Reviews of hosts, providers, etc. your input needed

[Chicken]

One of the changes I'd like to make soon is a more organized review section. It is possible that the two forums might be replaced with something that's a bit more organized.

Experiences & Recommendations (http://www.hosthideout.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=42)
Do you have an experience with a provider that you'd like to share (good or bad)? Just need some advice or a recommendation from the members? Note: Ask for offers here.

Datacenters and Providers of Hosting Services (for hosts) (http://www.hosthideout.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=40)
Want to lease a server or colo your server? Have a Windows client but only provide Linux services? Here you can discuss datacenters and providers of hosting services, etc.

Now, this pertains to just reviews (and comments on reviews). It has nothing to do with people asking for recommedations about various things (although they are basically asking for reviews, heh).

So as for reviews, any major topics aside from these:

Shared Providers
Reseller "
VPS / Dedicated "
Other

Other could eb a variety of things, such as payment processors, hardware, billing software, just about anything ('other' is pretty vague), but if there's a category you think is big enough and easy enough to review, and would be popular to post and read, then I'll consider adding it.

[Chicken]

Everyone is *so* excited about the idea they forgot to post, eh? ;)

[brnoe]

I couldnt have been excited cause I haven't checked here for a day or so ;)

But I do like the idea Chicken. Ive seen this done at other places for other purposes but think it could server a good purpose and IMO work out better than a forum would as it would be able to be more organized where you could have catagories for seperate things rather than having to search through a ton of posts for a certain product/host/etc. :banghead:

So overall I would like to see this done and I am sure others would too :)

[brnoe]

Another thing (too lazy to click the edit button..)
It would be nice to have it setup where you could add a host, for example "host x" and instead of having 100 different enteries for host x you could have one main entery for it where users could leave comments. The entry could have a desctription aswell as services offered (that could possibly link to a page where you could find hosts or such by what they offer, etc) and the like.

[markblair]

I like the idea of having a forum set aside for reviews of hosts where someone could honestly review a host and not get slammed for what they say. Of course, there will still be those that just post "Host123 is @#&% don't use them" threads but I think it may help to have a specific format to those reviews. I know this was mentioned before. Maybe the title of the thread could be "Host Name - Comment / Suggestion / Other"

For example, if I were to like ChickenHost.com and I wanted to review them, the title of the thread should read "ChickenHost.com - Positive Review". I'm not sure if this would be the best suggestion but it would get rid of all those threads titled "Host123 sucks servers down again!"

[Robert]

I think you should make a "review form" that will ask certain questions and have the fields for people to type the answer in. Than when they press submit, it adds it to a "New Post Box" for them to submit it. This way, all posts are in uniform rather than having to have people check the "How to properly write a review". But that's my idea.

[Barbara]

Originally posted by Robert:

I think you should make a "review form" that will ask certain questions and have the fields for people to type the answer in. Than when they press submit, it adds it to a "New Post Box" for them to submit it. This way, all posts are in uniform rather than having to have people check the "How to properly write a review". But that's my idea.

I definitely think that this would make things simpler for the reviewer, but how hard would it be to implement?

[brnoe]

I was thinking more along the lines of a seperate page for this rather than a forum, as I have seen forums that have done this and they never did as well as what I described above (been in the message board support business over 3 years) though if it had to be done forum like it would be nice either way. :)

[Chicken]

Robert, that's exactly how it will work. Users will not be able to submit unformatted reviews. Formatting will be derived from Matt's thread (MMiz) (http://www.hosthideout.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=495) but altered to include other things, and varied depending on what's being reviewed. Some things that apply to shared hosting provider reviews wouldn't pertain to dedicated provider reviews.

[Martie]

Sounds good Chicken :D
Would it be possible to seperate the two though? 2 forums.
PRAISE for reviews.
COMPLAIN for complaints
:banana:

[jvn]

Keeping entries in a standard format would also allow for a rating system. After x amount of reviews, based on the averages for each question, the host would have an approval rating. This would provide feedback for hosts wanting to improve their service as well as a source for those looking for new hosts.

[MMiz]

Hi,

Quick question. Why time period do you want for your reviews? I usually do a 3 month, 6 month, then a year. Would you like them sooner, or does that work?

Also, for the 6 month review, should I start a new thread, or edit my previous one? Thanks.

-Matt

[Chicken]

Originally posted by Martie:

Sounds good Chicken :D
Would it be possible to seperate the two though? 2 forums.
PRAISE for reviews.
COMPLAIN for complaints
:banana:
Hmmmm... well how would you propose that? I understand what you mean and the thinking behind it, but to me the most important thing is separating the major areas (such as shared verses dedicated reviews and including at least an 'other' section for everything else). I'm not sure how to go about further breaking those categories up and having a Praise/Complain for each?

Maybe a keyword would be enough to let you search for only good reviews or bad reviews.

[Chicken]

Originally posted by jvn:

Keeping entries in a standard format would also allow for a rating system. After x amount of reviews, based on the averages for each question, the host would have an approval rating. This would provide feedback for hosts wanting to improve their service as well as a source for those looking for new hosts.
That was a bit more than I had planned, heh...
Originally posted by MMiz:

Hi,

Quick question. Why time period do you want for your reviews? I usually do a 3 month, 6 month, then a year. Would you like them sooner, or does that work?

Also, for the 6 month review, should I start a new thread, or edit my previous one? Thanks.

-Matt
The time seems reasonable, though I don't know about requiring a minimum amount of time exactly. There will be space to enter when you started using the provider and when you ended (or -present), so that people who read it will have an idea of how long ago you used the host, and for how long.

I would think that you'd add any further information to the existing thread (any updates, etc.), though anything added won't have a format.

I just wanted to mention that this isn't going to be perfect. It isn't going to be a whole script that was written from the ground up to handle reviews. I've looked at some, but in the end, I'd like to simply provide a better way of letting users post reviews, than just a large text box (standard forum way).

Other members will be able to reply to the review, ask questions, and post comments. Providers (the ones reviewed) will be able to do the same, and maybe some problems can be solved and they will learn from it and in the end become a better provider. I'm not looking to provide a 'bashing enviroment' rather a section where providers can be reviewed in a constructive manner.

[Steve]

I have a really great idea for Advertising Forum Organization, if you want I will telll you :)

[Martie]

Originally posted by Chicken:

Hmmmm... well how would you propose that? I understand what you mean and the thinking behind it, but to me the most important thing is separating the major areas (such as shared verses dedicated reviews and including at least an 'other' section for everything else). I'm not sure how to go about further breaking those categories up and having a Praise/Complain for each?

Maybe a keyword would be enough to let you search for only good reviews or bad reviews.

Hummm, yes I would agree keeping dedicated/shared seperate.
Im not sure how to totally categorize it, but we all know how confusing WHT has been for some time. I hate it when threads/posts there get all mangled together. I think it would be really cool to format both forums --> Praise/Complain (or whatever wording you used) and I think it would work as sub-forums if you chose that. "Shared" category, could be general discussion, Q&A whatever, but the other sections would be strictly for "reviewing your host" :banana:

[Chicken]

Originally posted by Steve:

I have a really great idea for Advertising Forum Organization, if you want I will telll you :)
Sure what the heck...

Ohhh and by the way (F.Y.I. > members) , the review thing will take longer than I expected. So one day, I'll surprise ya' and it'll be up. One day...

[Chicken]

Originally posted by Martie:

Hummm, yes I would agree keeping dedicated/shared seperate.
Im not sure how to totally categorize it, but we all know how confusing WHT has been for some time. I hate it when threads/posts there get all mangled together. I think it would be really cool to format both forums --> Praise/Complain (or whatever wording you used) and I think it would work as sub-forums if you chose that. "Shared" category, could be general discussion, Q&A whatever, but the other sections would be strictly for "reviewing your host" :banana:
I see, so the "Shared" category (forum), could be general discussion, Q&A whatever, but the other sections would be strictly for "reviewing your host". Well, that would solve my problem of not knowing to to set up (and categorize) a discussion area for shared, dedicated, etc. Hmmm...

I personally am not a big fan of sub-forums at all, but I'm not keen on separate Praise/Complain sub-forums as people will be rating different areas (Services, Customer Support, Network, Value, Overall, etc.), and some of those areas may contain complaints and praise. I'm not sure what people would do if their review is so-so (in the middle). When looking for reviews, I'm not sure people only look by praises or complaints, but I think that can be keyworded and searched, if need be.

I had envisioned a 'review section' so to speak, and having:

Shared
>>Reviews
Dedicated
>>Reviews
Other
>>Reviews

-wouldn't exactly achieve that, but maybe it would be for the best. As I said, I know something needs to be done to categorize and organize general discussion and Q&A whatever for shared, dedicated, other, etc. anyhow, so maybe subforums for reviews is the answer.

[Steve]

Originally posted by Chicken:

Sure what the heck...

Ohhh and by the way (F.Y.I. > members) , the review thing will take longer than I expected. So one day, I'll surprise ya' and it'll be up. One day...

Ok Like So

-- Shared Hosting
-------Shared Hosting Offers
-------Shared Hosting Requests
-------Reseller Hosting Offers
-------Reseller Hosting Requests
-- Dedicated/Colo Hosting
------Dedicated Hosting Offers
------Dedicated Hosting Request
------Colocation Hosting Offers
------Colocation Hosting Requests
-- Related Offers and Requests
------Employment Offers
------Employment Requests
------Other Offers
------Other Requests

That is the way I think that the advertising forums should be setup.

Key
----------------------
-- = The Forum
------ = The Forum inside the Forum :)

[Placer14]

And maybe be strict about a format.

Thread Title: Company Name
Brief Overview, Rating, detailed expetrience.

Something that easy to browse and add to. :) Also, it maybe more trouble than it's worth, but maybe write a basic review script. Like resellerratings.com, but not so advanced.

[Chicken]

I'm playing with just removing the ad forums and organizing things by topic. That might shock people too much though. I'm guessing people like having ad forums as in all in one place. Not sure why, other than to just look.

[Martie]

:D
You might have to try some things and then do some editing and changing along the way.
Im looking forward to it though :banana:

[Steve]

yeah :)