Gandi V3.0.0 : A new hope
By Ryan on Wednesday 13 January 2010, 06:49 - Gandi - Permalink
Ok, so it's not the right Episode number, but this version of Gandi represents a major turning point for all of us at Gandi that we have been looking forward to for a long time now: rewriting a number of processes that have not been totally satisfactory for you.
The first visible change is the new version of the website. This update will highlight (some will say shout) our values, and will bring to you improved ergonomics (who was it that asked for faster domain searches and the ability to attach tags to domains?).
A new version of the website you ask? Yes, in part, or at any rate, it's the tip of the iceberg 
Why Gandi V3.0.0 and not just Gandi V3? This is because this first version serves as the foundation for the major upgrades that will follow, many of which will be transparent to you but nevertheless essential.
You probably already know this, but Gandi has been around for nearly 10 years now, and its IT platform is just as old. We haven't upgraded it until now because we've spent the last 4 years playing catch-up at the product level which fell behind before we took over Gandi 4 years ago. This is not a secret to anyone, but its something we've been working to correct.
This product prioritization led to a number of limitations within our infrastructure, something that we were perfectly aware of but unable to change quickly. Not only did we have our own ideas for improvements, but we had many many ideas submitted by you for how to make our services better.
So here we are, the implementation of these new features will begin with a major overhaul of our website. It is therefore with pleasure, and after many months of behind-the-scenes work, that we present to you our shiny new website. You can't miss that the general look and feel of our website has continued to evolve but stays true to Gandi's roots. A big thanks to Steven for this, Gandi's own graphic design Jedi
We are also shipping out some new features with version 3.0.0, notably:
- the ability to add tags to each of your domains, so that you can sort them by family,
- an incredibly fast multi-extension search capability,
- a new domain and hosting purchasing system with a shopping cart that is finally dynamic.
- an entirely new real-time news system that keeps you better informed of maintenance alerts and other important announcements. This system brings you our news in the form of an information banner which is incorporated directly into our website.
We're not going to get into the details of the upcoming additions and release dates here, as they are scheduled to roll out in phases over the first quarter of 2010 and beyond. This being said, each new version will be accompanied by a Gandibar post. The only thing that we can say for now is that, like our hosting wishlist we have also added a domain wishlist. Therefore, please feel free to give us suggestions, as we are looking forward to seeing what new services you would like us to provide.
We're don't want to miss any opportunity to hear from you, as this is part of the engine that helps drive us forward!
Welcome to Gandi V3, and let us say for now: "To be continued..."
Comments
Nice upgrade! Well done
Could you remove the text you put in the "handle" field though so that auto-fill works better?
Regards,
Rob...
A New Hope : c'est l'épisode IV ... ( donc ca aurait ce titre aurait été mieux adapté pour la version 4.0 )
Hi Rob,
Do you mean the -Gandi text that is in the field by default?
I'll pass that comment on, I believe it used to delete it when you entered that text box. Thanks,
Joe
The new site is a welcome change except for the 'No Bullshit' branding which is frankly awful and tasteless.
For some it may be deterrent and for others unsavoury.? It may also stop the site being accessible behind some corporate firewall/filters.
Is it really necessary?
Agreed the "no bullshit" is crass and a weak attempt at being "edgy" ..no doubt someone on the French side of Gandi thought of "pas de blah blah" ..and then decided that it translates as "no bullshit" ( it doesn't ) and that it would look "branché" en Anglais ..it doesn't ..it just looks cheap, nasty, inept, ridiculous, pretentious ..as does most English slang when used by people who don't actually understand the context in which the words should/should not be /are used ..( the same applies to English who use French "argot" inaccurately ..looks ringard et nul ) ..
Corporate slogans are no longer the flavour of the month in the English speaking world ..inspite of what you may have been led to believe by watching French TV ..
Lose the "no bullshit" or lose customers ..if it is there when I next renew or when I next wish to register a dot FR ..I'll be transfering domains out and recommending to others to do the same ..
Ps.I live in France and have done so for the last 20 years ..English is my maternal language and my French is totally fluent ..donc "no bullshit" c'est ringard et nul !! Laisser tomber ..!!
That apart the gandi service is fine ..but the "no bullshit" is a dealbreaker ..and looks very unprofessional ..would you put "pas d'emmerdements" ou "sans emmerdement" ou "sans raconter des conneries" ? (the latter is much closer to the contextual translation of "no bullshit" ) ..No ..you wouldn't ..? Thought not ..
Get rid of it ..( hopefully you didn't actually try to trademark it or ask for it as marque deposé ..inspite of the TM )..adolescent humour and being a major registrar don't mix well ..save playground slogans for your teenagers "manif" tee shirts ..
I have to agree with 4 + 5 above. When I saw the faux Photoshop grafitti declaring "No bullshit", I paused for a second to wonder if the new site got hacked. It was, and still is, unbelievable. I can only suggest that you move swiftly and pretend that it never happened.
I have the same experience as Mike. Having lived half my life in the english-speaking world, I am quite familiar with the totally inappropriate use of "jargon". This edgy slogan of dripping paint (look, ma) would come across as pretentious bullshit on the blog of an opinionated teenager. Imagine what it does for your corporate image...
Hi guys,
Thanks for your comments and I’m sorry to hear that the ‘no bullshit’ statement doesn’t resonate with you. The strap was actually developed by the company as a whole, including our US, British and French team members in both our London and Paris offices, so we did feel that we had a suitable cultural overview of the meaning in both languages and all territories.
The phrase has actually been used by many of our customers on blogs, forums and twitter to describe how they feel about Gandi’s approach in the domain name market, which is a market that clearly has a history of some ‘grey’ practices and is often used by companies as a means of selling additional products, and not simply focusing on the quality of the domain name as a product in its own right.
Gandi has always been ‘an alternative’ to some of the other providers, both literally and in spirit. We have tried to take you through our thought process behind ‘no bullshit’ at http://www.gandi.net/no-bullshit which I think gives some context. For us this is about an honesty and integrity in our communication to you, and a promise to deliver high quality products without over complicating things or trying to sell you things you don’t want.
This is the spirit that we want to capture, and something I hope you recognise in why you have used Gandi as a customer. What is it that you like about Gandi and made you choose us in the first place?
Joe
As already said by #4, #5 and #6, it's about time to move to V3.0.1 without that lame "no bs". What were you thinking?!
I also have to agree that the new slogan is crass. It's not polite/business appropriate speech. I chose gandi nine years ago for some domains because of the high level and quality of service- recently, i've been moving all of my other domains to gandi because of problems elsewhere, and I have thought about recommending it, but I definitely would hesitate to recommend it due to the slogan. It's not a site I feel as comfortable visiting.
I sort of understand what you are trying to convey. But, you should be able to convey it without stooping to using a crude reference. Instead of needing such a slogan, why not say 'Why choose Gandi?' with the answer that, you can ask our customers, who will agree that Gandi is:
"… blunt, straight forward and deliver what we promise…
* We are honest about what we do; we will be straightforward in how we deal with you.
* We will not exaggerate or over complicate things.
* We will give you what we promise to give you.
* If we make mistakes we will apologise and make good.
* If we’re ever hypocritical we will hold our hands up and clean up.
* We will listen to you and be honest in our reply, even if it means you won’t always like what we say.
* We expect you to treat us the same way. "
Thank you.
Gandi.net user since 2001
I for one don't have any problem with the new "No Bullshit" tag line. As Joe mentioned, what is it that you like about Gandi, as opposed to, say, Go Daddy <shudder>, or Dotster <cringe>? I laughed when I saw the "No Bullshit" image in the header, and thought: "I like this company, they aren't afraid to stick profanity in the header of their site." But it's not at all the fact that it's profanity that I like it, but rather the fact that it's just frank and blunt, and casts of some bullshit (yes, I said it) mask of political correctness that so many businesses cover themselves with. If someone is not going to choose Gandi solely on the basis of some word in the header of the site, then they aren't making the decision for which registrar to use based on merit. For those people, they may prefer busty women, clevage and race car drivers over at Go Daddy.
Nathan
Joe,
I think it's fair to say that it "resonates". You already have one customer, Mike, pledging to move his business elsewhere if the bullshit remains. He may be bullshitting you - or he may not. Chalk it up as someone who simply does not "get it" when/if the account is cancelled.
Personally, I think the spirit Gandi captures is primarily one of extremely poor judgment. And I sincerely doubt "no bullshit" will grow on anyone above 14, being such an established part of the gutter vernacular. But I could be wrong. Maybe your wording of values will attract customers like flies to...no bullshit?
Joe ..bonsoir
<<The strap was actually developed by the company as a whole, including our US, British and French team members in both our London and Paris offices, so we did feel that we had a suitable cultural overview of the meaning in both languages and all territories.>>
In private or on fora isn't the same as on a company masthead ..unless you are "charlie hebdo"..
plus regards cultural differences ..
English would say "cobblers"
French would say "conneries"
Americans would say "bullshit"
French who actually say "bullshit" are either talking to Americans or '( if talking to fellow francophones ) trying to seem "branché ( and failing ) and anglophile ..
Reminds me of French news presenters getting the pronunciation wrong when interviewing US or UK movie stars at the news at 20 heures ..or the ubiquitous "arlee daveenson" that french pop stars buy to make them seem somehow American ..
I read the bit by your CEO ..<<makes me think of the interviews on France inter where some one is trying to push their book about the USA and it's culture on the basis of having been there just once or twice ..or the "experts" on US culture that are regulars on "Ce soir ( ou jamais !) ">> ..his piece is far too wordy ( verbose ) ..You want to be seen as different ? ..Then cut the verbosity ( in my experience hard for French to do ) and just get on with doing the job ..If the CEO must sound off then do it via a separate blog with another domain name like Bob Parsons does ( with whom incidentally I have 100's of dot coms and nets and orgs etc registered at the Blue Razor operation ) ..integrity is judged by what you do not what you say or what you put on your masthead or devise as a "strap line" ( BTW ..who says "strap line" these days ?..like who says "super".?.when they mean good ..outside of French who speak a little English ) ..Stop trying to be trendy ..just get on with the job ..stop trying to tell us how great and honest you are ..just show us ..
Word will get around ..that's how you built your reputation and customer base anyway ..not by having "cheesy" ( ringard ) slogans on your header..
Why did I come to Gandi originally ? ( I 've been on the web since before Gandi existed ) ..Precisely because the original gandi was the only french based place where I could register dot frs that didnt have landing page stuffed with blink tags , ani gifs , and verbose "we are the greatest - trust us - buy me buy me " ..that is typical of french advertising ..Far too many words and far too much talking and sloganising in french company advertsing ..be it on TV or the radio or the web ..
Gandi had less "pointless talk" ( what the french call "meublé" ) on the home page ..and a shorter and more honest TOS ..
Get back to that ..and you'll keep customers and grow your customer base ..Go the way of pointless slogans about how honest / ethical you are ( à la Google with "do no evil" ..ROTFAPMSL ) which convince no one ..but just look and read "tacky" and you'll lose many of those you have ..and put off new ones ..( unless you are trying only for the teenager adolescent lycéen market that want a dot me registration ) ..I'm often asked on pro fora by anglophones who I'd recommend as a French registrar / hoster ..until now I said you guys ..as long as that "no bullshit" is on your hompage ..your competitors will be getting the recommendations ..
As mc said ..lose it and we'll all pretend it never happened ..
@Mr Stephan Ramoin ..you are a good CEO ..that is a management skill set ..svp ..dont try to play designer nor write what Parisians think is trendy copy ..especially not in English ..
@Srl - thanks for your considered comments. I appreciate that you have taken the time to join the debate, and that you agree with our values even if you don't agree with the way we have presented them. The problem is that so many corporate phrases nowadays are empty, 'we value our customers', 'we make ethical choices', there is very little to get people to sit up and take notice that you actually mean it. But your opinions are noted, and I appreciate the comments.
@Nathan - Thanks for your comments too. You're quite right, there are plenty of other types of 'offensive' material associated with other registrars, but of the kind that for some reason are more socially acceptable.
@Mc - Thanks for replying, without debate things don't move forward. From feedback so far some customers love it, some are less enamoured. We are interested in your comments, even if they are not in support. But again, while you may think this shows lack of judgement, I hope you do agree that the values we stand for are worth fighting for, even if you don't appreciate our vernacular.
BTW ..the reasons that my non dot frs are with Blue Razor are two fold ..price ..and the fact that I can phone them from France ( they don't do the stupid freephone number that only US or Canadians can call ) ..I pay the calls ..so if I need to do something and need to talk to a real person on the phone ( not "chat" in some window ) ..then I can do so ..I dont host anything with them though ..I dont like their hosting panel interface ..
Never seen their ads ..wouldn't have made any difference to me ..I go there for the service ..they were recommended to me ..I came here for the service ..Gandi was recommended to me ..
If you must have a "strap line" ? why not "your recommendation ,is our reputation" or "grown by word of mouth" etc ..or even leave it open and make it a competition to post the best ( customers point of view ) slogans ..and rotate them ..
Use the talents of your customers ..after all it's our word of mouth recommendations that grew Gandi ..like you said "we don't advertise ..our customers do it for us" ..
But "no bullshit" isn't edgy ..just tacky
and would put many off sending anyone here now .
Guys, we thought long and hard about using 'No Bullshit' and in the end no one phrase bluntly described our values as clearly as 'No Bullshit'.
We also had concerns about using profanity but in the end we're not saying it as a joke or a bit of childish humour but because as a whole business we believe in delivering what we promise, being honest, transparent and taking a strong stand that these are our values. If we don't deliver this you should call us on it.
This also means we're totally prepared to have a dialogue with everyone about their concerns, listen and then respond .... even if we've upset them! Only way we'll learn too.
We get feedback from our customers who literally tell us we are a 'No Bullshit' business:
http://m.twitter.com/bleything/stat...
http://www.pubbs.net/debian/201001/...
And long may that continue ....
Bonsoir Mike. Thanks for getting back to us. I'm not sure 'no cobblers' would get across the same message, but I like the idea ;-).
There is certainly a difference between the 'expressiveness' of French and English text, and this is something we try to address in the English translation of the site.
In terms of the use of 'bullshit' by the French, I can assure you our team (from all over France) we're quite comfortable with the phrase. If you look on the french version of this blog and French comments on Twitter, there is wide acceptance of it. As a bilingual it would be great to have your views on both sides of the channel.
We certainly agree that actions speak louder than words and we try to live this every day. When we don't live up to this, or make mistakes we own up to them. No bullshit.
I'm intrigued that you're with godaddy as well as Gandi, as we don't tend to get customers that align to both companies views. I'd be interested in how you see the differences. Thanks,
Joe
Joe ..talk to you later or ( if too late ) tomorrow ..car la "on mange"
it's 20.00 hrs here ..a+
I'll bite one last time.
Please understand what people are trying to tell you. Objections are not based upon your choice of "bad" language, but the use of totally inappropriate and juvenile language; it's the context, not the words. Commenters are, bless them, trying to steer you away from what they see as an utter embarrassment for your own good. But, alas, you take no bullshit, because you really mean it.
C'est tout.
I think what bothers some people is that the site doesn't look as 'clean' as before, because it looks as if someone put a "No future" sticker on an ebony frontdoor. I guess it's slowly drifting into a "politically {correct,incorrect}" flame war which is pointless per se. The only thing I have to say is to stand up to it, because what's most important is that your customers know why they are using your services and not some other registrars. I still remember altern.org and what beliefs it carried.
Thanks all for your comments. I certainly hope it doesn't become a flame war, I'm actually enjoying the debate
We're also appreciative of the input from you guys, and the fact that you're passionate enough about what we do to engage with us on this.
We want this to be an adult statement in an adult world, and not a flippant childish phrase. We want to get across that sometimes you do need to take a risk to get your voice heard and convince people you mean what you say. By having this debate with you all, we hope you can understand why we're saying what we're saying, and we can learn how to refine our message so that it is heard by everyone and in the correct context.
Thanks again for your input,
Joe
I don't mind the 'No Bullshit' slogan. The new site functionality seems to work fine.
I agree with John it looks less clean but that is due to the bad colors used. I don't like the green and blue headings.
I would just like to add my voice to those of the dissenters. While I appreciate the sentiments that you would like to embody with the new catch phrase, to me it conveys immaturity - not a desirable characteristic for a hosting company.
Please drop the "No Bullshit" slogan. It's embarrassing, and offensive. It reeks of a mature person trying too hard to look cool to teenagers. It says to me you're willing to wash your respectability and professionalism into the gutter and go down-market. You don't need gimmicks like this, just good prices and solid execution. Ironically you were "No Bullshit" before this. Please, listen to your customers - they're telling you they don't want this nonsense (or "bullshit").
Yes, drop it. It definitely brings down what I thought was a class act. If you kept the slogan in your "About" page (even better phrasing it as "no b.s."), it would be less annoying. But having to see it on every page when I'm managing my domains is just sophomoric.
Kind of ironic, considering I joined a few weeks ago precisely because I was trying to get away from the GoDaddy approach.
I guess it's a question of perception and sensibility then. Most of our US and UK customer (expressing themselves on Twitter or other channels) are obviously more concerned and prompt to protest against companies harpooning you with tits to sell cheap domains. Just before hammering you with bad policies and hidden sales.
Don't get me wrong : I get the point on the childish side you perceived in this phrase (and I'm sorry about that), even if, like Wendy tried to explain, in the end no one phrase bluntly described our values as clearly as 'No Bullshit'. John, thanks for the idea to put it only on the homepage, we are making changes to this header so that you don't have it everywhere or have to scroll down too much. So we are listening to you guys, as always.
But allow me to say ("No Bullshit") that I'm surprised to see customers hitting so hard a company REALLY trying to behave well since 10 years while they simply don't see anything wrong in going along with others, much less concerned by ethics and honesty. As a customer, I would be much more annoyed by lots of things I see on a daily basis in those companies.
Once again, it's not the result of a trendy french alcoholic CEO as Mike implied sooner, but US and UK customers loving this way to clearly express what we stand for, in a world where everyone claims it, but nobody REALLY does it.
Hope it helps the debate, not the flames.
Gandi writes to me «We REALLY believe in being honest, ethical, and caring about our customers» ... and I really believe them
However, if I came new to the company and saw the n.b slogan it would have exactly the opposite effect on me from the one intended. It is a cultural clanger (mistake) and vulgar to boot.
Paolo : Even if you have been referred to us ? Or do a simple search on the website , this blog or the Web and see by yourself we are the real deal ? Don't forget our new customers only come from word of mouth since 10 years now.
I'm glad to see that I am not the only person who cringed at the "no bullshit!" slogan.
It looks juvenile and completely destroys the Gandi corporate image; I've recommended other people to Gandi on the basis that "no, they are not the cheapest, but they're professionals."
I won't be able to do that anymore...
PS And personally, I don't like much the new design... so much space wasted on every page!
Gentlemen the date structure for the domain expiry is frankly wrong. Please consider dd/mm/yy or yy/mm/dd but MM/DD/YY is silly - otherwise I like the new design.
I think Gandi is the most straight forward hosting company I've seen so far and the "no bullshit!" slogan says it all. I identify more with this than with that guy in a suit with a false smile on, in front of a rack that all other hosting companies has on their first-page to show how serious they are.
I cant honestly say that the UI by any means is the most beautiful I've seen (even tough this is a great improvement) but its functional and that's what's truly matters.
Thumbs up!
Guys, I personally appreciate the "no BS" attitude, and I agree it fits you and is cool.
But this makes the site not really work-appropriate in many cases, and I think makes you look amateurish. As one of my colleagues said, "We left GoDaddy for Gandi in part to get away from the inappropriate site."
If I wasn't already a customer, it would make me hesitate. Do I want to put something as appropriate as a domain name in the hands of a company that doesn't sound professional?
Another take on the "no bullshit" is very simple.
If I can't show the homepage of our domain registrar to my boss, our 70-year-old controller, then you're doing something wrong. If your website is going to be added to various corporate proxy filter lists soon, you're doing something wrong.
Again, I'm not personally offended, but it does convey a "not serious enough for business use" message.
Guys, i'm like Sami, a guy in a suit is not what I need to be convinced the company I'm dealing with is professional. Once again, you came to us because you KNOW we are serious and honest, because we have a 10 years proven track record and your experience is (normally) very positive. So I'm sure you'll manage to demonstrate to your customer how good was your move when you chose us.
Be sure we are and will be doing everything to earn his trust as hard as we did to earn yours.
While I get the use of "No bullshit" as a political statement, the offending part is clearly the graffiti-like visuals of it. If you type it in proper kerned Helvetica or FF Meta, it will look much more acceptable and professional.
Take the no bullshit OFF - We refer a lot of our valued clients and potential clients to you. Also, many times we have a domain name parked until we finish our client's website and your website comes up. It is not edgy it is dumb....I could have thought of a million better taglines for you all. I am telling you - no bullshit - it is the wrong move.
Please consider this.
Thanks-
Kristen
I enjoyed the Gandi brand in part because it was a bit higher-brow. Faux-graffiti swear words really detract from that. Kind of adds some bullshit to your non-bullshit, if you dig.
Well done on the new site launch.
Did you ask a bunch of Gandi customers what they thought of your new strapline before you decided on it? In the UK, this term is offensive and you wouldn't have had to ask more than a handful of people before you saw a theme.
May I suggest you ask users for alternatives? I'll kick off...
No sweat
Hi,
First congratulations on the new design and all the new upgrades. I manage over 20 domains on gandi and the company I work for manage 100s of domains else where. My boss didn't even bother looking at gandi because he stopped at the "BS" slogan and closed the browser. Regardless of your values, the slogan will end up cost you customers and business as it doesn't look professional.
With the new design, I decided to see if your hosting something I could try to manage some of my website, but the hosting section design is just wrong. The first rule in design is not to use a black background with white text (even if it looks cool) because no one can read more than a few lines before the text start bluring and mixing togather. Second, as soon as I tried to use the custom slider, I lose the page and nothing else work (IE8).
Hope this comments will be helpfull.
My opinion about the relaunch:
The No bullshit thing is the smallest problem.
The hosting share configurator is not working in chrome (and safari?) . It stays at 2 shares if I move the slider.
The color scheme on the hosting part makes it hard to read. It looks childish, like a game clan side.
If I come to Gandi to lookup a domain name I do not want to look up all "generic" or "european" domains, I want to have .com, .org or a specific country. I have to make 3 clicks until I come to a page where I can do this.
Generally the new web2.0lish layout is screen space wasted.
If I would not be already a satisfied customer and I would come to this new page, especially the hosting part, I surely would not become a new customer. It looks amateurish.
Regards
Tobias: it does indeed appear that we have some problems under Safari 4 , OS X. We are currently trying to fix this, though we have not yet had any reports of difficulties under chrome, could you please send us an mail to gandiv3@ with your version of chrome, OS... If you would like to search for a specific domain (with the extension), you can just add it in the form with the extensions that you want. Concerning the problem with wasted space, we have taken your feedback into consideration, and will release an improvement this afternoon or Monday. [edit: Ryan ;)]
@Don : thanks for your feedback! Concerning the new date format for domain expiration dates (now in the American format), we will change this so that you can specify the format that you want ("American" or "International") in your account settings. We will start, however, by simply reverting to the "International" format: dd/mm/yyyy
Hi,
I'm almost a customer (waiting on a mailed credit card) so I literally have no experience with you guys besides your website, but from my time exploring your company and services for the past couple months, I'd like to put in my two cents regarding the website redesign.
For me, what drew me to your site was not that it was 'no bullshit', but that it was professional (and looked professional, i.e. one unifying color scheme), was ethical (i.e. supported many important causes, some of which I hadn't even heard about previously), and did not rely on any marketing or affiliate programs to spread the site. I heard about it from word of mouth (as is your guys' intention), and the second I hit your old site I was like 'wow, this is the one'. When I explored the list of the causes you support, and saw your responsiveness and openness to your customers, I really couldn't believe my luck.
Regarding the redesign, the 'no bullshit' graffiti tagline isn't really something that helps; in fact, it has the opposite effect of immediately making someone unfamiliar with your company suspicious. Partly it is because it is something that you'd see on GoDaddy or similar sites ("Most Edgy!", "GoDaddy Babes!", in faux-graffiti). Partly it is because you are taking an attribute that customers assign to your company (that it is no bullshit) and then marketing that attribute. This would be equivalent to Google on their main page having 'trustworthy' written under the 'Google' or Apple having 'stylish' written in Papyrus as their trademark under their brand name. This is marketing itself (as #36 notes), and it is 'bullshit' in the sense that it's unnecessary filler from the actual information you already provide about the company and its services (which in themselves describes your company as 'no bullshit', but without so many (marketing) words).
Seeing some of the other comments (knowing that they are not representative of your customer base), I would perhaps even make the leap and say that your primary selling point is not that you are 'no bullshit', but rather that you are 'professional', and that your 'no bullshit' factor is in fact a subset of your professionalism.
I have no plans on changing my desire to sign up for your guys' services, just thought you'd be interested in a not-yet-customer point-of-view. The mere fact that you are open and willing to discuss these issues with your customers speaks more about your company than anything that could be written in graffiti. I just think being seen as 'professional' would make more business sense than being seen as 'alternative'.
Hi Michael,
Thank you for a very well considered comment. We certainly appreciate your views, and those of all the customers that have commented. We are most heartened by the fact that people appreciate where we are coming from, and agree the values we are trying to communicate, though not always in the way we have expressed in its current form. We are gathering feedback from a variety of channels, both in UK, US, France and others, from blogs, tweets, emails and customer support. So we are listening and appreciate you taking the time to let us know.
This discussion and debate would not be possible without our customers taking part and we value that very much. Many thanks,
Joe
I can't say I like the new design or tagline. My first impression was also that the site had been partly hacked, I loved the previous design. Was clean and very useable. I’ve had a number of minor issues but have also liked the way gandi has operated since first using it 2002. I can’t say I will continue to use gandi with the current change as it just makes me cringe. If as you say its popular and works well I will be happy for gandi but I think a lot of people like above and myself will not continue to use your services, which would be a shame as it’s not the services at fault.
wow ... good jobs guys! VERY nice!
mmm....1st login ..back to gandi was a huge shock..
Personnaly the design looks less professional than previoulsy...the global feeling I mean.
My 1st impression was.."this website has a prob".."do I am on the right gandi ?"...."mm..looks childish style"
I prefer the older version.
But, we are learning with mistakes, I guess
The bullshit tagline is hopelessly unprofessional, and this shows a profound lack of understanding of the cultural significance of that word outside your European, male-dominated, young internet-professional circle. Maybe your team thinks it's cool, but your team is not a representative sample of users.
I have clients who use this site. Many of them will be offended by the tone and the vocabulary used. Let's be very clear here - you cannot use the word "bullshit" in a professional context in north America, unless you're marketing to 15 year-olds.
This is a serious mis-step from a company I respect. I'd like to stress that I am not personally offended by the word, but my clients will be. It sends entirely the wrong message. So please, I and my clients are looking for a professional domain registrar - something that you appeared to be before you started using the bullshit tagline.
I see you changed the style of the tagline, which at least looks better. But I still prefer the previous design, and still do not like the tag line. As said above it gives the wrong impression of Gandi, I like Gandi but you are not helping yourselves by chosing the that tagline as it will put off a significant amount of people. I guess what I fail to understand the need for the change from the old, where you sales dropping or something?
I love it! I recently switched from GoDaddy to Gandi solely based on the now-prominently-displayed "No Bullshit" policy. When you're basically the only domain registrar on the internet that doesn't nickel and dime customers to death, I think it's appropriate to tout that in a bold way. I'm willing to pay a little bit more for each domain to not be harassed by unnecessary add-ons and upsells during the checkout process. The nice new design is just an added plus. Keep up the great work.
As a slight improvement over your "No Bullshit" slogan, may I suggest:
"We reek of integrity."
Offensive tagline. Do NOT use the word "shit" -- either Bull, Bull****, or B.S. (I prefer just "bull").
Ugh. That was very callous of you to have 4-letter-word cussing on your home page. I am not amused. And I *cannot* recommend this site to anyone so long as that vulgarity is there. C'est impossible! I would never subject any friend to cussing.
Count me amongst those who were *physically* shocked and shaking fearing that the site had been hacked. Do you really want to scare the "shit" out of your customers? Because that is what you are doing when you post that vulgarity on your home page. It's been 20 minutes and my body is still malfunctioning. Thanks a lot.
Now as to the page design, it is a severe pain. The old site was already too wide for my preferred window size (512px, btw), and this new one is significantly wider. Ergonomic? NO! That is not ergonomic. The text entry box at the bottom of this page is wider than my window. Very unprofessional UI design. Oh, and the font on the domain control panel is too large. And hey, what happened to the DNS hover on the domain list? It's gone missing. Please restore it.
This 3.0.0 design is ridiculous. Sorry, but it is. C'est tres mal.
I do not want to be cussed at.
I want pages that fit in my preferred browser window width, whatever that may be.
I want font sizes that match my browser preferences, not artificially magnified ones. These giant fonts hurt my eyes and waste space.
thank you.
PS. As long as you have date formatting options, how about an ISO date format option? YYYY-MM-DD. That's what I use mostly, and it's unambiguous.
Collin Allen : Would you marry me ? ;D
Hi thanks to everyone for their feedback and joining in the debate. We're just glad you feel able to say what you think and bluntly! We are listening and as you'll have already seen we are iterating what we do in response but without compromising our values.
We are a diverse team at Gandi. We're from the UK, France and US. We're both male and female, old and young with entrepreneurial and corporate backgrounds. And as you can imagine we strongly debated using 'No Bullshit' as our strapline. We felt and still do that it sums up our values clearly. We will deliver what we say, clean up if we don't, be honest and transparent and sometimes this means you won't like what we say. But it will be a relationship of 'mutual respect'.
It's not a joke, we take it seriously. For those worried about showing this site to their CEO's, compliance, lawyers or mothers just tell them we're blunt but honest and will look after their domains, cloud hosting and websites with the integrity this implies.
Let's see what happens, we're still listening ....
I can understand the underlying sentiment behind your new, prominently displayed, declaration of `No B.S.`. I am a refugee from godaddy. I ran from that company for two reasons. Primarily, I left because of the tons of problems that I have had with their services over the years. However, I also left because godaddy's completely over the top (edgy, controversial) corporate image was not one that I wanted to be associated with in any way, shape, or form.
Gandi.net was the anti godaddy. Gandi is professional, straight-forward, and clean. As a professional working in a professional industry, I have felt confident recommending Gandi to numerous colleagues.
I was totally and completely shocked when I first saw the new "declaration" as part of the Gandi redesign. I am a professional, and I work in a professional industry. I ran from godaddy in part because it cultivated a crass, immature, and unprofessional corporate image. Now I see that Gandi is sliding in that same direction.
I was scheduled to do a presentation on integrating Gandi's internet services into the business that I work for. How am I supposed to do that now? I am actually relieved that I saw this change before the presentation. It would have been extremely embarrassing to encounter this crude declaration in a presentation in front of executive management.
I understand that this is a product of a reasoned and thoughtful process within your company. However, I want to communicate to you that there is very little possibility of acquiring corporate clients with this declaration so clearly visible on your homepage. to be entirely honest with you, I have never seen that before on a non-hacked internet page for *any* company and I have been around the web for a long time (online since before the web was cool actually, anyone else remember Bulletin Board Systems???).
Look, I understand that this is your company motto and that you are proud of it. You should be proud of your image, Gandi.net is a straight shooter. The problem is that the phrase "No Bull****" is not professional and carries an extremely negative connotation across cultural lines.
Telling someone that you are "Blunt but honest" is nice, but that will not be enough to address the concerns of those that see this. However, you are not communicating integrity by putting what most would consider to be a crude phrase in a plainly visible location on your front page.
I understand that, from a marketing perspective, you are probably trying to attract additional clients with the new look and this edgier slogan. However, you are needlessly alienating clients and prospective clients with this move. Not everyone shares the same cultural values and views, and - like it or not - there are people that will refuse to accept Gandi as a professional company with integrity once they see your front page. Why not just continue to offer the same exemplary level of service and replace the phrase with something else - something that will not alienate people?
Please note that other companies that: "deliver what they say, clean up if they don't, be honest and transparent and sometimes this means you won't like what they say. But have relationships of 'mutual respect'" do not seem to feature profanity prominently displayed on their home pages.
Look you guys run a tight shop here, and your company has delivered exemplary levels of service to me and those that I have refereed to Gandi in the past. It saddens me that I will not be able to refer people to this site. Put it on your about us page if you must have it, but please, Please, PLEASE remove it off the front page.
Thank You.
Hi Arthur,
Thank you for your long and considered note, this is valuable and appreciated feedback. The challenge we are facing is how to communicate our straight values in a way that doesn't sound diluted or empty. It is all too common for companies to claim to be many things nowadays, without conviction.
It is certainly not our intension to alienate or offend our clients, particularly our corporate customers from whom we have fought hard to earn trust. And we are certainly not on a path to shock marketing of any kind simply to gain notoriety.
You will note we have simplified the header and remove the slogan from the 'logged in' state of the interface, so in normal admin situations you and your colleagues will not see it. We have also toned down the logo itself to reflect the seriousness in which we make the statement. However, this is all an evolution, and things will continue to change.
What do you think would convey the authenticity and values of Gandi in a way that was punchy and meaningful?
Joe
I like it:D
Hi Gandi -
Still exploring the new site but I appreciate the new design. You've continued the clean, professional and simple presentation that separates you from most domain registrars.
As an American living in France, I'm going to throw my two cents in on the 'no bullshit' debate. It personally doesn't bother me, but I'm less puritanical than many of my compatriots. I live in France after all
There is a very important distinction that needs to be made however. In American English, there is a huge difference between saying "no bullshit" and "no BS". People might say "that's a bunch of BS" in a normal conversation, but you would rarely hear "that's a bunch of bullshit" unless that conversation was antagonistic or angry. Saying "BS" can be taken in a lighthearted way, saying "bullshit" not so much. The subtlety is significant.
our "no bs" policy = honest and straightforward
our "no bullshit" policy = same concept, but potentially culturally insensitive to certain people and has an aggressive tone (aggressive "harsh" not aggressive "edgy")
So, if you are looking to continue growing an American English business, it's important to understand that the slogan isn't quite perfect. (though I understand that this slogan resonates quite well for the Frenchies)
An extremely happy customer of several dozen gandi .fr's
Ethan
"What do you think would convey the authenticity and values of Gandi in a way that was punchy and meaningful?"
Seconding the immediately above commentator. I would see no problem with putting "No BS" instead of actually spelling things out.
Hi all.
Re "No bullshit". Not a dealbreaker, but very naff (as the English would say) and juvenile. As per 58 above (and I too am non-French living in France for.... an awfully long time!) modify it. Don't be proud - just change it and move on.
But, I'll tell you what IS a dealbreaker! The fact that I find this whizz-bang new site (V3) with the obviously large amount of time, money and technical effort that clearly lies behind it, at what I can only conclude is the expense of your services themselves.
Please don't misunderstand me: the new site (BS apart...) is lovely. Very pretty. Easy on the eye. But not a life-changing event for a user like me. I couldn't give a damn about it until you sort out the appalling lack of technical resource being given to your hosting services. I am fed up waiting MONTHS for regular, planned 6-month manufacturer updates to be made available to your customers. MONTHS. And up to date kernels? Years behind. Literally. You invite experts like me to take part in the ipv6 beta (which I did) but rapidly stopped since the supporting software infrastructure is totally lacking.
Please don't go beat up your engineers: they seem like nice, competent guys when I've communicated with them via support cases. But stop diddling around with web-sites and go fix the important stuff.
For every customer your V3 nose-job gains, you're going to lose customers like me very very soon if you don't get your engineering sorted.
I apologise that I've talked more, at least directly, about things not directly to do with the new site. But when you've been waiting forever for basic technical updates to be made to your PRODUCT, then get asked what you think about the new MARKETING, it's kinda the last straw.
Ethan/Arthur H: Many thanks for the constructive feedback, the No BS is an interesting idea and we'll bear it in mind as we get a fuller picture of response over the next few weeks. Incidentally our values strap line was originally created by the US/UK part of our team, not the French!
Sgroarke: Hi there sorry about the ipv6 beta. We're primarily an engineering/developer team and technology is the heart of our business. Feedback from our experts has always been and will continue to be fundamental to our business. I'll get more information about what's happened to the beta and the supporting infrastructure and we'll get back to you a.s.a.p.
Hi Wendy
To clarify ref my comment 60: the ipv6 beta as such seems OK. Trouble is that the day to day stuff pulls it (and other aspects) down.
To be specific: Ubuntu must be one of, if not the most, popular distro these days. Everyone knows that the new releases come out every 6 months, regular as clockwork (with varying degrees of quality!) So I expect them to be made available in your hosting environment just a regularly, albeit with a small lag for integration and testing.
Are they? Nope (although it's always hard to tell, as there's no simple "Status of Software" page I can go to to look - I'm expected to grope around in some wiki to try and find out) I've been beating up your folks about Ubuntu 9.10 for... a while. Looks like Ubuntu 10.2 is going to be out before you guys have given us 9.10!!!!
And as to the the Xen kernel provided... it's almost a joke it's so out of date.
So along comes the ipv6 beta. Looks good. But with the lack of up to date environment *around* it, it's a bit of a non-starter. Yes, I could install an ipv6 firewall manually (since Ubuntu 9.04 does not include Shorewall6) But why the heck should I bother??!? It's there in 9.10. If that was only available to us.
I don't want to divert the conversation too much, but wanted to clarify the issue for you. Gandi V3 fine, but don't lose site of the "hard core" please! Folks like me came to Gandi precisely because it seemed to be run by fellow engineers! Less javascript, more up to date kernels please!!
Hi sgroarke,
Yes, you're quite right we've spent quite a lot of time on the website recently, though hosting work does continue in parallel, it has been a bit delayed. Anyway, now we will get moving on those things, the 2.6.27 kernal with Ubuntu 9.10 is being tested and hopefully released in the next couple of weeks. And we're already working on some later versions and further software/hardware improvements for the first half of this year.
Thanks,
Joe
A few remarks :
1) Jumping on the noBS debate : if you're really a "no bullshit" company, and from my point of view you are, then you don't need to write it as your slogan. It feels like marketing crap (pun intended) when the statement comes from the company.
2) Maybe I just need to get a little used to it, but the new design with bright colors, round corners, soft gradients etc..., looks like a generic e-commerce site ... Something not really professional, and especially not "noBS". And why use a completely different color scheme for hosting than for the rest of the site ? And here we find another slogan : "Hosting for Geeks" ... I don't know if this kind of communication works usually, but it wouldn't for me :-P
3) Regarding usability, the old sites had its hindrances, but the new one introduces new ones. Like the domain search feature, which is ridiculous. Who wants to register a "Generic" or "Americas" domain ? You register a .com or .fr or something specific. For this you need to go to another page. Why not use a dynamic tree which could be expanded under each broad category ? One page load saved this way. Then in the result page you need to click again for each searched domain. Why not display them all in the same page, since you will need to view them all anyway (you searched for them in the first place!). Again many mouse clicks saved.
4) Twitter, blogs, forums are by no means representative of your clients.
5) I hope I don't sound too harsh, it's just that I care
And all the good stuff goes largely unspoken of. Sorry about that.
I have to agree with some of the above posters regarding the "No Bullshit" tagline. I chuckled when I saw it, but I'd think twice before showing it to a corporate client, or recommending it to my own clients who buy their own hosting. Whether one finds it personally offensive is of little relevance; the problem is that it's well to one side of what's regarded as professional by a good portion of the English-speaking corporate world.
One other quibble: buttons that function identically but appear in different colors (specifically grey and another color) are problematic. More than a decade has been spent reinforcing the notion that "greyed-out buttons can't be clicked" (to the extent that "greyed-out" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for "unclickable", regardless of the button's actual color). Presenting a grey button (as you do on several pages) next to or near a colored one strikes me as a poor UI decision. It actually took me several runs through the various Gandi pages before I even tried to click one - I had simply been ignoring them (not consciously) up until that point on the assumption that they weren't "available" for clicking on.
I should have clarified that the grey buttons on the grey-themed portions of the Gandi site (Hosting and SSL) are not out of place, but rather the grey "Search for another domain name" button that appears next to the green "Submit" button after looking up a domain name, and instances similar to that one.
As several people (Gandi staffers as well as customers) have pointed out, Gandi's business comes largely from word of mouth. Wendy also stated the following:
"This also means we're totally prepared to have a dialogue with everyone about their concerns, listen and then respond .... even if we've upset them! Only way we'll learn too."
Dialoguing with your established customer base about your choice of corporate slogan is fine, but the fact is that you simply will not be given the chance to dialogue with potential new customers who take one look at your slogan and go elsewhere. Worse yet, more than a few of your existing customers have stated unequivocally that they will stop providing the word of mouth marketing that you depend on because you've made it impossible for them to do so and maintain the level of professionalism that they require.
All of us managed to find you via word of mouth without the aid of crass marketing slogans. Many of us have helped others do the same. More than a few will simply stop doing so if the current tagline remains in place.
The fact that you even have to make the argument that "our crassness isn't like GoDaddy's crassness because we're super-serious about it" is frankly absurd. Can you see why this is a problem?
It's also interesting to note that so many people automatically assumed that the slogan was chosen by non-native English speakers, and offered tips on why the choice was inappropriate. The clear implication is that it's such an obvious faux pas (see what I did there?) that no English speaker in their right mind would have committed a company of Gandi's stature to such an unprofessional tagline. That ought to tell you something about how deeply your decision "resonates" with people who might otherwise consider recommending your (admittedly top-notch) services to fellow professionals.
You guys FANTASTIC. Seating in the very shit bandwith now but getting your site pages downloading even twice faster. This is not wht others mean on "upgrade". Bravo!
Well a totally different look, which would be even better if it was properly working.
Wanted to buy a VPS share ... only to find out that the page doesn't work.
Compatibility mode or not it simply will not show anything more then a page with the slider and "Processor 0.33 dedicated core" ... nothing more then that.
No buttons, nothing.
Making it look fancy is one thing, making it a working thing is more important. If people can't click/order (even if it's only a minority) then that is business lost.
So no I do not like the whole restyling thing. I get the impression that "nice looks" was more important then "usability" "workability" and that makes me wanting to reconsider. Since for me usability and workability are more important for a business product/hosting/.... then "nice looks".
And I agree with some some of the posts above "no bullshit" is not a tagline you should use when wanting to attrackt/keep business customers. If you want to attrackt the home/hoby user ... sure. Business users ... no they will more likely turn away. The message behind it might be great, there are better worded slogans to bring it to the people. You don't want to be too bold in your slogan. While it might attrackt some it will turn away more people then you attrackt.
All in all I get the impression that you wanted to be too bold and too fancy and forgot about the things that made Gandi so great ... a hosting company that simply worked, basic but properly working and great performance, a company with the priorities in the right order.
Oh and who all noticed that the button below to post your reply says "preview" but offers very little preview as it instead immediatly posts your reply ?
It's those small things that have made the new Gandi looks quality wise much worse then the old one.
@JG: We've tested our site on a wide range of browsers and had very few complaints from customers, so you must be using a browser that is not currently supported by our website. We would be pleased to look into problems you may be experiencing with it though, and for this we encourage you to write to our support team directly: http://en.gandi.net/faq/form_contac...
Concerning the Gandibar, we have not changed its code in 4 years The preview function that posts the message automatically is something that has always been there - it happens if you have chosen to have the website 'remember' you.
Nice, but the last line of text is hidden
see screenshot http://imagepaste.nullnetwork.net/v...
For most English speakers the no bullshit line is really too harsh for a serious company. It does make the site seem very unprofessional in the Americas. I used no bullshit in an email to you to match the phrasing, but it was something I had misgivings about including in a serious email too.
I do love the version 3. It runs smooth, though I can't enter a domain without the -GANDI text disappearing for some reason. This error needs to be fixed so that users can click on it to put their numbers in front of the text. I tried it in both firefox and internet explorer 8
Thanks for the nice sleek new format.
Hi Anon,
When you enter your handle to login, you don't need to put the -GANDI at the end of it. It will log you in even without this. So the disappearing text shouldn't matter. I hope that helps, and glad you like the V3,
Joe