Please read the 4th post in this thread before you decide to comment on this post>>




Seriously DOT5 Enough is Enough.

We are happy you have good customers and very happy customers at that ( So it seems )

BUT... And i Say but it gets a bit obvious after a while if everyone keeps coming back into WHT and saying what an excellent experience they are having with Dot5 - What are you paying them offering them to do so?

We have happy customers to and many other hosts around here do to, do you see every day or every second day people jump into the forum and say HAY THESE GUYS ARE THE GODS OF HOSTING.

WHATEVER YOUR OFFERING ITS NOT RIGHT BECAUSE ITS SPAM. :spam:

Yes im a competitor ( Actually im in a different league but anyway )
But who cares im here to say what i feel and i believe... Stop telling people to come to WHT to give you a good wrap or you will have many p*ssed of forum memebers.

Its lame and it shows that you dont have good business practicies yeah you will get a couple of newbies here and there but your not getting respect from anyone here.

Im not interested in dicussing this further either so dont bother.



Kind regards
Phillip

BS all my posts are gone about dot5 SPAMMING

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHWE FORGOT THAT THEY PAY TOP DOLLAR FOR ADVERTISING>>>>>

At mods or whoever at least edit the post dont delete it what government are we running here anyway?

If you need to talk you know where to contact me :)

Political Injustice,

Phillip

Originally posted by Choppy

Political Injustice,


Since when is WebHostingTalk a democracy? I'm sure whatever action was taken by the mods was in the best interest of everyone involved... the mods aren't payed so I highly, highly doubt any post deletions have anything to do with the fact that dot5 is a paying advertiser

This is actually supposed to be the first post in this thread, however the forum software orders posts by when they were posted (which makes it impossible to have this post first).


I've discussed the issue about Dot5 'spamming' with a couple of members however I feel the issue just needs to be posted as I don't really have time to address everyone one-by-one.

The post below was removed from the forum, removed from a thread where a member posted a review of his initial experiences with Dot5. There is nothing wrong with this member's post. He is free to post his initial experiences with his provider. Again, the post above was removed, as it did not address one thing about the thread. It was OT commentary which will be addressed below.

Originally posted by Choppy
Seriously DOT5 Enough is Enough.

We are happy you have good customers and very happy customers at that ( So it seems )

BUT... And i Say but it gets a bit obvious after a while if everyone keeps coming back into WHT and saying what an excellent experience they are having with Dot5 - What are you paying them offering them to do so?
It is not proper for a competitor to accuse another host of 'paying' off clients to post reviews. If you have any evidence of this, then please forward it to the moderators. I assume you don't, hence the post was removed.
We have happy customers to and many other hosts around here do to, do you see every day or every second day people jump into the forum and say HAY THESE GUYS ARE THE GODS OF HOSTING.

WHATEVER YOUR OFFERING ITS NOT RIGHT BECAUSE ITS SPAM. :spam:
If a customer of yours did post, would you expect other providers to accuse you of spamming? My guess is no, hence the post was removed.
Yes im a competitor ( Actually im in a different league but anyway )
But who cares im here to say what i feel and i believe... Stop telling people to come to WHT to give you a good wrap or you will have many p*ssed of forum memebers.
You'd expect your competitors not to post messages such as this. My guess is that you'd care. Again, please provide evidence that Dot5 told clients to come to WHT and give them positive reviews.
Its lame and it shows that you dont have good business practicies yeah you will get a couple of newbies here and there but your not getting respect from anyone here.
Again, not exactly something you'd expect a competitor to post, hence the post was removed.
Im not interested in dicussing this further either so dont bother.
Well I'm sorry but you can't expect to just flame and run away. If you're not interested in discussing this, then most likely you shouldn't have posted it in the first place.

BS all my posts are gone about dot5 SPAMMING

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHWE FORGOT THAT THEY PAY TOP DOLLAR FOR ADVERTISING>>>>>

At mods or whoever at least edit the post dont delete it what government are we running here anyway? [/B]
Most of your post was unsubstantiated flaming, hence it was not edited. Any post that did not directly address the thread starter's post was removed. Some people suggested that the thread starter wait longer before posting anything, or post again in x-months. This is fine. This is discussion.

The fact that Dot5 has an ad banner has nothing to do with this. There are a certain number of members here who jump on anyone who posts a review and assume they are spamming. Well, many times this is true, however many times this isn't true. Any questions about the validity of a post should be discussed privately with the moderators via email.

I look into all reports regardless if they concern an advertiser or not. The point isn't to stifle questionable activity, the point is to be fair about it. We can look into posts, but the validity of posts should not be discussed on the forum, in the thread itself. Asking for a URL or time with the host is fine, but to post that the member is spamming and that the host is spamming, lame, paying off clients to post, is just out of line for any member, let alone a competitor.

I am trying to see this from all sides, and it seems people saw this post by Chris:

I presume you are talking about this post?

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?postid=440820#post440820

Originally posted by puggy106
Hello,
If a customer comes and speaks with us on chat, and say they found us on the web hosting talk forum, we say please feel free to post your comments about our service, good or bad.

If someone comes from google, we do not say, please go to this address and post about us!

I'm not quite sure this equates to, "paying them offering them to do so..." and, "telling people to come to WHT to give you a good wrap." Certainly not to the extent of the bashing that has taken place by competitors. I will contact Dot5 and ask them to please refrain from mentioning the forum to clients and ask them to let clients do what they will do without the suggestions (as many of them most likely have). It is not implausible to fathom that a current client could just come to the forum and post their experiences. I don't think you could say that posting one's experiences with their provider is a bad thing. Obviously we don't want clients to be led or told to post somethign predetermined, however we need proof that something like this is happening ebfore we can allow posts liek the one above to remain on the forum.

Again, the purpose is not to silence those who feel the posts are unjustified. The purpose is merely to get to the bottom of this one way or another, but to do that in a manner that is fair to the person posting the review, the host, as well as the rest of members of the forum.

Please report all suspicious posts (Dot5 and otherwise) and refrain from doubting their validity directly in the thread.

I'll open this up for discussion, however I'm not looking to discuss Dot5's 'actions' in this thread either. If this starts to go the way of the other posts, it gets locked.

Perhaps the forum needs a new rule. A customer has to actually use the service for at least 1 month before posting a review of their host or something like that.

I've read too many posts stating how their host was the absolute best and 2 months later, everything went wrong.

WOW - My post is back. :)

Thanks Chicken you did the right thing...

Sometimes i type before i think and this was just one of those cases.

Evidence ? Since when did WHT have a Judge? Witnesses plenty but i will keep all this to myself and let this issue blow over.

Anyway only god knows! Maybe not even him sometimes...

Delete the post Chicken as i said above you did the right thing it was out of my place to post what i posted in them threads...

Now i hope dot5 has read all these posts.

Kind regards
Phillip

I think Chicken's claim for evidence is a good thing. You make yourself look bad if you claim a competitor is telling users to post good reviews, and it turns out that they are not.

On the otherhand, if you see "Dot5" in the title, then why bother reading that post? Save yourself the hassle and move onto a different topic.

Matt

Originally posted by voxtreme-matt
I think Chicken's claim for evidence is a good thing. You make yourself look bad if you claim a competitor is telling users to post good reviews, and it turns out that they are not.

On the otherhand, if you see "Dot5" in the title, then why bother reading that post? Save yourself the hassle and move onto a different topic.

Matt

I agree Matt move on if it is a review of another company and you know what it is going to say anyway. I do not even bother to read those threads any longer.

Now I do think there ought to be a rule if you are going to start a thread reviewing a host that you should at least post or have in your profile a web site hosted with that company.

Just my $0.02

Originally posted by Monte

Now I do think there ought to be a rule if you are going to start a thread reviewing a host that you should at least post or have in your profile a web site hosted with that company.

Just my $0.02

I'll up that another $0.02 and say , good idea ;)

Originally posted by Chicken

It is not proper for a competitor to accuse another host of 'paying' off clients to post reviews. If you have any evidence of this, then please forward it to the moderators. I assume you don't, hence the post was removed.


This is what one of the Dot5 tech said here
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71612


I realize that Chris has mentioned to some new customers that have found us by way of WHT, that they should reply to the people who suggested us to tell them if we work out well for them.


Realize that he used the term should, not can, not may, should.

Can that be called spam as well?

Jorge :agree:

That is just Tony's interpretation of what he believed Chris said. It may or may not be what, if anything, was said.



:pimp: Next witness, please.

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
:pimp: Next witness, please.
I OBJECT!!! :D

:homer: Over ruled.

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
:homer: Over ruled.
Ok, time to "Plan B" the witness.....:D :stickout

Originally posted by net-trend
Perhaps the forum needs a new rule. A customer has to actually use the service for at least 1 month before posting a review of their host or something like that.

I've read too many posts stating how their host was the absolute best and 2 months later, everything went wrong.

theres no real way to regulate that as far as i know

Originally posted by peteny


theres no real way to regulate that as far as i know

That's right. But it will help stop those who just signed up yesterday or 30 mins ago from posting a review in the forums saying the host they just signed up with is "Da BomB".

A current example is on the forum right now.

Well, I have been reading through these threads today and yesterday ... I came on this morning and there is yet another thread speaking about their experiences with our company.

I am not sure on exactly on what I can do apart from in every welcome e-mail say "Please do NOT write any reviews about our service"

I am by no means denying that if a customer speaks to me and is happy and then asks to post a review I say yes. Although the post that has been made this morning I was not aware that he/she was posting.

I think personally by asking a customer to write a review is living very dangerously, if they do in fact post for us and then sometime down the line they are not happy with our service, you can be sure they are going to do the exact opposite.

We also advertise on WHT, so a large number of customers do come from this forum.

Take care,

Okay. Evidence.

I was a Dot5 customer for a weekend. I didn't get responses from tech support.

I came onto WHT and saw that the Dot5 were p**ssing around online and made the connection that a lot of these postings were less than sincere.

I asked for my money back (and promptly got it: a major plus point for Dot5). I cited one reason as being that I felt snookered by these posts and comparisons, claiming to be from smart shoppers comparing other hosting services, and of course dot5.

I believe that the widespread use of ellipses offers a sort of cautious hesitancy, inviting people to offer the (approrpriate) advice. Of course, the ellipses could be pauses for breathe, a physical necessity when talking out of one's own arse.

Mind you, after this experience I foolishly signed up with Totallyhosted.net which was considerably worse. As you can see from my posts on Samuel Barr/Ben Hawker, I was ripped off by him. Although you will also will ascertain from these posts that I'm a bit like the Terminator: When somebody cheats me or my company I will tirelessly hunt them down and see to it that they are prosecuted. That gent has been turned over to the Scottish trading standards board and I'm investigating whether the sums involved in his fraud against others is worth it to the police to charge him with fraud.

This sort of resolve is one reason, perhaps, why nobody took me up on my invitation to try to sell me their hosting packages.

So far, for me anyway, WHT has two strikes against it. You will forgive me for thinking that most of the proponents of hosting companies on this forum are cowboys who have cozy relationships based on mutual admiration and sympathy for each other.

CE

Chris Congrats on the good job you are doing and signing up your customers.

I understand that you cant help people coming to WHT and promoting your services etc.

In my mind it just seemed odd and after speaking to a few people that everyday nearly there would be a new thread about dot5 popping up and saying these people are great. Im sure you are great people im not speaking about that.

How long have you been open Chris? is it a couple of months yet? We have been around for approx three years now and we have gathered many customers from WHT as many hosts have. But from our experience happy customers say the least.

I personaly wish you the best of luck with all this and i hope that you dont ever experience any downtime because your customers posting good reviews will be posting the " DOT5Hosting DOWN!!! " This is just from experience. I have seen it happen so many times on this board its becoming like a second religion.

Anyway good to see that you have money to spend on advertising here on WHT and other places... once again the TEAM here would like to wish you the best for the future.

Hope you stick around for the long run...

Kind regards

Phillip

Choppy Must have been reading my mind!
I do not sell web hosting yet...............
One of the few things I do not sell.
Guess I am the only person in the world who was not happy with Dot5 hosting.
I felt it was not right to bad mouth them just because the shoe didn,t fit. I will still not run here to bad mouth them.
But, I will say I did not find the rosey picture I see written here every day.
I did find the people at Dot5 very nice, is my reason for not bad mouthing them.
But, I do find it hard to believe that any host has a 100% life is so wonderful record.
I find it very strange that many of the posts are from people with a very low post record. ( That may be the ex-cop part of me coming out)
Anyway I am sure life will go on, no matter what my feelings are........

I'm going to lock this temporarily until I get back to address one of the posts, and to remove the first couple of posts, and the majority of my post which comments on the first few posts. Just to generalize things.

It will be reopened later today...