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Why is everyone against posting on forums in exchange for free webspace?

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Just in defense of these "post" hosts ...

www.neopages.net (one of the first to do this) does not require you to post; they require you to post your application (to be reviewed), but in no way do they require you to post. Many sites over the past weeks have been accepted in without any active posting on behalf of the site owner.

Their only requirement is you check the news forum every once in a while so you know what's happening to the server and the service. and those topics are usually locked anyway, so you don't have to waste time posting ;)
 
A small aside in case any of you don't understand why these hosts exist in the first place... Basically the idea behind the "community" is that you'll have a larger "base" of support (i.e. the support queries posted on the forums can be answered by existing members) ...

Furthermore, forcing the "application" process (and promoting posting, as some hosts do), does help in removing the "abusive" members. People are less likely to abuse a host to whom they feel more "chummy" with (trust me, I have experience).
 
I'm @ amzweb.net now and being forced to post. Problem is, I have nothing to say since very little topics exist. I posted in the "Sports" forum and simply said "The Colorado Rockies will lose" because, like I said, there's nothing to post about. Now I'm wondering if my posts will be deleted....flock it. These kinds of hosts suck. Why would they make $ from a lame forum?
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maybe if you had somethign worthwhile to say, you wouldn't have a problem finding something to post.

i sure never have.
i've been on AMZ for a few weeks now, and never have a problem finding something to post about.
  1. Technical Support
  2. Service Anouncements
  3. Questions & Suggestions
  4. New Site Announcements
  5. Frequently Asked Questions
  6. Top Ten Elite
  7. World News And Politics
  8. Vacation Destinations
  9. Food & Recipe Exchange
  10. Sports Arena
  11. Free Offers
  12. Plains, Trains, & Automobiles
  13. Unplugged
  14. PHP World
  15. Web Designer
  16. Programming Place
  17. Game World
  18. Help
  19. Windows World
  20. Linnux Land
  21. Computer Hardware
  22. Broadband Connections
  23. Music Talks
  24. Movies & Video
  25. Sci-Fi Universe
  26. Anime and Animation
    [/list=1]

    gee, looks like plenty of area's of interest.
    did you think about asking in the suggestions forum for another area that maybe you find an ability to post intelligently in?

    nope.

    The Colorado Rockies shall lose...heh heh
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    thats just spam.

    and seeing as how you only had 8 posts there, you didn't have enough posts to qualify for an account in the first place.

    -----------------------------
    but to the main point
    -----------------------------

    hosts that require you to post before they host you.
    i always thought there was something nefarious about this, but i find it to be untrue now.

    hey.nu didn't work out for me. i heard they have changed things there, and can only hope that my little rant there had somethign to do with it. as opposed to just being me blowing off steam.
    i later went to check out amzweb.net
    the terms sounded pretty good, but i figured it was a hoax or something.
    i was wrong.
    basically, most of those people that talk trash on hosts liek this fall into a few basic categories.
    • Wares pukes, pissed cause they get shut down
    • non english speakers, who can't get hosted anyways*
    • lowlife bitches, who can't participate in a thread without being abusive.
    • people who don't know personally what they are talking about, or have had a single bad experience.
      [/list=a]

      it's been pointed out, more than once, how ludicrous most people are with their "needs"
      unlimited transfer and filesizes.
      free domain hosting
      you name it, people think they not only need it, but that by some divine right they should have it for free.

      posting on a forum at the very least weeds out non compliant siteops, who would just abuse the system


      *most of these hosts require you to be english speaking.
 
Remember, if you have an aversion to simply spending some time in a forum you could very well enjoy in exchange for quality hosting, the host really does not want you. If they are looking to build a community, they don't want someone who feels they're too busy to post at a forum, yet they will go to another one and spend time defending how they're too busy to post.
 
maybe if u ppl would make only 1 site, and put effort into it and get a paid host instead of going free and having to post on forums
 
Originally posted by idoru


  1. Technical Support
  2. Service Anouncements
  3. Questions & Suggestions
  4. New Site Announcements
  5. Frequently Asked Questions
  6. Top Ten Elite
  7. World News And Politics
  8. Vacation Destinations
  9. Food & Recipe Exchange
  10. Sports Arena
  11. Free Offers
  12. Plains, Trains, & Automobiles
  13. Unplugged
  14. PHP World
  15. Web Designer
  16. Programming Place
  17. Game World
  18. Help
  19. Windows World
  20. Linnux Land
  21. Computer Hardware
  22. Broadband Connections
  23. Music Talks
  24. Movies & Video
  25. Sci-Fi Universe
  26. Anime and Animation
    [/list=1]

    gee, looks like plenty of area's of interest.
    did you think about asking in the suggestions forum for another area that maybe you find an ability to post intelligently in?

    nope.
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  1. I agree with most of what you said, except this section of your post. Just looking of the forums that you have listed, I can already tell that amzweb.net fits under my stereotype of "they try to please everyone, but all they end up with is a bunch of lame forums". If I wanted to talk about sports, I would go to ESPN.com. If I wanted to talk about gaming, I might try Consolewar or IGN (well, IGNBoards sucks but it's still better than most). If I wanted to discuss scripting languages, I would go to a specific forum for that programming language or a specifically webmaster forum. I am NOT going to sit around all day and talk with a bunch of lame people who are posting useless messages for the same reason as I am...to get a hosting account. You're also likely to find less and less intelligible discussion on each of these forums than on specific ones. This is why posting on these forums cannot be intelligible.

    Remember, if you have an aversion to simply spending some time in a forum you could very well enjoy in exchange for quality hosting, the host really does not want you. If they are looking to build a community, they don't want someone who feels they're too busy to post at a forum, yet they will go to another one and spend time defending how they're too busy to post.
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    I wasn't the one that said I was too busy to post at a forum. However, this is definitely something that not only will I not enjoy but it's something I will despise. I have all the time in the world to participate on their forums if they're interesting. But from what I've observed at AMZweb, it's probably the worst popular forum that I have ever looked at in my life. :p Allow me to explain:

    I have never seen a support forum so full of posts PRAISING how good the host is, period. No matter how great a host is, it's not going to get so much praise about how great the system, forums, and webhosting is. And most of these are people who haven't even GOTTEN their account. Simply, these people are trying to suck up to the administrators, and whether it works or not, they'll keep on doing it.

    And then I looked at these two posts:

    There is a mod out at phpbb.com that uses the alicebot program to automatically respond to questions about the faq. I don't know if it is allowed by AMZ, so I haven't tested it out, but it looks very promising.
    Click to expand...

    We are aware of that and have actually already had 5 people automatically suspended for attempting to use it.
    Click to expand...

    The only thing that these forums encourage is spam, and even if the spam is deleted (and discouraged), it's going to continue happening over and over again, whether you like it or not. People are going to resort to these evil practices and make the forum suck. :(

    I would take a look at your other forums, but considering that it won't let me login (even though I have activated my account), I cannot review it at the moment. Is my 31 character password too much for phpBB to handle? :p
 
Originally posted by cale
A small aside in case any of you don't understand why these hosts exist in the first place... Basically the idea behind the "community" is that you'll have a larger "base" of support (i.e. the support queries posted on the forums can be answered by existing members) ...
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I looked at these forums, and I saw no difference in support in comparison to other forums. Over there, users on the forum still help out other users on the forum, while admins and moderators do most of the posting. At AMZWeb, we see the exact same story. Most of the responses come from moderators, but some users do help out occasionally. It doesn't help build a "larger base of support", like you say it does. The people who just want an account don't have the time to bother doing these type of things.
 
i agree that if i want to spend my time on a php board, i would go to a php board.

i guess my basic point is this.

there is nothing wrong with a host requiring your activity on a forum in exchange for free hsoting.

if you don't like it, thats your problem. (meaning generic you, not anyone in specific)

if your reason for thinkign it sucks is your too busy to post on the forums, then for ----s sake, stop posting in forums, about how busy you are, as to be too busy to post in a hosts forums.

as for the asslicvking on AMZ, well, such is always to be expected.
i try to keep my asslicking to a minimum. i've not put my site on the server through the rack yet, but have done some prelim tests with some friends, and it';s been preforming fantastically.
my only gripe is having to use only phpbb2 (i really truly do not like phpbb2)
i try to be helpful on the forums when i can, and do not post spam.
but there are those who do.
it is sad really, but some people really expect everything for nothing, and decent posts isn't too much to ask.

honestly, if your spending some time in other, more specific forums, you should have plenty of good, relevant material to regurgitate. or at least be able to coherantly answer others.

again with the i am not pointing anyone specific out, just generally anyone.
 
conker, i disagree =)

i rarely answer the support forums anymore. seeing as to how i'm the only server admin, i think that's a pretty good job :)

plus i think the np network is really getting to a point where the people post because it's a community. mind you we've been around for quite a while now... and people are starting to coordinate and run their own projects with other people within the network.

and there is no hosting requisite for hosting at neopages.net.. i'd say about 1/2 of hte peope who have hosting don't post regularly. but the 1/2 who do post are the ones that make it all worthwhile.
 
Regardless of how I feel, or how members feel about posting though, I really can't see how a message board could cover the costs of freehosting.

Hey, at least that means most freehosts won't require you to do that ;). I do, however, see the usefullness of making applications be posted on a public board. It would cut warez and other abuse down severely, as everyone ignores the post saying "pls gimme space, i wan it for my 1 gig sitez".
 
Originally posted by cale
conker, i disagree =)

i rarely answer the support forums anymore. seeing as to how i'm the only server admin, i think that's a pretty good job :)

plus i think the np network is really getting to a point where the people post because it's a community. mind you we've been around for quite a while now... and people are starting to coordinate and run their own projects with other people within the network.

and there is no hosting requisite for hosting at neopages.net.. i'd say about 1/2 of hte peope who have hosting don't post regularly. but the 1/2 who do post are the ones that make it all worthwhile.
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It's great to hear that you have built a community, and you don't have to tend to questions anymore. :) But I don't see how this supports AMZ's case? :confused: I mean, you have developed NP into a community without users being required to post. Doesn't that only prove my point that users will build a community just with time? :)

there is nothing wrong with a host requiring your activity on a forum in exchange for free hsoting.
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I totally agree. However, I am just pointing out to users here that a regular host with advertisements would be preferred to a host trying to build a community. So I would like to use Muttle's point here:

Regardless of how I feel, or how members feel about posting though, I really can't see how a message board could cover the costs of freehosting.
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pls gimme space, i wan it for my 1 gig sitez
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And the sad thing is that I didn't even type like that when I was 9 years old. :D
 
My main objection to that type of arrangement is that users can't make a decent contribution to a support forum until they actually have a site there.

It's very hard to answer questions about a service you haven't used yet, other than in a very generic way. It's more likely that you'd be asking questions that you could answer yourself if you had the account already and could try it out.
 
Originally posted by wysardry
My main objection to that type of arrangement is that users can't make a decent contribution to a support forum until they actually have a site there.

It's very hard to answer questions about a service you haven't used yet, other than in a very generic way. It's more likely that you'd be asking questions that you could answer yourself if you had the account already and could try it out.
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Exactly what I was about to point out! :) How can you answer support questions when you don't have an account yourself? The only real question you can answer are ones that have been mentioned in the FAQ, and I don't really find that to be very "helpful" to a host.
 
conker: oops, i mistakenly thought you didn't like the whole hey.nu/amzweb/neopages-type free hosting "communities." whoops, my mistake.

but it's a wonderful reward when it does build into a genuine community.=)
 
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