Damn...that sucks, we had alot of good reviews, which we worked very hard for our customers to have them post a fair review

http://www.hostsearch.com/reviews.asp

Section Closed

A Message from HostSearch Team

The original purpose of the review section is to help web users make an informed decision when shopping for web hosting services. We are also a customer of web hosting company and we understand how important for the consumers to have enough information before making the decision. However, the purpose of this section was misinterpreted by some group of users.

PROBLEM 1
Web hosting companies want only good reviews.
Most web hosting companies want only good reviews and they did the following.
1 Posted fake positive reviews
2 Sent email forcing HostSearch to remove the bad reviews. Sometime their lawyers are involved.
Some web hosting companies wanted to destroy competitors and posted fake negative reviews.

PROBLEM 2
Unsatisfied customers of web hosting companies posted everything they can to destroy the reputation of the companies.
This group of users did the following.
1 Post multiple reviews of the same company
2 Use improper language
3 Post messages in the public claiming that HostSearch accepted money from web hosts
4 Send emails to HostSearch using different names and improper language just to relief their angers.

WHAT HOSTSEARCH DID
When requested from web host, we removed reviews submitted by people using invalid email addresses and we removed reviews from people who have never replied our emails. We also did not publish reviews using improper language and duplicated reviews submitted by the same person.

WHAT HOSTSEARCH RECEIVED
We've got a bad reputation even though we tried to develop and provide a helpful section for users.

We're sorry that the review section is now closed because of the problems mentioned above.

Originally posted by AlaskanWolf
Most web hosting companies want only good reviews and they did the following.
1 Posted fake positive reviews
2 Sent email forcing HostSearch to remove the bad reviews. Sometime their lawyers are involved.
Some web hosting companies wanted to destroy competitors and posted fake negative reviews.

PROBLEM 2
Unsatisfied customers of web hosting companies posted everything they can to destroy the reputation of the companies.
This group of users did the following.
1 Post multiple reviews of the same company
2 Use improper language
3 Post messages in the public claiming that HostSearch accepted money from web hosts
4 Send emails to HostSearch using different names and improper language just to relief their angers.
Gee, now this sounds familiar, heh. It is a shame, but rarely a day goes by that we don't deal with this here. My favorite was the Cartel though (Post messages in the public claiming that <WHT> accepted money from web hosts).

It would seem that HostSearch would lose traffic with that decision.
I think a lot of surfers like the review section. Although it probably caused a strain for HostSearch; for the reasons they stated.
Reviews are an important tool for consumers.
Too bad HostSearch couldn't figure an easier way to monitor them.

Now . . .

We need another Dictator around here. :(
That was some fun readin' :D

What REALLY sucks is that they didn't even warn us. I had a potential customer email me today because I had a big ol' link on my main page to all of our wonderful reviews...which we worked very hard to get.

The message that HostSearch put up really made me look stupid.

Well, there goes the $600 ad campaign that I was just getting ready to start with them. No lie - we were just about ready to order a Showcase Spot on the discount zone.

--Tina

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
Too bad HostSearch couldn't figure an easier way to monitor Unfortunately, it can be a very time-intensive task to do that properly, especially when there are people intent on causing problems in the process.

Anyway, if HostSearch doesn't put their reviews back up, I can put one online for y'all. Just gimme a holler.

Rehan

Originally posted by Rehan
Unfortunately, it can be a very time-intensive task to do that properly, especially when there are people intent on causing problems in the process.

Anyway, if HostSearch doesn't put their reviews back up, I can put one online for y'all. Just gimme a holler.

Rehan I would think that HostSearch could have implemented something to verify email addresses long ago.
Seemed to be a large flaw :rolleyes:

:eek: I like your signature :D

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
I would think that HostSearch could have implemented something to verify email addresses long ago.
Seemed to be a large flaw :rolleyes:That's only a part of the problem, though. Even if e-mail addresses are verified, people will sign up with multiple hotmail accounts and submit a review from each one. And they'll do it from different IP addresses. So it takes the effort of a human (rather than just a script) to keep things clean.

:eek: I like your signature :DThanks. The *'s are actually intentional. ;)

Bad decision in my opinion, they should have handled the issue of the reviews better...

We don't take orders from people using @hotmail, etc. They could reject reviews from anyone using a free account AND send a 'your review will not be posted until you reply to this email' email to anyone posting a review.

That would eliminate ALOT of invalid posts.

--Tina

:bawling: I have been using hotmail for more than three years. :bawling:

Anyhow, that could work.

Originally posted by AffordableHost
We don't take orders from people using @hotmail, etc. They could reject reviews from anyone using a free account AND send a 'your review will not be posted until you reply to this email' email to anyone posting a review.

That would eliminate ALOT of invalid posts.

--Tina

Well....its too bad, and again just another example of one bad apple spoiling the whole thing...in this case TONS of bad apples :rolleyes:
I dont blame hostsearch one bit.....Just imagine the tons of emails, they get just in the area of complaints...one look in their UNmoderated forum clues you in to how many email complaints they get from people.
They had a nice review area, for clients, its just too bad ABUSE had to occur.
At least they have had the decency to let the host co. get a copy of their reviews.
*sigh*

http://www.hostsearch.com/reviews.asp

Section Closed

I love it! I was so sick of getting questions from people asking why our company had only a handful of post and others had hundreds (even though they were new). I told them the same thing everytime -

1) Most small companies have time to sit around and add fraudulant post by getting their buddies to write post and by using isps to get different IPs all the time. You can easily fill your post with 20 all "10s". This is fraud and makes your hosts cheats and liers .
2) I would say look at Pair. They host 120,000 web sites. Now look at abchost (fake name). They are a reseller and have 20 cusotmers. Why does Pair have 5 post and abd have 30? In my opinion Pair is one of the best host out there. Their customers love them. Why didn't Pair have more then 5 post? Same with other big host.
3) We could get a lot more by doing what a lot of host did. They created a "Review us" section on their web site. This was just a feedback form. When the review was good, the host would say "Thank you. We work hard for you. Please go to this link and inform others." The link was of course Host Search. The negative post never got this option.

If host want to put a review section or link, why not show your real customers input. Have a testimonials page complete with the domain name you host of that customer. If you really are getting all those great reviews, then you should have no trouble getting testimonials for your site. If you don't have any positive reviews, just do what some host do and make one up and say it came from "Ed from Texas" ;)

It's a shame to see hostsearch reviews go - but the system was badly abused by some hosts, so I suppose that was the only option available to hostsearch...

Regards
Matt

Ohh No!! Downtownhost has a Perfect 10 in Hostsearch reviews
:( :bawling: :bawling: :bawling:

...had :(

yeah, I HAVE to back to school and learn english :)

If you log into your hostsearch control panel you can grab your reviews. Not much, but its better than nothing.

Is there an alternative place like Host Search that we can use for reviews?

findsp.com

That does suck though. It was a good resource, and I feel they will get less and less visits and then less advertising..... That sucks. :(

-Kyle

Darn! I guess more people will just have to come over here to WHT to read objective hosting feedback! :D

Originally posted by netsolutions
Is there an alternative place like Host Search that we can use for reviews? As I mentioned earlier, I can put something (decent) up if HostSearch decides not to put their reviews back online in the future. I can revisit this in January to see where HostSearch is on the issue; they should be given some time to sort things out, though.

So people start taking down the "Review us @ HostSearch" images

Originally posted by one_web
So people start taking down the "Review us @ HostSearch" images LOL . . . . Did that earlier. Right after AlaskanWolf alerted us to HostSearch's decision. ;)
You'd look pretty foolish if a client clicked on the "Review Us @" link.

:D

This is ironic because just yestaurday I decided to put the Host Search image on our web site.

www.hostrecord.com

oh and BTW, I'm leaving you in the dust in posts netsolutions. Get off the UK forum you canadian.

Bah! We had ONE AMAZING listing back there. >:(
Now its gone. Stupid hostsearch :mad:

You can also write user reviews at
www.webhostdir.com

isnt hostsearch more popular?

I can greatly sympathize with HostSearch and their problems with reviews. We have had problems with litigation from Hosts in the past as well as Hosts writing reviews for their own companies in our user review section. It takes up a lot of time tracking down each individual review to find out if they are a real customer or not and many have abused our user review section.

Right now we are working on putting automated tasks into the user reviews to cut down on the time it takes to track comments and to see if they are legitament. We still have to do a lot of it by hand , but at least it will save us an hour or two. :D

If you guys don't mind waiting the new user reviews section as well as user review posts will be out beginning next year in the January/February time frame.

What's wrong with hotmail???
There are a lot of people who would never-ever reveal their ISP e-mail address (or e-mail like yourname@yourwebsitename.com), and I'm one of those, cause of spam.

On a different note, what is happening about the reviews section at WHT?

Host Reviews


HostSearch was created and designed to provide you with as much relevant information as possible to help you find just the right web hosting provider for your needs. The reviews in this section were written by our visitors who are current or past customers of the companies they reviewed. This is a valuable resource that will help you compare and evaluate different web hosting providers.

This section is temporarily closed for renovation.

Thank you for comments and suggestions from users sent to us during the past few weeks. We are working on the new and improved web hosting review section. Known as the best web hosting review section in the industry, HostSearch's web hosting review will open again before 2002. Thank you for visiting our web host review section.

When I was working for a hosting company, we were also very concerned about other people saying bad things about us when we really worked hard to please all our clients. And yes, we've experienced "sabotages" in those reviews.

But now that I'm doing freelance web design projects, I couldn't help but feel a little... deprived... when hostsearch removed their reviews. I want to find the best possible hosts for my clients, and now it's difficult.

At least, maybe, I could have also spared my friend the pain of signing up for Championhost, had I known how bad this host is! She was duped by an article from an online web magazine regarding Championhost (also found on Hostsearch), and I couldn't even help her because there were no reviews at Hostsearch to guarantee if the article was just an ad campaign or what.

:bawling:

Originally posted by ^Kyo
isnt hostsearch more popular?

Not according to the Link Popularity check at Marketleap.com.

Hostsearch.com - 9,899
Webhostdir.com - 20,011

:)

Originally posted by Tommy


Not according to the Link Popularity check at Marketleap.com.

Hostsearch.com - 9,899
Webhostdir.com - 20,011

:)


But the number of sites that link to you isn't the only gauge of actual popularity. :)

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
LOL . . . . Did that earlier. Right after AlaskanWolf alerted us to HostSearch's decision. ;)
You'd look pretty foolish if a client clicked on the "Review Us @" link.

:D


Which is why I will NEVER advertise with HostSearch again. They could have sent us an email letting us know about that. I didn't find out until a potential customer emailed me and alerted me that the "Read our customers reviews!" link probably wasn't what I thought it was. :angry: :angry: :angry:

--Tina

Originally posted by skysenshi
But the number of sites that link to you isn't the only gauge of actual popularity. :)

True, we need to quantify 'popular' first. :)