Ok here My Idea,
We need to form a Consumer Web Hosting Trade Organization
a membership based organization of web hosting consumers the would accurately rates host not on advertising bias.
ok please bear with this

the group would do theese things
1 real host reviews by signing up and testing host rate plans and test services provided over long term not just short- (paid for from membership dues) same rating scale for all host based on fact not opinion.
2. credit checks on hosting companys and business ethics and a section of membership website to warn members
3. membership focused on making ever hosting provider stronger by telling the truth and not based on rumers or slander.
4. when problems arise the Consumer Web Hosting Trade Organization would investagate claims and rule weather the host or cust was at fault.
5.I think this will help keep the goverment from having to step in a legislate the industry more and make the web stronger. my dad is on a similar organization for diffrent industry.

am i crazy or on to something,

patrick

It's a good idea, a "legitiment web host organization" has been tried before, I found it recently when searching for hosting directories. However, I found that it was totally bogus when I saw it's founding members were either hosts that have been utterly blacklisted (as in, hated by ALL on these forums, AND have had complaints about them sent to the BBB) - or the members were persons affiliated with such hosts.

The problem I see here is trying to decide:

- Who gets to assign the reviewers?
- How can we know they are fair and objective, it's all too easy to involve personal bias in this industry.
- What can be done to legitimize this organization even if the above two dilemmas have been overcome?
- Can, and if so, how and how often would a host be able to be re-evaluated; and who can request it? The host? A client?

There are a LOT of other problems, but the main thing is keeping away all traces of $$$ from the organization. Even a cost-per-evaluation has the potential to skew reviews. I wouldn't put faith in an organization as such that got its funding from the very companies it was evaluating.

just my 2 cents..

Just a couple of things. Is the plan to have just the members pay for everything? If you plan to have advertising on the site would hosting companies be allowed to advertise? That in itself may appear to be bias to some. Maybe you could get some government funding! Hey, you never know right. You should see what they spend money on, believe me I know!

As for the members section, I don`t think it would be fair to the average guy who just wants to get some hosting to come to the site, not be able to see the info, and go off and pick a crap host. I think the info should be available for all eyes. Like I said, I like the idea.

all moneies would some from the general membership which web hosts would not be allowed to be members- this would be a place the average person with a domain name could go to get real advise.

the general membership votes in a board of directors that would have term limits. the board is governed by the bylaws for all actions and rating system. the general membership could subit ideas to the board and if more than 50% of board pas could go to general membership for vote. all details not worked out yet.

the websites set up to test and review service could be non profit sites that the organzation could donate hosting- so all the pubilic would benifit form the group not just web hosts.

patrick ( i tend to ramble)

Case in point.. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=4456

I think your on the right track, However I think self-regulation is what's really needed. It's going to be hard to goto all the new and old web companies and ask for space to use for a review. They will know it's a review team i.e. make themselves look better then normal also you have to throw in the factor that hey it might be a off year,month,week,day with lots of problems that doesn't normally happen. Not to mention the NOC and actual cable problems beyond their control. More then likely you will have the same top hosts as published in other TOP Host magazines or reviews. About the only way your going to accomplish what your setting out to do is ask for past records of uptimes, problems, and so on. So this comes down to the people that abuse the internet. i.e. Live Cam when it's really not, 24/7 Tech support when it's really not.I am all for setting a hosting Org. But each member should be a hosting provider and a Org. Label placed on the site if the site meets the requirements set forth and those requirements visited by a group or individuals to assess the True/False requirements. If they fail then given a specific amount of time or reason for the failure then correct and revisited for so long (as set on probation). The assessment is posted and also the corrective actions taken to clear the problem.

Well, I am not really thinking straight tonight so this might sound odd. BTW I will sit down and write a post on what I think people should look for when searching for a host.

This is a good idea. But it would be very very difficult to maintain. For one, this will have to have a free membership system. Why would anyone want to pay, to get there problems known?? And how many individuals, would have the time to run a place like this with nothing to gain from it? I mean, this stuff will be really time consuming, considering the size and projected growth of the webhosting industry.

There was someone who came here quite a bit ago who was looking to do basically the same thing (anyone remember that?). They were looking for reviewers, and I can't remember much else.

Good idea, just hard to control.

Hmm, yes, but would it really help much?

I mean, in my opinion this forum (WHT) provides all the answers you need to find a good host, I think. At the same time it's open to all hosts, so there's no risk of discrimination. So from a "quality of information" point of view it would be very very hard to do better, especially if the information should be up to date.

I don't think the "bad guys" would loose much business if such a reveiw site exists, because there's alwayse enough clients who either don't know about it or simply prefer the cheapest offer, and "get what they have paied for".

That's why consumer organizations usually don't praise the good guys but rather fight the bad, in the name of their members.

You might think about forming a trade association for different reasons. A well-functioning trade association might allow hosts to negotiate better deals with upstream providers, i.e., the Alabanzas of the world; to pool resources to obtain basic legal counselling on common issues; to generate a uniform "code of conduct" or set of "best practices"; and even to prepare comments and/or testimony on proposed regulations or legislation that would affect the industry. And probably a bunch of other things that don't come immediately to my mind. Damn near every industry you can imagine has a trade association in D.C. I don't see why small independent web hosts should be different.

Originally posted by iBusinessLawyer
You might think about forming a trade association for different reasons. A well-functioning trade association might allow hosts to negotiate better deals with upstream providers, i.e., the Alabanzas of the world; to pool resources to obtain basic legal counselling on common issues; to generate a uniform "code of conduct" or set of "best practices"; and even to prepare comments and/or testimony on proposed regulations or legislation that would affect the industry. And probably a bunch of other things that don't come immediately to my mind. Damn near every industry you can imagine has a trade association in D.C. I don't see why small independent web hosts should be different.

This is a good idea. I like this input.

as long as the main focus is protecting the consumer with investagating claims against host. the main point i see in this is when you read a post or review from a person that bought hosting services and now it bad mouthing the company. The organization would justify or null and void the claims so everyone in the end would have a better since of the truth.

I understand that the hosts need to be envolved at some level and i agree with all the benfits that they could have by standing together as long as it is side by side with the consumer.

for the record i am not a host i am a average son of a business man that got in to web design because my father paid two diffretn people to build his web sites that did not know what they were doing. i am far from an expert maybe i'm in 2nd grade of web design. i do want to have a co located server in a year thats my goal.

Just to point out that two different things are suggested in this thread, hope I got this right:

1. the first posting suggests a "consumer association", the members of which would be hosting customers.

2. iBL suggests what I would call a "hosting cooperative" and the members of which would be hosting providers.