Honest Hosts 'Alliance'

Sure! I hosted privately in my local area starting in 2004. At that time, I didn't have a website, as I communicated with all of my clients on a face to face basis. In 2005, I opened a computer business, and I also started offering hosting services publicly. In the last quarter of 2006, I shut down the computer repair portion, and did hosting solely, and then in the first of this year, I decided to stop hosting.

 

If you'd like more information that that, I'd be glad to provide it during the certification process. I have an information packet that goes out about all of it. There is a lot of information that I can't provide, because if I told you, then people would know who I am, and therefore your staff would know who I am, and so of course the exam wouldn't be accurate at that stage. So, as you can tell, some information I can't give out. I apologize for being a little vague, but you have to understand the process by which I examine hosts to fully appreciate my anonymity.

 

Well...
Seems that the site is down, and hostingspeak, I will bite the bait
PM me

 

The supposed 'Honest Hosts' , Cameron & Freddy , got banned here.

How do we know who is Honest & who isn't ?

Is it solely the age of the company & their reviews ?

 

No, it isn't... Older hosts can go bad, change hands & all goes wrong etc. Reviews can tell a tale too, if you've gone some customer(s) on a vendetta against your company for example it would paint a dishonest picture.

 

Yeah, as you said, an Honesty test doesn't really work. That's why I'm not testing honesty, because externally, how can you test whether they are honest or not? I think part of it is age and a lot of it is reviews. Then, I think that practices of hosts should be fully evaluated as well. I think hosts that practice unlimited hosting are flat out unacceptable. Just to note, I know the differences between unlimited and unmetered. I'm very well aware of the argument that is associated with that. If you sell unlimited hosting, I'm sorry, but there is no way you'd get certified by me. It would be hard for an unmetered host to pass the certification. Unmetered hosts could pass it though, but it would be close. It would depend upon wording and other things.

 

That's true too. Age doesn't necessarily mean anything. Reviews are golden though.

A good example of that is, I know a few companies that aren't pleasing their customers at the moment. When LayeredTech raised their prices, that caused a big stink.

 

another candidate for ban. you need to be very careful replying with such.

hostingspeak, well you got to build your credibility as even your site has not much in there.
but this kind of services is a sure hit to those who would like to get
certified by unbias and professional body, unlike those who provide certification with
probably hidden agenda *cough* attracting visitors to their site *cough*

 

Hi!

Yeah, your right, I know the forums doesn't have a lot yet. That will come though. I put in my signature that my community is new, so I realize that it doesn't have a whole lot of activity.

Like you said, in the certifications, there can be hidden agendas. I'm not here representing a hosting company, and I'm critical of all of them. There are companies that I have used, and that I like, but there are only one or two that I "like". If I have used them in the past, and if I have experience with a company, I won't certify. For better or worse, I feel that would introduce bias. WebHostingStuff.com is a good example agenda's. I feel that their logo is a joke really. It's so easy to get that good ethics logo. I have a feeling that the hosts listed in the top 10, are nothing but affiliate links. I could be wrong about that, and if I am, I'm sorry, but when I click on the links, it doesn't go straight to the host, it goes through a re-direct.

 

Well I guess I will not get certified.. but I dont need that to be a good host.. that also means that hostgator and the big dogs would not pass your certification..as they also offer unmetered/unlimited

Like i stated before it will be hard to certify any host and no one person will be able to say who is good and who is not..

And do you want your name associated with the hosts that you say are good and then 2 months later they run and hide after scamming everyone..

What I think we need is to educate people and give them guidelines on what to look for in web hosting and not who is certified or not.. as everyones needs are different in what they want and need in web hosting.

You also need to build up some reputation here on dp you do not know any of us to make that kind of judgment call. as to who is trust worthy and how is not.. it will be interesting to follow this how ever. LOL

 

Hi!

Actually, you could pass. You don't sell unlimited hosting, and you have limited plans with one being unmetered. So, without examining anything, you could probably pass.

I'm not saying that they are "good" or not. Hosts don't fit everybody, so hosts might be good for one, and not for another. I wouldn't test that.

As far as my name being associated with them, I can always rescind their certification. I'd also recommend that hosts go through a monthly certification. It's optional if they do it monthly, but I would make a note of that.

As far as making judgement calls, again, I'm not testing your trustworthiness. It's not about trust. Some of the test would comprise how easy it is to order, how easy is it to locate your Terms of Service? Do you offer 50GB of diskspace and yet, have severe limitations in your TOS that throws a serious wrench into things? It's things like that. Now, just because you have some of those or whatever, doesn't mean you'll fail the test. It's like an exam, you get a numerical grade, and if you miss a part, the grade could be lower, but it doesn't mean you'll fail.

Thanks for your comments!

 

I find it rather amusising that the person that started this site is now banned...Anyway, as a rule of thumb it is not a good ide5o buy yearly paid hosting from a new company, simply because so many of then turn out to be scammers. In the end, you get what you pay for.

 

Well, the person who started it isn't banned, but Cameron is. There's been numerous stories about what happened, so I don't really know. Some say he was hacked, some say he was a scammer, I have no clue. Just to clarify, I'm not saying cameron is a scammer or not. I read a little, but I honestly have no clue about what happened.

You're right though, I think monthly is a better way to go. If you pay yearly, and somehow have a problem later, you might not get all of your money back, you might not even get any back.

 

With reference to WebHostingStuff:

The "Top 10" is link bidding, was about $3 something a click. Get a hosts account and see what I mean, it's therefore only possible for huge hosts to convert clicks. They use this "click optimiser" thing, and when you see it you'll know what I mean. In short, you place a max bid, and it adjusts it to as high as it needs to be. #1 was about $130 (yes, a click) about a month back.
I haven't checked recently.

Jay

 

well i only hope that the reason of his ban is not because he started that site.
who knows. only the admin can shed light on this.
in any case, this thread should now be closed by admin so an appropriate thread can be even started onn the right section of DP forums.

 

Wow, that's crazy. Honestly, that's just as bad as affiliate links...

 

Not actually, this is the worst thing. At least you know when somebody be an affiliate of a company/site. But WebHostingStuff is known to be a good review site and they even meter your uptime too. It's highly unfair to put a list of top 10 for a huge amount of money and not the quality.

Just a case: Yesterday I had seen a host JustHost.com on the top on WHS, I just visited and clicked their live chat, I was amaged it was a virtual chat, as sometimes being seen on some eBook selling sites. How can you believe a site to be on top for hosting with Virtual Chats as the LiveChat??
This is frustrating for the companies who work hard to build their reputation and someone comes ahead them with a huge amount of money. I was feeling good about WHS but if they do not stop this crappy Top 10, it's a shame.

Thanks

 

He was hacked imho, because I received a spam e-mail they used the mass e-mail.

How do I know? quite easy, e-mail headers

Original

Second message

Second Message Original

Rather sad, looks like he wasn't qualified to cover security holes. Anyway, I've been doing some thinking about this and maybe the idea wasn't shaped that well since it was a bit of a half-baked certification which only served as personal view instead of an unbiased view. I also read in the forums when it was up there was a small fight with a host selling unlimited plans etc etc.

True, I won't go near unlimited even if the founder was a real life friend :|

Hope cameron put it back on, although his VPS is pretty much dead, ip doesn't resolve, won't even open in putty.

Cheers!

 

Yes Camerons dp account was hacked along with the vps server he had for this forum and one of his other servers and his email account was all hacked as well..

I got those same emails too by the way..

 

Oh yeh..
Those emails? Huh... I got them too, however I was able to trace it back to another source. Who claimed that yes, that was his account.... and yes, this person is a member here at DP.... Don't wanna post his username, don't want the possibility of getting banned