GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting • Hacker News Board

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#91

Post by ssafejava » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 2:16 AM UTC

lelandbatey wrote: post #4

Web hosting customers are nomads. If your host hasn’t been ruined yet, just wait. This line right here is absolutely sage wisdom. Here are some of the companies I've bought services from, as well as what I remember happening to them: ClubUptime Closed in a disastrous closure due to basically being conned. DirectSpace Still around, haven't changed much VolumeDrive Very sketchy, I don't really know how they're still in…

Anecdotes are one of the only real ways to get information on whether or not a hosting provider is any good. At least it cuts through the marketing BS. I generally track hosting company's Twitter accounts too - it's pretty telling what people will say to them. I've been using a few sites to keep on top of it as I bring up some new services:

[1] http://reviewsignal.com (reviews scraped from social media / public support requests) [2] http://serverbear.com/ (VPS/Cloud host benchmarks & stats)

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#92

Post by kngspook » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 2:34 AM UTC

bobfunk wrote: post #39

larrys wrote: post #29

"But it’s also highly commoditized: hosts can’t differentiate their products very much, there’s effectively no barrier to entry, switching at any time is fairly cheap and easy, and most customers buy primarily on price." I don't agree at all that for many website hosting customers the process is "easy". A typical web hosting customer is not tech saavy they either have it being handled by their "tech guy" or they can'…

Couldn't agree more. The way you host and manage a static website hasn't really changed for more than a decade, and most hosting UI's feel like something out of the 90ies. We're working on solving this for static sites with BitBalloon ( https://www.bitballoon.com ). Both by giving people an instant way to get their site online, but also by making it dead easy to do typical tasks like adding Analytics or getting forms…

JFYI: it seems like the images on your homepage aren't loading properly. (OSX, Firefox 24.0)

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#93

Post by patrickg_zill » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 2:36 AM UTC

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #70

bobfunk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! So far updates are done by just dragging the whole folder unto the site dashboard again. We'll figure out what files have changes and just upload those. There's also a version history so people can always roll back changes or see how the site looked like before.

Don't take this the wrong way but $5/month for a single static site is crazy expensive. I understand wanting to have a sustainable business but for $5 you should give customers 20-30 sites IMO.

You are pricing in terms of cost. The provider is pricing in terms of value to the customer.

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#94

Post by snowwrestler » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 2:40 AM UTC

Trufa wrote: post #59

I would like to know what other people experiences are with regard to Hostgator. Honestly, I chose because I didn't know many other options at the time but I've never had any sort of trouble and their chat assistance is pretty awesome. I would like to know if I'm actually just lucky or if other people have had this experience too.

Definitely the best shared hosting I'm aware of. I've had personal sites on HostGator for years and always been happy.

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#95

Post by voltagex_ » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 2:44 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #46

lelandbatey wrote: post #4

Web hosting customers are nomads. If your host hasn’t been ruined yet, just wait. This line right here is absolutely sage wisdom. Here are some of the companies I've bought services from, as well as what I remember happening to them: ClubUptime Closed in a disastrous closure due to basically being conned. DirectSpace Still around, haven't changed much VolumeDrive Very sketchy, I don't really know how they're still in…

True! Started with one place I can't remember - started with S. It was cheap and allowed multiple small sites to run off one account. Eventually turned to crap and so we bailed. WebCentral - gave up on their silly control panel. Used a place in NSW or Vic that started off OK, then was acquired (BlueCentral, I think?) and turned into a bit of a rude disaster. Abandoned that. Had a site break on Friday of a long weeken…

Hosting in Australia seems crazily expensive to me. One of the many reasons we need the NBN.

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#96

Post by leephillips » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 2:48 AM UTC

moocowduckquack wrote: post #38

coderdude wrote: post #13

I've been a Media Temple customer since 2007 and a GoDaddy customer since 2004 [edit: I say 2004 but I don't think that's possible. I must have switched to them sometime after 2006 but I can't recall who my previous registrar was.]. I like both companies just fine though apparently not everyone has been as lucky. I don't know if GD is going to be a good home for mt since GD specializes in cheaper hosting. But... GoDa…

The owner, Bob Parsons, pays to go and shoot elephants. - http://www.brettmorrison.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/6057... - look at him with his big happy face, he could choose to spend his time and money in so many ways and he chooses to go and shoot elephants. Godaddy could shit rainbows all day long and I still wouldn't want to give them any money.

This is depraved. Elephants are one of only several species on Earth that pass the mark test[0], which is thought to indicate that they are self aware and conscious, sharing with us a quality of mind that used to be thought unique to humans.

[0]http://www.pnas.org/content/103/45/17053.abstract

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#97

Post by pm » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 2:50 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #46

lelandbatey wrote: post #4

Web hosting customers are nomads. If your host hasn’t been ruined yet, just wait. This line right here is absolutely sage wisdom. Here are some of the companies I've bought services from, as well as what I remember happening to them: ClubUptime Closed in a disastrous closure due to basically being conned. DirectSpace Still around, haven't changed much VolumeDrive Very sketchy, I don't really know how they're still in…

True! Started with one place I can't remember - started with S. It was cheap and allowed multiple small sites to run off one account. Eventually turned to crap and so we bailed. WebCentral - gave up on their silly control panel. Used a place in NSW or Vic that started off OK, then was acquired (BlueCentral, I think?) and turned into a bit of a rude disaster. Abandoned that. Had a site break on Friday of a long weeken…

Melbourne IT are also a waste of time. I don't know how they're still in business.

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#98

Post by SubMachinePun » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 3:06 AM UTC

I work next to Media Temple in Culver City, and FWIW, those MT employees in their new GoDaddy hoodies partying with their taco truck seemed pretty happy this afternoon with their new SOPA-backing overlords. I'm not sure if the reaction is supposed to imply something positive that I'm just overlooking.

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#99

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 3:15 AM UTC

coderdude wrote: post #13

I've been a Media Temple customer since 2007 and a GoDaddy customer since 2004 [edit: I say 2004 but I don't think that's possible. I must have switched to them sometime after 2006 but I can't recall who my previous registrar was.]. I like both companies just fine though apparently not everyone has been as lucky. I don't know if GD is going to be a good home for mt since GD specializes in cheaper hosting. But... GoDa…

GoDaddy lost me as a customer due to their slimy control panel. You practically need a special AdBlock configuration.

Re: GoDaddy, Media Temple, and the Horrible World of Web Hosting

#100

Post by arikrak » Wed, Oct 16, 2013, 3:19 AM UTC

What's interesting about standard shared web hosting (mainly used by small PHP-based sites) is how most of them are secretly owned by one company: EIG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group

Many people spend time comparing the different services, but in truth they're all the same!

Also, you get much better specs with the free tier of OpenShift, but I guess that will change once enough people switch to it (just like AppFog changed their free tier).