domain transfer tags:  whatever

track7.org was nearing expiration, so i thought rather than renew with godaddy for $8.99 PLUS another $8.99 to keep my personal information out of the domain whois database, i'd just transfer the registration to dreamhost.  with dreamhost it's $9.95 for the domain (so almost a dollar more!) but they include keeping your personal information out of whois, so you'd save about $8.  also, one domain registration is included with the account, so really i'm saving about $18 a year by making the transfer.

the problem is godaddy is unhelpful about transferring the domain registration away from them.  in a way you can understand that -- you won't be giving them money anymore -- but it's still poor customer service.  here's some troubles i've run into with them:

1. their website requires javascript where it really wouldn't need to
2. navigating through their website keeps changing which .godaddy.com subdomain i'm looking at, so i keep having to temporarily allow javascript for all the various subdomains
3. there's an annoying in-page popup wanting me to add a search plugin for seeing if domain names are available (which i don't care about nearly often enough to actually want such a search plugin)
4. they make you go to a different website (not even a different .godaddy.com subdomain) to deal with their "domains by proxy" service, which is how you get to pay double for your registration so you can keep your info private
5. they have essentially no instructions on what state your domain registration with them needs to be in before you can transfer it
6. they AUTOMATICALLY DENIED my transfer request because my registration was private -- it really should have told me this when i unlocked my domain (which is rarely done for reasons other than transferring the registration)
7. i had to cancel my private registration, which meant my actual name and contact information (though the address wasn't current) were in the whois database for a while
8. when they e-mailed me saying that they received a request to transfer my registration to another registrar (the time they didn't automatically deny it), it didn't tell me i could log in to their website and mark the request as approved immediately -- it just told me how i could deny the request

so i'm happy i got things where they are now, but i really think godaddy's website should have made it a lot easier.  thankfully dreamhost was very helpful and i was able to minimize the exposure of my personal information in whois to hours instead of weeks.

please note that the above post is likely made up in its entirety.

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Ugh, that sucks.

I host through godaddy... but I've registered my domain through localhost.com.au, which was recommended by Theo @ f2c years ago... I've had no problems with them, registration is a bit higher than others, and no privacy on the whois... I may consider a transfer next time I register... for sure not to GoDaddy though!

-bs0d | AllSyntax.com

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if you're interested in private registration, dreamhost has the best price i've seen.  use the link in this post to sign up and i might get a referral bonus (not sure if it applies to domain registrations, but definitely does apply to hosting).  i'm very happy with them for pretty much everything i've done through them, as you may have guessed since my layout includes "powered by dreamhost"

please note that the above post is likely made up in its entirety.

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