Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

plus.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 274 posts

Re: Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

#71

Post by resplin »

pmb wrote: post #20
pmb wrote: post #17

I paid the extra $$ for lifetime (and did it back when I was a grad student and had basically zero money) because I didn't want to have to think about hosting any more. Now I have to think about hosting again. Ugh. Broken promises leave a bad taste in my mouth.

On a related note: where is good for hosting two small websites? I'd like to be able to log in with SSH and get an actual Unix shell (and not have to pay too much, as the websites are neither large nor popular).

I really like working with Bluehost (http://www.bluehost.com/). They are amazingly cheap shared hosting plans targeted at non-administrators, but if you are willing to provide a copy of your government ID (as insurance against naughtiness) they will provide shell access. Their admins are very accommodating about letting me run my own stuff as long as it won't impact other users of the server.

Re: Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

#73

Post by smackfu »

I wonder why they are this dumb. It's like buying bad press. Did they really think this wouldn't get out and make them a mockery? Would it really cost that much to continue providing something to these people forever, so they wouldn't have to say the lifetime is over? Dumb dumb dumb.

Re: Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

#75

Post by smackfu »

mikeash wrote: post #53
howeyc wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should, but probably wont. If you sell a service, but decide not to provide it you should refund the money. Judging from the comments most of HN assumes if you "attempt" to provide the service you can keep the money. Yes, I get it's a losing proposition for Joyent to live up to their obligations. So what? You either live up to them, or refund the money, it's really that simple.

Yeah, the comments seem to be filled with people saying that it's not practical to provide "lifetime", and people buying it should have known they didn't mean it anyway. I look at this the same way I look at "unlimited" internet service. Unlike a lot of the tech crowd, I have no problem whatsoever with metered bandwidth. My only quibble is that if you advertise "unlimited" you had better actually provide unlimited. I…

Personally, I think it's much more likely any random internet companie's life is a lot shorter than my own.

Re: Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

#76

Post by freehunter »

pmb wrote: post #20
pmb wrote: post #17

I paid the extra $$ for lifetime (and did it back when I was a grad student and had basically zero money) because I didn't want to have to think about hosting any more. Now I have to think about hosting again. Ugh. Broken promises leave a bad taste in my mouth.

On a related note: where is good for hosting two small websites? I'd like to be able to log in with SSH and get an actual Unix shell (and not have to pay too much, as the websites are neither large nor popular).

I host three sites on Linode, lowest plan at $20/mo. They're excellent, as just about everyone can tell you. It's a full install of a Linux distro of your choosing, any software you want. It's as good as having a Linux machine sitting in your office.

However, $20/mo might not be the lowest price you can find for two low-traffic sites.

edit - I should point out, I host three low traffic sites on one low-end Linode instance, so that' $20/mo flat for three sites. I also use it for compiling code (I can compile code anywhere from my phone!) and testing out new features for various bits of software, so it has more use than just hosting.

Re: Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

#77

Post by mcdavis »

Yver wrote: post #70
howradical wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am Matt from Slicehost. And yes, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Unless we're talking about American Airlines' Lifetime Pass.

Except that those are being cancelled as well - http://articles.latimes.com/print/2012/may/05/business/la-fi...

Re: Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

#78

Post by patrickgzill »

Seems a little odd, surely with the cheaper RAM, far more powerful CPUs and inexpensive disks these days, they could spend a few $$$ and burn a couple of U , keeping their customers happy?

I don't know how many servers they would have needed in 2007 to provide the services they sold, but surely now they could consolidate all those users onto 1/4 the machines?

What is this negative press costing them?

Re: Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

#79

Post by PuercoPop »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #57
pmb wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a related note: where is good for hosting two small websites? I'd like to be able to log in with SSH and get an actual Unix shell (and not have to pay too much, as the websites are neither large nor popular).

I highly recommend Webfaction: http://www.webfaction.com?affiliate=hammertime Yes, I just shamelessly put in an affiliate link, but the service really is very good. It's shared hosting but you get SSH, a smart admin panel and very reasonable prices for your memory. After a few years using it, I'm also happy to report that their technical support is excellent - timely, helpful and knowledgeable.

What I disliked about webfaction is that the connection is proxied behind an nginx. But it is true that they have an excellent support. They answer almost inmediately. Also their Q&A was migrated to a stackexchange clone.

I prefer Linode, a little more expensive but you get decide even your own distro. (Yay for Archlinux)

Re: Joyent ending "lifetime" hosting accounts

#80

Post by smackfu »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #18

This actually seems fairly typical for most free or lifetime plans for things. Are there counterexamples of site/services that offered lifetime access that are still doing so 5 years later?

Tivo has Lifetime subscriptions, where the lifetime is of the hardware but they transfer if you sell the hardware. They aren't always selling them as an option, but they always honor them, and have been for 10+ years.
Post reply on HN