should we trust the reviews? - or trust our instincts?

I take it the companies tend to send 50 "happy" clients to get a guaranteed rating.

The way ISP rated those companies was that they had to submit 50 clients of theirs and those people had to fill out a survey, and there you go.

Curtis

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The best Internet marketing tips and secrets known to man kind!
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Choosing a host is a mix of luck and experience. I say this because my choice of host had improved as my experience has blossomed.

Though I am in a different position to others as, when I have to choose a host now, I have several willing to take my site for free in exchange for a simple link on my site.
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center.
http://www.what-next.com

Yeah, and they probably tell them their gonna get free hosting for a year for filling out the survey. Then the customers don't want to lose that free hosting, so they tend to say good or indifferent things about the company that's gonna give them free hosting.

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Jay (the owner of Pegasus) asked me to fill in that ispcheck survey back in January before they began driving me nuts with reliability problems and so on. I had already had a taste of their network's malfunctioning so I gave neutral answers but none that were bad really. Average, my answers were in the very middle. After a month or so more I would have given pretty low marks by comparison.

Now I wonder how it is that they get nearly 5 stars on everything when I know I couldn't have been the only one having problems at that point.

We would need a member who has a hosting company to step forward. Any offers - Curtis, Chad, Deb etc...
C'mon, it would make a good feature.
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center.
http://www.what-next.com

For myself, I don't trust Host Review unless they try all the host first before posting on the web. I had been with few terrible host so I should make my own one but seems too many out there making this too.

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Carolina Web Net
www.carolinaweb.net

I wonder, is it possible to simply buy a review? Any one willing to try and find out? It would be intersting to find the results of such an investigation
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center.
http://www.what-next.com

Hi. At E-Tips we also do host reviews, where we collect customer comments, and if they are good enough we try out the host. If both of those are good experiences, then they are approved. If not, they are added to the reviewed (but not approved) list.
etips.net/approved/hosts/

Brian Farkas

Now that's an interesting idea. I'd definitely like to see what would happen there.

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John Pollock
http://www.pageresource.com

"We would need a member who has a hosting company to step forward."

Hmmm, not quite sure what you are suggesting though? If you explain more... I may be willing...

As far as the rest of this thread... be forewarned.. I feel another "Deb Booklet" coming on

I agree that reviews can certainly be tainted It's a sad fact! At the same time I KNOW for a FACT that not all hosts follow these practices (I KNOW because we don't). At any rate, I'm going to add a twist to it. We know that false "good things" can be said which would make reviews seem inconsistent and confusing but isn't it also possible for "false" bad things to be said to cause the same results?

Cases in Point -- We have lost clients and had to refund them (due to our unconditional guarantee blah blah) for the following reasons:

1. Our servers cause their FTP programs to GPF (obviously this is something with the client's system not the servers)

2. Our servers will not allow cgi programs to work (yet we have thousands of scripts by hundreds of sites running them?)

3. The email on our servers never works (only to find out the user is swearing you can use CuteFTP to check email on other servers -- cuteFTP doesn't do email)

4. Our "image server" is broken (we don't have an image server? the user did not link the images on their page correctly resulting in the missing image tags)

The list really does go on and on and on .... but I think just the four above get the idea across. These same types of complaints can roll over into reviews and posts etc from the site owners saying things like "Their email server never worked!" or "They are ok as long as you don't plan on running any cgi scripts!" etc... Even though the host has tried to go the extra mile and explain how these types of things work etc etc.

Now luckily, we haven't had to deal with those types of reviews (yet!) but I have watched many other hosts go through it, and I can easily assume they receive many of the same types of 'strange complaints'. I have also watched other hosts (poorly and unprofessionally) start to YELL BACK on forums calling everyone idiots etc... Now I totally disagree with that type of attitude..but I do see where the frustrations and weariness can develop into such things. I also know of site owners that fail to pay their bills.. but do not fail to say "That host shut me off for no reason!"

As has been mentioned already -- there are quite a few different things to consider when selecting a host. Look at ALL of them and weigh the odds then roll the dice and hope for the best. Every host has problems (we have more than our share:/) but you have to consider your needs and do your best to find the host that will work for those needs rather than the needs of the masses. Sally may need CGI to an extreme.. but BillyBob doesn't need any CGI. Obviously the two would probably find totally different hosts they could be happy with yet neither of them would be happy with the host the other one chose.

Deb

Debs,
Thanks for another very valid point.

<Hmmm, not quite sure what you are suggesting though? If you explain more... I may be willing...>I'm just curious if you, or another host, could enquire with one of the Hosting Directories as to the possibility of 'buying a review' that you would essentially write yourself. It would make a fascinating topic.
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center.
http://www.what-next.com

There is one thing, though... If Deb does e-mail some web host reviewers inquiring about buying a review, and they refuse... you have to consider the consequences. What if that reviewer instead writes a review that you tried to bribe him/her? And even worse, if he spreads word of it around webhostdir, hostinvestigator, hostsearch, etc. It does have the possibility of catching a dishonest reviewer, but also has the possibility of dealing with an honest one and the plan backfiring.

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InfoStar: Web Design - Hosting - Programming
http://www.infostardesign.com

I agree... as well as the fact that I'm sure more people read these forums then post in them. Meaning odds are people would know 'what we are up to' as soon as it was tried.

I'm sure everything has it's price... but even if all the directories are honest in all of their ways things like this are easy enough to fake.. so why should/would a host pay to post a review if they could simply sign on under anon pretense and handle it themselves...

Just have to take everything for what it's worth really and always remember to do some research over and above what the "hype" gives you..

Deb

Yep, you're both right - I didn't put much thought into the negative consequences that could arise if the hosting directory reffused the offer.
Sorry.

I'm also having problems with 'Internal Server Errors' on this post and will thus close it.
JP
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http://www.what-next.com