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Time to rebuild my host spread

Major Study News Nov 2014

Again some time has passed, and to be sure, I have been away for a long while. But I never entirely leave sight of this little former project of mine. But we have some big news of a mixed variety!! So I think this will temporarily wake me up to review the "state of the union" soon.

Lifeless People / Against Silence has entirely removed their service, replaced with a single note of "The website is down for upgrading. It will be back up by 5/15/15 or an update will be posted here." However, unlike "blips" from the original survey run, measured in days and usually "tactical" problems vs "overloading", a note with that big of a timeframe means that LP - AgS is now officially disqualified and removed from the list! Big time frames like that are rarely ever met, being signals of "this site will never return", but even if they ever do, no entity can accept that long of a gap in any way. I'm not sure when that happened because I think they were still up in spring when I did my last spot check. It's also odd that they didn't just "freeze existing content" etc. I wonder what kinds of exit plans they gave to existing customers. They were around for a *very* long time, so the "shut down" mess would have been colossal if they had done it right. Also, they had a forum with over 378,000 posts (!!), so all that content (and posting work!) is gone! Wayback's last best copy is :
http://web.archive.org/web/20140407190209/https://www.againstsilence.com/

I don't see any big "we are migrating, so long and thanks for all the fish" threads. I wonder if any of the new big security issues this year crunched them. It seems to have happened around April-May 2014.

This is important because it adds a crucial new spin to the old topic of Post-to-host vs ads, which I will add to my list of things to glance at "who is doing what". Ads "are annoying", but they "sit there" and the site owner doesn't have to actually "do" much. P2H "takes work", and when a big ticket player tanks, both "work" and the owner's pride in their quality posts is sunk, which could make a site owner who has been part of a "community" really angry!

Next, some time ago, I got news from Seraphim Labs that he is scaling down as well, so when I swing back around to fixing my summary page, that means he moves off the former front line list of hosts. He remarks that he is also still available by request, much like Deeplist / DeckerSvc. What that means is I now am down to two "primary" former winners of my survey, that I need to check up on. Depending on my new notes, those will be my new front line recommendations. Then DeckerSvc and Seraphim Labs will be "backups" on special request if something is not possible with either of the two leaders.

For better or worse, that leaves cWahi as the only remaining full time service front leader. In my opinion their "notorious ad copy remark" is less relevant, because everyone is getting more bandwidth, but if anything, people's projects are getting smaller as the casual users go to one of the "social sites" to host their pictures. Also, the security incident they had a fair while back is fading farther into the mist, and I'm sure the owner learned things. It's coming up on 2015, not 2009 when I started this project. They're still up, they have ... "plenty" ... of bandwidth, and they are still "officially" open for new business, so that goes back to the core of my original goals, which was to weed through the weeds of "3 month specials".

---

While technically a bit sideways to my original goals, I am a bit saddened and disturbed by a couple of these developments. I am still proud of my original results, having successfully weeded through the original crop of "wannabe's" to select my initial winners, who maintained their service for X years. But projects mature, and I think over this past year and such, this one just did. We're just past the 5 year mark now, and that's definitely outside my original project specs, when the focus was on entities who would croak in months. Two of my choices are now "private request backups", and I do have to say I am shocked at the complete shuttering of LP - AgS. So going down from four decent choices to offer, down to only one, is making me think, at a time when my own energies are stretched thin. I'm not happy at only having one primary recommendation left. But I take pride in this "attestation service" I provided, which was enough to earn me a sticky topic! So I have to decide what all this means to me, and what I want to do next. This post is getting long, so those ideas will be in another post medium-soon.
 
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As the years continue to go by, and the internet continues to evolve, I've come to realize that hosting is dead... which is also quite evident by the decline of /fws/ into nothing more than a spam pot. Whether the hosting industry will come back around to what it once was... who knows, it's a topic for debate. One thing is true, at least for right now: personal websites, blogs, and whatever else are a thing of the past. As social media continues to grow at an ever increasing rate, the amount of human beings who approach me for hosting services continue to dwindle. I have a pretty good customer base of clients who have been with me for years and years that I don't anticipate will be going anywhere. But a lot of personal blogs and what-not that I used to host are diminishing as people leave, not because of poor service, but due to lack of interest. My resellers are losing clients at an alarming rate to the "big box" companies like 1&1, GoDaddy, HostGator, etc. The big fish will continue to swallow up the little guys as the market continues to change from being over-saturated with tons and tons of teenagers running web servers to a monopoly of a few super-companies.

Where does this leave me? Well, a couple of years back, I saw this coming and I quickly began to diversify my services and turn my focus away from hosting. I revamped my website to incorporate my newly involved arenas, like: logistics, warehousing, eWaste recycling, and surplus auctions. Web hosting is more-less just a "side gig" now and will probably remain that way indefinitely. The money just isn't there any more. Some will argue that there's still money to be made in areas like VPS, colo and things of that nature, but I'm not set up for that, nor do I have any interest in getting involved in it. Hosting is time consuming, and the profits are low. In most cases, the hassle and time and involved outweigh the little income that is generated and it becomes nothing more than an inconvenience. Hosting will remain a "side business" for me as I continue to support my current clients and take on new clients, but I'm no longer actively marketing that venture in any way shape or form. Automated sign-ups are only accepted on paid hosting accounts, and free signups are now by request only. This is due to the ever-increasing amount of spam and nonsense, and my overall lack of interest in wading through hundreds and hundreds of bogus requests.

At any rate, thanks for the update on this project. I will continue to check in regularly.
 
I'm still here, and my standing hasn't changed.
It caught me as a surprise though to catch an email from one of my upstreams that THEY are going out of business and I need to migrate my stuff out before their final shutdown.

Unfortunately I was too late to the party to really get very far in hosting, but for the past 5 years I've certainly put a lot more time and effort into this than I expected to. I still have sites up and I will continue to host people's projects if they ask me to, but at this point I doubt I will ever be profitable from hosting alone.

I do have other projects in the works though, the largest of which if successful will be able to make use of my hosting infrastructure to make a publicity page for some of my innovations and ideas. First though I have to get them complete enough to present, which has been in the works as long as I've been hosting.
 
Okay gang.

Time to rebuild my spread of hosts. I am looking for 2-3 hosts for my small personal jumppage whose main current use is linking my typical web recurring items, to possibly host some linked files if you stay put long enough for me to get around to writing the matching articles. Site should be able to handle hobby mp3's and decent sized texts such as 10megs.

No banners. Sorry, but I shall not do posts on your forum, because it becomes wasted effort when the host folds. I will do two linkbacks to the user login page and a central/forum page, but my main value-offer is below:

By now y'all have seen that with a certain exception, I promote my host selections here with a remark every 3-4 months. I value longevity and stability over flashy features.

If a host stayed put long enough one day I'd recommend them to others, but ya'know - in some 2 years here none of my choices have succeeded! So, I would only like offers from hosts that have been up for more than a year.

(Rant)
Just don't try to claim "Unlimited" anything. Also, don't trumpet your "community", because free hosts are primarily mercenary resources, not communities.
(/Rant)
My suggestion is for you to try theredhosting i think they are the best in business and they can really boost your business and can take you to the next level contact them on theredhosting@gmail.com
 
My suggestion is for you to try theredhosting i think they are the best in business and they can really boost your business and can take you to the next level contact them on theredhosting@gmail.com

What do you mean by "contact them"? It's your company, that you're spamming here outside of the advertising forum. Don't make it sound like you're just some happy user who loves this host.

And secondly, no real company uses a @GMail email address. Completely unprofessional.
 
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And FWS changes its face very often now. When I visited it today, I even thought it's just gone.

I guess, Masterbo, I floated by today to look stuff over, and oh dear gawd when did this re-make happen?! I want to see the thread on it. Someone else got bitten by Web 3.11 Social Media fever!
 
My suggestion is for you to try theredhosting i think they are the best in business and they can really boost your business and can take you to the next level contact them on theredhosting@gmail.com

What do you mean by "contact them"? It's your company, that you're spamming here outside of the advertising forum. Don't make it sound like you're just some happy user who loves this host.

And secondly, no real company uses a @GMail email address. Completely unprofessional.

Hi wswd, good to know you're still here!

Mark, I'll only use 20% vitriol since I have retired the study and you posted on page 76 without reading any of the other ones to find out the manifold levels of mistakes you are making. I created this thread to dispose of companies like theredhosting. Let's just say if they're relying on *you* for marketing, then ... legit users should be terrified!

Come back in three months when you have printed out all 76 pages of this thread with a binder clip around it and you find a company who thinks they could have made at least the semi finals. Right now we both know you're not serious, but you've wrapped it in so many onion layers I can't tell if you're brilliantly playing possum or not.
 
As the years continue to go by, and the internet continues to evolve, I've come to realize that hosting is dead... which is also quite evident by the decline of /fws/ into nothing more than a spam pot. Whether the hosting industry will come back around to what it once was... who knows, it's a topic for debate. One thing is true, at least for right now: personal websites, blogs, and whatever else are a thing of the past. As social media continues to grow at an ever increasing rate, the amount of human beings who approach me for hosting services continue to dwindle. I have a pretty good customer base of clients who have been with me for years and years that I don't anticipate will be going anywhere. But a lot of personal blogs and what-not that I used to host are diminishing as people leave, not because of poor service, but due to lack of interest. My resellers are losing clients at an alarming rate to the "big box" companies like 1&1, GoDaddy, HostGator, etc. The big fish will continue to swallow up the little guys as the market continues to change from being over-saturated with tons and tons of teenagers running web servers to a monopoly of a few super-companies.

Where does this leave me? Well, a couple of years back, I saw this coming and I quickly began to diversify my services and turn my focus away from hosting. I revamped my website to incorporate my newly involved arenas, like: logistics, warehousing, eWaste recycling, and surplus auctions. Web hosting is more-less just a "side gig" now and will probably remain that way indefinitely. The money just isn't there any more. Some will argue that there's still money to be made in areas like VPS, colo and things of that nature, but I'm not set up for that, nor do I have any interest in getting involved in it. Hosting is time consuming, and the profits are low. In most cases, the hassle and time and involved outweigh the little income that is generated and it becomes nothing more than an inconvenience. Hosting will remain a "side business" for me as I continue to support my current clients and take on new clients, but I'm no longer actively marketing that venture in any way shape or form. Automated sign-ups are only accepted on paid hosting accounts, and free signups are now by request only. This is due to the ever-increasing amount of spam and nonsense, and my overall lack of interest in wading through hundreds and hundreds of bogus requests.

At any rate, thanks for the update on this project. I will continue to check in regularly.

Hi Deeplist.

An interesting wrinkle showed up over on DonationCoder.com that led me to revisit this over here.

What seems to really be a paying business "to a point" is people looking for secure data backup . One of our A-list members tried to review a service a while back, and just this week posted a critical update that screamed flashbacks to my survey here. Without this exact post going into specifics of what company it was, they made a big deal of "You get 50 Gigs free". Well hell, some of you guys are just as good at security as they are, and 50 Gigs if the bandwidth is low, "isn't that much".

The clause our user ran into was the old "if you don't update / log into your account every three months we'll start to delete your account." Sound familiar to our old adventures around pages 12-30 of this thread back in the old days?
 
AgainstSilence aka LifeLessPeople L2P is still down, and they missed their 5-15-2015 deadline they made up last year as a time staller.

Meanwhile this is the last legit copy of the shell of that site.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140407190209/https://www.againstsilence.com/

And lest any of you have any delusions of Wayback Machine actually working when it counts, it captured basically nothing of the ...

Threads 47,254
Posts 526,341
Members 5,107
 
Just checking in while I'm around. I've still got your Freevoteusa.com hosted long after most everyone else to have been here has collapsed.

Might even have a surviving copy of the dashboard too still standing.

But like deeplist realized, the market for web hosting is basically dead. It is next to impossible for the little guy to compete with the big money, and these days with the remaining web hosting clients all desiring cloud hosted solutions the market has changed to a go big or go home mentality that is untouchable for the hobbyist.

I still do have a handful of clients including your stuff, and I still will take new clients if they ask nicely and want to host things that won't get me shot at. But in terms of business model its basically a failure. I still am hoping to push into VPS sales and data archival markets, if I can make that leap in a cost effective manner. From the looks of things that market might be fading out too, with even VPSs getting absorbed into the cloud.
 
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