Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#111

Post by thiht » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

Marc_Bryan wrote: post #64

They are a bigtime scammers. Recently was assisting a friend to get access to a domain name which was registered in godaddy. They scammed him for a couple of hundred dollars for contacting the domain owner to get a deal on the domain and eventually nothing happened. Not even a mail was sent on behalf the scammed money as we found that the domain was owned by another friend and eventually got it transferred. He confir…

If the domain was a a gTLD or new gTLD (more than 2 characters on the TLD), they could get sanctioned by the ICANN, if you decided to report them.

If it was a ccTLD (2 characters on the TLD), they could also be sanctioned, depending on the rules of the extension.

The sanction can range from a (huge) fee, to a revocation of their accreditation, so it's not nothing.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#112

Post by wombatmobile » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

I left godaddy for hostgator but it’s just as scammy. They gave my phone number to local web developers who cold call me! Is that normal, or atrocious?

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#113

Post by cpach » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

krn wrote: post #100

After doing a lot of research, I would recommend Dynadot as the best domain registrar at the moment. My main criteria were: fair prices without any coupon codes, no-upselling, free whois privacy as standard, most ccTLDs supported, REST API for everything, and at least 15-20 years of history. I would normally prefer a European company, but Dynadot has been the registrar of wikileaks.org since 2006.

I switched over to Dynadot about three or five years ago and I have never regretted it. Very solid service IME.

I’ve also heard good things about Gandi.net but I haven’t tried them myself.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#114

Post by bhartzer » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

scrollaway wrote: post #83

owlninja wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you link some prior evidence? I can believe it but is there proof? Could some other data have led another party to registering OP's domain idea?

C'mon.. it's one google search away. https://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg... Lots of instances of it, I won't bother listing all of it here as I'm on a phone.

That ICANN thread is about domain transfers. Has nothing to do with the topic at hand, which the OP is claiming 'front-running' but GoDaddy.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#115

Post by systemvoltage » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

_verandaguy wrote: post #82

scrollaway wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've been doing it for years, it's a pretty well known thing at this point which is long past the point of needing new evidence. PS: Use gandi.net, both for search and registration.

Seconding Gandi. I spent the past year transferring my domains over (as registrations lapsed with Route53, which is a Gandi frontend with fewer features). Their interface is very clean, their business model is no-nonsense, and I dig the managed DNSSEC.

https://domains.google is the best I found.

Also, namecheap’s beast mode if you want to check hundreds of domains at once.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#116

Post by rhacker » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

I use name.com for this reason. I trust them more.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#117

Post by wegs » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

snapetom wrote: post #97

This is just part of a long line of scummy practices by GoDaddy in its history. Bad PR for GoDaddy constantly popped up in tech news sites ~15 years ago, but it was never enough to stop their aggressive marketing. Still, I always wondered why anyone in tech would use them. Y'all know what they're capable of and what they do. Don't support that.

As far as I can tell, the general business model in domains is:

* Be the good guy, and establish a customer base. Provide low prices, good customer service, etc. Lose money on the razor-thin margins.

* Once you've got a ton of customers, turn evil, and milk your customer-base for all they've got. Engage in every nasty sleazeball tactic.

I've seen this cycle many times, starting with Network Solutions.

People use GoDaddy because they were the good alternative for a while.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#118

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

betteryet wrote: post #84

This just happened to me today with Epik, another old-timey registrar. Added a .com to their shopping cart yesterday, then went to pay for it this morning — no need, it's been registered during the night to someone in Japan. Not a super great domain either, just a brand extension for our company. Feels like either they or some other party are looking at the stream of purchase intent to do this. Awful practice.

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#119

Post by wenc » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

mdorazio wrote: post #33

I had this happen as well in the past when researching domain names for a new product. Pro Tip: Stay the hell away from GoDaddy for everything. I've had the unfortunate task of managing a server hosted with them and it's been consistently awful (ex. I literally cannot upgrade PHP because the VPS doesn't support it and there is no upgrade path without spinning up an entirely new VPS on a different, and of course more…

Godaddy spammed me so much and so often that I transferred my domain to porkbun.com.

It's been so problem-free that I couldn't even remember the provider's name -- I had to WHOIS my domain to figure out who was hosting it.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#120

Post by ocdtrekkie » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

bhartzer wrote: post #45

andylynch wrote: post #31

This is a scummy move. In the industry I work in, we call this front-running and it’s a criminal act. If the same laws applied here godaddy would be looking at a nine digit fine and jail time for whoever thought this is a good idea.

But I don't see any proof that GoDaddy is the registrant of that domain, they're just the registrar. I don't see any evidence of front-running in this case. I see it more as coincidence if anything else.

Happens way too often to be coincidence and can occur on domains nobody else would want. I use GoDaddy and I'm happy with their services, but I never search for a domain before I buy it.