Tucowed -- The Blog

Tucowed -- The Blog

A history of the crisis brought about by , from the viewpoint of one beleaguered user. The same incompetent bungling and failed leadership that led to the crisis continues with and .

Thursday, September 27, 2007

now Tucows is killing Blogware

Comments by customers who are leaving Blogware:
Tucows seemed to have abandoned Blogware: no new features, and even bug fixes became rather sporadic. We were struggling with a rather manual spam-filtering process, and system availability has become worse and worse.

Blogware has been experiencing several bugs making it impossible to continue with that service.

When your resellers are leaving your platform that should be your first clue that you aren’t getting it right. Over the years I’ve dealt with all kinds of silliness from Blogware.

... it is very apparent that in Blogware’s case they don’t seem to value these customers in the first place.

Blogware has done nothing in many cases to resolve issues that have been known for years. Some very basic things need fixed yet they have been broke for ages.

The control panel basically has worked on-and-off when it feels like it for months now. This issue has been repeatedly reported yet never fully fixed.

... many times the service times-out on me when trying to post an article. This is an issue that has been reported for years by many Blogware customers. I’ll bet you guessed that it hasn’t been fixed.

Blogware service could become a major player with some effort. To me it seems as if no one at the company wants to make that effort. I can say this after almost four years of using the product. It’s been made very clear that no one is wiling to steer the product development in the direction it needs to go. I’m surprised that Tucows hasn’t pulled the plug yet. The company doesn’t seem to want to support the product. So why not just give up and call it a failure?


TrackBack management was laughable to begin with in BlogWare, and that problem only got worse with the onslaught of nefarious digital data warlords. That’s ultimately what drove me away from BlogWare, truly. It’s an increasingly-antiquated platform when compared to WordPress -- for novices and experts alike. Sorry, TuCows.

Blogware is part of a package offered by Tucows to its ISP customers -- which, in turn, offer the web-based blog platform program to their own customers. In other words, the customer of Blogware is really the ISP, not the blogger. This is key. When the end-user of your program is not your primary customer, trouble is sure to follow.

I sent [a complaint] to Blogware on June 27. I got a response on October 27, four months later. Not good for any company, but especially bad for a company that sells a platform for "immediate communication."

Blogware just isn't paying attention to end-users. As of this writing, the most recent blog entry on Blogware's own blog is three months old.

Blogware is too isolated from its real customers. Blogware sells to ISPs. ISPs are not really set up to support applications; the more they have to support them, the less money they make.

The marketing lessons are clear: you can't treat your real customers like second-class citizens.


Goodbye Blogware! Over the next few days (maybe even a week, depending on how hard this is) I am going to be moving the Web Hosting Show from Blogware over to another server that has WordPress on it. I am just so tired of Blogware giving me the run around when it comes to posting, trackback spam and so much more.

For the past month, the 'dashboard' on Blogware has worked intermittently for me at best. It's been down for 12-hour stretches, and for days at a time.

There are all types of other technical problems making my blog an absolute pain to use.

Talking to others and the reseller, it's not just me.

Blogware or Tucows haven't posted one word of explanation about this totally unacceptable situation.

It looks like another web service is being killed by Tucows indifference.

click here for a current Tucows stock chart,
 or just scroll down to the bottom of this page.

click here for a current Tucows stock "Price Performance" table.

Tucows corporate web-page.

NetIdentity is now Hover, so of course there are Hover system issues
 "We are again seeing issues with the main Hover system."

add me to the list of the unimpressed
 "no contact info on their home page, no help menu"

trying to get some support for the past 2 weeks and have had no reply
 "have been having trouble since trying to renew our domain"

Us Versus Tucows
 "a blog for those fed up with Tucows (NetIdentity, Domain Direct, etc.) and who are ready to do something about it"

from Cluster A to Cluster F**k
 "with this notoriously bad-luck strewn product"

You call this service?
 "This is the most disappointing service I have used in a long time... I have yet to see anything work right"

support may be in need of some quality control
 "waiting 5 days for a reply"

new "Processing Fee" at OpenSoReS from Tucows
 "Everyone here is tired of being nickle-and-dimed"

Tucows Incompetence
 "the ridiculous webmail interface that looks like a high school project.
You have shown your incompetence in the past.
This e-mail service is much too complicated for you.
Tucows = Incompetence with a capital 'I'
I opened a ticket a long time ago. Of course they did nothing.
SHAME ON YOU TUCOWS. SHAME ON YOU."


Downsizing at Tucows
 "laying off approximately 15% of its staff"

Tucows stripped of its Registrar Seal of Approval
 "the World Association of Domain Name Developers has voted to revoke the Registrar Seal of Approval awarded to Tucows"

NetIdentity Complaints - Bad service
 "has been down multiple days 3 times YTD"

I hate Tucows and NetIdentity right now
 "I am sick to death of the broken email, broken delivery, broken blog software, clunky interfaces, and general lack of investment in this service"

NetIdentity failure powered by Tucows
 "I will not renew my account expiring in 2009"

Tucows launches the brilliant, sophisticated YummyNames
 "Why settle for a lousy domain name? (like we did)"

Tucows… Come On!
 "Tucows just keeps the domain"

Tucows Now Selling The Expired Domains They Kept From Their Customers
 "it has started Yummydomains.com to sell tens of thousands of those domains"

Site contents deleted - use at your own risk
 "all the files of my original site were gone"

Domain Renewal - now taken by Tucows
 "They took it AFTER the domain was already renewed"

Tucows/Netidentity sold my domain name
 "their declining stock price is forcing them to make some quick cash"

Is it worth this frustration?
 "I will cancel this service as soon as the subscription finishes"

Giving up on NetIdentity
 "my site and all its content vanished"

Netidentity email failure/outage lasting for 4 Days
 "should be interesting to those considering using their service"

service has been down for almost a day and has been intermittent for 3 days

Virgin.net Knocked Offline by Tucows
 "a series of unanticipated hardware failures"

how exasperating these people are to deal with
 "It never works."

hanging out in the NetIdentity Office
 "I am a very unhappy NetIdentity customer."

after Tucows purchased Netidentity the service and customer service both simply fell apart.

the NetIdentity service has hit rock bottom since being taken over by Tucows

no reply to my service requests
 "service is one of those unheard-of words"

not able to access my paid-for email/web service
 "they need to get out of this business"

Tucows has a deferred problem
 "Tucows has lost 50% of its market value since July 2007"

net loss for the first quarter of 2008 was $1.1 million
 -- how a company loses money providing e-mail and domain names --

the cow is half empty
 "their market share has been dropping"

Tucows Revenue Falls Short, Stock Tumbles
 "disappointing Google ad revenues"

Tucows forever
 "how a woman feels when her drunk ex-boyfriend calls at 3AM saying he misses her..."

Nitido WebMail at DomainDirect Sucks
 "why do people have to break things that aren't broken?"

the future of Tucows Developer Blog
 -- in a word, "bleak" --

Why I’ll Never Do Business With Tucows Again
 "managed by incompetent, uncaring, and completely clueless people"

Re-imagining Our Email Defense Service
 -- just imagine it actually working! --

"it really sums up a lot of my approach to business"
 -- a nice, warm pile of irony --

Companies Must Understand There Is Nowhere To Hide
 -- even better irony from a Tucows VP --

Corporate Blogging Best Practices — by Ross Rader (!)
 -- a case study in irony --

Terror Goes Digital With Canadian Help
 "the website for al-Qaeda was registered to Contactprivacy, the anonymous-registration arm of Tucows"

Tucows Facilitating Hamas Propaganda
 "Canadian firms selling service to Hamas include Tucows"

the incompetence of Tucows
 "Tucows passing the buck"

NetIdentity business ways
 "is this the way to run a good business?"

Mismanagement, Bad Customer Service, and a Revelation
 "how not to succeed in growing your business"

NetIdentity Aren't Smart
 "really lousy webhosting"

This Isn't Customer Service
 "why do I have to fix this company's problem?"
This isn't customer service, Finale
 "The solution is simple. Find another company. Take your business elsewhere."

What's happening at NetIdentity?
 "having lots of problems"

So what's happening with NetIdentity?
 "My email has been down pretty much ALL WEEK"

Recent Blogrolling Downtime
 "We still have an issue"

Blogrolling no more?
 "odd that they would buy this service and then basically abandon it"

Blogrolling Update
Blogrolling Update 1

Netidentity Email Migration Nightmare
Netidentity Email Migration Nightmare: Update

NetIdentity's "Reliability Report" from the Better Business Bureau
 "BBB Rating: Unsatisfactory"
 -- note the
"Additional DBA Names" section, listing "Glazen Online Services", run by notorious spammer David Glazen; and "Loanclub.biz", a fraudulent online lender --

Spamfree, virusfree NewNetMail: Jaap Verduijn's answer to the /

using Gmail to read other accounts
 "Gmail instead of the crappy webmail interface that NetIdentity provides"

NetIdentity Transition Survivors Group (NTSG) — Google
 "to discuss the recent transition disaster"

NetIdentity & Tucows "migration" fails miserably
 "by far the worst example of customer service"

Tucows screws up NetIdentity and NamePlanet migration
 "a new, horribly-designed e-mail system"

Netidentity E-mail Fails
 "a service provider has stopped providing service"
Netidentity E-mail Crisis Ends for PR Consultant
 "Netidentity, owned by Tucows, went from bad to worse"

Mailbank.com (NetIdentity/NamePlanet) Email Migration — WikiPedia
Tucows Talk on WikiPedia

System migration may be the most dangerous thing Tucows could ever do
 "our technical team is working on fixing this issue"

there have been too many issues with your Tucows migration

When Business Processes Fail
 "this problem is endemic"

The end of explorers@whyte.com
 "even worse since they were bought by Tucows"

Netidentity/Tucows email Price Increase
 "they are a novice in the email space and completely messed this one up"

NetIdentity extended downtime
 "this one has gone on for months and is beyond real"

No More BS Ross — FIX IT!
 -- The Unintentional Comedy --

Bandwagon Missed
 "Tucows bought NetIdentity and has since screwed up the whole system"

Why Have I Moved My Website?
 "Netidentity email service is virtually unusable"

a foolish spam policy
 "not very good for email"

NamePlanet — the worst customer support
 "We've had a few problems"

NetIdentity, please stop
 "I don't want it any more"

Ok, so I got a blog
 they screwed up the transition and made my whole site go "under construction"

Tucows resurfaces!
 "I pretty much gave up and forgot about Tucows"

Receiving Problems With Your NetIdentity Account
 "There are a number of reasons"
Sending Problems With Your Email Account
 "the problems are common"

Do yourself a favour and avoid NetIdentity and any service provided by Tucows
 "I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO RECEIVE MY INCOMING E-MAIL MESSAGES"

Dude, where's my website??
 "Whoops!!!"


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