Gandi V3.0.0.1: Onwards and upwards!
By Ryan on Monday 18 January 2010, 13:57 - Gandi - Permalink
Being agile is important to us, and so we are pleased to bring you the first revision of Gandi V3 that takes into account your feedback (blog, twitter, forums, etc.)
These changes mainly affect updates to the website, bugs and minor ergonomics, something that is to be expected for a first revision.:
- a bug that hindered management of Gandi AI with some browsers has been fixed,
- a bug with the activation of SiteMaker websites under some browsers has been corrected,
- we have corrected a bug in IE6 that caused some buttons to disappear. However, it is worth noting that IE6 will no longer be officially supported, so the site does not look as good in this browser, though is still functional.
- we have added a link for those of you that would like to choose the individual domain name extensions when you make a search on the 'all' option (something that is also possible if you enter the full domain name directly in the text area)
- general correction of bugs, display problems, typos, etc.
- we have changed the "no bullshit" logo (font and color) to be more professional, as for us this is a grown up and serious statement of intent, not an teenage tantrum
- thinner header within the management pages , so that you don't need to scroll so much while administering your domains
- the line spacing between domains has been made smaller, for the same reason
- the font has been improved in the forms to be more coherent with the rest of the site
There still remain several bugs that need to be fixed, as well as many new ideas for improving the interface, which we are going to include in the development schedule for the coming weeks.
Steven, our graphic artist, will try (for example) to change the display font so that it is easier to read.
As a reminder, it is important for us to dedicate time to the infrastructure itself with emphasis on the transition to our new back end and our new hosting and domain name APIs.
We would like to thank you for your feedback and ideas, it is a pleasure for us to be able to constantly improve our service to you.
Comments
A suggestion:
Your homepage focuses on domain registration but gives no link to your rates. It does include a link marked "All Services and Rates" which takes us to http://www.gandi.net/domain/details... but that page doesn't have the rates and it doesn't have a link to the rates.
(Um, I hope this isn't creeping bullshit.
)
Great revisions and fixes! Keep up the excellent work.
@John - The footer at the bottom of the page has a 'price list' link in the domains section. Also if you click on the domains section http://www.gandi.net/domain/ the break out box on the right has a list of extensions and prices. We're certainly not trying to be misleading, and I hope this makes it clearer, but I'll pass on the feedback to the team. Thanks,
Joe
@John, thanks for noticing that!: my bad. It was from Gandi V2 when that link did go to the prices page, but I missed updating that link. I just changed the text to remove the reference to the prices and it will be updated when they do the next reload of the page. As Joe mentioned, you can get to the prices directly from the Domains page (via the link under the list of extensions on the right of the page) or at http://www.gandi.net/domain/price/i...
Bug report: I went to the support section, and it still has the new tagline in the less professional style.
More specifically, it looks like http://www.gandi.net/static/imagesv... has the new style, while http://en.gandi.net/static/imagesv3... still has the old style.
Confirming that: the homepage at http://en.gandi.net still uses the previous style for the tagline.
I saw via a previous news item (http://www.gandi.net/news/en/2010-0...) that you now use 64-bit Xen. Do you support 64-bit kernels, and thus 64-bit userspace? I'd love to run a 64-bit Debian userspace on my server, primarily for simplicity of administration: if I want to use my laptop to compile a program or package for my server, I currently use a 32-bit chroot on my laptop. (Compiling on the server doesn't always prove convenient; for instance, I'd prefer not to put a full Haskell development environment on my server.
)
plz check domain export page:
https://www.gandi.net/admin/domain/...
gives
Not Found
The requested URL /admin/domain/csv_export was not found on this server.
Apache/2.2.9 (Debian) mod_ssl/2.2.9 OpenSSL/0.9.8g mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.0 Server at www.gandi.net Port 443
tony: it's fixed now.
Looks like deactivating auto-renewals via batch changes in /admin/domain doesn't work anymore.
Comments:
- It looks more modern, could definitely be an improvement.
However:
- Can't bulk renew domains anymore (select from list, select renew from dropdown in the admin section)
- Navigation in the admin section is not as good as in the old version.
It's getting better, but until the issues are ironed out I still prefer the older working easier to navigate site.
Paul: will: it has been fixed this morning. We brake it yesterday with an other fix.
Will: We don't change drastically the navigation in V3. I'm curious to have your feedback on where you are lost in the new admin.
How do I activate the Private Domain Registration in the new 3.0 interface?
guictx: same as in v2, https://www.gandi.net/admin/account... link "Update your personal information"
You have a spelling mistake on your V3 interface in English:
In the blog "Bug with your account"
The word "please" is spelled incorrectly as "Plesae". See below.
See a bug in your account caused by Gandi V3? Plesae, contact our customer care service to let us know.
@ColtonCat thanks for picking up on this. I have just corrected the typo
I still think the slogan "no bullshit" is childish and puerile. It makes the site seem unprofessional, no matter what font it is written in. It's a real deterrent to using Gandi for any new domains.
bring back old gandi!
<<we have changed the "no bullshit" logo (font and color) to be more professional>>
The only way to change it to "be more professional" is to get rid of it.
As an underlying corporate goal, it's fine - but keep it as a private motto, not publicly displayed.
The new domain search is much less practical. To select a specific TLD, you need to click on a link which brings you to another page. Something like an expandable tree would be much better. Then, after the search you used to have all results on the same page, and now we have to click on a link for each domain. More tedious and useless mouse clicks.
Also a personal appreciation : the design looks more mainstream, which goes against your "no bullshit" image.
I think instead of the "no bullshit" term you could use something like "no wool over your eyes" or "we won't pull the the wool over your eyes" or maybe just "no wool" [http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/pull+the+wool+over+eyes]. Kinda goes with the Gandi kiwi spin of the "Iwi" used for the Wiki.
The site continues to continually log me off in the middle of going thru a registration. I'm on Firefox on a Mac, and this has plagued your service for years and you still have not fixed it. Just at any random point, it will decide I'm no longer logged in. At least with your older web site it was glaringly obvious when that happened, it is not so obvious now. I like the new look, though.
Today, I wanted to register some new domains. I qualify for your "C" rates, which is verified by your pricing page. When I search for the domains I want, the prices show up with your full retail pricing, not the C rate schedule. This is how they end up in my shopping cart as well, so I canceled the purchase and am submitting a support request.
@Vick we have found and corrected the bug this afternoon that was causing the problem with the rates that you noticed.
"We have changed the 'no bullshit' logo (font and color) to be more professional, as for us this is a grown up and serious statement of intent, not an teenage tantrum."
Really? A change of font and color is all it takes to be professional now? If I put on a tie and tell people that I'm the "best fucking designer" they'll ever meet, will they take me more seriously? Maybe I should even use that as my official tagline, since, you know, I'm totally serious about it in a grown-up sort of way.
Do any of you actually remember how serious you were as teenagers? Or have you ever seen an angry teenager talking about how something is or isn't "bullshit"? Do you think they look at themselves and think, "Wow, I'm right in the middle of a teenage tantrum!" Of course not. They think they're being serious and grown up, and expect others to think likewise. And so do you.
I can no longer recommend Gandi's services to fellow professionals with a straight face. Don't get me wrong – I love what you do. I love having my own domains here, and I especially love your no-bullshit service, but you simply won't receive word of mouth referrals from me because you've made it impossible for me to give them. It's unfortunate to see your public image coming into line with GoDaddy's when your level of service is still head and shoulders above everyone else's.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your note. I appreciate that you still like our service and ethos even though you are uncomfortable with the stap-line. We continue to have very positive support also, but we do understand your concern.
One thing that seems to be interesting is that many people are saying "I don't have a problem with it, but I'm concerned other people will, so I would find it more difficult to recommend it". But when people actually see it themselves, they're not bothered by it, but again worry that other people might be.
So I would ask, if you are willing, to test it on some of your fellow professionals and let us know what they think. I'd like to understand more about how our concern for what people may think relates to what they actually think. We can only learn this with your help. Many thanks,
Joe
CSS to hide the vulgarities:
div#nobullshit { display: none }
div#header > div.subheader > div.links.floatlll { float: left; background: #a79490; }
Users may put it in their browser's local style sheet, set it and forget it.
Of course this is temporary until Gandi comes to their senses (I'm still hoping).
The new site is nice, but it would be even nicer if you would answer my repeated requests for support.
I totally hate the new look of the site. Not because of the look itself (something I couldn't care less about), but because all the javascript BS that's needed just to provide the look, and all the scrolling 'coolness'.
I wouldn't complain if all that JS were there adding new functionality, but my regular browser is SeaMonkey 1.1.x and it crawls whenever I load the new GANDI site, FOR NO REASON AT ALL. I'm running FireFox 3 now just to be able to load the page and do some basic administration (on the same machine and under the same OS, of course). Oh, and to see those new round corners everywhere, because square corners were so... square. Come on, none of this is necessary (the old site worked flawlessly on my browser, like... two months ago?), so why make it mandatory? What are you trying to tell people, "you're not as cool as us if you don't use the latest browser"? Well, I don't need to be cool, you know.
Best regards.
Why is it that Gandi.net has through the last years steadily increased rates and now are an expensive registrar? I came to Gandi because of the reasonable prices (and also the good contract, something which you seemingly haven't changed).
However, at this point you are more expensive than many of the other registrars out there - for example, GoDaddy.com is plenty cheaper, as is most hosting services - typically $10, as opposed to $15 at Gandi.
Love the "No bullshit." tag line, though!
I've already contributed to the "No bullshit" discusions. Now today I come across a screen loudly screaming at me "Cloud VPS - Hosting for Geeks"
Jesus you guys really don't get it... Yes, I may actually be a "geek" (I don't use the term myself, but given its generally accepted meaning I may well fit the profile) but I absolutely and categorically do not expect my hosting provider to address me as such.
You *do* offer a "no bullshit" service. And you *do* indeed cater for "geeks". And those are the sort of reasons that I *do* indeed use your service. BUT, and this is the bit you so fail to grasp, I absolutely would not and could not recommend you to anyone else (even other "geeks" who want "no bullshit")
Use of those terms is not hip and cool. It is puerile and embarrassing.
Joe,
I'm afraid I'm not willing to "test" your tagline on some of my fellow professionals and let you know what they think. Why? Because market-testing offensive taglines is something that companies are expected to do internally, BEFORE they roll them out to the general public. Asking your clients to market profanity to their own clients just so that you can conduct research into "how our concern for what people may think relates to what they actually think" is startlingly selfish. If you want to conduct research into human psychology, you can (continue to) do it at the expense of your own business, not mine.
Let me reiterate that this has everything to do with professional conduct and nothing to do with personal morality. Whether I or my clients are personally offended by your tagline is entirely irrelevant. This is, as the above commenter put it, "the bit you so fail to grasp," and the reason that removing the tagline for logged-in users (or editing a local style sheet to do the same) is a wholly inadequate response to these concerns.
Let's be clear about this: you've already compromised yourselves professionally, in my view, by choosing to roll out this tagline in the first place. If the numbers work for you, then great. GoDaddy does the same thing with their bikini girls, and various other companies likewise. I applaud you for being in a position to use crass marketing tactics over the objections of some of your customers, but it's still a little disappointing to see. I guess I'll be keeping an eye out for a company that offers no-bullshit service without the bullshit marketing-speak.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your comments. We did of course test the strap with real people before launching the tag line, and continue to get feedback as a result of it being live, which is in the majority very positive. I'm certainly not asking you to market test our slogan with your own colleagues, but actually to test your own concerns about their reaction. But I can understand that you find this suggestion of actually asking people what they think offensive, so please feel free to ignore it.
I think we may have to accept this as something that we don't agree on. I regret if this has pushed you over the edge in terms of the change being worse that the benefits of being a Gandi customer. But we feel that Gandi still offers something unique in the market place in terms of our customer protection and ethics and we hope this will continue to appeal to customers who are aware of the pitfalls of the domain industry. Many thanks,
Joe