Hey, Chris here.
I’m pulling this sponsored post.
It was for a paid SSL service. I’m very much not an SSL expert. I’ve always relied on my host to install SSL certificates on my servers and manage it. I know enough that I know about Let’s Encrypt and how that’s a big deal to the industry in how they offer SSL certificates for free. So when I agreed to this post, I asked them to compare themselves to Let’s Encrypt, and they sent me 12 points that differentiate them. The points seemed fine to me (as a non-expert), if a little spun with marketing. But there was a good amount of pushback on Twitter on those points, and the company got pretty aggressive on Twitter about it in a way that was a major turn-off to me. This is not an acceptable way to act for any company to act that I want to be associated with.
Sorry.
This is totally understandable Chris! I love this site, and everyone who writes for it. You have no need to be sorry! It totally makes sense that you wouldn’t want to help a company that isn’t doing much good for others. I would love an article on SSL still (maybe css-tricks already has one that I dont see). It’s so important. I’m super new to web development. But I’ve really been thinking, just imagine what the world would be like without encryption. It’s pretty much just throwing your credit card info out for everyone to see! Let’s Encrypt is doing a very good favor for the tech world. It would be amazing to see an article on it. Once again, it’s always nice to see another amazing post on this wonderful site. Thank you, Chris.
I’d also love to see us do a post sometime (by a knowledgeable author) all about SSL.
Here’s a quickie from me from a while back… I’ve never used Let’s Encrypt from the command line, but, I have used a Plesk extension to get it done successfully and wrote that up: https://css-tricks.com/media-temple/
As I write, my SSL is the flip of a switch on Flywheel hosting.
@GoGetSSL has also recently deleted their twitter post and written an apology.
“Dear all and @troyhunt @Scott_Helme @letsencrypt, we apologize for unprofessional and rude messages posted yesterday. We are changing our social media team now and would listen more carefully to the community experts. Guilty, and learned the lesson. Happy New Year. Vlad (CEO)” – GoGetSSL
Chris,
I have to say that I’m impressed with your integrity on this!
We all make mistakes, and what really matters is whether we take responsibility for it, fix it, learn from it and move on. Unfortunately, this is not the norm. And I’m very delighted to see a good example!
Aside from this, I would also like to thank you and acknowledge you for making this website with all the super useful content!
Have a happy, successful and prosperous New Year!