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We JUST found out that service is going to be restored to Andy, but that still doesn't discout the google search you suggested.
A few of Andy's friends blogged about the event, so I hope that helped for Dreamhost to realizes the impact it makes.
Andy actually hosts dozens of websites, and some of them are very important for communities of interest.
http://www.google.com/search?q=dreamhost+sucks&...
Wow.
DreamHost had some major failures recently, but they were completely honest & open about it. Their blog told all the gory details about what went wrong and their status page kept us notified about what was happening. Most importantly, I've never lost any data. Some of the previous hosts I used were completely down for several days with no explanation, and in one case all of my data was wiped out.
We used to host our clients with Dreamhost, and my heart definitely went out to them for the perfect storm of tech breakdowns they went through this summer -- but our obligations are to our clients, and we had to switch. We host with Rackforce now out of Kelowna, BC, Canada and we've been exceptionally happy with them.
The first step for Dreamhost to reclaim their reputation is obviously to fix their tech issues and customer service -- but what would you recommend to them, in terms of reputation management, as a next step, especially in the social media sphere? If you were running Dreamhost, what would you do to patch things back up in the blogosphere?
They have good features---lots of one click installs of stuff, low prices, lots of space and bandwidth, but it seems like maybe they have gotten too big to handle their infrastructure or something.
Even though it would be a pain, I'm thinking of jumping ship before they sink.
The same holds true if you replace the word "dreamhost" with the word "scoble". It's a much lower number, but just an observation.
I can't fault them for that. Low-price web hosts probably constantly have to deal with random warez crap; they don't have time or staff to answer each site owner who demands "proof" that they aren't lying about what they found.
Yes, it sucks to be the guy who had someone anonymously(!!) FTP stuff to his site, but it could have been a lot worse (i.e., MPAA lawsuit).
Obviously these problems shouldn't have happened in the first place but it looks like they're taking steps to fix it and that's enough for me.
It's not just a DH thing... same can be said for most of the huge hosts, like iPowerweb, 1&1, etc.
One thing I like about them is that they've been around since 1996, which seems rare in the hosting business.
I'd also disagree with the comment about people only liking them because of referrals. That gets said a lot and it doesn't make much sense. Most hosts have referrals, but who else besides DH has promo codes? That code gives the referral money to the new customer, instead of the referrer. There is more money to be made in referrals from all of the other hosts than there is from DH, because you don't have to compete against promo codes. The only reason it seems like there's more from DH out there is because they're one of the biggest hosts (#16 last time I checked, going by a domain count of around 350,000), so they have more customers to promote their business.
It happens to a lot of hosts quite frequently, unfortunately.
;)
So I guess no more "corporate blogging done right", then? ;)
I encourage you to re-read Andy's blog at
http://nightmarehost.blogspot.com/
Chris (https://www.myservicesheet.com/) did this comparison of Scoble Sucks vs Dreamhost sucks
http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&...
Scoble sucks way less than Dreamhost according to Google Fight
24,600 results "Dreamhost sucks"
74 results "Scoble Sucks
I love Roberts comments. Fix the problems, be transparent, point to the people that say you suck, invite them in...and of course, start doing video. =) I'd say they're doing pretty darn good in this area and the best indicator is their blog.
So, to recap, bravo DH (since 2003 for me), if you need five nines, you need to pay more than $10 a month, and any company that wants to make it online should stick to Roberts PR credo.
To jump to that conclusion based on one instance (or ten or a hundred or a thousand, if you can find them), considering the 10's of thousands of accounts hosted by Dreamhost, is immature. I realize that it's become your ox that's been gored because it's your friend but you're seriously misleading people.
Based on this single post of yours, should I then assume that's what you do?
Every single customers' experience matters. What if it happened to you?
Also go do some more research, see the posts above.
By the way, Josh from steelpixel.com has left a comment on my blog offering free webhosting for Andy and I for two months and discounts for others.
The bottom line for me is that 20 GB and unlimited domains for $8/mo is an amazing deal, even considering that you have to accept some downtime (as you do with all shared hosts).
Of course it matters, but 99% happy matters more than 1% unhappy. It matters 99% more, to be exact. ;) Majority still rules. They host 350,000 domains. That equals a lot of happy customers. And they're still growing, despite the "I'm outta here!" crowd.
Again, this is like Wal-mart. Thousands (millions?) hate them, yet it's always packed with happy shoppers and they will never go out of business.
How many people hate Microsoft and think Bill Gates is the devil? And yet just about every computer has Windows on it--and despite all of the better browsers out there, most of them are still using IE to get online and Outlook Express to check their mail.
Personally, I do look for negative reviews when shopping for anything. But in most cases, when someone dedicates a website to "_____ sucks," it's because they're a whiner that has nothing better to do with their time.
I've left plenty of hosts. And when I did, I took my life with me and didn't dedicate it to whining about a bad personal experience. If I dedicated a blog post or site to everything that pissed me off, I would no longer have time for luxuries like eating and going to the bathroom.
Think of it like ebay feedback. A power seller can have 100 negative feedbacks, but still have a much higher positive percentage than an average user with 3 or 4. The reality of it is that your odds of getting screwed are still lower with the power seller (dreamhost, etc...) that has a higher percentage of positives, than some nobody (most hosts) that only have a handful of complaints... among two handfuls of total customers.
One person, or a group of people, with a grudge against a business simply doesn't make it a bad business.
By the way... I pay more for my Site5 account than my DH account--and have more problems at Site5, including the fact that I'm waiting almost 3 days for queued mail from them botching an upgrade... that may never show up.
Ok, I'll extend your suggestion, just for kicks!
Next time I have a problem or an issue as a consumer, I won't tell anyone, and I won't document it, as I'll just assume it's more own unique problem and forget about it.
If we all do that, every problem in the world will go away.
Ok, so I'm being a little patronizing, but you get my point. Andy was in a situation where he was powerless, he was locked out with no ability to do anything and they stopped communicating with him for a short period of time. He also runs close to 30ish websites so a lot of folks would be connected (one is a record label).
Sorry to hear of your issues with your host, the steelpixel.com guys came and made an discount on my blog. Go check that out.
Thanks again for the thoughts, I hope you respond!
I didn't say not to talk about it. You just shouldn't expect the world to not deal with a company because not everyone is happy there. If that was how it worked, there would be one perfect host that would put every single other host out of business. The reality of it is that unhappy DH customers are a minority. I know it just kills the people that bash them to accept that, but it's still true. I'm pretty sure the 350,000 hosted domains aren't being held hostage.
Remember: the original post warned people about dealing with the 16th largest host in the world, based on the bad experience of one person. That's why I used the Microsoft example. Way more people hate Microsoft than Dreamhost, yet almost everyone still uses their products.
There's also two sides to every story. It would be foolish to think that none of the DH bashers are idiots that got kicked for spamming, breaking the TOS, etc. Dreamhost isn't perfect, but anyone that thinks they stand out as a bad host isn't really familiar with web hosting, and hasn't been screwed nearly as hard as many others have. There are THOUSANDS of hosts out there and I doubt I could make a list of 20 that I would consider dealing with.
It's also hard to believe how serious people are taking the sucks-search thing. "Microsoft sucks" brings up way more results than "Dreamhost sucks," so when people log-in to cancel their DH account, I hope they're doing it from a Mac or Linux computer--otherwise, they might look silly.
Like I said, Dreamhost isn't perfect, but they're still better than most hosts--not all. The hosts that are better also aren't perfect, so I guess they suck too. Since there are thousands of hosts, rattling off a few possibly better choices isn't proving that they're bad. You aren't going to find a host that doesn't have a pissed off ex-customer. If you do, it just means they haven't been in business long enough yet.
Back to my Site5 example. I signed up with them about 1 year ago, when they were pretty much considered one of the best shared hosts. Not even one year later, they're flooded with problems and getting bashed even more than DH, if you read sites like WHT. Shit happens... to ALL hosts. Just because it isn't happening at the same time as the bashed-host-of-the-week, doesn't mean that it hasn't or won't again.
The other funny thing about DH is that they often get bashed as a "cheap host" with the typical I-have-nothing-of-importance-to-say "you get what you pay for" cracks. Last time I checked, DH charged more than most of the hosts people recommend switching to. What happened to "you get what you pay for"?
Good thoughts all around, good perspective and good luck to Andy and Dreamhost.
Good... because I'm too busy moving sites from Site5 to Steadfast to do another long post like that! ;)
Now let's just hope I'm not here 8 months from now replying to a "Steadfast Sucks" post. Ha!
Good luck to you man. Let us know how it goes, you can email me (its on my blog) at web-strategist.com
Love to hear your thoughts on it, I can tell you're a thinker.
Their customer support was abysmal, with vague and frustrating responses that told me nothing about what was wrong and why they'd taken down my site.
Now, this was my business website we're talking about here and it dropped off the Internet for roughly a week (email and all) because Dreamhost claimed my WordPress install was sending out viruses.
Each time I sent an email to them, it would take to the very limit of the response period before they'd get back to me, but with some confusing, non-committal response that DID NOT help to resolve my problem.
I resent the implication that by posting about negative experiences we're seen to be whining - I consider it fair warning to other potential customers!
Anyway, more fool me for sticking with them until this latest batch of problems which has seen more embarrassing downtime....
I run a legitimate business as a publisher of several outdoor-related Web sites (hunting, fishing, etc). Last week we launched a new site that was picked up by ESPNOutdoors.com, an industry trade group, and several outdoor columnists. Great, I think, but how do I keep the momentum going? Yes, I'll post to a couple of outdoor-related groups on Usenet to generate a little more interest. So that's what I did. I crafted a well written message that mentioned a 100% free service and posted it on about 6-8 groups that ranged from hunting and fishing to camping and water sports.
Maybe this was a couple groups too many (was it???), but to shut down my entire network of sites and the sites of all my clients (about 50 sites total) because of this is insane. If I would have thought for one second that this would have been an issue with Dreamhost, I wouldn't have done it. Not to mention, their TOS talks about posting off topic messages, but all of mine were related to the boards I posted on, and the response I received by email was all positive.
If this is what one can expect after being a loyal customer of 7 years, referring tons of people (mostly friends - no promo codes), and suffering through the many outages they've had recently, then I'm more than a little shocked. I would at least expect them to give me a warning.
Needless to say I just sent them an email explaining the situation to them, so we'll see how this turns out. Oh yeah, a blurb in their TOS about cross posting in Usenet would be nice too.
Good luck with Dreamhost everyone!
If you're offline for a week, that is 100% your fault.
Did Dreamhost make you sign an exclusive deal with them, and forbid you to look into failover DNS?
EVERY shared host, without exception, will have problems. How can you expect otherwise when your server is at the mercy of hundreds of other users?
The solution isn't host-hopping--it's redundancy.
Legit businesses don't spam. (Spamming and playing dumb about it still counts as spamming)
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"we launched a new site that was picked up by ESPNOutdoors.com, an industry trade group, and several outdoor columnists. Great, I think, but how do I keep the momentum going? Yes, I’ll post to a couple of outdoor-related groups on Usenet to generate a little more interest."
Translation: I had a good thing that was growing naturally, the way it should... so I interfered and ruined it by getting shut down for spamming.
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"I crafted a well written message that mentioned a 100% free service and posted it on about 6-8 groups that ranged from hunting and fishing to camping and water sports."
That is the very definition of spamming. Are you saying it's dreamhost's fault that you don't know what the rest of the world has known for years?
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"Maybe this was a couple groups too many (was it???),"
What tipped you off? The fact that you were shut down for being a spammer?
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"but to shut down my entire network of sites and the sites of all my clients (about 50 sites total) because of this is insane."
It's insane that your clients signed on with someone so irresponsible.
The way you get rid of a spammer is to close their account. If that wasn't how life worked, all spammers would throw one legit site on their account, thinking that it would keep it open.
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"If I would have thought for one second that this would have been an issue with Dreamhost, I wouldn’t have done it."
The first 5 words of that sentence sum the problem up nicely.
How many cars did you have to get run over by before you realized it's smarter to look both ways before crossing a street?
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"Not to mention, their TOS talks about posting off topic messages, but all of mine were related to the boards I posted on, and the response I received by email was all positive."
I'd bet that the number of positive you replies you received was less than 1% of the complaints abuse-at-dreamhost-dot-com received.
You'd be surprise (or should I say you ARE surprised?) by the number of members that don't like people crapping in their groups and take the time to report the posts.
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"If this is what one can expect after being a loyal customer of 7 years,"
That's awful! They make you keep following the rules after 7 years???
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"referring tons of people (mostly friends - no promo codes),"
You say "no promo codes" like you were doing them a favor. All that did was put money in your pocket instead of theirs.
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"I would at least expect them to give me a warning."
They would expect you not to spam. Looks like no one got what they expected, huh?
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"Needless to say I just sent them an email explaining the situation to them, so we’ll see how this turns out."
Yeah, like they haven't heard it all before. You might as well have just sent a confession, since your every move is identical to what people expect of spammers.
You knew what you were doing (or you're stupid) and you got caught. Get over it. Be a man and take responsiblity for your screw-up and quit trying to blame a web host for your actions.
Here's another tip: Don't spam at your next host, regardless of how hard it is for you to understand their TOS.
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"Oh yeah, a blurb in their TOS about cross posting in Usenet would be nice too."
Oh yeah, not spamming would be nice too.
Their TOS doesn't say you can't shoot people for not going to your site... will that be your next underhanded tactic that you'll play dumb about later, when you get arrested?
The fact remains that my posts were very much on topic to the groups I posted to. Just because someone compained as they did in this case does not mean they're right (or that I am for that matter). I guess it's all just a matter of opinion.
In any case, Dreamhost has agreed to let my account remain active, so lesson learned.
It's not opinion--it's spam. You sound like you haven't learned a thing from this.
You can call them on-topic all you want, but spam stands out to those that hate it. And then it gets reported--as you found out.
You weren't posting to help people. You were posting to promote your site (as you already admitted), then trying to justify it by saying it would be useful. You will never find a usenet group that won't consider that spamming.
Do you think every post on usenet has been reported as spam? No. So, why were yours? Because of what I already said: People see right through what you did.
If you were out to help people, rather than promote you site, you could have answered relevant questions with info that may or may not be on your site. That would have been helpful--and without throwing links around, no one would have thought you were a spammer. If you're not willing to do that without being able to throw links around, then you're not there to help and you really don't have a reason to be there.
I'd also guess that you weren't a regular member in those groups. A new person announcing what they think is a useful site will never be seen as anything but spam on usenet. And in case it isn't obvious to you... all of this would apply to forums, blog comments, etc...
You think I was hard on you? I bet the people whose groups you spammed were wishing you were dead while they were filling out the spam complaints.
Spam is hated everywhere, so you should either get used to this--or take a few more steps away from what you seem to think is a fine line between helping people and being a spammer.
http://uptime.besthostratings.com/viewreport.ph...
http://uptime.besthostratings.com/viewreport.ph...
http://uptime.besthostratings.com/faq.php
That's also convenient how you cut Pair off right before their big March outage that knocked their uptime down to 99.985. Where are those 5 magic 9s that these great hosts supposedly have? hmmm... March was 99.86. WOW! They're perfect!!!
And if you really looked hard into Pair's uptime, through reliable sources, you would have found a lot more people complaining about outages... that are actual customers.
Do you still not get that ALL shared host have downtime?
You can make any host look bad when you compare them to another one at the right time... especially when you intentionally leave out the host-you-favor's bad months.
I think Pair's a great company--and I'm not holding that site's downtime report against them... but that's just because I was smart enough to actually read how they monitor uptime.
John
- jcy@nevermind.org
fuck dreamhost !!!!!!!!!!!!!
they closed my ftp and http twice within 3 days and without warning
asshole
I once made a 3rd party picture section for Digg (digpicz.com (see also reddit pics :)), and the shared hosting for $9.95 a month handled 100'000 (hundred thousand!!!) visitors the first day!
I blogged what I optimized to handle such a traffic on a cheap shared host in this post: A few words about Digpicz.com.
One company that tries hard to provide a quality service is WebFaction ( http://www.webfaction.com ). I highly recommend these guys.
Throughout this whole situation, Dreamhost has been nothing but pig-headed. Every customer service representative ignores the case history and either refers us back to Google Payments or says patronizing things like we could have paid with the original credit card system. I offered them a solution where I quietly pay for the account using Google transactions, and they won't even let me help bail them out!!!
I will never refer another client to dreamhost. Right now I'm looking for the best place to air this complaint publicly in as many places as possible. People have to know that when Dreamhost pushes people into using Google Payments, Google then has their financial information to aggregate and deploy for their own purposes.