Drugs wrote:Although it does seem like phpBB is endorsing these hosting companies, I find it a great "resource." I just got new hosting about a week ago and it was with a company I found through here. 600 GB of space an 6 TB of bandwidt. One of the best deals I've ever found. If it wasn't for phpBB, I might be using a hosting company that charges double for half the resources.
No, if it weren't for phpBB, you might be using a host that doesn't oversell it's resources to ridiculous levels. And that's a worrying statement.
The minimum that any of the hosts listed on the affiliates page offer is 350GB disk space and 4TB (TB!!!) of monthly bandwidth. The maximum is 1.2TB of disk space, and 12TB of bandwidth. All for ~ $5 per month.
This is completely insane, and is nothing short of lies. They are not offering you that at all, and if you begin to use anywhere near that you'll be kicked off for "excessive server CPU usage" or such like. To offer you a server capable of 1.2TB redundant disk space and 12TB bandwidth the company would need a small network of servers just to host your site alone, it's ridiculous.
I personally don't have much of an issue with phpBB having 'affiliates' in the general sense, if they are at least checked out beyond "supports php and a db and therefore runs phpBB" (ie. 99% of hosts) and "willing to give us money". That's not an affiliate host, it's just any old host. There are a hell of a lot of good hosts that would be willing to sponsor phpBB, it's a shame to see you've sold out to these guys. Having them place banner
adverts on the site is one thing, but to call them phpBB
affiliates indicates something else.
Overselling has always been one of the major issues in the industry, and will be the number one cause of rubbish service and unreliable phpBB installs that people visiting this site encounter. To see phpBB actually endorsing these guys (and not just advertising them) is worrying indeed.
PS: Most of those affiliate accounts, from their specifications, would easily run all of phpBB.com. If they are truly valued affiliates, why don't phpBB do as they preach and run their site off one of those $5 accounts?