Though I don't post often, i have been lurking and reading this forum since it was first started. Those were the days when there wasn't any banners on this forum.

Why are there so much host bashing in this forum nowadays?

Lately, there have been more and more bashing complaint posts here and quite a few are posted by Newbies. Also, I suspect the same person who post a bashing post can easily sign up another username and join in the bashing.

Seems to me that anyone can just sign up a username using a free email account and start bashing and harming other people's or competitors business.

Though there are other good members here, it seems like there are many new resellers who hang around or come to WHT with two purpose.

One to advertise his own service.
Second, to bash competitors.

I may be wrong, but this is the impression I get from the numerous bashing posts which may or may not be true.

I have two suggestions: One to show the IP address and second, registeration with a REAL ISP email.

Hopefully, this can greatly reduce the number of fake bashing and commercial attacks in this forum.

I would say it was nice when they did show the IP, and the blockage of free email accounts from being signed up is also a good idea. But, as you notice it does say IP Logged, that means the Mods do monitor this sort of abuse.

I think, there should be some guidelines for posting a real complain post.

And, make posting and registering difficult for abusers, and impersonators who are out to harm other's business.

For example,
- Ban free email accounts
- Person who complain about a webhost must states his/her domains hosted on that particular webhost. If a complain is posted w/o his/her domain then the post shd be deleted. I think this is fair enough.
- Show IPs

Hi,

I haven't been visiting this board much since christmas, not that I am away but I am writing a new software at the moment. I am still catching up on the new posts here..

I personally don't see this as a media for advertisement.... I mean just imagine.... about three quarters of the members here are probably hosts anyway...

The reason I come around here is to learn and hopefully help contribute in the forum whenever I can help... or just for fun as some stuff here are quite funny hehehe sometimes steal ideas from this forum to start the same topic on my forum (not hosting / technical related)... such as "what is your favorite drink" hehe things like that..

I haven't seen real "bashing" for the purpose of making a competitor look bad.... what I have seen so far is just complaints (sometimes quite extreme) from people who have been disappointed... and I think that's a fair go... in fact it's probably one of the purposes of forming this forum a while back

The hosts who got bashed should take it as a constructive criticism and improve themselves... sometimes this can be hard because sometimes people take things personally.... this is one hurdle that I myself often face and try to overcome...

I guess the moderators here are doing quite well too in controlling the spam (fake bashing) and I thank them for that

Just a note, I am not referring to your post about Site5.

There are other complaint posts which look suspicious, some defamatory and some by Newbies (with very few post count) whose only intent is registering a new username and start bashing a particular web host.

I believe the moderators are trying their best to provide a fair and just discussion forum for both users and hosters. But, to my opinion, the web hosts are at a much more vulnerable position as anyone with a personal vendetta can just do a hit and run bashing attack here.

Some forms of counter checks and safe guards should be in place.

How about members who have posts less than N and haven't posted for M days will be deleted and all posts / threads deleted as well.... ?

How about members who have posts less than N and haven't posted for M days will be deleted and all posts / threads deleted as well.... ?

I agree.. a simpler method would be to delete members who haven't logged in for X days. Then we'd have on cosy community :)

I'm new here, and I love this forum.. It's full of info.. lots of genuine ppl who are more than willing to help! I'd hate to see this ruined by the minority.

Let's not put too many restrictions. That will hamper the openness of WHT. Existing rules are quite OK. Moderators are there to move, close or delete a post. When they don't do to some bashing (objectionable?) posts, it means that those posts are according to the guidelines of the forum.

Even if someone put any false complaint against any Host, that Host person can post his views too. And, all those posts will enrich our experiences only.

Let WHT run on its own way. If some changes are required to be made, the moderators will definitely do that.

I think the answer is only to be found in what we the users can do to effect change ourselves. I do not want to see the freedom of the board lost. On the other hand, I see three issues:

1-I do not believe hosts should ever participate in bashing of their competition. That, to me, is unprofessional. They should offer recommendations, advise users on how to search, etc., but not take shots, however justified, at competitors. Leave that to non-biased users.

2-I believe criticism can be professional and factual. I strongly dislike headlines like "is XXXX dead" etc. which may inflame whether than simply ask.

3-I believe anyone should give their host an opportunity to address problems in private channels such as trouble tickets, email, phone before bringing those problems here. Only after that failure and a demonstrated history of non-performance is this the appropriate channel.

To sum it up, be professional, demonstrate maturity.

Originally posted by muppie
How about members who have posts less than N and haven't posted for M days will be deleted and all posts / threads deleted as well.... ?

I can't see how this will help in preventing abuse and host bashing. Can you please explain?

Originally posted by Byron
IFor example,
- Ban free email accounts
The banning of free email accounts has been discussed and ultimately, we allow them for the same reason that hosts allow people to use them when they sign up orders. While there are a certain percentage of the population that uses them for other purposes, we have over 700 out of 9,000 members registered and that's just too large of a chunk to give up. Only 22 are in the banned group.
- Person who complain about a webhost must states his/her domains hosted on that particular webhost. If a complain is posted w/o his/her domain then the post shd be deleted. I think this is fair enough.
This is something that stands the biggest chance of being a reasonable requirement. Certainly it will be considered, though it would be difficult to enforce at first (meaning that we'd have to remove 95% of the posts which are currently posted that do not comply). Members had trouble following a similar guideline we were testing in the ad. forums, and ultimately, replies were disabled due to the number of poeple not following the guideline. I fear it would go about the same in the main forums.
- Show IPs
This was decided already, and the decision was to hide IPs. We look after it and run checks on things that look suspicious and that members report. if you see something that looks odd, shoot us a report and we'll look into it. We don't mind...

Thank you for taking the time to read and replying to this thread.

How about pointing out the a few things:

1) People naturally talk about the bad experiences they have instead of the good.

2) When something bad happens people need help. Whether it's getting back their money, their files or finding a new host.

3) There are good reviews of sites. Notice my postings on HostingMatters and CyberWings.

thanks.

Originally posted by Byron
...I have two suggestions: One to show the IP address ...


Posting the IP address of participants has been discussed before...

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16784

yes, it has been suggested but the thread starter in that above thread didn't touch on the rationales for suggesting such a move. I mentioned it as part of a few possible solutions on preventing abuse and host bashing.

Showing IP may not be an effective method due to various reasons but the idea is to make it difficult for abusers in signing up a new username, do a hit and run attack, and registering another username to do the same thing.

Naturally, it is the moderators who will decide if any of the suggestions are appropriate.

Originally posted by pgrote
How about pointing out the a few things:

1) People naturally talk about the bad experiences they have instead of the good.

2) When something bad happens people need help. Whether it's getting back their money, their files or finding a new host.

3) There are good reviews of sites. Notice my postings on HostingMatters and CyberWings.



Since most people in here are in the Internet business, and the Internet seems to have a "bad image" to many people at street level for various reasons, (The major one being various levels of illegitiment businesses) then why don't we, the people creating this image work harder to prevent the problems that get posted in here.

I realize I have been here for only a couple days, but after much surfing I have noticed a few things.

1. When someone says "XXXXX is down" and some on from company XXXX comes in and explains the problem or looks like they care they end up making a better image for their company.

2. On the other hand when the same complaint goes un-noticed it hurts that company or it gets considered as host bashing.

If we try to limit what people can say we will also limit point number 1 to a large degree.

I think the best thing that can be done for the Internet business is happening here: People have the ability to finally make companies accountable. And when someone does respond to a complaint about their company, they impress me quite a lot.

That's my opinion at least:stickout

good points.

I only hope they also post details and supporting info so that the complaint is credible and verified.

It's not good if they just post some defamatory remarks about a company like the first post in http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?&threadid=31906 The thread starter don't even reply or state why he post such remarks.

How do the rest of us, readers, know if that statement he made is true or not? I don't think the webhost can also state their case and explain the situation with any info or domains.

My concern is that anyone, can just register a new username and post a defamation on a company. A customer, a competitor or anyone who will benefit commercially can post something bad about ANY host.

For example, if you release the info of your company, anyone can post something defamatory about your company here. What will the general public think after reading that defamatory post on your company? Will you be so free to patrol the forums every moment to check for defamations against your company? If you want to explain the reasons, how ar you going to do it if the complainer just states that your company is dishonest and didn't say why he said so?

I don't think it's fair for any poster to state something bad about any company without any supporting details and info.

I will definately believe that a complaint is true if the complainer post supporting details and the host can use that info to explain their side of the story to us. I think this is fair enough.

I agree with your point about posting defamatory comments all the way. What bothers me the most is how some companies do not care whatsoever about what past and present customers think about them and this is where their dirty laundry gets aired.

On the other hand, I would hope that I never have a customer who walks away with a bad impression of us or has to use this forum as a way to make a point. I would try my very best to make sure that if I had a unhappy customer, it was solved before they even left.

It really comes down to a matter of business sense and customer service in my opinion.

Though lets not forget that people who use this as a way to create havoc when the company has tried their best to reslove the complaint or the client demands too much and the hosting company says "sorry we can't help you" are using this for the wrong purpose. But if it is a matter of ignorance on the hosting companies part than this is the place to make it known.


:)

Originally posted by Byron
It's not good if they just post some defamatory remarks about a company like the first post in http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?&threadid=31906 The thread starter don't even reply or state why he post such remarks.
I'm sure I'm not alone among WHT users in that I pretty much dismiss that kind of post -- a critical post with few details, written by a brand new member. I really don't think that one post like that would do any company a lot of harm -- it's when it becomes a pattern that it affects a company negatively, and that's much less likely to happen without basis.

For example, if you release the info of your company, anyone can post something defamatory about your company here. What will the general public think after reading that defamatory post on your company? Will you be so free to patrol the forums every moment to check for defamations against your company? If you want to explain the reasons, how ar you going to do it if the complainer just states that your company is dishonest and didn't say why he said so?
Of course WHT isn't the only place you'd have to be watching; it's pretty much the way it is being in business online. Large corporations even pay firms to search for negative feedback and report it back, either so it can be responded to or simply to judge the public's perception.

That said, I think WHT is among the best resources from that standpoint. The mods do keep a pretty close eye on things -- several days ago, for example, they cleaned up a burst of dozens of posts that were aimed at unfairly blasting a company. I've seen them several times remove or discredit posts when a moderator has spotted something "fishy" about a report and emailed the poster asking for more details -- and they either don't reply or the answers don't add up.

I think it'd be a legitimate concern for anyone involved in a running dispute with a host that posting their site information might be risky. Giving it privately to a moderator would be much less so.

If there were less active moderation here, I'd probably agree that stiffer rules were necessary. But as long as the moderators are being effective as they are, I don't feel like it's a big problem.

Then again, maybe I'd feel differently if it were my company getting slammed! ;)

As JayC said, there are always a couple of things to keep in mind...

If a post either recommends or blasts a host, you should examine the details given (if any) and form your own judgement. one host is not going to be liked by everyone and even what I'd consider 'extremely well liked hosts' have had users that, for one reason or another, things didn't work out. What works for one, won't necessarily work for all, and likewise, what didn't work for one, might work for you.

Mostly at the request of hosts involved in threads, we have contacted members who have posted a negative review in an attempt to determine if the complaint is legit. Most often it is and people are happy to provide information to back up their posts, and any and all information is kept confidential. We require that clients and hosts work out their differences and often if both sides are open, a mutual agreement can be reached so that everyone is happy and the situation is resolved. That is the ultimate goal anyway isn't it? I mean, bitching about it is one thing, heck we all like to complain, but it seems most are also happy resolving the issue above anything else.

Most of the posts are opinons, and should be treated accordingly. If there's anything you ever see that looks off, please feel free to report it and we'll have a look and/or watch things in an attempt to keep things on track.