Is this legit? lmao

stefeman

@jbiloh said:

@Erisa said: Ha I actually didn't notice that either, so I guess I would have been preyed on too. Maybe whoever set it up did their math incorrectly? Willing to bet human error for this one.

Human error. Thanks for bringing to my attention, will get it fixed.

Theres still an error on that store man.

jbiloh

@stefeman said: Theres still an error on that store man.

What is the error?

stefeman

@jbiloh said:

@stefeman said: Theres still an error on that store man.

What is the error?

Wheres the LowEndTalk Administrator Tag Membership plan?

Ironia

@FAT32 said:

@Ironia said:
Interesting that Triennial costs more per year than Biennial. $186/y vs $180/y.

I guess the pricing preys on people who have been trained to assume that bulk is cheaper, it's not actually expecting people to do the math.

$380/2yr = $190/yr, $560/3yr = $186/yr

I think you need a new calculator

My bad. That's what I get for trying to calculate off the difference per year rather than the raw costs.

yoursunny

@cybertech said:
but i would expect annual, biennial and triennial plans coming 🤣

LET Provider Tag basic FREE

• "Host Rep" tag
• advertise in MegaThreads only

LET Provider Tag bronze $200/year

• post in Offers every 10 days
• post in Shared Hosting Offers every 10 days
• thread sinks after 10 days

LET Provider Tag silver $400/year

• everything in bronze, plus
• thread does not sink after 10 days
• 10 extra votes by AI users in Top Provider poll

LET Provider Tag gold $800/year

• everything in silver, plus
• automated thread bumps by AI users asking for double bandwidth
• negative reviews moved to Offtopic category: 3 included per month, $25/each afterwards

LET Provider Tag platinum $1600/year

• everything in gold, plus
• guaranteed spot in Top Provider every year
• negative review authors temp-banned: 3 included per month, $50/each afterwards

LET Troll Tag $666/year

• cannot create threads
• cannot be banned
• existing recipients can keep it for free as long as they receive 666 thanks every year

jbiloh

@Ironia said: My bad. That's what I get for trying to calculate off the difference per year rather than the raw costs.

It fooled me initially too, lol.

NobodyInteresting

@cybertech said:

@stefeman said:

@stefeman said:
The ultimate finale is when @jbiloh unleashes the collection agencies after unpaid invoices if people had not requested to be demoted into host reps.

I love how this was never responded to or adressed as in the replies which would imply that its in the works xD

its a prepaid service, so no netcup signature moves here.

but i would expect annual, biennial and triennial plans coming 🤣

Get two bad review threads cleaned up if you comment with your order number 😆

JasonM

@jbiloh said: This fee level assumes that 30 percent of existing providers opt to switch to Host Rep status

for users/buyers:
1. we will be able to take advantage of limited-offers from select providers.
2. the fee could be entry-level barrier for new hosts, but at same time it only allow serious providers who want to continue the business to get featured here, so summerhosts could be avoided.

for providers:
1. those paying $200 fee will be featured to post offers, so less competition for you guys, but more attention from buyers for your offers ~ more sales

one suggestion: LET/LEB should introduce PAYG (pay-as-you-go) membership fee for some reputed but small providers that would post single offer thread once six month or at Black Friday. That could be win win for customers too to take advantage of those offers too! @jbiloh

@FAT32 said: Here's a suggestion, can we at least allow Host Rep to post deals in megathread?

yes, and during black-friday! I don't want to miss those small n sweet offers!

deank

@yoursunny said:
LET Troll Tag $666/year

• cannot create threads
• cannot be banned
• existing recipients can keep it for free as long as they receive 666 thanks every year

It's not like I've ever created threads.

jbiloh

@JasonM said: for users/buyers:
1. we will be able to take advantage of limited-offers from select providers.
2. the fee could be entry-level barrier for new hosts, but at same time it only allow serious providers who want to continue the business to get featured here, so summerhosts could be avoided.

for providers:
1. those paying $200 fee will be featured to post offers, so less competition for you guys, but more attention from buyers for your offers ~ more sales

We are going to make a tweak to the policy in an upcoming announcement in the next few hours to address your point #1.

JasonM

@MannDude said: Still no password reset sent to me. =/

as a user I forgot my password last month, and used LET/LEB support desk. The password reset email never arrived. I opened the ticket (the ticket emails arrived correctly in my inbox though) and mod/admin just manually reset my password and replied my ticket about it.

TGT

@deank said:
Aaaand he evades the core concern.

Yeah, it's going WHT path.

WHT has shit traffic tho.

Thundas

@jh said:
$200/year isn’t a lot of money for a business and I agree that this will weed out some of the summerhosts.

I hope nobody thinks it will stay at $200. $200 will become $300, then $600, then this place will become WHT. It’s already pretty dry.

But what bothers me is the message that this is somehow necessary for the forum. It costs peanuts to maintain a forum and the ad spots should cover it several times over. To me this sounds like @jbiloh has lost interest in the forum and needs cash to justify taking any time away from his main business. Fair enough, but don’t wrap it in that covering costs talk.

One ad i think covers the forum cost, each ad is around $70 bucks.

yabs

Converting user-made content (posts) into money, nice.

Gandi does it less emotional way

Dear Gandi customer,
The increase in raw material costs (energy, computer components, etc.)
and those of most of our providers has led us to revise our sales
pricing. We are taking this decision in order to ensure we maintain a
comparable level of service and product quality, while continuing to
invest in our technologies and services.

jar

@abytecurious said:

@jar said: Summer hosts will largely be a distant memory.

What if the Summerhost's intention is to pay 100$ upfront, amass a busload of accounts (easily recouping the 100$) and close in 6 months? I don't think putting up the 100$ is going to dissuade summerhosts, it might actually work better in their favor. Users would assume that the "provider" tag legitimizes the business and give a false sense of security.

Anything is possible. But it is a common mark of a summer host that they go cheap. Toss up a VPS with a cPanel license, monthly WHMCS (or nulled), etc. I don't usually see summer hosts as people with money to invest, but as kids hoping to get rich overnight with a few dollars. I see them less as legitimate and intentional scams and more as incompetent newbies who get stressed and run. Hard to say my opinion is the right one, it's just mine.

lentro

Just chipping my 2 cents in here — my account was originally just me (Jonathan), though I've shared it with a few team members at TensorDock to in the past month or so. For this post, it's just me speaking:

I joined LowEndTalk just two years ago. In that timeframe, I've learned so much. The LowEnd community has impacted me in ways that I can't even explain. Starting a storage VPS company (which people are still using), "losing" $2k in the cociu situation, getting friends like @seriesn who chat with me.... It's been a wild ride, and I've learned so much from it.

I am indebted to @jbiloh and the mods who have made this place what it is for the past 3 years. I am sure that DDoS protection costs an arm and a leg, and while yes, I agree that certain cost optimizations should be made to slash costs and make a provider tag more affordable or offer tiers (e.g. a free provider account lets you post offers up to $7/month for a VPS. A paid one lets you post without limits. I especially don't think money should be spent on video editing or hiring more people; the forum is perfect the way it is) so that LET won't become a place where only a purple provider and a few others post offers, I challenge everyone else to think of the immense value generated to you by the existence of this forum. If you benefit (as I have), you should contribute your fair share.

Personally, I'm not sure if TensorDock will ever post on LET again (our promotional thread "costed" over $1000 in credits and generated very little in actual revenue, but that's because LET isn't our target market). Maybe, I'll just pay for a first term of 6 months to show support and then become a host rep or something (not sure yet), but I intend to contribute at least a tiny bit and not take a petty anti-@jbiloh stance. How would you feel if you've worked so hard on a project that loses money, and then half the people say that you should lose money forever, while they reap the benefits?

I think there's a line between LET and WHT. I think paid provider tags won't kill this forum, as long as it's priced right (far lower than the current proposed $200/yr, with a free option for hosts with limitations or something like that as to not stifle the introduction of new hosts who have $0 in revenue) and the quality of hosts isn't just "pay $200 and you'll get a verification badge even if you're a summer host." This has to be very carefully managed with a community-first, money-second approach. If done right, everyone wins.

jbiloh

@lentro Thank you for your thoughts and sharing your ideas.

I also appreciate your support.

We are working to make this roll out better than it has been. It's going to to get better.

speedypage

@dustinc said:
I'd say that $16/Month to get your brand exposed and engaged with the community (and to obtain business) is quite fair, providers who are active and highly engaged with the community tend to be rewarded the most. Those who come and go, often shine for a little bit but don't stay committed (invested) in their brand, those are the ones that are probably not willing to pay the fee to begin with (as they would of neglected their brand in the long run anyway). When you invest in your company, you're always thinking about how to provide more and to get more. At the end of the day it's a tax write-off for the provider as well

I understand some people don't like change - but it's important to keep in mind that LEB/LET has always been free up to this point, and continues to be free for host reps and LET members. $100 over 6 months to advertise here and earn exposure + additional business, I am pretty confident that most providers would be willing to do, as they earn more than $16/month via their sales/products. At the end of the day customers shouldn't be transacting or doing business with any provider who isn't willing to invest $16/month into their brand/marketing anyway.

Does the high engagement rewards you mention include double bandwidth?

jbiloh

@speedypage said:

@dustinc said:
I'd say that $16/Month to get your brand exposed and engaged with the community (and to obtain business) is quite fair, providers who are active and highly engaged with the community tend to be rewarded the most. Those who come and go, often shine for a little bit but don't stay committed (invested) in their brand, those are the ones that are probably not willing to pay the fee to begin with (as they would of neglected their brand in the long run anyway). When you invest in your company, you're always thinking about how to provide more and to get more. At the end of the day it's a tax write-off for the provider as well

I understand some people don't like change - but it's important to keep in mind that LEB/LET has always been free up to this point, and continues to be free for host reps and LET members. $100 over 6 months to advertise here and earn exposure + additional business, I am pretty confident that most providers would be willing to do, as they earn more than $16/month via their sales/products. At the end of the day customers shouldn't be transacting or doing business with any provider who isn't willing to invest $16/month into their brand/marketing anyway.

Does the high engagement rewards you mention include double bandwidth?

Triple the success.

Advin

@speedypage said:

@dustinc said:
I'd say that $16/Month to get your brand exposed and engaged with the community (and to obtain business) is quite fair, providers who are active and highly engaged with the community tend to be rewarded the most. Those who come and go, often shine for a little bit but don't stay committed (invested) in their brand, those are the ones that are probably not willing to pay the fee to begin with (as they would of neglected their brand in the long run anyway). When you invest in your company, you're always thinking about how to provide more and to get more. At the end of the day it's a tax write-off for the provider as well

I understand some people don't like change - but it's important to keep in mind that LEB/LET has always been free up to this point, and continues to be free for host reps and LET members. $100 over 6 months to advertise here and earn exposure + additional business, I am pretty confident that most providers would be willing to do, as they earn more than $16/month via their sales/products. At the end of the day customers shouldn't be transacting or doing business with any provider who isn't willing to invest $16/month into their brand/marketing anyway.

Does the high engagement rewards you mention include double bandwidth?

Your fee has been doubled.

ps20090

@stefeman said: YOLO all the way. Half of the community would even buy from cociu again if its cheap enough.

I miss Cociu everyday

rogerwilco

It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.

CyberneticTitan

Textbook case of if you want something done, ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

KermEd

@jbiloh said:
1. Hire a full time video content creator
2. Hire a second supplemental tutorial writer
3. Fund the redesign of the platform to conform with current WP standards
4. Payoff the note used to buy the platform
5. Invest in ad spend on social media to drive more traffic to LowEndBox and LowEndTalk
6. Fund more giveaways, special prizes and etc

I have no interest in any of this. Given your special treatment of colo clients on here etc, shouldn't be surprised you finally decided to ruin what was once a low end fun first time providers coming into the market platform by injecting a paywall.

Yay greed and profit.

KermEd

@dustinc said:
I'd say that $16/Month to get your brand exposed and engaged with the community (and to obtain business) is quite fair,

As you said in the past - you make millions off this platform. I'd expect $16 to be as meaningless to you as the customers on your platform.

jbiloh

Evening everyone, new post on the topic: https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/177703/psa-provider-tag-fee-implementation