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I Love Unsustainable, Crazy Offers. This Won't End Well. - Page 3
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I Love Unsustainable, Crazy Offers. This Won't End Well.

135

Comments

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    @MrLime said:
    I think it's disgusting to read this from an Admin. It highlights that LowEndBox is useless and doesn't have the communities interests in mind. I want to find upcoming hosts with promise, not summer hosts who will steal my personal information and money.

    Uhm, so you mean that @raindog308 and other admins (and how about mods?) shouldn't be allowed to express their personal opinion?

    The way I see it, an admin mainly looks whether something is roughly within the rules. That same person however also can in a private capacity (admins are users too) express his private opinion/view. And that's IMO what raindog308 did here.

    Maybe, just a hunch, he wanted to make us (and @jbiloh?) think about the question whether a somewhat tighter framework of rules wrt LEB offers might be desirable and his personal/private OP here (IMO) was a good way to initiate that process.

    Thanked by 2FrankZ MrLime
  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    @jsg said: Maybe, just a hunch, he wanted to make us (and @jbiloh?) think about the question whether a somewhat tighter framework of rules wrt LEB offers might be desirable and his personal/private OP here (IMO) was a good way to initiate that process.

    You try really hard to look for the good in a lot of these things when it's either quotas or people not doing any research at all.

    When offers smell THIS bad, the admins/mods should ask for a test service to spend even a couple minutes verifying. Is the IP from a datacenter they mentioned? How about resources? Is there anything odd about it (an ARM based CPU? huh...), etc.

    I bet if you check drama.gg you'll find a mention of the TOS writer or even the seller themselves.

    That place tracks all of the "free VPS hosts" that try to scam people with google cloud/oracle/etc instances. How do you scam with free? Easy, you charge an "invite fee" or similar to even get a chance at using the service.

    @jbiloh got a 3 page thread on LET and some views/traffic, but its made his content creators look incompetent.

    Francisco

  • NekkiNekki Veteran

    It saddens me to see such negative discussion being had about a relatively innocuous situation! Why can’t we all just be fine friends?

    This thread is full of whinging little bitches.

  • It wouldn't make anyone bat an eye if a non-mod said exactly this.

    If the point of LEB is just eyeballs, this thread is fine and accomplishes that. But if the point is to have people buy LEB offers because LEB has credibility, than this is definitely poor messaging from a moderator from a sister site.

    Is the main point (today) of LEB to just point out hardcore, unsustainable, cheap deals (as per the founding purpose)? Doesn't appear so.

  • AdvinAdvin Member, Patron Provider
    edited May 2022

    @jar said:
    In all honesty though if people want deals like this, go to ssdnodes. They're probably a bit tough on what they consider abuse, but even if unfairly so (I never had a problem) they've been here long enough to figure they'll probably be here tomorrow.

    Yes, but the main issue with SSDNodes is that they lock you into a 3 year commitment if you buy from them. If the performance turns absolute crap after 30 days, there's nothing you can really do and your money is gone.

    I feel like this should be more comparative with someone like Contabo or Netcup, both trustworthy providers based in Germany with very similar pricing :)

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker
    edited May 2022

    @Francisco said:

    @jsg said: Maybe, just a hunch, he wanted to make us (and @jbiloh?) think about the question whether a somewhat tighter framework of rules wrt LEB offers might be desirable and his personal/private OP here (IMO) was a good way to initiate that process.

    You try really hard to look for the good in a lot of these things when it's either quotas or people not doing any research at all.

    I simply do not have any reason to consider @raindog308 (or @jbiloh) a crook or evil-minded person.

    When offers smell THIS bad, the admins/mods should ask for a test service to spend even a couple minutes verifying. Is the IP from a datacenter they mentioned? How about resources? Is there anything odd about it (an ARM based CPU? huh...), etc.

    Full ACK and I've made fun of that offer myself.

    I bet if you check drama.gg you'll find a mention of the TOS writer or even the seller themselves.

    I just quickly went there and frankly, I'm not under the impression that anything valuable can be found there but YMMV.

    That place tracks all of the "free VPS hosts" that try to scam people with google cloud/oracle/etc instances. How do you scam with free? Easy, you charge an "invite fee" or similar to even get a chance at using the service.

    Maybe that's one of the reasons I don't care about that site; I'm not looking for free dedis/VPS/hosting nor would I use free Oracle/Google Cloud/etc hosting services.

    @jbiloh got a 3 page thread on LET and some views/traffic, but its made his content creators look incompetent.

    ??

  • NekkiNekki Veteran

    @Francisco said:
    @jbiloh got a 3 page thread on LET and some views/traffic, but its made his content creators look incompetent.

    Sir, I believe this issue is not one of competence, but that there is little to no direction being provided, which leads to an inconsistent tone of article.

    You don’t half chat shit sometimes.

  • I'm hardly surprised by this shit one single bit.

    @jbiloh you need to stop letting these clowns ruin lownedbox.com - it's almost like rain dog is using malicious compliance to the extreme. Far out. Surely the pages views aren't worth this?

    Thanked by 1WSWD
  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    Definitely appreciate the spirited debate on this offer.

    Here is what I think:

    1. LowEndBox finds its origins in posting amazing, and in some cases, too good to be true offers. A huge part of LowEndBox historically was the focus on dead pooling providers. Since I purchased the platform in January 2020 we've largely moved away from that.
    2. When the offer was posted on LowEndBox it included a warning in the opening remarks to proceed with caution (aka buyer beware).
    3. Only a month to month plan is advertised

    By the way, from the perspective of someone who understands the economics of the industry quite well, with the correct node specs, the prices published by the provider in question are completely sustainable. That in no way is me speaking for or about this provider specifically - I am not making any guarantees or statement of their reliability now or in the future.

    Even the most sceptical among our community have noted the recent content improvements at LowEndBox. There's nothing wrong with publishing a super unique resource offer with a warning to proceed at your own risk. Maybe it works out and some folks score a huge deal??

  • emghemgh Member

    @jbiloh said:
    Definitely appreciate the spirited debate on this offer.

    Here is what I think:

    1. LowEndBox finds its origins in posting amazing, and in some cases, too good to be true offers. A huge part of LowEndBox historically was the focus on dead pooling providers. Since I purchased the platform in January 2020 we've largely moved away from that.
    2. When the offer was posted on LowEndBox it included a warning in the opening remarks to proceed with caution (aka buyer beware).
    3. Only a month to month plan is advertised

    By the way, from the perspective of someone who understands the economics of the industry quite well, with the correct node specs, the prices published by the provider in question are completely sustainable. That in no way is me speaking for or about this provider specifically - I am not making any guarantees or statement of their reliability now or in the future.

    Even the most sceptical among our community have noted the recent content improvements at LowEndBox. There's nothing wrong with publishing a super unique resource offer with a warning to proceed at your own risk. Maybe it works out and some folks score a huge deal??

    And would you consider these specs that the node in question has, ”correct”?

  • doghouchdoghouch Member
    edited May 2022

    @dahartigan said:
    I'm hardly surprised by this shit one single bit.

    @jbiloh you need to stop letting these clowns ruin lownedbox.com - it's almost like rain dog is using malicious compliance to the extreme. Far out. Surely the pages views aren't worth this?

    ...

    @jbiloh said:
    2. When the offer was posted on LowEndBox it included a warning in the opening remarks to proceed with caution (aka buyer beware).

    A "get out of jail free" card (i.e. we're not liable and we didn't bother doing any background checks on the listed provider).

    1. LowEndBox finds its origins in posting amazing, and in some cases, too good to be true offers. A huge part of LowEndBox historically was the focus on dead pooling providers. Since I purchased the platform in January 2020 we've largely moved away from that.

    Let's take a deeper look at ByteHosting. raindog308 correctly points out that they've only been in business for a few months. Unfortunately, the post fails to mention the fact that their domain is only 24 days old (at the time of writing this post):

    image

    Visiting the page itself, the TOS made me suspicious (the last updated date is from October 2021).

    Upon reflection, it became clear that there could be a few reasons to why their "Last Updated" date was from a time prior to the formation of the company:

    1) it was produced by a lawyer/person prior to their launch
    2) it was stolen from some place else

    The first option seemed unlikely, so I did a Google search of with snippet taken from their TOS.

    A few websites appeared.

    Examining the first result (Zetlex Host), I noticed that all the order links redirected to an invalid Discord invite. Not a good start, and something shady was definitely up.

    I then decided to search Zetlex on Google, which resulted in a Drama.gg (@Francisco's favourite site) thread that bashed the company for an unprofessional privacy policy and shady "invite for a free server" scheme. The thread is available here: https://drama.gg/d/1371-zetlex-host-free-vps if you'd like to read more.

    Connecting the final dots, it become clear that the copied TOS is no coincidence. In fact, the two companies are likely run by the same person:

    image

    In essence, Zetlex Hosting was Byte Hosting's predecessor, which likely shut down due to heavy criticism on another platform. Byte Hosting was then formed, with extremely lucrative pricing to lure new (unsuspecting) customers in (probably a data farm). Given how Byte's owner engaged in black hat activities (using "account generators" and claiming that there was "nothing wrong" with doing so):

    image

    ... I would highly recommend that users REFRAIN entering any personal details on ByteHosting's website.

  • (I forgot to add: credits to @Francisco for the Drama.gg tip)

    Thanked by 1o_be_one
  • DPDP Administrator, The Domain Guy
    edited May 2022
  • mgcAnamgcAna Member, Host Rep

    @Francisco said:
    I bet if you check drama.gg you'll find a mention of the TOS writer or even the seller themselves.

    Francisco

    drama.gg, cloudflare keeps loading and loading on my place "just a moment" .

  • mgcAnamgcAna Member, Host Rep

    @FrankZ said:
    @mgcAna What hosting provider are you associated with?

    Do you own, operate, or work for a hosting provider? Yes

    Still in nascent stage to discuss :smile:

    Thanked by 1FrankZ
  • Daniel15Daniel15 Veteran
    edited May 2022

    @Greyhound said:
    Isn't Bytehosting a freehosting provider?

    You're thinking of the dyslexic version, Byethosting. They've been around since 2004-2005 (from back when free-webhosts was popular: https://www.free-webhosts.com/reviews/ByetHost.php) so I'm surprised they're still around.

  • @Daniel15 said:

    @Greyhound said:
    Isn't Bytehosting a freehosting provider?

    You're thinking of the dyslexic version, Byethosting. They've been around since 2004-2005 (from back when free-webhosts was popular: https://www.free-webhosts.com/reviews/ByetHost.php) so I'm surprised they're still around.

    Either:
    1. The dude's name is Byet
    2. They didn't notice the typo until too late and doubled down
    3. They still don't know it's a typo

  • Reminder to everyone to use unique passwords per service so if/when you get phished by an unsustainable LEB deal, the damage is minimal.

  • adlyadly Veteran

    @jbiloh said:
    Even the most sceptical among our community have noted the recent content improvements at LowEndBox.

  • ralfralf Member

    @doghouch said:
    Either:

    4. Byet is Russian for "scam"

    Thanked by 1o_be_one
  • AndrewsAndrews Member
    edited May 2022

    @adly said:

    @jbiloh said:
    Even the most sceptical among our community have noted the recent content improvements at LowEndBox.

    I would say that even most paid LEB/LET fanboys have noted the recent collapse of LEB/LET (knowingly advertising for an obvious scam offer, fake interview with mechanical engineer impersonator, the great bootcamp on domain name to IP translation, fiasco of introduced at night through the back door by surprise forced tribute of $200, repetitive unbanning known scammers, fiasco of Easter "megathread", many community members has lost interest in discussions here... even Purple Daddy seems to have completely lost interest in such a worthless LET traffic with a stray one-time MJs as he stopped posting his promo/giveaway threads)

    but JB is happy... LET/LEB is turning into his idea of excellence: his beloved CC

  • elliotcelliotc Member

    11GB RAM with 50GB HDD
    The rest of the hdd have become ram?

  • emghemgh Member

    @elliotc said:
    11GB RAM with 50GB HDD
    The rest of the hdd have become ram?

    Probably, yes.

  • HalfEatenPieHalfEatenPie Veteran
    edited May 2022

    I think what many people are missing here is this (Not about the offer, the offer isn't great, but this is about LEB).

    The LEB writing staff limits their due diligence to "is the company registered? Are they using a legit WHMCS license? Does their coupon code work?". That's about it. The focus is to build a sales funnel to these companies and leaving the risk at the hands of the reader.

    What the community wants is something a bit more tailored and further researched through. This is kind of why people complain that LEB isn't something people read regularly. What many people are looking for in a blog like this (from understanding the history behind this site and all) isn't just "send us cheap offers for us to just use" but rather "give us more reliable affordable offers". That's where the real value in the LEB brand comes in, because we all can skim through WHT and LET for cheap offer threads (at least the experienced readers here, and sooner or later all your readers will turn into experienced readers), so if LEB doesn't do another layer of due diligence on these offers what's LEB's actual value-add?

    But at the end of the day, this doesn't really change much. Even if there was a caveat at the top of the post it just doesn't help LEB look good. It's like a lose-lose. Customers lose as it might not be sustainable and they might not last as long. LEB loses as it's just makes the "LEB" brand look cheap(er) and continues to reinforce the notion that LEB isn't a place to visit regularly. It's actively working against LEB's content strategy and growth plans. There are so many ideas and avenues for growth on LEB, why choose this route? It's a "high risk low reward" scenario.

    I'm still hopeful for LEB not going to lie. But it could be done without taking this detour.

  • AndrewsAndrews Member

    @HalfEatenPie said:
    I think what many people are missing here is this (Not about the offer, the offer isn't great, but this is about LEB).

    The LEB writing staff limits their due diligence to "is the company registered? Are they using a legit WHMCS license? Does their coupon code work?". That's about it. The focus is to build a sales funnel to these companies and leaving the risk at the hands of the reader.

    that is the point of LET/LEB now

    bigger scam you are preparing the more determined you are to pay for ads/"interviews"/$200 in such place with "no inconvenient questions asked" like LET/LEB become

    this is why they are keep unbanning them again and again (i.e. it is hard to count how many times they banned/unbanned that Romanian guy with wooden racks who tried to illegally acquire leaked customers list right on our eyes...)

  • KermEdKermEd Member
    edited May 2022

    @dane_doherty said:
    Wasn't there a case of a major provider stealing resources from his employer and all the nodes being instantly involucrated when they found out?

    Completely unrelated: picture of the President of the Republic of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele

    I think you are thinking of Dunstin and Adam / AlphaRacks, after QuadraNet found out and shutdown the servers.

    If you are interested in that rabbit hole, just google Dustin, Adam, AlphaRacks. This was Dustin's last comment I saw on the topic.

    https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/3405201#Comment_3405194

    @dustinc said:

    @risharde said:

    Were you a part of AlphaRacks? Now reading about this...

    Yes

    Although he sometimes admits to it and sometimes denies it.

  • @KermEd said:

    @dane_doherty said:
    Wasn't there a case of a major provider stealing resources from his employer and all the nodes being instantly involucrated when they found out?

    Completely unrelated: picture of the President of the Republic of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele

    I think you are thinking of Dunstin and Adam / AlphaRacks, after QuadraNet found out and shutdown the servers.

    If you are interested in that rabbit hole, just google Dustin, Adam, AlphaRacks. This was Dustin's last comment I saw on the topic.

    https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/3405201#Comment_3405194

    @dustinc said:

    @risharde said:

    Were you a part of AlphaRacks? Now reading about this...

    Yes

    Although he sometimes admits to it and sometimes denies it.

    Yep, that's what I meant. Flag of El Salvador resembles the logo of his new, well-known venture.

  • nuggetsnuggets Member

    Offers that appear too good to be true or otherwise financially unsustainable are almost always run by companies to stay away from. The exception is if it's from a large company such as Linode, AWS, Azure etc. offering things like free service credits that they've already factored in as a business expense to attract clients.

    @Francisco said:

    @Andrews said:
    I thought they were only doing it for the (ads and $200) money... and sometimes they get rotten unknowingly

    but now it looks like they are also having fun along the way posting obvious scams

    and soon we will read again "every scammer deserves a second/third/fourth... chance"

    GVH 3.0. He will be back under that, or as a sales rep for someone.

    Francisco

    I have no interest in returning to hosting or working sales for any hosting service provider.

    Margins have gotten smaller, more companies are still entering the market, and big players are consolidating market share. Niche markets that aren't shady are increasingly hard to compete in, and it's overall just a really unfavorable market to be in right now.

    Thanked by 1MannDude
  • kevindskevinds Member, LIR
    edited May 2022

    @Calin said:
    It depends on how you want to take this, for example I found a lot of DDr3 ECC 16 GB DIMM for recycling for 2e/per DIMMs a long time ago, if you have enough on a 24 DIMM server you could make a profit

    Not counterfeit?

    Where? lol

  • Is a PCI-E x4 Gen4 NVMe drive swap space fast enough to pass as a RAM to an unsuspecting user?

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