Is my site(s) breaking the TOS?

[Zhono]

Not really a pre-sales question, as I've already purchased hosting, but I can't post anywhere else yet.

A few weeks ago I switched from Godaddy, to Hostgator. Mostly because of Godaddy's vague rules regarding adult content, but also because their service is pretty slow, more often than not.

Before I ordered my HG hosting, I read through the TOS several times to be sure my sites were all acceptable for a shared hosting account. The only thing I found that worried me was:

Examples of unacceptable material on all Shared and Reseller servers include:

Banner-Ad services (commercial banner ad rotation)

One of my sites provides various services for anime/videogame based websites, one of which being a free banner exchange. I figured that wasn't allowed, and it had long since went dead anyways, so I opted to just remove the service from that site.

But the other main feature of that site, and the one that is relatively popular(at least compared to my other sites, as it's the only one with any traffic) is a hit counter service. Basically, you select the graphical style counter you like, drop in your email, and get the html to stick pretty much wherever you want to count pageviews. Nothing very original, but people seem to like it. The question there, is that type of site allowed on shared hosting? Am I at risk of having my account suspended(along with my other sites) if it's not allowed? While it is the only site I have which current gets any traffic, it's not a whole heck of a lot.

And my next TOS question. As I was looking around for some answers to the first question, I found this in the support/pre-sales section of HG.com:

Legal and Acceptable Content

Acceptable content for websites. Does HostGator allow my site?

For more information, we recommend reading the Terms of Service section 2.

Do you allow adult sites?
Yes, we allow adult sites. They must be legal in the United States of America.
Do you allow sites to advertise for money?
Yes, we allow sites to have commercial advertisements.
Can I use advertisement banners?
Static HTML banners are allowed, but a script-based banner uses the server processor and can crash the server (especially if the banner loads on many different pages).
Examples of unacceptable material for shared and reseller:
STORING FILES - Our shared servers are not for archiving data, files, videos, mp3's or anything else. Archiving means storage, keeping a copy or backup, etc. We try to be flexible but if someone wants the Baby plan to store 80 gigs of videos this is not something we can do.
MEDIA STREAMING - HTTP stream has a defined beginning and end. Live stream joins in the middle of a broadcast, like tv, radio or webcam. We do support HTTP stream, but not live stream on a shared server.
Examples of unacceptable material for all servers (even dedicated):

• IRC
• Pirated Software (Warez)
• Hateful/Racist/Harassment oriented sites
• Hacker focused sites/archives/programs
• Bank Debenture/ Trading Programs / Forex
• ...more can be located in our TOS

Just a quote of the TOS page, but then, in the comments/questions:

Harry
Do you allow websites which offers music downloads?
Posted: September 30, 2009

HostGator
Yes, that is perfectly acceptable.

However, copyright infringement is not acceptable. Also, if your site begins to exceed the resource limits of a shared hosting plan, you will be required to move to a dedicated hosting plan.
Posted: September 30, 2009

But then, further down:

customer
I am going to start my own radioshow but i want to archive my shows in mp3 for people to download is that acceptable?
Posted: April 23, 2010

HostGator
First, a radio broadcast website is only allowed on a VPS or Dedicated server, and you can save all the mp3's you want on VPS or dedicated (within the disk space limit).

If you are on a shared server, then you cannot host the radio station, and you cannot store the mp3's.
Posted: April 26, 2010

I get the streaming part, but this is basically saying that you, in fact, can't provide mp3's to your visitors, when it was just stated previously that you could.

And finally, just below that:

sam
Hi, im a music producer and i want to sell my music for licensing and non exclusive or exclusive purchases. will Host gator allow me to upload and post my mp3's for play and download?
Posted: May 17, 2010

HostGator
Yes, that is definitely allowed on a VPS or dedicated server. A dedicated is recommended for heavy traffic sites.

It is not as possible on a shared (and reseller) server. A shared server does not allow archiving large amounts of image, audio, and video files.

I understood that using your diskspace for storage was not allowed, but I thought that sites where those same files made up the actual, viewable content were perfectly fine. My concern, is that several of my sites are image galleries, and as such, the main content is made up of images, and a few flash games and flv videos. I have several wallpaper sites, and a few adult galleries which are not actually up yet(and are the very reason I moved to HG in the first place.) Aside from the inode limit, which I'm not even close to yet, I didn't think there'd be a problem. Are my sites okay, or are they violating the TOS, and I just don't realize?

I know this could all be solved by getting dedi, but honestly, none of my sites currently see any traffic, or earn any revenue(obviously), and I'm lucky to be able to pay the $10/month for the shared hosting. If/when any of my sites take off to the point where I can afford a dedi, I'm definitely going to upgrade, just for the fact that work on many projects that I've had to hold off on.

But back to my concern here: are my sites okay?

[gwyneth]

Remember that the forum isn't continually monitored by staff--most of us are peers, or fellow customers. So you can't get definitive answers unless you write support (at) hostgator.com.

Have you seen this chart? Compatible Technologies

Also, it might be helpful to read this thread , for a better perspective on the TOS than taking the elements in isolation.

[Zhono]

Thanks for the info, and the links. I hadn't seen that chart before, and it answered a few questions I would have had down the road.

Guess I'll just have to email support then, and ask them about it. Although I'm still open to any input from other users who've had experience with this previously, or have had/currently have those types of sites.

[Rulersepp]

Well here's my experience: I'm coming from Bluehost and am now using HG for the most of my sites. I'm a classic affiliate and also launch a couple of poker sites. These are just simple information and nothing illegal whatsoever. HG wanted to know what I was supposed to do with those sites. They thought that I was hosting real money games which can't be true of course. I think the same counts for forex for example.