Digitalfaq.com and hosting-reviews-exposed.com both lack data to back up claims for what hosts are good hosts. Yet only one site recommends hosts and gets paid, the other site is more so about ethics and business practices and not rather a host is a good service provider (rarely if a host is a bad service provider). One site puts the affiliate disclaimer at the very end of their sales spill, while the other site places it before reasons for buying. One hints that there might be a payment; the other clearly states if a visitor clicks on a link and buys the owner of said site gets paid. Not to mention one has a donation page, the other does not.
Digitalfaq.com’s latest response to my response shows how much the owner may read or worse choose to fabricate. Digitalfaq.com’s owner claims to answer things I was unsure on. Truth is I am not unsure on anything, sure I have questions. But my questions only play into my speculations. Digitalfaq.com’s owner is not ready to answer the questions I have anyway, just the questions the imaginary Benjamin in the owner’s mind has. As to why Digitalfaq.com had affiliate links to companies throughout their post trashing hosting-reviews-exposed.com. It should have been very clear to the owner since I drew attention to those links under “Point 4: What Digitalfaq.com left out”. Something I will get to with the finale point of this post.
For the most part most of this post is based off of http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/myths/5061-hosting-reviews-exposedcom.html
And
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/web-hosting/4432-top-hosts-2013-a.html
My prior post:
Previous posts links about digitalfaq.com can be found in that post.
Like Digitalfaq.com, I get frequently asked who to choose for hosting. I could have taken the path of putting up a list where 89% of the hosts I recommend have affiliate programs. As I may have used more hosts in the last three years than Digitalfaq.com has in a life time. But I failed to keep the very records I think all hosting reviews should have. Not to mention if I ever did do hosting recommendations I would have to live to a standard higher than what I think review sites should go by. So for now the best I can do is provided advice for what to look for when looking for a host.
10 questions for Digitalfaq.com
Since Digitalfaq.com is interested in haphazardly answering what I ask, here are 10 questions for the owner of digitalfaq.com. I am going to keep them short and provide my mentality behind them.
1. Does Digitalfaq.com have any proof they use the hosts they recommend other than Eurovps.com?
The very thing that could have given Digitalfaq.com the rights to declare “The Digital FAQ = Vindicated” (insert some smiley face like the kiddies do) was data. Providing proof of use would have given me little ground to even bother writing a post. Yet what was provided was selectively edited extractions from my posts, insults, false claims of my experience, and at what can be best described as an ego trip.
When it came to discussing who pays Digitalfaq.com the claim was “Some have affiliate programs, some don’t”. Out of 27 hosts, 3 might not have an affiliate program. So at best 3 of 27 (11% may not, 89% do pay a commision). Digitalfaq.com has a problem with disclosure. Yet he is begging me to go through and figure out the averages of payments “Most shared hosting pays about $20, and the few that we get each month go to pay for this site.” with this little pity party. Especially when it was a $10-$15 average a few weeks ago prior to my write up affiliate payments.
Also in regards to “And unlike the author of the blog, I know the owners of these companies — I’m not guessing.”
No Digitalfaq.com’s owner is really assuming here.
2. What was it that Digitalvfaq.com did from 1977 – 1993?
I realize I am asking a question that was already answered. But I have my reasons.
“The business has been around since 1977, when the blogger/author was crapping his Huggies.” Despite the assumption of what my age is, there was no internet back then. But still they give better detail on their about page where I got that quote.
“What began in Dallas, Texas in 1977 as a part-time typesetting/layout operation, has slowly morphed as technology developed. By the late 1980s, computers entered our daily operations, and desktop publishing, graphics and advanced layout services were added. ”.
Texas a red state, what a lovely state to hold this view:
“It reminds me of those political kook blogs you can find online – mostly Republicans/conservatives these days, but it infects every political spectrum. Or conspiracy sites (9/11, JFK, the moon landing, etc). ”
The late 80’s is the best number they can give you for when they were using a computer. Even though I got a head start with Timex, Texas Instruments, Apple, and Commodore computers from the early to late 80’s. Yet like some hosting companies out there I have encountered they use the start date of a company that had nothing to do with webhosting, and in this case a company that did not start out using computers. The true web experience for Digitalfaq.com does not start until 1993. But they did not have a website till 2002, which brings us to question 3.
3. Why did Digitalfaq.com wait till 2002 to get a website, and what was the original domain.
Since Digitalfaq.com wants to provide trivia, I had my first site in 1998 with Virtualis.
4. Why did Digitalfaq.com abandon that website in 2004?
Even though I did not keep my first site up, I do keep a redirect up having the domain redirect. The value in this is I have gotten back design clients I had a decade ago. Did digitalfaq.com just abandon their original domain?
5. Does Digitalfaq.com count all the hosts with EIG as 1 or more hosts?
According to Digitalfaq.com a host with a fairly new domain name gets to count the company they are part of for a start date, not the date when the site actually started. Does Digitalfaq.com count that as one host or by the amount of hosting sites own by a particular group? I ask because many of the providers I have used were bought out, so if I ever do get around to counting how many hosts I have been with I will know that EV1, Fastservers, and Softlayer count as 3 or 1.
6. Where did Digitalfaq.com suddenly get unlimited hosting experience from?
Considering last month Digitfaq.com was against unlimited hosting, how did digitalfaq.com get enough experience over a few weeks to judge an unlimited host as good?
Time machine? (Sorry had a sarcasm leak)
7. What hosting companies actually employee kids?
Digitalfaq.com made the following claim “A bad host, or “kiddie host”, is often run by minors (children, teenagers) from their bedroom, or even colleges kids from their dorm room.” If this is true Digitalfaq.com could name the companies that do this. Otherwise, Digitalfaq.com needs to reconsider labeling anybody a conspiracy nut.
Considering that many countries have child labor laws it would be a great way to put “kiddie” hosts out of business if the owner would share this information.
8. Is there anyone else that Digitalfaq.com is biased against?
So far it appears that anyone younger than the owner of Digitalfaq.com, female, and with the Republican Party. Never mind that some of the owners of the companies he thinks are good are younger than me. But here is a little sample of his bigotry.
- “The site is essentially random online rants by one person. It reminds me of those political kook blogs you can find online — mostly Republicans/conservatives these days, but it infects every political spectrum. Or conspiracy sites (9/11, JFK, the moon landing, etc).”
- “Females is not the demographic for hosting.” Him caveman, Him bang chest.
- “The biggest problems with teenagers, or even college aged adults, is they move on. That’s why so many hosts fail, sell out, or disappear in under 2 years. We don’t have the time or patience for that.
That last line gets interesting when you pair it with this thought.
“digitalFAQ.com is the current online presence for a family-owned media business that started in 1977.”
Things that make you say hmmmm.
Digitalfaq.com has already alienated a large part of the population, why stop there?
9. So Digitalfaq.com, what exactly is the conspiracy that Hosting-reviews-exposed.com has?
Generally, when you make a claim you at least back it up.
10. Why is it ok for Digitalfaq.com to profit off of hosts their site blacklist?
The last question is less so a question than a chance for some level of redemption. At the end April if I see affiliate links to companies that Digitalfaq.com openly blacklists, I will contact said companies and see how they feel about Digitalfaq.com’s membership in their affiliate programs.
As a man that I am sure is much older than the owner of Digitalfaq.com (and defiantly far wiser) once taught me as a kid, two wrongs don’t make a right. Of course, the owner of Digitalfaq.com can insult my grandfather. But my grandfather had some wisdom behind that as well which I have been employing.
I may very well agree with the owner of Digitalfaq.com on reasons for blacklisting all of these hosts like Endurance International Group. But the spirit of an affiliate program is to pay those that advertise or recommend their business. Not to reward people for failing to convince someone not to sign up for service. Being a business owner I would be looking to retrieve any payments made to any individual that did that to my company. I defiantly would not continue to allow a review site like Digitalfaq.com to continue to profit off my program. Especially when they say:
“First, it allows us to track (or attempt to track) those who ignore our advice and sign up with one of those hosts anyway. It would mean that our advice is falling on deaf ears, and we’ve not said what was needed — the misleading marketing is winning out over our unbiased information that exposes companies like EIG. That’s unfortunate.
Second, if somebody is stubborn, and going to sign up with one of those hosts anyway — likely due to the lure of cheap “unlimited” — then yes, we’ll take the affiliate commission for it.”
So a choice of a post at the end of next month, or Digitalfaq.com can wait until next year for my re-review when they can set things right.
