Here’s an issue that’s been burning up the Internet lately. What’s your take?
GoDaddy’s CEO, Bob Parsons, had a lapse of common sense and posted a video of him killing a “rogue” elephant in Zimbabwe. Then he tweeted about it and basically made a BFD of him and his elephant-killing skills.
Unfortunately for him, the days of Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark are long past. GoDaddy is facing a massive boycott because of Parson’s less-than-felicitous bragging. NameCheap is claiming a lot of their business and donating to an elephant-rescue fund in the process.
So what’s the upshot? Does GoDaddy go down like Parson’s elephant? Does Parsons and GD weather the storm? Should they? Should users consider moving their sites from GoDaddy to somewhere else? What, if anything, should GD do to handle the situation?
(Side note and full disclosure: I’m a huge animal rights believer and have strong, strong opinions on the subject, but I don’t intend to turn this into an argument between the “animal huggers” and those who sneer at them. Stay polite and respectful of one another’s opinions. If you must vent or lambast someone, there are plenty of appropriate forums out there for the purpose. I’m more interested in your take on how this will affect GoDaddy in the industry, and what, if any, effect it should have on their market presence and so forth.)
I’m not much for hunting in general and shooting an elephant doesn’t interest me. I think that the idea that the elephant was taken but the villagers benefited makes sense, but I’m not buying that as a justification for hunting - there are other ways to monetize wildlife.
That said, I think this will soon be forgotten and their brand won’t be hurt very much. GoDaddy already has a history as a somewhat dicey brand and I think they’ll be fine.
It’s nothing worse than I’ve seen aired on Discovery, History, or any other wildlife program on TV.
I don’t think it will register much of a blip on the radar. In fact, I keep close tabs on tech-related news, and I didn’t hear about this anywhere else until I saw the thread on it here. It will matter to a few advocacy groups, yes, but in the large scheme of things, it’s not major headline news.
After all, it was less than a year ago that some people were claiming that the BP oil spill had irreparably and catastrophically damaged Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Texas, and parts of eastern Mexico, and that tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of small businesses and individual entrepreneurs had lost, or were going to lose, their livelihoods.
Now you don’t hear about it much around our neigborhood in New Orleans.
Unfortunately the typical godaddy buyer isn’t likely to see this coverage and even if they’d likely look at other hosts for a minute while outraged, they’d then stay with their ‘unlimited everything’. I’ve seen it covered on ‘web media’ sites like e.g mashable and I saw a few tweets about it from other web developers, but then most serious web developers wouldn’t use rubbish hosts like them anyway.
If it breaks through to more mainstream media then it’d likely destroy their reputation in regions such as Europe. They’re a privately owned company so the board won’t have the ceo out, though it may affect the sale value in the short term, although I’m sure if the valuation drops from the supposed $1B by even a large percent he won’t be that fussed.
Because the elephant got killed, I think that Bob Parsons should lose his business. And all his employees should lose their jobs.
Some people say that all publicity is good publicity. The images with locals wearing the Godaddy hats will then do that job, no matter what they were shown doing.
I think it is, to a good degree, the other registrars that are making a big fuss out of this. I found out about the story from a coupons email send by Namecheap. It would seem like all of Godaddy’s competitors are trying to cash in on this bit of news.
If it breaks through to more mainstream media then it’d likely destroy their reputation in regions such as Europe.
Why Europe more than others? Are Europeans more sensitive to such matters? Granted, I suspect there is a greater density of hunters in the US than in Europe. When people are easily allowed to own guns, they tend to find uses for them.
I still have one domain name with godaddy and I’ll be moving it now. It’s not so much that an elephant has been killed (although that is sad), because it might have been necessary. But if it needed to be killed, I’m sure some local ranger could have done the job.
My problem is that this guy gets his kicks from killing an intelligent animal and then boasts about it. That’s not the kind of person I want to give my money to. He must have a really small dick.
I think Godaddy’s CEO is doing this because he enjoys hunting rather than for the people. There’s many other ways to handle the situation rather than shooting the elephant. Especially considering how much money he could afford to donate to solving the issue.
I tend to agree with some of the above comments:
– Parsons is a schmuck. (Add other descriptive comments as you like.)
– It isn’t getting a lot of mainstream media play, and it won’t do much damage to GoDaddy in the long run.
I’ve been with GoDaddy for years. I have about 30 domains with them.
Within the next few days I will be transferring them elsewhere.
I’d been with GoDaddy for a while before I realised what a knob Bob Parsons really is. The sleazy advertising was pretty bad, and I’ve often thought of moving my business elsewhere.
This latest action is the final straw. I’m out.
I’m not some bleeding-heart liberal, and I do realise that sometimes it is necessary to cull wild animals, but it should be done reluctantly and respectfully - not as some trophy hunt for some rich w4nk3r.
In my knee-jerk response I did head off to transfer registrations. But, in the end I just transferred 5 that are due for renewal soon. The others can wait, until nearer the renew date.
I’ve been sure to turn off auto-renew on all domains.
GoDaddy will NEVER get another cent out of me.
Unfortunately it does leave less of an impact, and may mean they will suffer a slow bleed rather than a sudden loss of clients.
I just want to be clear as to why I think Bob Parsons should not have done this in the way he did…
Elephant populations have been declining since the 1980s mainly due to illegal poaching.
Zimbabwe is an incredibly corrupt country. The fee that Parsons paid for this trophy-hunt would have mostly gone to corrupt officials, not the people who need it.
The amount of money Parsons paid for this trip, plus the hunt would have probably been hundreds of times the value of the field that he supposedly protected.
There are other alternatives for discouraging elephants.
It is clear from his manner, and the way he posed over the dead elephant that he WANTED to kill an elephant. Not that he needed to.
It’s also clear from the way he has publicised this that he thinks he is some hero to the locals for doing this.
IF culling of elephants it necessary, it should be handled humanely by professionals - not rich white w4nkers.
I believe that Godaddy trade Mark got the biggest damage recently. Because there is a link between them and always will be.
I believe that being on the such position that would be good idea to do into those actions.
I just don’t see why killing a majestic animal will save the man’s crops. It’s total ********! If he wants to save his crops, put a big damn fence around his crop! Bob Parson got the money to give the villagers to build the fence, but this jackass wanted to paste that picture in his office sitting on top of a dead elephant. I have about 15 domains at GoDaddy and I just can’t take the pain to move them, I like their systems. So NO, I won’t be moving them or abandoning GoDaddy. But the man has lost all respect from me. I looked up to him. Now he is only an A$$hole!
At least the villagers scavenged the meat so thats good, but the idea behind the killing was wrong. It could have been avoided.
I am sure the elephants will come back and eat their crops again. My question is how many elephants will be killed before the stupid crops are saved.
My feelings exactly. My heart doesn’t bleed per se (it leaks a bit sometimes), but Parsons is a bum and that elephant did not have to die – especially to feed his bloated, testosterone-driven ego.
Eco-political rant done. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
