ads on 404 pages and searchportal redirect

[Adolf Perez]

Why were they placed in the first place? I though when I pay for hosting nobody would put any ads on my sites w/out my permission.

As for searchportal redirect, I though I caught a browser hijack or a malware of some sort. Just Google for it and you will see. Thanks for wasting 2 hours of my time checking all of my hard drives for viruses and spy/malware with several programs.

Finally why I wasn't notified by email about this change? This is disgusting to find such "surprises" as I always thought HG stands 100% behind their reputation and joined because of this.

[PsiPro]

This issue has been discussed to death. This change was made ages ago on most servers.

[Adolf Perez]

My old 404 pages (where I had them) were removed though, unless controlled by something like WordPress.
Sure its possible to bring them back easily, but why I have to do it in the first place, without even a small notification by email? I thought this was not a free host, and my monthly bills surely confirm that!

And searchportal thing was really one disgusting surprise.

[PsiPro]

Originally Posted by Adolf Perez

My old 404 pages (where I had them) were removed though, unless controlled by something like WordPress.

Worldpress will control your 404 via .htaccess i believe.

These new pages were just added at the server-wide level to prevent double errors. If you didn't have the 404 pages you would generate 1 404 error, and another error for not having a 404 error page.

Originally Posted by Adolf Perez

Sure its possible to bring them back easily, but why I have to do it in the first place, without even a small notification by email? I thought this was not a free host, and my monthly bills surely confirm that!

And searchportal thing was really one disgusting surprise.

See other thread. It boils down to "Because it is your responsibility to create a 404 page and not use the server's defaults"

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by PsiPro

See other thread. It boils down to "Because it is your responsibility to create a 404 page and not use the server's defaults"

Plus, PsiPro very tactfully didn't mention that you can avoid the issue entirely by making sure that your site doesn't have 404 errors.

[kmaw]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

Plus, PsiPro very tactfully didn't mention that you can avoid the issue entirely by making sure that your site doesn't have 404 errors.

Righto... existing user pages weren't supposed to be overwritten, but it seems to have happened in some cases...

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Adolf Perez

My old 404 pages (where I had them) were removed though

Have the pages actualy been removed or are they just not showing?

[Pitrow]

Originally Posted by Adolf Perez

Finally why I wasn't notified by email about this change?

This has been the major sticking point for me with HostGator. Any time they make changes of this sort that effect all of their clients, they should be sending out a warning message via email BEFORE the changes take place. Not everyone is aware of this forum, and half the time, changes aren't even posted in here anyway. They obviously have email addresses for every one of us, how hard would it be to send out a quick email to all of us saying "hey, just a heads up but we're making changes to XYZ" Yes that's a lot of emails to send, but you know what? That's part of running a business, doing everything you can to make sure your clients are aware of things that may effect their relationship with you.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Pitrow

This has been the major sticking point for me with HostGator. Any time they make changes of this sort that effect all of their clients, they should be sending out a warning message via email BEFORE the changes take place. Not everyone is aware of this forum, and half the time, changes aren't even posted in here anyway. They obviously have email addresses for every one of us, how hard would it be to send out a quick email to all of us saying "hey, just a heads up but we're making changes to XYZ" Yes that's a lot of emails to send, but you know what? That's part of running a business, doing everything you can to make sure your clients are aware of things that may effect their relationship with you.

It would take a while to send out a mass mail as hg host over 700,000 domains

[kmaw]

Right, I feel sorry for shared users...

New communication methods were promised by GatorDaveM long ago, but nothing has ever been implemented.....

[gtgeorge]

Originally Posted by kmaw

Right, I feel sorry for shared users...

New communication methods were promised by GatorDaveM long ago, but nothing has ever been implemented.....

Nope or there would have been an announcement when they added the domain add redirects also! Changes like this are usually found by accident.

[gwyneth]

If the OP signed up for hosting after this policy was implemented, as appears to be the case, he doesn't have as much to complain about as people who had accounts before it was changed.

He should realize also that 404 pages aren't really "on" his site--they're server messages. I know that's splitting hairs and not much comfort.

The other threads about this explain how to put the custom ones up.

[Pitrow]

Originally Posted by _Sam_

It would take a while to send out a mass mail as hg host over 700,000 domains

And your point? Just because something will take a while to do, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. It takes me a long time to prepare estimates for work, does that mean I don't have to do it any more? No.

You don't think ebay, paypal, amazon, etc. all have huge email databases? I get emails from them every time their terms of service are updated, so don't tell me it can't be done.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Pitrow

so don't tell me it can't be done.

When did i say it couldn't be done?

All i said is that it would take a while to do it!

[Pitrow]

sorry, I meant to imply that it can't be done in a reasonable amount of time.

[kmaw]

Originally Posted by Pitrow

You don't think ebay, paypal, amazon, etc. all have huge email databases? I get emails from them every time their terms of service are updated, so don't tell me it can't be done.

HG looks after mailing lists for iNET Interactive...

WebHostingTalk.com is the web hosting industry's most frequented online discussion forum. The monthly newsletter circulation is 70,000.

HotScripts.com is the Internets largest and most-visited directory of scripts and programs for web developers. Its monthly newsletter circulation comes in at 300,000.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by kmaw

HG looks after mailing lists for iNET Interactive...

Cool. i never knew that

[PsiPro]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

Plus, PsiPro very tactfully didn't mention that you can avoid the issue entirely by making sure that your site doesn't have 404 errors.

Tact is my third middle name, right after Scott, Obnoxious and Sarcastic.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by PsiPro

Tact is my third middle name, right after Scott, Obnoxious and Sarcastic.

Um, wouldn't that be fourth?

As in PsiScottObnoxiousSarcasticTactPro. PSOSTPro, for short.

[Adolf Perez]

Maybe there's something I don't get but nothing in their ToS says they can put ads on ANY pages of my site. There's a default 404 page in Apache that was overridden with theirs.
Cmon, this is not a FREE host !

Only hoping I grow enough to get rid of HG and get dedicated somewhere else, where I can control everything 100% and not have to deal with such surprises. Now I understand where those crazy bandwidth and storage offers come from...

[GvilleRick]

There is no ad placed on any page of your site. They replaced the default 404 page on the server. In the time it takes to dig up an old post you could have corrected it so that it is no longer an issue on your site.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by Adolf Perez

Maybe there's something I don't get but nothing in their ToS says they can put ads on ANY pages of my site.

1. There is nothing that says they won't.

2. Rick is correct. These pages are not on your site; they appear when your site does not produce the page it is supposed to.

An analogy would be a parking lot that rents you a space. HG is not slapping an ad on your car; it is slapping an ad on the parking space that shows up when your car is not there.

3. It takes about five minutes to make your own to replace HG's.

[othellobloke]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

3. It takes about five minutes to make your own to replace HG's.

Who cares about the time it takes? It's the principles. A standard 404 is okay. The cash going to charity alleviates the grievance, but it would have been nice at the start to inform people via email.

To all...

can we stop talking about this stupid issue?

the HostGator sycophants all think HG didn't do anything wrong by being sneaky, and the others think HostGator could've emailed people to inform their users.

Both crowds aren't going to agree, and HostGator won't apologise for not emailing its users to inform them of the change, and so it would be really nice if everyone would drop the subject.

[Sickm000nkey]

Oh joy, they are showing up on non-existent sub domains.
Tried putting 404.shtml in my root folder, including a nice .htaccess with the correct settings, but it doesn't seem to work.

For directory errors the custom 404 works fine. For subdirectories I get a nice little searchportal advertisement.

Has anyone figured out how to bypass this?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Sickm000nkey

For directory errors the custom 404 works fine. For subdirectories I get a nice little searchportal advertisement.

Has anyone figured out how to bypass this?

You can't avoid that.