February 04, 2008

Curious George: I need a new Domain Registrar GoDaddy's StupidBowl XLII ad was grossly offensive and, worse, unentertaining not to mention I some how missed this little gem from founder Bob Parsons. I need to move my domains somewhere more better. Suggestions?

Basically I want renewals in the $10 range and good customer service. (i.e. a phone number) I used to have Dotster. So far I've looked at namecheap, joker.com & gandi.net - none of which look bad but none of which are all that exciting either.

posted by petebest 16 years ago
  • We use networksolutions at work and haven't had any difficulties.
  • Not Earthlink. they're Scienos.
  • Shame you didn't ask this back in December. A2 Hosting had a coupon code that was for 20% off for life. It's $13, not $10, but I know of no evils or boobies or evil boobies. On preview, Earthlink is run by the LOLtologists, seriously?
  • Uh, for those of us at work computers without sound and who went to see Michael Clayton instead of the Stuporbowl not that they could get American ads anyway thank you very much Canadian cable cabal, what's offensive about the ad?
  • Personally, I use 1&1 for everything, and they've been pretty good to me.
  • It's a dude at his pc at GoDaddy.com while everyone else is watching SuperBowl commercials, and they're all like WTF NERD and he's all like HEY DANICA PATRICK'S UNZIPPING HER TOP OMG BOOBIES and they're all like ORLY and he's like YA RLY and they're like NO WAI and they go running over there and drool on his keyboard and it says go to godaddy.com to watch the OMG 2 HAWT 4 TEEVEE AD!!!11! And then, if you go there, you see some stupid-ass commercial where she zips her top up to her chin and says some stupid-ass line about how she doesn't need to show us her boobies because GoDaddy is so awesome, or something like that. Oh, and there's a beaver. I'm not kidding.
  • So it was offensive because she didn't show them?
  • It was offensive in the same way that I would be offended if I went into what was ostensibly a strip club and instead found a DMV.
  • Boobies are gross. Grossly AWESOME!
  • lunarpages.com for both hosting and domain name registration.
  • Dotster costs a bit more ($15/year), but their support is aces. I've been using them for years, and I always get prompt replies to any questions I've submitted. Their system is pretty reliable, too. They offer live chat and phone support. Cost isn't everything - witness how you feel about the GoDaddy ad.
  • I use me for web hosting and domain name registration. But there ain't no way I would give you my phone number, because I know EXACTLY what would happen next.
  • He'd call you?
  • Everytime I hear a new thing about Go Daddy, I point people to this site.
  • Parsons did retract his support for torture, IIRC, but that doesn't stop the ads from being annoying. I used to use Dreamhost for both registration and hosting, and I was happy with them except for some mildly confusing billing stuff that wasn't anything near a dealbreaker, but I think that's not what you're looking for.
  • Re: the Ad: Basically all the Godaddy ads are big-titted models shaking around. That's it. (The "OMG! Banned!" ads on the website also include beaver shots. Basic-Instinct-no-panties crotch shots. Mmmmm crotch.) No mention of what domains do, why you want one, how they handle it, the power of Teh Intarwebz, - nothin but T&A. Now I loves me some T&A, oh yes indeedy I do, but here's the thing: I'm not 13 anymore and this sort of key-jangling-attention-getting stuff is annoying as the customer. As a human, it's more "Look, women are good for sex! END OF LINE." So they sign up Danica Patrick as a spokesperson. Fine, cool, don't know her but breaking into the 99.999% male-dominated world of Indy racing has got to be a feat of some sort, and good for her, that's cool, etc. So what do they do? They sex her up and make her shake her tits. She's an accomplished Indy car driver, she's put up with enough sexism to drive anyone crazy (sorry about the pun there) and here they've got her creating more by implying that even "name brand" women are just good for sex. I'm just trying to register a domain name for f#@% sake, what the @#%! hellcrapdamn does any of this disrespectful bullsh@#% have to do with that?? GoDaddy, you're fired. Get out. I need adults to run this thing.
  • It strikes me as a pretty absurd marketing strategy. Anyone who's rolling and deploying their own websites is going to care about cost, storage, bandwidth, what languages/tools come installed, uptime, and support, and that's pretty much it. The boobies are nice to look at, but at no point do they make me think I've got to go get me some of that hosting. They're a bizarre non sequitur. Using sex to make a product look sexier (cars, clothes, even beverages) makes sense, but there's nothing remotely sexy about webhosting. It's as clinical as a product gets. What the hell does exposed snatch have to do with phpMyAdmin? When I think tit shots, I don't think grown-up webhosting, I think MySpace. Also I agree about liking boobies. Whoever invented them deserves a raise.
  • @petebest: I think I love you. @Danica Patrick: Please go take your insecurities back in the closet. With all you've accomplished, you are still so insecure that you think that your only value as human being is in being a sex toy for men? SHAME ON YOU!
  • Namecheap is in fact not very exciting. But they are cheap, reliable, and have all the features a growing domain needs for strong bones. When I have had a customer service issue, they have resolved it promptly. You don't want excitement in a registrar, you want it to just work, and namecheap does. I use them for all my domains and recommend them.
  • Joker is better than most. I use it and sometime soon plan to bite the bullet and move the rest of my domains over to it. The interface is straightforward and uncluttered but still somewhat opaque and balky. Still, better than the disastrous Geocities feel of GoDaddy or eNom. I'm surprised no one I've seen has made a nice fluid interface for DNS configuration -- a straightforward but jargon-laden process.