Get rid of the new default 404 pages.

[enet]

Not that it bothers me as I fixed the issue as soon as I found out about it, but I think that should apologize. The reason being is that for resellers, the state:

Being a reseller is completely anonymous allowing you to act as an independent hosting company. Your customers won't know that you are reselling our hosting unless you tell them.

http://www.hostgator.com/resellers.shtml
Just my opinion.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by enet

Not that it bothers me as I fixed the issue as soon as I found out about it, but I think that should apologize. The reason being is that for resellers, the state:



http://www.hostgator.com/resellers.shtml
Just my opinion.

Didn't they say, much earlier in this thread, that the reseller pages had Google ads, but no mention of HG?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

Didn't they say, much earlier in this thread, that the reseller pages had Google ads, but no mention of HG?

Yes they did, and i think i said it in this thread too.

[J.Buesking]

Originally Posted by Dwight

This being your first post, and a HG customer for 5 years, I'd suggest you need to go read this entire forum to see what else you have missed... THIS is where you get notified of changes... usually in advance, albeit sometimes after the fact... but anyone that cares about their hosting business should check this forum at least once a week... or if you can't do that, subscribe to the announcements forum at least..

1. Read the entire forum? Are you serious?
2. I was never told that this is the official place to be notified of changes. Looks like peer support to me...
3. I don't run a hosting buisness. I manage website's. I check to make sure they are running properly. I shouldnt have to check on my host's website to make sure there doing there job.
4. This was never announced in the announcement section so your point there is mute.

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by J.Buesking

3. I don't run a hosting buisness. I manage website's. I check to make sure they are running properly. I shouldnt have to check on my host's website to make sure there doing there job.
4. This was never announced in the announcement section so your point there is mute.

Regarding these two points:

1. How are they not doing their job? Are your websites up? Accessible by visitors? Do you have the resources you've been promised?
2. The point isn't *moot*. It clearly was discussed in the forum and has been for months, in addition to other changes HG does.

[enet]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

Didn't they say, much earlier in this thread, that the reseller pages had Google ads, but no mention of HG?

They can still be tracked....

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

Didn't they say, much earlier in this thread, that the reseller pages had Google ads, but no mention of HG?

Originally Posted by enet

They can still be tracked....

IMO, this thread has now reached a level of absurdity that is way past purple pickles.

Yes, it's a valid point if HG replaced somebody's custom pages.

But for a reseller to even think about tracking Google Ads on his/her client's 404 pages (that don't say HG) instead of taking the much, much shorter time to either slap his/her custom ones back up, or ask support to do it, is just unbelievable.

It's even more unbelievable for a reseller to imagine that a visitor to his/her client's site who hits a 404 page with google ads but no indication whose page it is would take the time and effort to track down the ownership info.

HG should make one of the charity options some kind of counseling foundation for overstressed resellers.

[gtgeorge]

To require all users to read the entire forum is ludicrous and as far as monitoring announcements. I am not aware of any announcement made by HG that they were adding ad driven error pages.

Then comes the fact that in the knowledgebase you will find this:
http://support.hostgator.com/index.p...leid=2&nav=0,1

HostGator.com will NOT place ads on your site. That is one of the many advantages of having a paid host.

And as of checking today now reveals this:

We do have a default 404 page that can be replaced in a few seconds with your own that we recommend doing to help maximize your traffic. If you aren't sure how to do this open a ticket with us and we will be happy to do it for you. A 404 page is what loads when someone visits a page on your site that doesn't exist.

I guess that was HG's way of announcing it. But this also states that you can put in a support ticket and HG will change them for you.

But as I have said before. Debating it here in the forums will do little. If you don't like it, you can change hosts or submit your complaints to the proper individuals that control them and decided to do so in the first place.

[enet]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

IMO, this thread has now reached a level of absurdity that is way past purple pickles.

Yes, it's a valid point if HG replaced somebody's custom pages.

But for a reseller to even think about tracking Google Ads on his/her client's 404 pages (that don't say HG) instead of taking the much, much shorter time to either slap his/her custom ones back up, or ask support to do it, is just unbelievable.

It's even more unbelievable for a reseller to imagine that a visitor to his/her client's site who hits a 404 page with google ads but no indication whose page it is would take the time and effort to track down the ownership info.

HG should make one of the charity options some kind of counseling foundation for overstressed resellers.

LMAO must be getting paid from hostgator to defend them till the end on doing something against what they say on their site. Like I said, I could care less, but if you say something to prospective clients and do not stick to it, then what does that show people about a company? Either you are getting paid to defend them, or you have absolutely no sence of ethical business practices whatsoever!

[J.Buesking]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Regarding these two points:

1. How are they not doing their job? Are your websites up? Accessible by visitors? Do you have the resources you've been promised?
2. The point isn't *moot*. It clearly was discussed in the forum and has been for months, in addition to other changes HG does.

1. They are not doing there job by making server configuration changes that affect my website without properly notifying clients.
2. So not only do I have to make sure I check the announcement section I have to read all the post's in forum so I can be informed by a fellow HG peer. Good point....not

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by enet

LMAO must be getting paid from hostgator to defend them till the end on doing something against what they say on their site. Like I said, I could care less, but if you say something to prospective clients and do not stick to it, then what does that show people about a company? Either you are getting paid to defend them, or you have absolutely no sence of ethical business practices whatsoever!

The post of yours to which I responded did NOT mention any of the valid arguments against the HG 404 pages--such as HG overwriting custom 404s already in place, or George's point about the hosting TOS and what it says, or doesn't say, about ads.

Your post, in response to being reminded that the 404s on reseller accounts do not show HG's name, was apparently arguing that because the ads can be tracked, it is still a violation of the anonymity HG promises resellers.

IMO, you don't need to be taking HG money to think that's a silly argument.

My response certainly couldn't have had anything to do with your statement "if you say something to prospective clients and do not stick to it, then what does that show people about a company?" because you didn't raise that point until telling me I have no sense of ethical business practices.

But I do, and if you had, I would have thought it was a much stronger argument than the one about tracking the ads.

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by J.Buesking

1. They are not doing there job by making server configuration changes that affect my website without properly notifying clients.

You mean reducing load so your website works better? And then if you ask about it, volunteering to take the 2 seconds to fix it (which you could have done yourself in less time than it takes to ask/complain about it)? Is that what's not their job?

I'm tired of all the posts about this so I'm going to stop answering. Bottom line: when you rent space on somebody else's server, especially in a shared environment, the onus is on YOU to keep up with changes. And the great thing is that HG has plenty of competitors. If you really hate it that much then you're free to use your money, which is your strongest voice to them, with somebody else.

Just come back in a few months and let us know how the support and uptime are.

-Matt

[enet]

Originally Posted by gwyneth

The post of yours to which I responded did NOT mention any of the valid arguments against the HG 404 pages--such as HG overwriting custom 404s already in place, or George's point about the hosting TOS and what it says, or doesn't say, about ads.

Your post, in response to being reminded that the 404s on reseller accounts do not show HG's name, was apparently arguing that because the ads can be tracked, it is still a violation of the anonymity HG promises resellers.

IMO, you don't need to be taking HG money to think that's a silly argument.

My response certainly couldn't have had anything to do with your statement "if you say something to prospective clients and do not stick to it, then what does that show people about a company?" because you didn't raise that point until telling me I have no sense of ethical business practices.

But I do, and if you had, I would have thought it was a much stronger argument than the one about tracking the ads.

Sorry, I did not think I had to spell it out, thought my post said it all:

Not that it bothers me as I fixed the issue as soon as I found out about it, but I think that should apologize. The reason being is that for resellers, the state:


Quote:
Being a reseller is completely anonymous allowing you to act as an independent hosting company. Your customers won't know that you are reselling our hosting unless you tell them.
http://www.hostgator.com/resellers.shtml
Just my opinion.

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by enet

Sorry, I did not think I had to spell it out, thought my post said it all:

Reseller servers do not have HG's name anywhere on the 404 page or in the code. Look for yourself:

http://phaeton.websitewelcome.com/dfsd

[enet]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Reseller servers do not have HG's name anywhere on the 404 page or in the code. Look for yourself:

http://phaeton.websitewelcome.com/dfsd

I know that, and if you would have read the post, I was refering to the ad's and what they said on http://www.hostgator.com/resellers.shtml
I know their name is not on there but putting ad's on any page that a reseller uses is not remaining "completely anonymous"!

Do you guys know what the meaning of "completely anonymous" is? By the looks of it, not many on these forums do. I will say it once again, IT DID NOT BOTHER ME about the ad's as I changed mine as soon as I found out. Just saying that if a company is going to claim to current and future customers that they will remain completely anonymous, then by all menas, THEY SHOULD!

[YukonMaster]

I am not going to take the time to read 5 pages of bashing, but IMO, it should be up to the customers responsibility to change the default 404 page, you are not forced to keep it, you can change it, it is not that hard to do.

[enet]

No it's not hard to do, 5 minutes and it's all taken care of. I think they are upset because they were not informed about the change. Granted it was posted all over these forums, which if great, if you are told that you need to tabs here for updates. I never knew about the forum for the first 6 months I was with HG.

[J.Buesking]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

You mean reducing load so your website works better? And then if you ask about it, volunteering to take the 2 seconds to fix it (which you could have done yourself in less time than it takes to ask/complain about it)? Is that what's not their job?

I shouldn't have to ask about it or find out by myself or read every forum post.

They can say this reduced load but really it generated them some more revenue. I migrated websites. All the links that I had scattered across the net were broken. I made my 404's redirect to my new site's homepage so I would still get traffic. Little did I know a month later HG switched it to there BS coupon page with google ads. Since I have fixed this 6 months later my traffic has increased 2-3 times just in the last week. I've changed nothing but putting my custom error pages back to the way I originally created them.

Originally Posted by slapshotw

I'm tired of all the posts about this so I'm going to stop answering. Bottom line: when you rent space on somebody else's server, especially in a shared environment, the onus is on YOU to keep up with changes. And the great thing is that HG has plenty of competitors. If you really hate it that much then you're free to use your money, which is your strongest voice to them, with somebody else.

Just come back in a few months and let us know how the support and uptime are.

-Matt

You are very narrow minded to think like that. It would literally consume several hours a week to make sure all functions of my site's were operating properly when they could simply update there customer's. I get emails daily from several different service's I subscribe to when there is a change that could affect my service why should they not have to?

If I had just signed up this week it would be totally different. I don't care what there error pages look like because like stated in this thread it only takes 1 minute to make a custom one. Mine were overwritten with there ads! When you make changes that could literally make a website commit suicide they need to let you know.


A simple we messed up and we will do better to keep our clients updated would satisfy me. Instead they ignore the situation and once they get called out on it they decide to give the money to charity...

[Sam]

Originally Posted by enet

Do you guys know what the meaning of "completely anonymous" is?

Your never completley anonymous on a reseller server, just do a dns report and look for the mailserver.. it reveals the hostname xxx.websitewelcome.com

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by enet

I know their name is not on there but putting ad's on any page that a reseller uses is not remaining "completely anonymous"!

I honestly have no idea what part of those pages stop them from being anonymous. Seriously, I read your post and still don't get it. You look at that page and the source and there's no mention of HG anywhere.

[othellobloke]

Originally Posted by enet

No it's not hard to do, 5 minutes and it's all taken care of. I think they are upset because they were not informed about the change. Granted it was posted all over these forums, which if great, if you are told that you need to tabs here for updates. I never knew about the forum for the first 6 months I was with HG.

Neither did I. What's really irritating me now is people saying just get over... it's been discussed here for a long time, blah blah blah.

Why can't people just accept HG says that spiel about no ads being forced on hosting... etc. Replacing without notifying isn't polite or ethical.

After three or so weeks of me seeing people complaining... I STILL don't get why HG wont' just be mature enough to apologise.

[gtgeorge]

Originally Posted by othellobloke

Neither did I. What's really irritating me now is people saying just get over... it's been discussed here for a long time, blah blah blah.

Why can't people just accept HG says that spiel about no ads being forced on hosting... etc. Replacing without notifying isn't polite or ethical.

After three or so weeks of me seeing people complaining... I STILL don't get why HG wont' just be mature enough to apologise.

Apologies would be an admission of guilt and might require removal then. It would also have to come from the owner or his order. Are users asking for an apology contacting him other than continually whinnying and complaining within a forum?

I was wondering about them too. I have custom 404's without ads, so it never bothered me. I just found this thread and read the Hostgator support staff post telling me to add 'Errordocument 404 /404.shtml' in my htaccess and everything would be fine.

It is and I'm happy. Now back to my day.

[othellobloke]

Of course they're guilty. They did it. I didn't do it. Nor did any other reseller.

As I said before, contrition can go a LONG LONG way.

So they won't check the forums when an issue comes up, but the customers are supposed to check for announcements? Doesn't seem fair.

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by othellobloke

Of course they're guilty. They did it. I didn't do it. Nor did any other reseller.

As I said before, contrition can go a LONG LONG way.

They'd have to think what they did was wrong to apologize. Them doing something wrong is not fact, it's your and some other people's opinions. I don't think they did anything wrong, and neither do some other people and apparently Hostgator.