Web Hosting Talk FAQ

WebHostingTalk is a community-driven resource whose goal is to keep consumers and businesses informed of the continued innovations and evolution of the web hosting industry and to

• Provide the most comprehensive and accurate information available
• Evolve this web site to enhance the user experience
• Keep topical, relevant and visionary
• Provide its members and guests with an enjoyable environment
• Define and grow development within the web hosting industry
• Promote goodwill between providers and end-users
• Aid users in the understanding of choosing suitable providers for their needs
• Provide the public with a venue for recourse and accountability
• Promote business ethics and entrepreneurship in hosting businesses.

Usage: Last Updated: August 24, 2011

Warning. Your postings on this public forum will become public. Your text will be available to anyone with an internet connection. Further note that we do not allow registration of individuals under the age of 13. We reserve the right to disable any account created with a fictitious birth date.

By using this web site, you agree to be contacted by site administration, regardless of your account settings, when it becomes necessary to do so regarding your account activity.

The basic ground rules for discussions on WebHostingTalk are simple: be polite, use common sense, don't break the law and don't post any message that even hints at advertising.

You are permitted a maximum of one account, active or inactive, regardless of how many companies you represent. If you choose to ignore this important restriction, all your accounts will be disabled. If you require a temporary user name for any reason, please open a helpdesk ticket for approval. If you require a user name change, please follow these instructions. If you have forgotten your log in details and are unable to retrieve them via the system, do not create a new account, please open a helpdesk ticket. Web Hosting Talk allows one account per member and one member per account.

If you're caught shilling, you're banned and you're not coming back. A shill is an owner, employee or associate of a seller of products or services who pretends (or purposely omits) any association with the product or service, while pretending to be a satisfied customer or interested bystander. People who omit an association with a product or service for other reasons (they're paid to post about it, they're helping a friend, etc.) so that they can help promote it are also shills.

We don't intend to censor messages based on the opinions expressed within posts, but we will enforce the policies outlined both here and on the Forum. We reserve the right to remove, modify or move posts at our discretion and without explanation. Please contact the Community Leaders via our help desk at [email protected] if you do not understand any of the rules, guidelines or policies outlined below.

Suspension of your account is a definite consequence of not adhering to these guidelines.

In addition to the rules posted here, you are required to read any individual forum rules which may be posted at the top of specific forums as Important threads or Announcements. By using this forum, you further agree to abide by Informa's Terms of Use.. WebHostingTalk staff assume members have read them and will not take ignorance of any rules as an excuse for not following the rules, policies, and guidelines outlined here and in the forum specific rules.

General Forum Rules:
These rules apply to all Forum categories.

• We take the "Be Polite" rule very seriously. We do not tolerate any rudeness. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be banned without warning.
• Do not contact any member to suggest your product or service who is not explicitly expecting you to contact them from an advertising forum post. If you glean information from anywhere other than the advertising forums and use that information to contact someone and present an offer, it will affect your WHT account standing.
• Your account is yours alone. You are responsible for any activity created with it. You may not share your account login with anyone. If you choose to ignore this important restriction your account, and any accounts associated with it, will be disabled.
• All publicly displayed messages are limited to the English language. This includes posts, titles, signatures, and any attachments or other forms of public display.
• Signature Spam (a post that was made in hopes of showing a signature, as determined by moderators) is forbidden in all forum categories.
• You may not post commission, referral or affiliate links anywhere on the forum. For clarification, if it looks like it could be one of these links, we must treat it as such.
• Cross-Posting is not allowed here. Cross-posting refers to posting new duplicate threads or posts, or the linking to threads or posts already started by the member with the intention of gaining exposure.
• You may not compensate anyone for any review or recommendation. Further, you may not suggest a tone (i.e. "Go talk good about us on WHT").
• You may not post on behalf of any banned member in any public manner. This includes all forums, private messages, signatures, and e-mail features.
• You may not post words or URLs that are censored by adding spaces, dots, or substituting characters; or by any other means in an attempt to defeat any censors put in place by WebHostingTalk. Please contact us if you feel a word or URL is unjustly censored.
• You may not link, in any manner, to sites or images containing pornography, sexually explicit, gross violence, or are determined by moderators to be detrimental to the community.
• You must make five (5) posts before allowed by the system to include an active hyperlinked URL or other vB code features in your posts. If you choose to make meaningless posts to circumvent this restriction, your account will be disabled.
• You must make ten (10) posts and be a member for seven (7) days before utilizing the PM and system e-mail features or viewing member profile information. If you choose to make meaningless posts to circumvent this restriction, your account will be disabled.
• You may not use discussions to recommend, praise, or belittle other products or services, or any company; without first hand experience of those products or services. This includes companies recommending other companies. Any post not meeting a moderator's criteria will be removed without notice.
• Hosting requests are not permitted in any forum category. You are invited to browse the Web Hosting Offers sections of the advertising forum and/or start a thread in the appropriate discussion area asking for recommendations. It's useful when doing so to include details of the specifications and budget you are aiming for so that members can mention suitable providers based on their own experiences.
• Any posts that encourage illegal intent will be removed and the account disabled.
• Public posts debating these rules and/or moderators' enforcement of such, will be removed without comment. We encourage feedback however and invite you to use our help desk if you have any questions or concerns.
• Some forum categories have a "minimum (relevant, non-advertising, non-fluff) post count" and/or "minimum length of membership" restriction before a member is allowed to start a new thread. Please read the Forum Description and the Announcement within if you get a permissions error while trying to start a thread. If you choose to make meaningless posts to circumvent this restriction, your account will be disabled.
• All Promotions (Use of features and forum access) are automatically updated by a cron system that runs hourly. If you have completed a minimum restriction and have waited over an hour without being promoted, please open a help desk ticket.

Forum Specific Rules:
These rules apply to the Main Forum and Other Forums Categories.

• You may not publish or discuss any information regarding your product or services, or future (possible) products or services, or any product or services you are, or have been, associated with. This includes, but not limited to suggesting your own services, or services of partners, clients, employers or friends. The Advertising Forums are for advertising.
• You may not post any message that is commercial by nature.
• You may not bump threads. Bumping can refer to posting useless information, posting one-liners or any other action to deliberately keep a thread hot or to bring it to the top of its forum. Moderators will use their discretion, depending on the nature of the post, as to whether to take action or not.
• If your user name is the same as your URL or company name, you may not refer to it outside the advertising forums.
• You may not post any message that directs others to any pages at your own commercial domain, including informational pages. A commercial domain is defined as a site that receives any type of income or links to any income producing properties.
• You may not direct others to contact you.
• You may not solicit the membership for feedback or suggestions on your product or services.
• You may not solicit users for any project or purpose external to the forum; public, private, or commercial. Most importantly our member base is not a resource to be "mined" by individuals, groups, or businesses, for profit or not for profit.
• You may only discuss details about your company and/or product offerings when the thread starter or poster has made direct reference to your company and stated something untrue or misleading, or something which clearly needs clarifying. The response must be in direct reference to the point discussed only and contain no added promotional information and/or fluff. It is advisable when in the above scenario to contact us first.

These rules apply to the Advertising Forum Category:

• Advertising is limited to one thread per 7 days posted in the Advertising Forums regarding your companies, sub-companies or associated companies. It will remain any companies' responsibility to schedule and maintain the offers your employees post in conforming with this important rule.
• You must be a member for, at least, seven (7) days before starting a thread.
• You are expected and required to read and follow the rules outlined within a category that are posted as Announcements.
• You may not intentionally "trash" or "troll" in another user's advertisement thread.
• The 'Advertising Forums' are not a place for you to criticize or pass comment on another user's advertisement. Comments such as "You could get a better deal at.....", or "Your price is way too high for that...", or "That design stinks....", etc. will be removed and your account may be suspended.
• Keep your posts clean. A maximum of two colors and two font styles are allowed.
• Requests for loans or other banking transfers are not allowed in any Forum Category.
• Any attempts to defraud or deceive our members may result in your account being suspended.

Custom User Titles, Locations, Profiles, and Signatures:
The custom user title, location field, profile picture and signature options are edited via your Profile. Custom user titles and the location field are displayed next to your posted text, under your user name. Profile pictures are shown in your public profile. Signatures, once created in your profile, are attached to the end of your posts (if you choose the option to include your signature).

• URLs or other forms of advertising (phone numbers, plans, contact details, etc.) are not allowed in custom user titles or names, which are limited to 25 characters. Also, you may not use custom titles or usernames to impersonate, or attempt to impersonate, WHT Staff, user groups, or any entity you are not associated with.
• Your location field cannot include URLs or other forms of advertising.
• Profile pictures cannot include sexually explicit or graphically intense images.
• Profile Summary (and all other modules) cannot include or link to illegal encouragement, harassment, sexually explicit, or other non-family-friendly content.
• Signatures:
    Are a benefit extended to WHT members who have made 10 helpful posts and completed 7 days of registration.
    Must be setup in your profile, and not manually added to your messages.
    May not contain any pricing, plan, sales, etc. details. "Free" is considered a price in the context of this rule.
    May not use the word "Free" to describe any cost.
    May contain a maximum of two smilies. Or one animated smiley.
    May include two clickable links.
    May include two colors, plus black.
    Maximum font size cannot be larger than normal.
    Must be kept to a maximum of four lines when viewed at 1024x768 resolution using the horizontal postbit.
    May not contain links to other threads or posts.
    Please keep special characters to a minimum.
    Your signature is your signature. It is not for sale or rent.
    Any signature that is offensive or insulting to WHT, its members, or its staff, is prohibited.
    We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature at any time, for any reason.

Special Notices:

Any posts not meeting these guidelines may be removed with our without notice.

We do not remove posts or accounts on request.

In light of our policy of encouraging candid, open exchanges of views and the rapid distribution of information originating from many sources, WebHostingTalk cannot determine the accuracy of information that may be uploaded to the forum.

If you bring suit, propose to sue, or infer legal action against WHT, its staff, or the website owner, your account may be disabled and any company related accounts may face restrictions. If you chargeback a payment made to the owners of Web Hosting Talk your account may be disabled and any company related accounts may face restrictions.

Opinions, advice and all other information expressed by participants in discussions are those of the author. You rely on such information at your own risk. You are urged to seek professional advice for specific, individual situations and not rely solely on advice or opinions given in the discussions.

Privacy Policy: We will not release any member information unless under court order to do so.

We reserve the right to modify and amend these terms at any time without notice. It is your responsibility to remain informed of current WebHostingTalk policies.
We do not monitor private messages. But we will investigate all allegations of PM abuse.
We further, reserve our right to disable any account at any time for any reason and without notice.
If there are any rules or policies you do not understand, please contact us via our help desk at [email protected].

Finally; any abuse towards our staff and/or management in any form, may result in immediate suspension of your account.

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