Tech Dweeb

Dear Blake Irving

On 07/09/2013 by Xue Faith

 
Hi Blake!

Thank you so much for your lovely letter. I’m excited to hear that you’re making your services and products even better, since I already thought they were great. GoDaddy was the first domain registrar I ever used. I’ve always appreciated the ease, speed, and simplicity of GoDaddy. Recently I’ve been in the position of having to work with a couple of your competitors. While I always thought that you did a great job, I also imagined that probably most people did.

I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder. While I’ve loved working with GoDaddy, the unexpected nightmare of working with your competition informed me that apparently great GoDaddy service is not so easy to achieve. Or at least there are a couple of corporations out there that are every bit as bad as GoDaddy is good. Maybe because you’re so successful, I’ve heard the occasional grumble that your products are somehow inferior. That hasn’t been my experience. I’ve registered 20 domain names with you. I’m sure that’s tiny compared to anyone who’s active. But it’s also 19 more than I ever expected to register. Time after time, setup and changes have been ridiculously fast and easy.

But.

Much as I love your products and services. I hate your ideology. It makes me ill to think that even the few dollars of my account are going to help you build a world I don’t want to live in. I find your advertising offensive to women, and your politics destructive to independent web developers.

Danica Patrick is an extraordinary driver. Any man alive would be lucky to have her track record. And in a field that’s never been too strong with women competitors, her achievements will stand for a long time. So I think it’s great that she’s been a spokesperson for GoDaddy. What an awesome choice. Unfortunately I find the misogynistic commercials you’ve put her in degrading to women. They’re childish. They’re insulting. They treat us as objects rather than real people. Perhaps you have a huge audience out there of macho guys who have loved those commercials. IDK. All I can tell you for myself is that every dollar you spend on advertising makes me hate you even more.

I’m still in shock about your stand on SOPA / PIPA. I know at the last minute user pressure made you reverse your position. But that doesn’t absolve you. I see you as being allied with old, 20th century media factories and against the creativity of the 21st century. I was truly shocked by this. I thought the developers of the open web were your customers. I don’t understand how a non-neutral net benefits you, but I’m sure it hurts your customers. Or maybe you get so much money from big media that you don’t have to care about people who only register 20, or 200, or 2, domain names. Your stand against creativity and for the old media urge to lock down culture and stifle innovation wounded me deeply. I still think about it every day. I’ll probably never forgive you for it. I’ll certainly never forget.

So there it is.

You have a great service and I know it. I really want to walk away from GoDaddy, but I probably won’t. Every time I register another domain name with GoDaddy I hate myself for supporting your objectifying, anti-creativity values.

Xue Faith