This blog has been down for four days. Sorry about that.
In case you’re curious about what happened:
The server (the data-center computer your browser talks to when you use this site) developed a technical problem and stopped showing the site to users. From the diagnostics I could do at my end (I’ve been a programmer for 43 years), it appeared to be a problem with the host company’s server software, not a problem with my website or anything I’m responsible for. I contacted tech support at the host company (GoDaddy) and was astonished because the tech person wasn’t interested in helping to fix the problem. Instead he told me the problem was caused by malware and I would have to pay money for their extra-cost security maintenance package to get it fixed. I thought he was probably wrong or lying to extort money from me, so I asked him questions to find out what his assertions were based on.
I talked to two tech support people and had similar experiences with both. I’ll summarize the second conversation. I asked how he knew the problem was caused by malware. He ignored the question and asked if I wanted to buy the extra-cost maintenance package. I asked if anybody at GoDaddy had seen the malware. He ignored the question and asked if I wanted to buy the package. I asked if he could please escalate the case to a higher level. He ignored the question and asked if I wanted to buy the package. I asked if I remembered correctly that my existing contract was for “managed” service (which means the company has already agreed to fix most problems). He ignored the question and asked if I wanted to buy the add-on package.
There were two reasons why I was astonished. (1) These conversations were like something out of a surrealist novel. This is the first time in my life I’ve had conversations like this with tech support. (2) It happened with two different people so apparently they were implementing deliberate company policy. (3) I’ve been a GoDaddy customer for 13 years. Up till now their tech support was superb.
Coincidentally, the previous day I had looked at the part of their website that sells domains and was astonished to see that the company has become unethical. That part of their site takes advantage of the average customer’s ignorance and fools them into paying much more money than they realize they are spending. One of the AIs told me the FTC (the US government agency that regulates and punishes such behavior) has repeatedly fined GoDaddy for doing things like this, but the company pays the fines and continues the behavior because the fines cost less than the profits. I don’t know if this is true, and AIs confabulate a lot. I was astonished to see and hear these things because the company has always been a little wacky but they never did anything sleazy. The AI informed me that it’s well known in the industry that GoDaddy began changing in this way some years ago. I guess it’s an example of what people are calling “enshittification.”
While talking to the second guy I decided to cancel my account with GoDaddy and move my sites elsewhere. So next time the guy repeated his question, “Do you want to buy the maintenance package?”, I said, “No. I’ve decided to cancel my account with your company. I’m going to move my sites someplace else.”
The guy’s reaction was funny but predictable. He thought I was threatening him and immediately started answering the questions he had been ignoring. (I think some of his answers were lies.) But I wasn’t threatening him. There’s no way I’m going to continue doing business with a company that instructs its employees to behave this way.
I spent the last four days moving my sites (I have about a dozen). I decided to take this opportunity to switch from the traditional way of publishing websites, on a single server at a data center, to the modern CDN method where you have no server. For technical reasons, I had to divide my sites into three categories and publish them in three different ways. CDN is completely new for me so there was a learning curve and that’s why it took four days. Some of the sites are now on Cloudflare Pages. One of the sites (realization.org) is too big for Cloudflare Pages so I put it on Cloudflare R2. This site, freddieyam.com, because it has this WordPress blog, has to stay on traditional shared hosting, so I had to pick a new host company to replace GoDaddy and copy the files to the new server.
The new CDN tech (used for all my sites except this one) is better than the traditional way of publishing websites on host computers at data centers. It’s faster for users, it’s free for low-traffic websites, it’s more reliable, and it’s more convenient (once it’s set up) for the website’s author.
When I started publishing websites 27 years ago, I paid $200 per month to lease a server. Over the years the technology got cheaper and the cost went down to about $30 per month at GoDaddy. Now publishing a website with low traffic is free — and faster and more convenient for the author. (Domain names are a separate expense that still must be paid.)
For any new website, I think the old method is obsolete. I guess it will hang around for a while because people don’t know about the new tech. Things like WordPress don’t work with the new method — WordPress is also obsolete, I guess — but things like Substack work fine. I’m sticking with the old method for this site because I don’t want to lose the 1100+ WordPress comments that have accumulated in this blog.
I moved this site to the cheapest host company I could find. It’s called NameCheap, not a name I find reassuring. So far it looks pretty good. If it doesn’t work out I’ll move the site again.
Wild. Thanks for sharing the story and glad to see the site is back up!
Wow. What a saga.
And well done for such persistence and dedication to maintain this service for your quite extraordinary niche market.
Thank you!
As I read through your remarkably thorough probing of the issues and solutions to them, it occurred to me that if we are not really doers – though we have desires -, this must be an example of your gifts/talents expressing through you for the desires to unfold. I know for myself, there is such a good feeling when desires are fulfilled through my being on purpose letting my own talents express (as a non-doer).
Thank you, Brian, for the kind words and you’re welcome. Someone who commented here very recently has gone deep by investigating non-doership. Maybe he’ll reply.
I think we have desires in the same way we have doings. The I that feels like it has the desire is a mental construct just like the I that thinks it’s doing.
Sad to say, those constructs are shoddy pieces of work, because they have no control over what they desire or do. Maybe that’s a clue that they are less than they seem? 🙂 Didn’t we talk about this in letters — St. Paul in Romans, “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
When I started with this stuff a long time ago I noticed that if I remained conscious while I brushed my teeth, I found myself watching my body brush its teeth with no control or involvement from me.
Nowadays I think we’re not any sort of mental activity. No matter how we interpret the teaching “you’re not the doer,” the doer is some sort of mental activity, and that’s not what we are.
Same goes for “desirer.”
Love it!
You’ve taken to a profounder level.
Yes, the awareness we are can neither be a desirer nor doer.
Awareness is timeless being, while desire is still in the realm of becoming.
My experience is that thoughts, feelings, desires, doings simply arise, pass and disappear like dreams on the screen of this awareness.
And, more and more, it is as if when there is walking or driving, it is just seeming movement through this unchanging awareness
Despite it being a mirage/dream, glad you are back.
Wow, what an absurdity! I think your experience with the service provider reflects the Zeitgeist of the current times regarding technology service providers. No accountability, no ethics etc. I keep wondering where we’re heading to as a society as the technology leaders are guiding us. I’m glad the site is back and you got to update your knowledge about the latest methods. Hope you’re doing well.
Hi Focus. I hope you’re doing well too. We should talk sometime like the old days. I agree, the decline in ethics at companies is apparent and disappointing. The reason the GoDaddy experience surprised me so much was that about ten years ago, I called GoDaddy tech support late at night and after the guy solved my problem, we ended up staying on the phone for two hours (I’m not kidding) talking about all sorts of things like friends. I kept asking him, “Are you really allowed to talk to me for hours like this?” and he kept replying, “Yeah, it’s a quiet night, nobody’s calling.” Among other things I asked himhow and why GoDaddy managed to hire such competent people and provide extraordinarily good service at relatively low prices, and he gave me a brilliant analysis of the company’s culture, how it hired, how the employees’ behavior reflected the founder’s personality, etc. That conversation has stuck in my mind ever since. What a contrast with my tech support conversations at the same company last week. How far that company has fallen in a decade.
Coincidentally, my girlfriend’s best friend has worked at GoDaddy for decades, and she was a close direct report to the founder during the years when he was building the company, so I’ve heard good things from her about what the company used to be.
That’s such an amusing story! The change is unbelievable, but again, it is reflected in many areas of our lives, in my opinion. I did a quick search and saw that the company went IPO in 2015. It says “As of 2025, the company is primarily owned by institutional investors, which hold approximately 97.52% of shares, with The Vanguard Group and BlackRock being major shareholders”. I think it explains a lot.
Yes, we should definitely talk soon. I miss our chats! I’ll start pinging you in two days and try to find a suitable time for you.