It must be a pain for web hosting companies these days with the increasing activity of message boards and other media. I mean, clients come on here and bash the living daylights out of these hosts and really the only chance for us to see the other side of the issue is for the actual hosts themselves to come on here and defend their point of view.

This is mostly a good thing because it (for the most part) distinguishes the good hosts from the bad. It's great when you have 20-30 people on here sharing the same bad experiences with a particular host -- because it is then when you truly know to avoid that host at all costs. However, often times you have the nit-picky customers coming on here and complaining about the smallest things possible -- which in turn can cause poor judgment about a host from other would-be clients.

A question for the hosts (and anyone else who wishes to add a comment):

Do you feel your reputation is truly threatened on forums like WHT?

Most WHT users become quick to identify the nature of the compliant, so I doubt too many good hosts take a "hit" when one or two of them come here with an unreasonable compliant.
If the complainer has some unreasonable expectations that were not met, usually another host will jump in and say something like "we have that same policy"
The only thing I see as potentially damaging is when the poster starts a topic with "thishostname sucks, stay away" Then when you read it you find that their site was fine, but the poster didn't update their nameservers or something. Meanwhile the title of the thread remains for all to see, but not everyone will actually read the threads contents.
Most bad good or hosts are quickly identified and the erroneous complaints weeded out here, by users and other hosts alike.
Because of this, I have found the information here to be much less biased than the stupid so called "top hosts" or ratings sites where C_I_Host is considered to be a top rated host. (yeah, CI is no.1, and my mother is the queen of England)

Do you feel your reputation is truly threatened on forums like WHT? A hosts reputation is threatened anytime a client walks away angry. The internet makes the threat even more serious since the client has the ability to tell far more than just their own friends/family.

It is hard knowing that someone somewhere may be trashing your reputation, especially when it isn't deserved. It's especially hard when you are either not able to respond efficiently (forum rules) or may not even know the thread was posted (inability to monitor every forum on the net).

The best thing hosts can do is obvious. Do everything you can to please everyone and work toward ensuring there is more good than bad so that one outweighs the other.

I cringe each time I see an insulting thread about a host that I know is doing the right thing.

I've never been able to identify a single order that has come from a result of these forums, so I don't give this forum much weight.

Look at all the customers that ***** is still getting, even though they could never possibly have a good reputation here.

There is a weird little niche market here, that I'm sure that some hosters fit into and find their customers here, and they might be affected. Especially the "forum favorite" hosts (the ones that are recommended all the time on here). There are obviously a few web hosts who have a large number of their customers actually visiting these forums each day.

Of course one could argue that if maybe I was more sensitive to some people's egos and we had $1 hosting that this forum would hold some weight with our "new" customer base.

None of our existing customers know about this place. Even our few unhappy customers that have left don't know about this place and would never come here to complain.

It is hard to say. A bad report will damage the reputation of a host within these forums, but not so much out in the real world.

If a host is trying to create a client base solely from a forum, then yes, they would be in trouble.

But if a host recruits clients from local businesses, word of mouth, or elsewhere, then no, a bad report on a forum isn't going to hurt a company too much.

Unfortunately with forums, the bitter party is explaining things from their view. And since there is always 2 sides to every coin, sometimes the explanation may be lacking in details.

And since some people in this world like to complain about everything, sometimes a host will be made out to be the bad guy for no reason.

It happens.

not really. We don't get many customers from this forum as far as I can tell. An upset customer would probably have an effect elsewhere though as much of our growth comes from people referring us to their friends, business associates etc. So losing one, may lead to losing more.

We halved our prices on a couple of specials in the ad forum a few days ago and didn't get a single bite, so I'm pretty sure that reflects on our signups percentages from this place :D

If you run a web host that gains a high percent of it's customers from a single forum then it may be of a more serious nature when things go belly-up. Also it'll be a note of reference for anyone running a search of a company through a search engine. I can't remember the amount of times I've seen something along the lines of:

"Hi, I've just joined the forum after doing a search on 'company X' and found this place" If that search was done looking for people who have had bad experiences, then it'll be adding fuel to the fire.

Greg Moore

Originally posted by mtgm
. . . . . .
Do you feel your reputation is truly threatened on forums like WHT? Not at all. As we don't really use forums to attract customers.

And, as others have pointed out, WHT is a wealth of knowledgeable people. When someone flames a host, they better darn well be able to prove what they are saying as facts. I've seen several occasions where someone would try to say how horrible their hosting experience was; only it would come to light that the host never did one thing wrong.

The only hosts it could possibly injure, are hosts that mine the forum for customers. Because they, most likely, do not have any other method of gaining members. If they truly were at fault; sure it could hurt.

But, the question was, "Do you feel your reputation is truly threatened on forums like WHT?"

And my answer, like most other hosts on this forum, is "no."




[edit]

LOL . . . . Now I just read Gregs' post closer. Seems like we said the same thing. :D

I'm leavin' this one anywho. Sheeesh. It's better than, "I agree." :blush:






I have to watch myself more closely. This agreeing with akashik is becoming a habit.

Web Hosting Talk is such a small part of the world sometimes it doesn't matter.

What does matter is how that host responds to the complaint against it. To argue with or badger the customer in public is never the right course. Handling it in a professional manner is the way to go.

Sometimes it's harder to take the high road.

"and we had $1 hosting that this forum would hold some weight with our "new" customer base. "

Heh, everytime I see something like this I can't help but think "yup".

Anywho, it would be damaging to me personally, as I don't like anyone to "look down" upon me, my company or work. It wouldn't be very damaging to the success of the company, however, because as like many others have said we do not get a large amount of signups from this forum.

there are 16k registered people to this forum....how many of them acually come here and still use it?? so lets maybe say 10k might come here......how many of them are acually hosts? or linux gurus? or just someone not looking for a host...so basically there are not many out here looking for a host....then go out and think of this.... how many new hosting plans are sold a day over the entire net......MANY!! so basically this doesnt do much of a dent.

But i do agree....the bad thing about the internet the smallest things get blown way out of porpotions....One persons site stoped workign and they never got a refund...but then they leave out one small detail....they were hosting warez on their site....see bascially on here if a host isnt defending their selves ppl can get away with making them look bad...I basically dont take into account how good or bad a host is by these forums unless i see plenty of complants....Cough Cyberwings Cough!

while WHT might not be usefull once you found a host or a reseller account, I remember checking it daily back when I was seeking those type of accounts... I read every post, every offer (almost) to get a better idea about what others were offering and what I needed and what price to pay for it.

granted, there are quite a few naysayers around that feel they should trash everyhost even if they have not used them...
advice is cheap...and that is where WHT comes in handy.

I remember almost signing up with availhosting two days before they went belly up and they had quite good rep around here.

Well, first off...

It would be truly wonderful if your hosting operation was completely flawless and that your servers never went down, you never made a billing mistake, and that every customer was understanding and tolerant of all aspects of hosting...

-but this generally doesn't happen.

Because hosting is a similar service to your phone and cable service, in that people just 'expect' it to always be working, the only time you will really hear from them is when it isn't working. I can't recall the last time I called the cable company to tell them everything was fine and that they're doing a good job.

So point one is that you have customers with high 'expectations', which are somewhat unrealistic and impossible to meet. Hosts may be slower at fixing problems (sometimes due to propagation or billing limitations, sometimes due to them just being slow) than their disgruntled customers are at posting, and you may feel threatened.

Overall, if you do what you have to do, and do it as well as you possibly can, while keeping all of this in mind, you should have very little to worry about. I've seen hosts here who are masterful at responding to problems on the forum, which in the end, makes them come out on top, and thus get recommended by others -just on the basis of how they handled themselves. Of course, the opposite is true as well.

Originally posted by Chicken
So point one is that you have customers with high 'expectations', which are somewhat unrealistic and impossible to meet. Hosts may be slower at fixing problems (sometimes due to propagation or billing limitations, sometimes due to them just being slow) than their disgruntled customers are at posting, and you may feel threatened.

Still there's a very small amount that will get their knickers in a knot, if they're well informed and updated.

Always said this is a service industry (mainly due to the fact that it is), and a very large part of that is to keep the customers informed when hiccups occur. Shelling out the good clams for quality hardware helps too of course :)

I really think a lot of the hosts who get the bad reps here have done a lot to cause it themselves - either though poor management, poor support, or poor business decisions. An odd bad comment here and there drops off this forums in a few hours usually. The 'most wanted' list have made a serious effort to garner the reputations they have.

Greg Moore

I just registered so I can post also my point here..:)

I always check WHT for more hosting and reselling information. And so, if there are topics that say "thishostname sucks, stay away", it always comes to my mind that this hosting company has defects even without reading the thread. What I usually do is I search this company in WHT and see if there are topics that say positive to them. If none, so this company really sucks. If there are positive topics also, then that's the time I read the thread.

I think the best way so that the particular company will not be put to a damaging image is for the moderators to MODIFY THE TOPIC once it is found out that the problem has been fixed.

Do you feel your reputation is truly threatened on forums like WHT?

Not really, I'd try to look at it as a learning experience. I try to be sincere and open with my customers. Of course, if they had a complaint, I wish they'd come to me first, but as others have said, it's not a perfect world. What I would find stupid is to NOT reply to an accusation or statement made here, or anyplace else about my service. Thats like committing suicide. Any host needs time to grow, and I think WHT provides a good avenue for that to happen - positively or negatively.

interesting thread

Hiya,

I personally think WHT is the place that led me to develop alot of what i know about web hosting (which in terms of what others know is probably not much :) but its a great place to learn things with alot of nice friendly knowledgable people :) If it wasn't for here, i most likely would still be sinking in the big ocean of the internet lost :)

In terms of recommendations/negative comments i do look in here if i want to go with a host or not.. and if any of my friends etc who host websites ask me for recommendations.. well i would generally be basing my opinion upon what i've seen or learnt here alot.. but i do stay away from posts which are accusations without any substance etc..

anyways just thought i'd add in my two cents.

I think WHT has been a great place for me to learn more and I hope to continue to learn more :)

Take Care

Salsabil