn't be any more different.

I've used both and much prefer Namecheap. From all my dealings with them so far, they also seem much more above-board than GoDaddy.

No idea what you're talking about. I've used namecheap for years - cheap, minimal interface, just works. No nonsense.

Glad to see that "downvote because I disagree" is alive and well on HN. Not.

I think you're looking at downvote for not adding anything to the discussion. Anyone who has actually used Namecheap knows you're off base.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com