Epik suggests reasons why GoDaddy might have dropped Epik from its Afternic program, and GoDaddy responds.
When PayPal notified Epik in October that it was terminating its services with the domain name registrar, Epik fired off letters blaming a number of organizations for the move. One of the companies that drew its ire was GoDaddy. Epik published attacks against the domain name registrar and provided contact information for many of its employees.
The next month, GoDaddy terminated its Afternic partnership with Epik, apparently catching Epik by surprise.
Epik went public about the termination, apparently violating the contract it signed with GoDaddy in doing so. Epik seemed to tie GoDaddy’s decision to a number of factors, and oddly questioned receiving GoDaddy’s letter “two hours after the election was called for Joe Biden.”
Yesterday, Epik published another letter about the Afternic termination. It argued that one of the factors leading to the termination was that Epik was reporting security issues with the platform.
I reached out to GoDaddy yesterday to see if the company would provide any information about its decision to terminate the partnership with Epik.
Paul Nicks, GoDaddy VP, Domains – Investors and Corporate, issued this statement in response:
Once again, Epik has lobbed baseless accusations against us. To be crystal clear, Epik has not provided us with reports of “repeated Afternic security issues.” If anyone has any concerns about our systems, we work closely with them to answer any questions or resolve issues. This is how a real partnership works.
The reason Epik was dropped has everything to do with their constant attacking of us. We don’t feel the need to partner with someone who time and time again casually lies about a wide variety of issues.
We will not be providing further statements on their business, and reserve the right to explore any and all possible legal options to defend against their baseless claims.
Anyone get a Christmas or holiday card from godaddy? Paul Nicks doesn’t recognize his customers also have a memory. Or that their poor treatment of others is real. Keep attacking others while you pump and dump stocks. Time will tell all.
The only holiday greeting GoDaddy issued was a note saying there were no bonuses, and then followed that up with a phishing campaign designed to entrap their own employees.
Godaddy is well on their way to becoming a soulless company. Can we please stop pretending.
I am so happy to see Parler back! Our country is at a dangerous place, and I applaud anyone who will stand up and be counted. I loudly cheer you on! Tauna
oh my very crazy.. all from Glassdoor looks like
http://www.epik.com/blog/godaddy
from my memory it was Go Daddy that started attacking epic by talking about them being Christians saying they were zealots in their faith and also working with the PayPal to hurt them and their customers. Maybe you can’t expect to attack small businesses and expect them to roll over and die. Just saying.
What does that little R in a circle mean next to “epik”?
Catraz®, it means registered trademark. Epik® was registered by Monster Venture Partners in 2011, and knowing Rob Monster, despite what anyone says is here to stay.
So why does every page at Epik say, “Epik ® is a registered trademark of Epik Inc.”?
Are you saying that’s not true?
Can we say this is the end of Epik? The final nail to the coffin
I’m with Epik.
Samer
Afternic Fast Transfer poses an intrinsical security issue. Ownership verification for listings at Afternic is not strong, I regulary receive fast transfer authorization requests which have been initiated from people not owning the domain name and listing it with Afternic. It can happen that unintentionally such a request is being confirmed as an accidental click. These authorizations are overriding the EPP system and domain locks. An improvement would be better visibility of the domain name in question as so far, in the past, to view it one had to click on the link provided via the email. This feels very uncomfortable.
My opinion FoMaddy dropped Epik because Epik lets you relax with Forever Registration and Killuminati wants you to live in a state of constant stress of not missing a renewal.
Hmm i think you suffer bipolar or manic issues. Take medication yes? Kiss epik fail registrar arsch with “killuminati” garbage. Sound like idiot belief mr Monster. Go sell your LLL for pay bill.
This is an issue between Epik and Godaddy with Afternic in the middle, just as it happened with Epik and Paypal, the most affected are their customer accounts and domain investors, they should have much more awareness and not argue like children in the schoolyard.
epik sounds like a bunch of entitled idiots. Oh yeah they were also the ones running supremacy sites that GoDaddy shut down. And to hear them talk about rampant racism and sexualization at GoDaddy is just a joke. F*ck epik.
Shhhh no tell trolls here the truth! Epik fail registrar has no patience for truth but they offer 10 cent off for buy Q fans.
More convenient rhetoric.
Thousands of these at GoDaddy:
http://www.firestormkit.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1754
Not so important though when it doesn’t fit the narrative I guess.
Wake up. Those were real employee comments and you are not fooling anyone. Looks like more damage control here. Paul Nicks accusing others of lying is classic.
Should check out these.. Support provided by GoDaddy of course. Platform has some of the most hateful white supremist groups creating violence on the planet.
Free pass though.
https://www.blogtalkradio.com/nsm_media_network/2020/12/31/national-socialist-movement-open-phones-12302020
Double standards are really fun.
Paul Nicks and GoDaddy have the highest concentration of racist websites on the planet. Again – wake up. Here is a clear chart Epik already shared for anyone who cares to really learn and not just attack.
http://www.epik.com/blog/splc
GoDaddy is part of a group of organizations that have only one goal: centralizing power so they can flip off switches against anyone and any content not in their future plans.
Don’t wait until it is too late to realize this. Paul Nicks is NOT your friend. He leads a team that buys portfolios and then lists them at a fraction of the price to harm domain investors. Everything they touch undermines the industry, which is why very little effort ever goes into fixing the many things broken.
You often point out that registrars other than Epik host hate content. The difference is that Epik courts these types of websites. These other registrars would prefer not to have them. That’s a huge difference.
Wow well I guess that explains the constant bias. You are literally an idiot. Probably explains how you manage to ignore every positive development from Epik, and prioritize any piece of negative trash you can.
Beyond words how messed up your accusations are. Shame on you dude. You couldn’t wear Rob Monster’s jock strap.
I guess all your snarky snide smartass comments make sense now. Just remember Andy – you helped CREATE this BS line in the first place you are still spreading like manure.
Do you giggle like schoolgirls when you and Paul discuss counter strategies here?
Well reasoned argument.
Are there a lot of people who want to wear Rob Monster’s jock strap?
Is that, like, what you get to do for Employee of the Month there along with a cupcake and a parking spot?
Or does he just let you sniff it?
You are correct that I choose not to write about every positive development at Epik. Actually, I don’t ignore these developments, but I choose not to write about them. Let me explain why.
In the early days, I wrote a lot about what Rob Monster was doing in the domain name business. He and his companies have certainly done a lot of innovative things.
Then I stopped writing about the company’s products and features when it began courting customers who say hateful things and incite others to do so. It’s not a company I want to be associated with. And, frankly, it’s a stain on the domain name industry.
After Epik stopped publicly courting these companies so much, I decided I’d write again about the company. In 2019 I wrote about your Name Liquidate platform.
Then Epik took a turn for the worse again. Its VP of Communications threatened to email 300 million people to complain about people saying negative things about the company. I found that rather odd for a company that espouses free speech at all costs. But it made it clear that this is a company I don’t want to be associated with.
The company has taken a number of other bizarre steps over the past 12 months. For example, an astroturfing campaign saying bad things about me on my own blog.
You know, there are lots of domain companies out there that do some things well and other things poorly. I write about both. But I’d say, for the most part, I have a good working relationship with these companies. They understand that they aren’t perfect and can improve. They understand that my coverage is fair and that I’ll write about the good and the bad. They respect when I write things about them that don’t put them in the best light because they understand that it’s fair.
They don’t go around bashing all of their competitors, bashing people who say negative things about them, and playing the narcissistic victim card.
So that explains why. You can choose to change as a company. Or you can continue to blame others for the struggles you face that are your own fault.
If that’s true then I think it’s to Epik’s credit. Suppressing the free speech of people who hate only makes them hate more and be more likely to act violently. Hatred of hatred is just more hate.
Of course we can’t help it…
Haha the FUN begin when epik fail registrar complains! Ya, this troll gathering here with fake names is heeee-larious!
Did mr Monster agree the American capitol was stormed today??? Or call fantasy like Christ church shooting hmm? Epik fans are naturaly Trump Q believers.
Listen kids learn to lose. Godaddy win the election so bahbye Afternic for Epik customer. Sell domains with Masterbucks.
The Capitol was not stormed. Like most things that happen, it was a false flag event staged by LGBT Antifa Muslim Communists paid by George Soros and other “globalists” (cough, cough, Jews, cough) using mind control technology obtained from pedophile lizard aliens living on the other side of the flat Earth.
All of it is explained in Hillary Clinton’s emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop, just like the Bible says.
Damn, you’re stupid.
Which part?
And they are coming for your guns.
Today I have passed the moderation of the DNW Administrator when I have published my comment, and now I receive that some people leave the context of the post with their comments that have nothing to do with the matter that is exposed to comment and respond with politeness, those who do not Please go to a political Forum.
GoDaddy is one of the worst companies out there, not only within the domain industry. All of their features are designed to catch unexperienced buyers to pay crazy amounts for services that are much cheaper elsewhere or even free. They charge you $10 for the whois privacy!
Basic whois privacy is free at GoDaddy
Who is EPIK?
really.
EPIK is a cult of you know what type of people.
GoDaddy is only a shell of what it used to be.
I don’t think it will end well for Epik. Loyal customers will stay, but other issues will bring it down.
Epik is losing me on 2 fronts:
1. I don’t care if we disagree about religion or politics. I do care if you use your politics ( no matter if I agree or not) as an excuse for victim language in your “pr”.
2. When you take those views and use them to harm others. The post on Name Pros insinuating, against all medical & scientific knowledge, that the pandemic is fake, & an excuse to keep people from rioting, only causes harm by validating these myths. You can read my response on NP.
3. This is very disappointing to me as I have done & do a lot of business at Epik, they have been very innovative & have led the way in many areas and are proactively reaching into developing areas to provide opportunity. Their user interface for managing domains, landers etc. are all great imho.
But if doing business with them means they are going to use their platform and profits to endorse myths about a pandemic, “to keep people from rioting” ( thereby endorsing rioting ). I will need to wisely exit. There are a lot of alternatives with Dynadot, porkbun & Sav winning most my business now.
My thoughts on glitchdaddy are not extremely positive but they do not go to the level of causing harm to others, they are more about cost, technology etc.
Hi Ben – I am not sure what you are referring to about the Pandemic. My wife is a naturopathic physician. She has more direct encounters with people dealing with COVID than probably anyone else that will visit this page. COVID can be greatly debilitating to those who contract it. I don’t believe I have said otherwise.
As for mitigating the risk of COVID, I do believe that our bodies are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (see Psalm 139:14) which is why I am likely to be slow to adopt medical intervention versus proactive measures for immune support, good diet and prayer.
As for clients we allow on Epik, we don’t condone lawlessness. To the contrary, we work closely with clients to hold them accountable to a standard of moderation that allows lawful free speech to occur. And yes, sometimes bad apples must be tossed.
At the end of the day, in nearly all matters, we are pragmatists, not absolutists. We pick our battles and we sequence them. Our core activity is digital empowerment. We seek to empower as many as possible. Our profits go to tech. Doubt it? Check the list:
https://www.epik.com/about/labs/
As for whether anyone chooses to use Epik’s products and services, I believe a genuinely objective review of the industry will confirms that Epik has the best overall solution across a vast array of activity areas.
Our registrar platform won Registar of the Year on NamePros for 2020. It really is the best. And we never rested on our laurels and continue to invest heavily in providing innovation, service and value.
Our escrow platform is now among the best, ideally equipped for selling domains and websites in a multitude of currencies. We are actively courtying crypto holders, making it easy for them to rotate into domains.
Our acquisitions of BitMitigate.com, Sibyl Systems, Domain Graduate, and more pending, have been successfully integrated. A fast CDN, Anycast DNS, resilient hosting help make the pie bigger for all.
Our development program also extends to new innovations like NameLiquidate.com, DNProtect.com, and more. These are all connected with single sign on and the Masterbucks.com cloud-wallet.
We are setting a pace of innovation. Godaddy presumably knows it, and rather than competing on innovation uses market power and media proxies to check our progress. Yet we prevail. And to God be the glory!
On a personal level, I genuinely like many of the Godaddy people. However, I believe their policies, notably at the Board-level, are demonstrable anti-competitive. This is why we enlisted the assistance of the FTC and DOJ in 2020, and plan to pursue this further in 2021.
At the end of the day, surely most will agree that a world where Godaddy becomes an uncontested monopolist is not a world where the average domain investor prospers. Of that point, I am certain.
What Ben said…
Some of you are out to lunch. Until you have your freedoms ripped out from under you, you will never know the degree by which you are being hoodwinked. Stop falling for falsehoods being used to conveniently give up your freedoms. This industry has issues with people who sell their integrity for peanuts. It always has. I think at this point Epik has published detailed highlights of corruption and institutional deception that should be worrying. Some may dismiss it for their own short term self gain, but the industry bias and manipulation of others becomes more transparent by the post.
The real entitlement of American elitism is being too disconnected to realize how good they even have it. This tendency to burn down everything good you have is frightening. As ridiculous as the current witch hunts that seem to forget the last year as CITY AFTER CITY fell under siege with zero condemnation. Cheerleaders standing in front of burning buildings declaring that sometimes protests need to be “uncomfortable”. The hypocrisy is now borderline mass hysteria with little independent thought or real truth to themselves.
Thank you Epik for the legendary work you do. The trolls here are not worth your time and attention. Karma will sort out their paths in due time, and they by no means reflect the market or the millions you serve through your discernment. People will vote with their wallets, and have already let themselves be felt through their hearts. I don’t see anyone even close to the innovation and real care for customers you maintain. It is why they are attacking you. Maybe the sad point is the professional haters do not even realize the advancements and unique services you offer to actually make the world a better place and help them.
I guess telling the world you prioritize decentralized communications to ensure that a small group of people never gain control of all media narratives didn’t sink in. There are evil people who will try to twist your pursuit of responsible free speech into something else. The public in general though are not ignorant.
Give it to GoDaddy though. They are masters at redirecting negative attention to hide their security flops and share-based decisions. I can’t even imagine if the editors here actually applied the same standards to them that they roll out against Epik now on a weekly basis. Let me give it a try:
“Masters of hate GoDaddy take break post achieving all time record of SPLC hate site entries to destroy employee lives and ensure financial backs can afford new island resort. Redirection efforts of outrage into small Seattle-based registrar seemingly successful. Company wide termination plans discriminating on the basis of political alignment reach completion. Lobbyist achievements to accelerate Verisign 7% yearly hike price on .coms in full effect, so the $4.15 post rebate prices secretly received can further diminish any competition. Long term plan to corner market and then be resistance-free for price increases running smoothly. Decisions to undermine domain investment community to further destabilize US economy and create hardships for global-based pursuits continue. Investment into industry ignorance through the utilization of bad media pundits continues to pay dividends”.
The double standards here and false pedestal you hold Epik to, so that others can continue to take advantage of good people is just dirty.
Deceptive, clearly intentional, and simply malicious in how devoid of ethics and integrity any of it is.
I am very saddened by this. Epik was my go-to registrar. But ever since Robert Davis took over communications he has taken what probably could have been resolved amicably if cooler heads prevailed, just look at how Namebio handled PayPal. Instead he has taken the nuclear option, burning bridges, and it is hurt Epik, and Epik’s customer drastically!
I like Epik, and I like Rob Monster. I applaud his willingness to advocate for free speech. He gets a lot of flack about it, but having spoken with Rob I truly believe he is no way condones such speech. But he understands if you won’t let the most vile content that’s not technically illegal you can think of stay up then you are not really for free speech. And of course at the extreme level its easy to cast stones at Rob, I mean who would disagree that’s hateful. But, what happens when a platform decides that something less extreme is hateful. The internet is supposed to be a place that is open and a place for free speech but gate keepers for too long have been censoring it. In many cases I would be hard pressed to deny what they censor is truly evil content, but other times….its a gray area. I have to say Rob’s position is nothing if not consistent, everyone gets freedom of speech on Epik no matter how unpopular. For that I commend Rob and Epik.
Unfortunately the real problem is Epik’s communications, and public relations. Rob Davis must go, Epik cannot be the truly free and open platform the whole internet should be if they are ran out of business by such poor PR blunders!
I’m sick of this news where everything is politics, investor domains for many years and until now I have not seen and read the same thing in the blogs that I subscribe to because I like what they publish and I still like them.
I am 2005 in Godaddy and 2007 Afternic and 2018 Epik and many of my domains for sale go to Dan.com and Efty.com, leaving Afternic.com in the end we were harmed.
The policy is any high-level buy and sell market, just like domain investors, it is knowing how to buy and sell any level.