Ideal though that would be I doubt it would work, surely there'd just be thread after thread of "Have you heard of XXXXXXXX host, are they any good?" with no replies as not enough people have heard of them. Equally it might be a good idea though to combine this with what Cameron already has, so that there's the dual aspect of the test/certification & an informal discussion of both certified & un-certified hosts. I've posted a suggestion on the SHF forum regarding the whole certification process & long-term aspects of that, which may interest you Jason.
I think I missed a post or something but where is the certification and what kind of questions do they hold? Like.. do they have administration questions etc etc? (Would be pointless to list a host with zero administration skills etc etc)
It is my opinion that an unbiased site would not show a separate website for "non certified" host, leading to a host of its own. Both images should have the same address of stophostingfraud.com. I like the initiative taken though, it is definitely for a good cause.
The code is set to show the URL or the website that is Certified/Un-certified. The buttons on display there are just for show/display purposes
Great, I wasn't aware of this, apologies for that! I will be signing up, see how this thing rolls out
here is another forum that sawz has started to help with scammers.. http://digitalpointers.com/forums/ you have to have 5 posts to see the scammers thread.
No offence but that 5 posts to see the scammers thread seems to me that Sawz isn't doing this just to help but to make some money out of it.
Even thought i think this is a great idea as there is alot of scammers on here, i think this could turn out to be a bit eliteus and bias, from your first post your basically stating that only iwhich and cameron are only to be trusted on dp, while they are trustworthy what about the lesser known hosts on dp who simply may not target dp members, i my self am a webhost and running the same company for over a year, i have also been on dp for over a year but i dont belive i have made a single advertisment on dp for my services and i certaintly dont have any itrader but on the other hand i have been a premium member on wht for over a year! So does this make me a fraud and untrustworthy or does this mean im as good as iwhich and cameron? i hope so i simply do not target dp members as SOME members simply are scammers and untrustworthy and i dont want them on my servers as they may cause problems to my other customers, (let me make it clear this is only a certain % of members) I hope this does work out for you as people need to be alot more warey of who they host with, i think the best saying is you get what you pay for if you pay .99cent a month for proxy hosting you deserve to be scammed but if you pay $6/$7 expect to get a good service. But i dont think people should just look for your seal of aproval when buying hosting on dp. my top tips for choosing a host would be 1) Whois the domain see how long they have been in business, if whois guarded or is under 3months old dont go there, also check how long the site has been active and how many ip changes 2) do your research, check out the company name on google/dp/wht/webhosting stuff you will easily find reviews or post about them in forums and if there on webhostingstuff you can check there uptime 3)make sure there not overselling and offering unrealistic plans, and dont go cheap, its a fact if they are overselling offering stupid plans at stupid prices they will disaper after a few months as they wont be making any money, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! 4)Go premium! i tend to belive if your a webhost you should be on wht and if you truley arent a scammer you should have premium status this in my mind shows people you are genuine and are here for the long run. why would you pay $50 to get a blue name if your going to cut and run with peoples money after a week?! 5)verified paypal accounts! last but not least check if they have a verified paypal accounts, why? it shows they have submittted all the correct information to paypal and they have confirmed they are who they are and they live where they should. then if anything goes wrong you have been scammed and got proof you can submit this to paypal they then have all the host adresses and card details and surley get your money back. this is compared to unverified host who can simply remove all there email adresses to fake ones/close the account dump the account and loose all ties to it, disaper into thin air then open a new one next week
Nice tips Cameron/Jason where just examples of web hosts on DigitalPoint who are considered to be trusted, there are obviously hundreds more.
It's great for there to be a place where hosts can go & 'earn their stripes' so to speak. Equally if we can get some educational material up there for potential clients & anyone interested in buying hosting then SHF will certainly be a success for a long time to come.
i agree with jason. my opinion is that this is just another forums. i also agree with zinc on those factors discussed earlier. SHF is not a qualified body to do certification whether a host is fraud or not. it does not even have published guidelines carefully studied and formed by qualified individuals or companies aimed at stopping hosting fraud. one classic example is stroh being decertified and considered as fraud: http://www.stophostingfraud.com/showthread.php?t=19 for now, until those guidelines are carefully studied, agreed and published by QUALIFIED individuals/companies, the certification will all be saturated, tarnished, spoiled, biased with unofficial and most probably personal viewpoints or even worst, vendetta to a certain company. and mind you, being certified by SHF may influence buyers/clients on DP JUST BECAUSE they are just examples of webhost on DigitalPoint who are considered to be trusted. that alone does not come as objective as possibble for the other small companies around. just another 2 cents of yet another small company.
Indeed, perhaps more consultation is needed on how best to run SHF. Providing Cameron is open to suggestions, and I see no reason why he wouldn't be, SHF shouldn't have any issues being shaped & moulded into shape.
It seems SHF is down. I've also started something too, before I saw this thread. I'm offering a certification program for hosts. I am truly unbiased, and I'm not a host, I'm a former hoster, and I'm very experienced. I have no favorites, and I'm completely objective in my evaluation. You know how mystery shopping works for restaurants? My program will work something like that. I will work with the top executives of the company, and the employee's nor the executives will know when I will examine them. I will go through the order process completely. Everything will be examined. I'd be glad to be an examiner if needed. I'm unbiased and qualified to do this.
hostingspeak let me ask you.. how many years are you in this business? Also can i see some facts n proofs.