The saddest voicemail you’ll ever hear

While we do offer telephone-based technical support in the form of callbacks, we don’t have a public phone number that customers can dial for technical support.

We do have a phone number, but it’s reserved for vendors and other specific applications – not technical support.

From time to time customers may find this number and they often leave irate/angry/pleading messages for assistance. We haven’t had one in a while, but this morning we received a voicemail that melted our hearts and moistened our eyeballs.

(We’ve obscured his domain name to protect his identity.)

903k, .wav file
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This customer of ours had their domain registration transferred away from DreamHost to another registrar (in this case, GoDaddy.com) without their consent. This can only happen if an unauthorized party gains access to our customer’s account control panel to authorize the transfer, and we’ve indeed logged the actions and IP address of this individual.

The customer may have used an insecure password, been infected with a password-stealing keylogger, or may have simply fallen prey to a phishing scheme.

We’ve done all that we can do in situations like these – we’ve advised our customer to begin the dispute resolution process with the domain’s current registrar.

In the end, he should be able to get his domain back. Unfortunately it’ll take time and a fair amount of money, depending on how receptive the current registrar is to his situation.

To help soften the blow we’ve sent him a huge bouquet of flowers to help get him through this difficult time.

Update 5/4: We didn’t realize this would strike such a chord with so many people and have removed the anonymized voicemail from this blog post. We’ve been working with this customer to proceed through the UDRP and are confident a resolution is near. This should serve as a good reminder that you should always be very careful about disclosing your passwords to anyone on the Internet.

They’re Internet History

Well, that’s it. Yahoo! is finally shutting down GeoCities.

This is a sad moment for the Internet in general, and it’s especially sad for us. I’ve always felt a sort of special connection with GeoCities.. lemme ’splain you.

GeoCities was one of the first web hosts on the Internet, being started as “Beverly Hills Internet” in 1994. About four months before we started New Dream Network, in December of 1995, they became “GeoCities” and started offering FREE hosting.

By the time I had heard of them, we were already offering some PAID hosting, and I remember thinking something along the lines of “Damn it! They’re cheating!”

How could a bunch of (completely) broke college kids afford to compete with somebody just giving away hosting? At the time, I figured it could never last.

I was right.

15 years and $3.57 BILLION later.

But that’s not the only reason GeoCities has a special place in our heart.

The main reason is WebRing!

WebRing was a free service for people with related sites to automatically trade links, written by co-founder Sage (it’s not just me and Dallas around here!) back in 1994, while he was still in high school!

A couple of years later when he ended up at our college and we conned him into our play-company, we helped him run WebRing on our server(s).

WebRing itself never officially became a part of New Dream Network, since Sage had started it on his own years before. What we got out of it was Sage wrote DreamBook for NDN and put links to it all over WebRing!

In 1997, WebRing was starting to grow too big for us full-time college students to handle, especially with our newest little project taking off.

So, Sage got Starseed, Inc. to take it over for him. A friend of his from high school worked there and they made a deal where Sage got a percentage of Starseed, an annual “consulting” stipend, and certain creative controls, and they took over everything to do with WebRing.

It didn’t take long for Charley, the head of Starseed, to figure out that the best chance to make the most money off of WebRing was to sell it and sell it fast!

Greetings Geocities

And, sell it he did… to GeoCities!

I believe originally the offer they were going to accept was around $1 million.

However, irrational exuberance was on Charley’s side, and the timing couldn’t have been better for everything that happened next.

At the last minute, another bidder came to the table.. GeoCities however, decided they simply must have WebRing, and closed the deal at around $3.5 million!

Of course, this was all for GCTY stock options, and I’m sure they (rightly) figured that it wasn’t real money anyway.

Now the Starseed team (plus Sage) just had to wait and see which came first, the vesting of their options or the popping of the bubble…

The Vesting

Well, while everybody was nervously holding onto their approximately 1% ownership of GCTY, a funny thing happened. In January 1999, Yahoo! bought GeoCities for $3.57 billion, putting GCTY at more than ten times what it was when they did their deal!

And so, Sage’s options in GCTY were now converted over to YHOO. He still had another year before he could cash them all in though. And things were already a teeeeeensy bit over-valued.

Luckily, by the time Sage was able to cash out (and he did) in early 2000, Yahoo! had tripled yet again… meaning that Yahoo! had effectively purchased little old WebRing for about $100,000,000!

The Downfall

So, Yahoo set a team onto merging WebRing into their system.

By 2001 they were done, and everybody hated it.

Users were dropping faster than YHOO stock, and in 2002 an engineer from GeoCities bought WebRing back from Yahoo for an undisclosed sum (rumored to be around $10,000!)

Since then, I don’t really have any inside information on what’s gone on with WebRing. Just from the Internet Archive history, it looks like he more or less kept the Yahoo look and ran it “respectably” until around 2005:

… when they started to really pimp it out for ads!

Then in 2007.. Social Networking!

And today… Web 2.0!

Reminiscing

WebRing’s been around just about as long as the Web, and now that I ponder it, has been a sort of microcosm of the Web the whole time.

It went from a tiny ad-free community service, to hyper-growth, to showing ads, to being acquired for an INSANE price, to being forsaken, to doing anything to survive, to “social networking”, to “web 2.0″, to today!

Back in 1998, who would have thought WebRing would outlast GeoCities? Who would have thought DreamHost would outlast GeoCities?

DreamHost acquires Geocities

Well, not really. The thought sort of crossed my mind, “If they sold WebRing to that one guy, maybe they’d sell GeoCities to us!”

But then I realized.. Yahoo understands the only real value in GeoCities left is those millions of potential upgrades to PAID hosting.

If you go to GeoCities right now, Yahoo! has a big ad for their ($12/month) hosting.. with the first three months half off!

Whoop dee do.

“In honor of WebRing” or something, we are now offering to the first 1000 GeoCities users who sign up TWO YEARS of a completely free DreamHost account (including domain registration)!

No strings attached.

All you have to do is verify you are an existing GeoCities customer by creating a page on your GeoCities account (or editing an existing page) to have the phrase “I’m off to DreamHost!” on it!

Then when you signup for us, simply put the full url to that page as your “promotional code” and you’ll get a 2 year plan (normally $214.80) free!

And we promise to never shut down.

Democracy at DreamHost, part 2

Awhile back I posted a little overview of organizational democracy in Democracy at DreamHost. Now, less than 5 months later, we have the honor of appearing on the WorldBlu Most Democractic Workplaces List for a second year in a row.  WorldBlu’s entire purpose is to educate people about organizational democracy and encourage organizations and companies to adopt it.  It’s a great list and we’re happy to be able to be part of it.  Now that we have been on this list for two straight years, we’re going to let a few of our workers tell you in their own words what it means to be democratic.  These comments come from all parts of our organization from recent hires as well as from people who have literally helped us build the company.
Some people like it just because it feels more relaxed:

“I think that working in a democratic work place like DreamHost makes it an easier environment for me to work in. Specifically, the rules and regulations are more relaxed and that makes it easier to do my job.”

We still have rules, but when everyone has a say in the rule making process it doesn’t feel like the rules are there for no reason.  That in turn makes things feel more relaxed overall.

Other people really appreciate being able to make their voices heard by the top management:

“To me,  working in a democratically run organization is about being valued by your leaders. It’s not about the majority always getting their way; it’s about  being heard, and considered, even if you are in the minority.”

Another person elaborates on that idea:

“The great thing about working at DH is that at all levels the employee’s voice is heard. From the front line techs to the founders of the company, everyone is able to open a line of communication with anyone else.

Coming from other places where I’ve fought my way up the ladder and still had no real voice to speak of, it’s a refreshing change of pace to be able to talk to anyone in the company without any of the red tape that so often stymies a thoughtful suggestion or a more efficient mode of working.

It’s been my pleasure to work in an environment where change is never negated by a lack of open discussion and work flow is never relegated to grandfathered, outdated methods.
By empowering each employee with his or her own level of input, DH has created a comfortable atmosphere where all elements of the company are integral.”

One important aspect of organizational democracy is that workers have a high level of control over their jobs.  The job needs to get done, but when a person has a say over how that job is handled, that person will take more personal responsibility for the outcome.  The result is more quality work from everyone.

“A democratic work place means you as the worker can have more of a say over how your own performance is rated, and that can help increase your productivity. For a while we had a floating quota system for tech support tickets. The more tickets you completed each day the higher your quota would go. Normally that sounds like a great idea as it pushes you to continuously improve your output. However in reality it was actually causing people to stall at what they felt was a moderate number so as not to trigger the increase. Some tech support members suggested that they would do more tickets if they weren’t penalized by having their daily quota increase and management put an end to that system. Thus through feedback and open communication on all levels of the organization there was an overall net increase in productivity.”

And:

“Working in a democratic environment makes me feel more connected to the work that I do because I feel like I can take ownership of the tasks that I do.  I know if I have a better way to do something, I can do it instead of mindlessly doing something the way someone thinks it should be done.”

In a similar vein, this system programmer takes advantage of the personal freedom we provide whenever possible.  He does have one complaint, though.:

“The sheer amount of trust afforded to each and every employee in the company is what amazes me. I can go forward with an idea on a small scale without having to jump through bueraucratic hoops to do so.  We try hard not to get in the way of people doing their jobs.  We basically hand everyone the keys to the company and trust them to do the right thing.

If I don’t like something about how we’re doing something I have the ability to change it, or at the very least make my opinion heard.

My only real complaint is that nobody listens to my suggestions!  I’ve put in the suggestion box that we need more license plate frames a million times and Brett just won’t order them! :(“

I think we may have to get some more license plate frames ordered!

Several people told me how much they love the sense of teamwork and communication they get from our democratic processes:

“We have a very open workplace in terms of social interaction – while there is a necessary hierarchy in place to keep things going everyone has an open door policy and is accessible, friendly and helpful. This results in employees feeling that they can talk to their supervisor about pretty much anything and empowers them to tackle all sorts of challenges – help is available just down the hall or over instant message. It also creates a strong social bond – employees tend to be friends outside of work without any deliniation along lines of rank/power in the company. It makes for a very satisfying work experience!”

I work with many of my best friends, and we’ve managed to stay best friends for the last decade so I totally agree with that sentiment.

“Having worked in other companies in which you are merely an employee number, it’s refreshing at Dreamhost to know that you are valued first as a person and then for your work and input.  It’s not just the numbers you produce.”

We treat everyone as individuals and value their input.  We actually expect input as part of everyone’s job.  To make that process easier we added question/suggestion boxes a few months ago.  It’s a good old-fashioned paper and pencil anonymous way for anyone to say anything or ask any question of the management.  It’s already been really insightful and we’ve made a few significant changes that were requested.

“I really appreciate the fact that not only is there usually an open forum for discussion (i.e. venting) about problems facing the company (even from the “grunts” on the front line), but that suggestions are listened to, and even if not implemented, are responded to in a thoughtful way.  That makes me, as an employee, feel my concerns are being heard and addressed.

I don’t expect everything to be done my way, but I do know that people are listening, and if I make a suggestion that doesn’t involve a rubber chicken it will be honestly considered.  Also, the suggestion box has blown me away…the sheer amount of suggestions that are not only considered, but actually implemented without hemming and hawing is amazing to me.  I almost feel guilty when I see how far out of their way management will go to keep everyone happy. Dreamhost has truly ruined me for any other employer.”

Aww, now you’re just making us blush!

To sum things up, I’ll leave you with one choice quote:

“Working at a democratically run organization means I can respectfully proclaim “(BLANK) blows donkey c**k because…” without fear of retribution or political backstabbing.”

Well put!

Big Boy Time

I don’t know if you’d consider DreamHost as one of the BIG BOYS of the Internet… you know, the Googles, the Amazons, the eBays, the Facebooks, the Twitters.

Well, I sure wouldn’t. At least not based on media coverage. Or coolness. Or revenues. (Except maybe Twitter, where I assume we’re blowing their $null/year OUT OF THE RIVER!)

But, all that may be about to change. Because, as you think about each of those afore-mentioned BIG BOYS, what do they all have that we don’t have?

Crazy names? What’s wackier than… “Dream”Host?!

Legions of users? Well, counting the visitors to sites we host, we’ve got a TON.

The adoring media? Does the DreamHost Blog report on ANYTHING else?

Well then, what could it be? What is that missing component? What else do they all have that we ain’t got?

I Know

An API!

Yep, that’s really the ONLY other thing different between us all… the only thing that I can think of!

And, as you may have read in the February newsletter (just a week or so ago), WE now have that too! And how.

Well, so far it’s not much to speak of. It only offers three main functions… but that’s one more than just a few weeks ago!

1. You can get a list of all subscribers to any of your announcement lists.
2. You can do anything you can do on our panel to a DreamHost PS private server.
3. You can now get a list of all your ftp/shell/backup/email/vpn/anonftp users!
4. UPDATE: You can add and remove announcement list subscribers!

To top it off, we’ve also now changed the authentication method to our API. No longer does it use your actual web panel password: IDIOTIC.

Instead, there’s now a special API section to our panel where you can create (multiple) API “keys”… you now use (one of) THOSE to authenticate.

This is “cool” because now you don’t have to give out your main password to some random application that uses our API. This is also “cool” because you can at any time delete API keys for applications you no longer want to have access to your account.

(UPDATE: Now when you create a new API key you also can choose which specific API functions you’d like it to have access to.. so that way you don’t have to give like an announcement list management app full access to everything else on your account!)

We recommend you create a new API key for each different need, so if you decide to revoke access to one for some reason in the future, you don’t revoke access to everything else!

Everything Else Like What?

Of course, that begs the question.. what ACTUALLY has been created with this API? Well, uh, it’s kind of new, okay? Not much.

There has been one kind of cool thing already though: the developers of SmartFTP have now added the ability for it to automatically load in all your DreamHost FTP accounts!

Give it a shot… could this mean the end of FTP login problems?! FOREVER? What will our Happy DreamHost Customer Service Team do?

Sadly, SmartFTP is not free. But, happily, this is just the beginning of what I’m sure will be a “thriving ecosystem” of DreamHost-y applications using the API… catapulting us instantly into the BIG BOY ZONE.

ANNNNNNNNNNNNND…. just to give the catapult a little extra thrust, we’re going to throw a little kerosene on the nascent developer flame. With a CRAZY $10,000 giveaway contest!

Here’s the deal:

Develop any application (Windows, Mac, Linux, Web, iPhone, Facebook, Boxee, Firefox Plugin, whatever…) that uses the DreamHost API by April 30th May 31st 2009, and submit a link to it in the comments to this post.

We (I) will personally review all entries, and CASH prizes will be awarded to the best apps to the tune of:

Grand Prize: $5,000
1st Place: $2,500
2nd Place: $1,250
3rd Place: $500
4th Place: $750

(I told you it was crazy!)

Now, it may seem like there’s not a lot of flexibility right now with our API.. however, that can change! Just request a feature you’d like us to expose via the API in the comments and we’ll try and add it ASAP!

(In fact, the users listing thing was requested by SmartFTP directly, so you know this ain’t just small talk.)

It’s big boy talk!