Tell HN: Some of you are straight up bullies

Like many here, I strongly oppose SOPA and believe in freedom of choice, or rather, a free Internet. And I understand that there are many reasons why people would want to move off a service like GoDaddy for their support of SOPA that has come out in recent days. Of course there are a lot of other reasons people have for not wanting to stay with GoDaddy such as poor service, the elephant killing, etc... and this simply became the last straw for a lot of people. Whatever the reason, I get it. You want to take a stance and not do business with them, partly due to a difference in beliefs, and that's okay. For what its worth, I'm moving my business off GoDaddy as well.

Having said that, what I am NOT okay with is how many people have become bullies as a result of this. You may not like the fact that they are supporting SOPA (or were) but that doesn't mean you have to be an ass about it. In my personal opinion, the real objective was always to help educate others on the potential harm SOPA represents, and help spread the word about it so that others can understand and make a choice, and hopefully do the right thing in opposing it. It was never about personal attacks against GoDaddy. Maybe I'm alone in this thinking but not doing business with them was more due to mal-alignment in personal beliefs than it was to screw them over.

However, that's exactly seems to be the case with some people here. I am reading about how people want to get other companies to drop GoDaddy to prove a point. And what point is that? That if other people/companies have a different opinion than yours, that they're automatically the bad guy and you need to do everything you can to beat them to a pulp? I may not like SOPA and I may disagree with GoDaddy, but I can at the very least respect other people's opinion (including companies). I'm glad that a lot of people are standing up for their beliefs and moving their business away from GoDaddy, which is a perfectly fine personal choice. But when it all of a sudden sounds like that became the objective, to simply pile on and get everyone to drop them, and then try to recruit other large companies to do the same or risk your wrath, you lose sight of the real goal. Now you're just attacking everyone who doesn't share your belief. I like to believe we're all adults here and we can act with class rather than like playground kids about it.

Maybe you don't like their service. Maybe you hate them for various reasons outside of just SOPA. Maybe there are a bunch of other reasons I can't think of. Regardless, GoDaddy is entitled to their opinions even if that opinion differs from your own and being a BULLY is never acceptable behavior in my opinion to get what you want no matter how strongly you feel.

For the record, I'm glad they reversed their opposition (and hopefully not doing some under handed stuff privately). I'm still going to move my business away simply because I don't believe its truly what they want and they're only doing it because its hitting their business. I'm glad that the word about SOPA is getting out. In no way am I defending GoDaddy in any way, shape, or form. All I'm trying to say is, remember what you're fighting for. Don't act out a mob mentality on the wrong things so much that you lose sight of what is important.