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That's all it takes. I would feel better if @FlorinMarian or @Calin pay 1 000 USD a year to offer me a really good VPS package.
Don't think there should be any action on provider fee rather the community should be little lenient toward new comers. Its very unlikely they come to this platform by purchasing server and paying provider fees just to scam. Every web hosting provider was noob when started and learns a lot down the line by messing things. I highly doubt any community member on this platform is ever scammed as many are smart enough and pay by PayPal and majority offer are 2-3$/mo so not a big deal if something is messed This platform is now providing less value than earlier days as we often see same offers and providers threads all the time and literally no new player and offer. Everyone just keeps spamming the threads to just get some freebies from those providers. Administrator should look into the matter and allow all newcomers, as this platform is just turning into a monopoly of some few providers.
@LeroyJ
So it is personal to you.
So you just want to see them pay 1000$ because you personally do not like them?
With the 1000$ payed, will you fall in love with them, and leave them alone? Write a good review on them? If that is the case, they might actually pay that.
Rules should be made not for exceptions, but for the majority of problems/issues.
EDIT:
Or you just hate young entrepreneurs?
Scammer alt?
No, just an example. With examples it is easier to understand me. I'am not native english speaker.
What? Was ist das?
I am different. I would say trust everyone, until they disappoint your trust, at which point they need to earn trust.
It is like in democratic legislation: a person is not guilty, until proven otherwise.
We have to try and see the good in people and in humanity. If we live in fear of not being tricked into some scam, then we actually scam ourselves by depriving life of tiny moments of happiness during our short lifespan throughout the vastness of universe. In the end it is not our fault that some person decides to become a greedy animal and scam the trust of others around him.
We have to remain positive, learn and evolve as a society. Who knows, maybe the evil will one day change too (but this is a different discussion).
If a provider would pay $1000 for the tag, that provider would have to absorb such investment from customers, because this is how profit works. Such act in return would mean more expensive services; therefore then appears a question if the offer will even qualify as "low end".
I would rather have a provider not pay anything, be thoroughly verified by a
#LowEndDetectivesgroup for that provider tag, and then have the offers as cheap as possible. This will show the passion of a community who loves servers - members and providers alike (even though some providers might try to be scam).It depends....> @host_c said:
Involucrated!
This topic was born out of boredom, in my opinion, and I won't dwell too much on it.
Increasing the fee for displaying sales topics here would automatically lead to alternative methods of finding our customers elsewhere, which would be detrimental to LET members because:
What the community can do better is to check the seller's resources before approving the offer thread [Teamviewer or something similar].
Just this morning I saw from the Christmas topic that an Italian provider (guess who?) offered 350x 1Gbps @ Unlimited traffic VPNs for 1 EUR/year. If this is not a red flag for anyone, then we really deserve our fate.
If you oversell, and do it right, you will raise capital faster, if you cannot steer the ship the right way, you will sink very fast to the bottom of the deep blue see.
That is not scam/red flag, if it shit hits the fence, then it goes from overselling to = deadpool.
But again, even at 1 USD/yr service, it is up to the client to chose it or not. I say it is doable, depending the specs and depending on what resources you have at your disposal to "burn" for such an offer.
You cannot put all the pressure on the client in the present case.
It's like allowing a shop of Chinese clones of major brands and blaming the customers for not knowing how to distinguish the clones from the original products, while you - the city hall - gave it permission to sell those products there.
I personally don't believe a change to the current fees will improve the quality of offers or variety of selection. I also do not see how it would lower any incentive a bad actor has to post here.
Back when the "provider tag fee" was started, i initially supported the idea, thinking it would help improve the quality of content on the forum. Looking back on that, i am unsure if i notice any difference.
Personally, i would probably let go of my provider tag, if there is any significant changes to the fees.
I also don't agree with the idea that i (or any legit business here) should pay an insurance fee, so that forum users can be compensated for making bad choices when selecting bad hosting providers. (instead of them spending a few cents more per month, and going with a quality business that will be around for a long term.)
Lets look at your comment of "Bigger business want to spend money;". Any business (regardless of size) will happily spend money (assuming they have it), when that translates into long-term growth and/or the margins on products are sustainable for them. So why is there so few "large" businesses on this forum advertising regularly? Well because one of those factors is not working out in their favor.....
Adding more cost in term of "initial investment" or "recurring cost" will likely not help in improving this....
also would involve tons of red tape to become a actual insurance company. LET as legit company needs to be mindful of those things. Also that sounds like tons of work.
Pre-orders can be legit from established companies, plenty of examples especially in 3D Printing industry of this; Just lately Elegoo had one for GigaStorm Orange large format printer; everyone expect them to deliver. Creality had one for CR-30, all units delivered etc etc.
So i would distinguish; Establishes, long time in business is fine to do pre-order for new stuff.
Partially agree, should be distinguished it's run by a teenager, but not blocked completely. We all were young at one point. I think i was selling hosting from ~15yo myself too; Quite successfully too. Small scale, few local businesses etc. but no grievances what-so-ever.
It's not impossible, just unlikely to be operated decent enough; But everyone should be aware they are buying from a teenager and set their expectations to that level.
Aside; Our local friendly Sunny CCP agent even compared us to iHostArt implying we suck because we won't offer him for the same or lower rate than Calin does
Yeah 7$ with current inflation is extremely low. As we offer Seedboxes we are in double pain there
(In theory shared hosting, but more resource consuming than VPS ...). Granted we are the only Seedbox provider here, i think, just tough to remain within those limits.
tbh, there are always those who will expect that to also be dedicated, with guaranteed 10Gbps bandwidth dedicated just to them XD
this made me think; Perhaps new provider offers (few first, or time period) should go into "moderation queue" before publicly visible so mods can check if everything looks legit.
Good middle ground, only a little bit of delay for new ones.
This would probably curb a little bit on scams; IF they are truly that prevalent here this thread makes it look like. ?? That's the actual question; Are they that prevalent or just businesses involucrating for reason or another?
Very well said, very well said!
Indeed, that cost has to be recouped, and less competition == higher prices.
Tho, this forum is still known for absurdly low prices for some stuff
It keeps us providers in check too, as a sounding board are we keeping stuff competitive.
I know we've accrued tons of fat over the years; Hell, we pay for accounting alone more than some providers here make in revenue ... I wish i was joking.
Tbh, offering VPN costs like 0.01€ per month apart from the basic maintenance & admin overhead. 1€ tho goes to transaction fees alone.
It's good marketing gimmick, which probably will cost him maybe 300€ over the course of the year if not much human time is required.
We have done many under cost impossible deals too for the marketing. They are called loss leaders.
To all: please vote in a poll. Now 40%+ is for fee increase up to 1000$. @jbiloh please take a note about that if next year plans are not yet finished.
Patronising talk and disregard towards others won't get you anywhere. You could simply state your opinion directly.
True. A provider would have to increase costs in order to cover that $1000 fee. You are right. However, that does not mean providers would look elsewhere. Some will go, some will stay.
Detrimental to LET members won't be, because it is likely that scammers would not invest $1000 for a provider tag.
Remote access on a machine is forbidden, at least in European Union, without consent. I believe they already check if a company is legit.
And here it goes sideways. There are many VPN providers who offer way more locations for lifetimes (not yearly, but lifetimes). That could be considered an scam too. However, we must give any provider the benefit of a doubt. After all, provider in this case only pays for bandwidth, and we can't know what upstream contracts they have.
If that happens, this forum needs to be renamed then, to HighEndTalk. RIP LowEndTalk.
HighEndTalk.com is already registered. Our admins would have to pay a high end price for that. Not to mention the person owning it would see our "bilohbucks" cryptocurrency with high end eyes.
$1k isn't much for a domain tbh.
This won't detter members. We are talking about provider fee. Business have money and provider tag fee is under the "marketing" expenditures line in books.
To compare with google ads:
Price on "vps hosting" keyword nowadays could go up to 25$/click. Yes, a click from google search engine ad could cost advertiser 25 dollars. With zero guarantee for conversion.
Now lowendtalk: CPM is not measured (if someone do that, please share data). But targeted audience convert like crazzy in compare with google ads.
JB knows that. If $7 goes to $10 price increase will also go up. Have no illusion, better to discuss about this now.
You are right. That would be the $1000 fee of just one current provider.
1000$? Who proposed this price? Maybe that one of the Top LET provider who wants small providers to be kicked out.
This can be recouped within few good offer threads with "post your invoice number" spam.
Then I hope the jannies are paid well.
How exactly did we get from reduce spam to increase provider fees anyways? This seems stupid as hell. Like others have said this could match highendtalk but around here the $200 for billboard usage state is already bad enough as is. For the longest time posting offers to LET didn't cost a single cent and the problems plaguing it these days did not exist. Controversial stance: The mere fact that LET is portrayed as a money making platform in itself is attracting scammers.
Your view biased by the "client" mentality, not business. You don't care/know about conversion, cpc etc. That's why 1000$ fee looks exorbitant. You don't see any value in that fee. But providers do.
Look how much closest competitor of LET charges: WHT (fck them). ~1200€ a year for corp membership as I recall.
WHT? They're charging that much for a membership at the Webhosting Haunted Town?
Nope i'm looking at it from a lowend perspective. If someone is after big business they should take their business to an appropriate place. Like for example... WHT. LET is exactly what WHT isn't, so your example pretty much works as an argument against exorbitant fees. Sure $1000 is not that much for a fully established business but it very much is for someone just starting out and also for those cutting corners to go for the lowest possible prices.
How much margin do think there is in $3/m VPS and how many of those does it need to recoup the investment? For a @repuc style operation in the other hand... Easily factored in and still highly profitable. If my opinion had any weight (and i know it very much hasn't) i'd simply drop the fees completely and never look back.
TL;DR: If you want professionalism WHT is over there.
This appears to be incorrect.... First and foremost, one does NOT need a provider tag there in order to post offers.
Second.... its 1440 USD per YEAR for the forum you mentioned if you are referring to their "Corporate Membership".
Hosts also have the option to get the "Premium Membership" as a provider for 50 usd per year.
The Tag/membership just allows you to post offers more frequently than the free users and have a "status symbol". (The second part may serve as a way to set oneself apart from other users).
I was paid membership in time when wht was top notch and for email blast alone my employee paid 6000€. One-time fee.
Times change, I no longer member on that forum.