Can we have a sensible conversation about Web Hosting again?

PullMyFinger!

I was wondering if we can ever maturely do it around these parts again. The dedicated forum has been locked since 2003, 5 years ago!

What I suggest is a simple workaround on people registering to whore their site or "recommendations": Nobody with less than 300 posts can take part in the discussion. No exceptions. If its deemed that a poster with more than 300 posts are still whoring a site then they're site banned, simple as.

I bring this up because Im looking at web hosting myself at the moment and surely an Irish forum with 176,000 members could help gauge the market.

Ironically the company Im looking for reviews on are Digiweb - the hosts of guess who?

Bob the Builder

It was shut for a reason. Whilst i'd love to be able to discuss it, the arguments before the web hosting forum was closed were pretty bad, and most of them had been deleted by the time i got there...

There will never be sensible discussion. Unless it's run like personal issues which, well, wouldn't be a good idea.

If you want to learn more about hosting there's other forums around the place. The only irish one I can think of is iwf.ie, but there's also designerstalk.com, digitalpoint, and webmastertalk.co.uk. Also have a look at Google - enter the host name into it followed by the word "reviews", and it'll give you a fairly solid idea.

And, if the suggestion was put forward to 'relax' the rules slightly on the web dev and design forum, I'd be all in favour of that, but not a reopening of the web hosting forum.

leninbenjamin

PullMyFinger! wrote: »

I bring this up because Im looking at web hosting myself at the moment and surely an Irish forum with 176,000 members could help gauge the market.

so you want to reopen the forum so you can do some market research? I would have thought the admins wouldn't be too happy at that.

PullMyFinger!

No I want to use the Boards Hosting forum in the same way I use any board on Boards: for open discussion.

DeVore

I dont know. Can we?

DeV.

jhegarty

DeVore wrote: »

I dont know. Can we?

DeV.

the recent consumer issue thread would say, no...

Jonathan

I was just looking at that that forum yesterday too.

We know who have vested interests in the hosting companies. I don't see why consumers can't have a discussion among themselves.

seamus

jmccrohan wrote: »

I was just looking at that that forum yesterday too.

We know who have vested interests in the hosting companies. I don't see why consumers can't have a discussion among themselves.

There would still be a number of people on the fringe that we don't know about who would probably be happy to stick digs in - resellers, freelancers developers and so forth.

I reckon the only solution would be a controlled-access forum which required all posters to declare their interests in a sticky before posting. That makes it much easier to prevent people from posting the, "Who is the best hoster", or "Why won't H365 wipe my arse for me", type threads.

the_syco

seamus wrote: »

"Why won't H365 wipe my arse for me

Now that's what I call service! Remote ass wiping:eek:

=-=

Good idea, though, as it gets confusing when a hoster says their hosting is cool, in a pighead way, so it sounds like they are not the hoster, but a user.

At least in Work&Jobs, they're starting to admit they're recruiters when coming into a thread.

godtabh

Could you run it like soccer?

You'd have a request forum were you say you agree to all the rules and then the the yellow/red card system? Works there and I'd say itr could be adapted for this

Boston

DeVore wrote: »

I dont know. Can we?

DeV.

No, because the purple elephants won't leave the monkeys alone.

seamus wrote: »

There would still be a number of people on the fringe that we don't know about who would probably be happy to stick digs in - resellers, freelancers developers and so forth.

I reckon the only solution would be a controlled-access forum which required all posters to declare their interests in a sticky before posting. That makes it much easier to prevent people from posting the, "Who is the best hoster", or "Why won't H365 wipe my arse for me", type threads.

Anyway. I agree with seamus, but I would suggest something like the Airsoft "Sites and retailers" forum.

stevenmu

kearnsr wrote: »

Could you run it like soccer?

+1

That's exactly what I was thinking of reading through this thread.

Bob the Builder

stevenmu wrote: »

+1

That's exactly what I was thinking of reading through this thread.

I don't think so really.

At least in soccer, the clubs sue each other, not the posters on discussion boards. In the web Hosting forum, hosting companies sue the posters, or indeed, in the case of one particular poster, delete his site..

It's a whole new bunch of bitches you're dealing with here.

VH

seamus wrote: »

That makes it much easier to prevent people from posting the, "Who is the best hoster",

without being able to ask questions like that its pretty pointless imho

people ask similar questions on broadband aswell as firing out complaints about specific companies left right and centre

hosting companies are not perfect either - some are good and some are bad

Gordon

I really don't think that it can be discussed yet, just a feeling I get when reading the web design forum.

Random

Run it as a locked forum like Seamus suggests above. Give it a 6 week trial period. Review & tweak. Give it another 6 weeks. Decide if it's permanent or not. What ya reckon ?

seamus

VH wrote: »

without being able to ask questions like that its pretty pointless imho

people ask similar questions on broadband aswell as firing out complaints about specific companies left right and centre

hosting companies are not perfect either - some are good and some are bad

Afair, the point of the web hosting forum was never to get information on stuff like, "Who gives me the best hosting?", it was more meant as a place where people engaged in the business could talk about it.
It just naturally attracted threads from people looking for info on hosters.

VH

seamus wrote: »

Afair, the point of the web hosting forum was never to get information on stuff like, "Who gives me the best hosting?", it was more meant as a place where people engaged in the business could talk about it.

oh - title should be "web hosting business" then surely?

Boston

VH wrote: »

oh - title should be "web hosting business" then surely?

As opposed to the Web hosting that isn't a business, thats provided not for profit?

VH

Boston wrote: »

As opposed to the Web hosting that isn't a business, thats provided not for profit?

refer to seamus's explanation above - i think it's pretty clear

Boston

Yes it is.

seamus

VH wrote: »

oh - title should be "web hosting business" then surely?

At the time, the "Web Development & Design" forum was called the "Webmaster" forum, so the lines were very clear.

"Who is the best hoster?" is clearly an issue for webmasters, and not for web hosters.

If the forum was reopened, a name change would probably be a good idea.

PullMyFinger!

seamus wrote: »

If the forum was reopened, a name change would probably be a good idea.

So lets try that.