Shared Hosting Forum Hosting Script

[calum]

Hi.

I am thinking about setting up a forum hosting for posting website in which people will post a certain number of times each month and I will host there forum for free.

I would be using a script that I have to run all the forums from one copy of phpBB.

I looked at the ToS to find out whether I would be breaching any part of the agreement.

I found this:

11.) Shared (non-reseller accounts) / Semidedicated Servers
Shared accounts may not resell web hosting to other people, if you wish to resell hosting you must use a reseller account. Semidedicated servers are not backed up. You must maintain your own backups.

I don't know wether I would be allowed to give away free forum hosting.

I would not be selling or reselling my hosting, I would be exchanging it or rewarding people with it for posting on my forum.

I have sent a support ticket asking but in the mean time I wondered what everyone else here thinks.

Regards
Calum

[phatchopolis]

Depending on the size of the site and popularity I don't see a shared account being able to support the demands of such an enterprise.

[calum]

Well It wouldn't be that big, it can run from 1 copy of phpBB so there isn't a large demand on disk space and I think the forums that people would run would be small because big forums would buy there own hosting.

I also got a reply from the ticket saying that I will be able to if I don't use too much resources.

Thanks HG.

[ldearing]

as most of these type sites are usually fairly small ... and since there are multiple upgrade paths incase they really grow, i don't see a problem for a while on shared resources... the actual question is TOS.

while HG interpretaton rules... i dont think this violates TOS as there is no "reselling" going on here.... similar to the many here hosting multiple sites for friends, family, and barter.

i know we have discussed this here before but i could not get the right search string... couldn't grab the old threads.

[eLIANT]

Originally Posted by calum

"11.) Shared (non-reseller accounts) / Semidedicated Servers
Shared accounts may not resell web hosting to other people, if you wish to resell hosting you must use a reseller account."

I would not be selling or reselling my hosting, I would be exchanging it or rewarding people with it for posting on my forum.

I think "exchanging it or rewarding people with it" falls within the spirit of the TOS against reselling. The results are all the same: you receive a benefit, your "customers" receive a benefit, and the demands on the server go up. The only thing that is not the same is that HG doesn't get any additional money.

Why not open a reseller account and do all the things you were planning on doing? You give each of your customers a cPanel so they get the free account, but you pay HG the money they are entitled to.

[calum]

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

I am going to go ahead with it because it is within the ToS and I think the hosting should cope at the beginning but if it does get bigger then there will probably be lots of users on my forum, which means I can generate more ad revenue and afford better hosting.

The reason I am staying on shared atm is because I can't afford dedicated or even reseller at the moment.

Thanks for your help.

[slapshotw]

Your problem won't be with diskspace, it'll be with simultaneous MySQL connections if anything.

[Arez]

You're installing phpBB more than once and giving someone admin. I don't see how that's anything like reselling!

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by Arez

You're installing phpBB more than once and giving someone admin. I don't see how that's anything like reselling!

The OP says his script runs from one (1) copy of phbBB.

[calum]

Yeah it runs from 1 copy of phpbb. The only thing I am worried about is the 25 MySQL connections per database/MySQl user.

The forums are designed for beginners because I will do all the php updates and more advanced users would buy there own hosting etc.

Most beginner or early forums don't really have many people so I think the MySQL should manage.

I had an idea of only putting 10 forums in each database, which would give more MySQL connections per forum. Do you think I should try and do this?

Thanks
Calum

[ldearing]

Originally Posted by calum

... I had an idea of only putting 10 forums in each database, which would give more MySQL connections per forum. Do you think I should try and do this?

that might be a good way to do it...but more database savy people will speak to that...

however i think a very good idea would be to keep your main forum database seperate from your other forum databases. that way if it starts looking bad you can shut down other databases and not affect your main forum

.... and make sure your contact email address here is not associated with your actual account so you can always get notification emails.

[calum]

Yes. My actual forum you post on is running from a different MySQL database and user and its running MyBB.

Right now there is one database for the other forums and it works because each table starts with the name of the user whos forum it is. So bob's users table would be bob_users and jim's would be jim_users.

I am going to keep with one database now and wait for it to expand before I decide whether the MySQL is too limited.

Also my email address for notifications is completely different. I am using the email I got from my isp from that and emails connected to the domains for other things.

[slapshotw]

Are you sure it's per user?

[calum]

Yes, it limits the number of simultaneous MySQL connections but I am not sure whether its per database or MySQL users.

I hope its for users because then I could add about 10 MySQL users to the database and make it randomly select one user for each forum that is created.

Any other ideas to overcome the MySQL limits?

[csjc2662]

Originally Posted by calum

Yes, it limits the number of simultaneous MySQL connections but I am not sure whether its per database or MySQL users.

I hope its for users because then I could add about 10 MySQL users to the database and make it randomly select one user for each forum that is created.

Any other ideas to overcome the MySQL limits?

Originally Posted by GatorShashank

...
Hostgator implies a 30 concurrent connections per mysql user limit on script to prevent heavy mysql load on the server and to hunt down scripts that use unnecessary mysql connections due to bad coding practices.
...
The limit is 30 and no longer 25 on all the servers

So yes you could create 10 users and randomly pic them but if the forums are really needing that many connections at once and the script is using mysql_connect() not mysql_pconnect() you would need a semi-dedicated if not a full dedi for sure as that means that every db user is handling 30 clicks by users within seconds and 30X10 = 300 clicks(db queries) every few seconds and that will have a hugh toll on the system resources and you already know how the TOS looks at that.

[calum]

Yeah but I really don't think I will need that anyway. Small forums hardly have any people so there wont be too many MySQL connections.

I will have to wait and see if it uses too many resources.

[ldearing]

Originally Posted by calum

...I will have to wait and see if it uses too many resources.

...thats the key, but jump up BEFORE you hit the ceiling... not after. if your site grows that much you would not want to suffer an account shut down. sounds like you're on top of it

[calum]

Yes, I would monitor it a lot while it is still growing, my plan is that if/when I am hosting lots of forums I will upgrade to semi dedicated or dedicated and I would be able to afford it because of more people clicking ads since there are more members.