Valued Forum Participants,

I am confused/concerned about why, out of the many thousands of web hosts out there, I seem to only see reference to a very small number here. I most often read the (virtual) Web Hosting Forum here. Is there something fundamentally different about the relatively small number of hosts discussed here and the rest of the universe of web site hosts?

Please don't interpret these questions negatively or as an accusation against the forum; it is sincere curiosity. I have been wondering if there was some kind of pre-qualification that I don't know about? Is there something different or special about the hosts we talk about here compared to the others? I would think some forum members would be likely to have been a customer of one or more of the very large hosts (and talk about it) but maybe my logic is off. These may be bad examples, but I have been wondering why I never hear mention by hosts such as verio, uunet, ATT, Earthlink - my naive impression before coming here was that those are heavily used, well-known and well-respected hosts.

Any comments?

Thank you

The real big players don't participate here. And some of them are big (e.g. *****) but not good. And Webhost A may good for customer Smith but bad for customer Doe, and vice versa.
There a thousands and thousands of hosts out there and millions of hosting customers. Not all hosts participate or even know about WHT, and customer wise it's even worse: I doubt that 1/10000 of hosting customers even know about WHT. The typical WHT visitor is not the typical hosting customer nor the typical host, I guess. It's the more educated one (regarding hosting).
Do a search about a few big player names here and you will find comments from customers here, for sure.

Thanks for your comments Walter.

Would it be a correct interpretation of your comments to say that most of the big name companies such as those I named above just aren't that good at being web hosts and that's why they aren't mentioned too often here?

It seems like a big challenge to narrow done to selecting one host out of the thousands. I believe you are implying that I can save time by just focusing on the hosts that get good recommendaions here. The reason I am having trouble is it seems many of the posts just say they recommend so and so but don't really give much explanation of why they might be a good choice. With this approach, some of the hosts get a score of 0 (bad) and others get a score of 1 (good). That doesn't narrow down the choices much; it just reduces the list of thousands of potential hosts down a little. I know I need to do my own research (based on my needs) and I have but, I wish we could make use of the collective experience of the forum members in a way that would consistently provide more details than whether each host is a good host or a bad host. If I am missing all those higher quality posts, please point me in the right direction so I can find them.

I tried to get members to comment on or even rate hosts on a thread I submitted just before this one. There were a lot of viewers but almost no one replied. Maybe someone can suggest how I can use more advanced features of the forum such as "SEARCH", etc., to find more definitive information/recommendations for a short list of good potential hosts.

Thanks

Originally posted by Arizona
Would it be a correct interpretation of your comments to say that most of the big name companies such as those I named above just aren't that good at being web hosts and that's why they aren't mentioned too often here?

Hm, I haven't used any of the above mentioned hosts so I don't want to comment about a particular one. All I have heard from competent people is that the Verio network is quite good (there is one of my ded. servers hosted by VenturesOnline) but their sales/support is lousy.

but don't really give much explanation of why they might be a good choice.

Stop for a minute and make a list with points you think are important for you and then order it by priority. Then do the question again and be more specific, maybe this way you get more answers. Is your main concern cheap bandwidth? Or good support? Or...

I wish we could make use of the collective experience of the forum members in a way that would consistently provide more details than whether each host is a good host or a bad host.

As stated, not all search for the same. Some want really cheap bandwidth for an adult service and don't need any support, others have small sites but don't want them go down a minute, others have no technical skills and need a host with a helping hand, and so on... No host can fullfill all your wishes (but some come close).

Maybe someone can suggest how I can use more advanced features of the forum such as "SEARCH", etc., to find more definitive information/recommendations for a short list of good potential hosts.

Yes, search is not bad. :D Press the search button above, type in a name from your host list and read carefully all comments. But remember: there might not be a single host without any bad comment.

with very few responses!
I will just add that MOST people that frequent these forums are hosters themselves. Most of those big boy companies do not post here! Think of it like this..and we will use Earthlink for example.
Do you think Elink can run and post a WHT special about once a week..or would they even consider such a thing? I dont think so.
The way things occur here...hosting plans become negotiable, and its one host competing against the other to see who will offer the most features for the lesser buck!! :confused:
I dont have any numbers but this is a FRACTION of the industry..There are tons of reliable hosts that DON'T come here at all!!
While I think this forum can be a good, effective tool for doing a little research...its by NO means..your fool-proof answer in finding the best host!
Too many have come and gone within a few months time, and you will find too many biased postings that favor one over another. Its happened time and again.
As the old saying goes..."read between the lines"

I'm not sure I agree with 'most' of the members being hosts. We have quite a few, though we have quite a few non-host members. Some of the hosts are extremely active, though we also have other non-hosts who are as active as well. Overall, it is a fairly healthy mix, and I'm not sure of the exact numbers.

As far as Earthlink is concerned, this forum (to the best of my knowledge) was never intended to target companies like Earthlink. If you read the forum topics and descriptions, I'm not entirely sure Earthlink would be much interested in discussing the majority of the topics here.

This small board has evolved into a small community (by no means the end-all of web hosting), and like any community, members recommend within the circle a bit. It isn't bad, just a different slice of the hosting pie. I know that people complain about webhostingmag a bit and how it mainly covers the bigger guys, and I guess in some regards, this forum (and others like it), allow some discussion about the smaller guys (or at least some smaller guys...)

I'll also add that I don't think every post submitted on the forum is always sincere, objective, fair, etc. and that if you were to post a similar question:

"I have 2 kids and a wife and we need a car to mainly get up and back to work and to the store with, what car would you suggest?"

- you'd get a wide range of opinions, and if this were a forum of car manufacturer startups, you'd see recommendations for smaller companies. Bad analogy, I'm tired...