We have every right to choose who we do or don't do business with. We are a private company and are protected as such. If you need more time to move away, reach out.

How do you think this will affect trust of your customers?

Not flaming, genuine question. Not Russian here though as a paying (and recommending) customer for Namecheap I can't think of the fact that someday I might be falling into a specific identity (nationality or otherwise) that Namecheap might suddenly stop doing business with even if I share the same views with NC, losing me at least hours and money for moving out of NC.

I can only comment for myself, but as a long time NC customer, this action and the behavior of the CEO in this thread has seriously damaged my ability to trust in the brand. The only redeeming bit of trust remaining is that they are too self-interested to discard US consumers this way since the US market is too lucrative, despite any deeply untoward behaviors the US government has done in the past / continues to do.

I don't see why this action would affect your decision. Factoring in the risk that a business might suddenly stop wanting to interact with you has _always_ been part of the calculus.

Private businesses are free to choose who they do business with. Getting randomly cut off has always been a possibility.

> I don't see why this action would affect your decision. Factoring in the risk that a business might suddenly stop wanting to interact with you has _always_ been part of the calculus.

Because seeing this actually play out means that everyone should update their priors about how probable those risks are? Getting randomly cut off has always been a possibility, but the probability in everyone's priors just went way up.

Not really? If you were operating in a country that has been rather openly hostile to the west and Ukraine, and you were relying on a company that was based in the west and had many Ukrainian employees, and you didn't have a contingency plan for things heating up between those countries, you weren't paying attention.

This isn't a random cutoff. This is being cut off because the country you operate in is engaging in open hostilities against another country. That should be an entirely expected and planned for scenario when hostilities are growing.

I don't know how to respond to this because you are responding to the particulars of this decision (which aren't relevant to people that don't live in Russia) without looking at what it represents.

NC's willingness to do this in this case means that everyone needs to update their priors about when else they might do something similar. When people have been historically principled about something but take an allegedly one time stance against the principle, you update your priors. I don't know what else to tell you lol.

> This is being cut off because the country you operate in is engaging in open hostilities against another country.

Why do you think I live/operate a business in Russia lol. Literally nothing I have said or done in this thread suggests that.

> NC's willingness to do this in this case means that everyone needs to update their priors about when else they might do something similar. When people have been historically principled about something but take an allegedly one time stance against the principle, you update your priors. I don't know what else to tell you lol.

My point is you wouldn't need to update anything if you had properly done your risk assessment beforehand and planned for it. Should you have planned for Ukraine and Russia going to war and this causing your business to get cut off? No, not specifically that. Should you have planned for your business potentially needing to move to a different provider on short notice? Absolutely.

> Why do you think I live/operate a business in Russia lol. Literally nothing I have said or done in this thread suggests that.

"If you were operating..."

It's a rhetorical you.

> That should be an entirely expected

So now in addition to all things I need to consider using a service from $SOMECOMPANY I should also:

check where is their registration (simple)

check where is their main office is located (not that easy)

check where is their support located (how the hell I could know)

check anything else which could be a thing two weeks later?

Do YOU knew where Namecheap hires their support?

You are wrong. You can decline to renew a contract but you can't just drop an active one without consequences. We will teach you to respect the law and contracts.

But, you had a contractual agreement with them.

And every contract not written by a ten year old has a termination clause.

It's one of the most important parts of the contract; you should always make a point of reading it thoroughly even if you skim some of the rest.

You mean this part from https://www.namecheap.com/legal/domains/registration-agreeme... ?

>Namecheap Rights. We may reject your domain name registration application or elect to discontinue providing Service(s) to you for any reason within 30 days of a Service initiation or a Service renewal. Outside of this period, we may terminate or suspend the Service(s) at any time for cause, which, without limitation, includes registration of prohibited domain name(s), abuse of the Services, payment irregularities, material allegations of illegal conduct, or if your use of the Services involves us in a violation of any Internet Service Provider's ("ISP's") acceptable use policies, including the transmission of unsolicited bulk email in violation of the law.

I fail to see where it includes how Namecheap reacted.

The other important parts are section 2, "Changes to agreement" and section 29, "Governing law and jurisdiction for disputes".

One option is that Namecheap considers this a termination "for cause" (because they no longer want to do business in Russia). If you disagree that that is a valid cause, you agree to resolve the matter in the Arizona, without the use of a jury trial (section 29).

Another option is that they consider this a "change of agreement" "in response to changes in the requirements of governments and administrative bodies, legislation and changes in the nature of industry"; in that case, "your exclusive remedy is to transfer your domain name registration services to another registrar".

Do it, its a good time as any to remind people that “using their platform” is a two way street