Sorry. That was embarrassing. We want to apologise unreservedly but also thank you to Lucy Boyes at Red Gate and WP Engine

March 15, 2013 by Mark T Littlewood

If you went down to the Business of Software Conference site today to register for our Super Early Bird, you would have been in for a big surprise. The site was down and we were getting no email from early this morning. The Business of Software website was not there. We didn’t notice as we were all doing stuff in the morning.

If you went to the site, I want to offer you a total, absolute and unreserved apology.

We should not have let you seen a GoDaddy holding page. I am sorry.

Over 7 years ago, when Neil set Business of Software up, GoDaddy seemed like a reasonable choice for a domain name registrar. We didn’t know about Danica Patrick sponsorships, elephant hunting or the art of crass up-selling that it would become. We also didn’t realise that the email address that Neil used to register the site was no longer in use. We had an automatic update of the domain name, and it wasn’t until the very day, March 14th, that the domain registration expired (as the original credit card used to pay for the domain was now out of date), that we had any idea – because the site was now parked. When I let Neil know, he was on a plane on the runway, about to take off. He sent one email…

Huge thanks to Lucy Boyes at Red Gate who was heroic in digging out old passwords and keeping calm as the CEO of Red Gate Software pushed her around their office dressed as a King, forcing her to eat cheese while she dealt with a very panicked me on the phone – they are a special company. Thanks also to the very wonderful support team at WP Engine for helping us get back online so quickly. Yes, those panicked calls really weren’t a wind up, I was that clueless and you were brilliant. Thank you.

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5 responses to “Sorry. That was embarrassing. We want to apologise unreservedly but also thank you to Lucy Boyes at Red Gate and WP Engine”

  1. Lucy Boyes says:
    15 March 2013 at 10:20 pm

    Unfortunately for me, the bit about the cheese is entirely true.

  2. Marco Luzuriaga says:
    18 March 2013 at 4:55 pm

    It can happen to anyone… Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform was completely out recently because they did not renew their SSL certificate.

  3. Mark Littlewood says:
    18 March 2013 at 5:10 pm

    MArco,

    Don’t know whether that makes me feel better or worse! 🙂

    Mark

  4. Bryan H says:
    18 March 2013 at 8:58 pm

    … Except you’re still with GoDaddy. Seriously? Elephant-hating, misogyny karma payback is a bitch.

    $ whois businessofsoftware.com

    Whois Server Version 2.0

    Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
    with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
    for detailed information.

    Domain Name: BUSINESSOFSOFTWARE.COM
    Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC
    Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
    Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
    Name Server: NS7.ZONEEDIT.COM
    Name Server: NS9.ZONEEDIT.COM
    Status: clientDeleteProhibited
    Status: clientRenewProhibited
    Status: clientTransferProhibited
    Status: clientUpdateProhibited
    Updated Date: 21-may-2012
    Creation Date: 18-jun-2006
    Expiration Date: 18-jun-2014

  5. Mark Littlewood says:
    20 March 2013 at 10:15 am

    Bryan,

    Fair point and I did not say I was proud. My main concern was getting the site back and live as fast as I possibly could and I was concerned that transferring would take more time.