Perhaps it's time for a request template?

[wswd]

Looking at all the request posts, where potential clients never elaborate in the slightest, causing what should be simple request threads to go on for 3 and 4 pages, perhaps it's time for a "Request Template" to force people to follow?

Force people to list the disk space, transfer, server location (if it matters), any special requests, etc. For VPS and dedicated, really start requiring some serious answers.

Perhaps these threads wouldn't turn into 3 and 4 page threads if the hosts wouldn't have to continually ask the OPs additional questions and get clarifications.

[Peo]

Thanks for your suggestion. I don't know how to force people to include certain info in a request. Anyone know a mod that could do that? Even if we could do it I'm sure one reason requests don't include that info from the start is most users don't know for instance how much bandwidth they will be using. Forcing them to make something up doesn't really do us any good.

[wswd]

I agree. I don't think it's an exact science by any means as far as what people are looking for, and you're right that a lot of people simply don't know. But either way, the hosts HAVE to find out, or it's just a crapshoot. If somebody comes looking for a VPS, for example, I can offer anything from $5 - $100+. It's just impossible to make a decent offer.


We could have ranges, i.e. Disk space: 1-10GB, 11-25GB, 26-50GB etc.

I don't know, it was a just a thought. It seems like in most of the request threads, we end up going pages because the hosts have to pry information from the OPs.

[Peo]

I think most people have a budget, so that way it takes care of itself in the vast majority of cases. They mention the price they are willing to pay and you post what you can offer at that price. But, I'm willing to try your idea if there is some mod out there that could solve this.

[Sain Cai]

Even making it a sticky of what people need to list is a good idea. If they fail to fill the required areas, their post gets deleted.

Personally I believe a required field would be "State EXACTLY what hosting will be used for" type deal.

[wswd]

I think most people have a budget, so that way it takes care of itself in the vast majority of cases. They mention the price they are willing to pay and you post what you can offer at that price.

Unfortunately most don't list a budget either. Some certainly do, and that is indeed helpful. Not sure if there are any mods that particularly cover that sort of thing. Let me see what I can dig up.

[Peo]

Even making it a sticky of what people need to list is a good idea. If they fail to fill the required areas, their post gets deleted.

Personally I believe a required field would be "State EXACTLY what hosting will be used for" type deal.

A sticky with suggested info to put in a request post could be one idea if there is no mod. But we are definately not going to remove requests simply because they did not include this info.

[Jan]

Personally I believe a required field would be "State EXACTLY what hosting will be used for" type deal.
Why? It's none of your business. You aren't even a host supposedly.

To the OP. please do remember that there are thousands of people out there looking for hosting for the first time. They have absolutely no idea what they are looking for, apart from a host.

[wswd]

To the OP. please do remember that there are thousands of people out there looking for hosting for the first time. They have absolutely no idea what they are looking for, apart from a host.

Then we can't help them. If they don't have any idea what they need, then as Sain Cai said, they need to say what they are planning on hosting, otherwise there's nothing we can do to make them an offer. i.e. Wordpress Blog. Ahhhh, okay, then a simple 10GB of space and 50GB of bandwith will more than suffice. Video Streaming Site: That's going to be a little more intensive, require specialized hosting, etc. I'm not going to waste my time with a 10/50 plan.

Everyone has an idea of what they need, simply by virtue of what they are planning on hosting. Or...we can at least tell them what they need, with that info. ;)

[Schmarvin]

Why? It's none of your business. You aren't even a host supposedly.

To the OP. please do remember that there are thousands of people out there looking for hosting for the first time. They have absolutely no idea what they are looking for, apart from a host.

Actually, as a registered company. I'm entitled to know whats being hosted on my servers. Although I am not allowed confidential data, the type of site and publicly viewable content is to be known before I host anyone.

So, I vote that we at least require a request to state what type of site they want to host.

[Jan]

You can request it if you want of individual requesters, but I have never known of hosts requiring that information up front, in all the years on hosting forums and as a hosting client. If they did, there wouldn't be automatic registrations.

Anyone can sign up to your service through the link in your signature. I don't see a field there asking what I am hosting.

[sander k]

I think that this modification can do that: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=234385&page=105

[Peo]

Thanks, I'll look into that one. In the meantime, any suggestion on what should be included in that template? This will be tested first and the template should be short in my opinion.

My suggestion:

- Budget
- Space
- Bandwidth
- Location of datacenter
- Shared hosting / VPS / Dedicated server / Cloud / I don't know
- If you are going to host special content, please describe it (for instance adult content, video hosting etc)
- If you require any special features, please list them here (for instance PHP, mySQL, cPanel, daily backups, parked domains)
- Anything else you'd like to mention to webhosts

Most if not all of those should be optional as some will not know much about what they want or need. They might need to discuss it with you guys first.

[Peo]

I'm testing the mod and it looks like it doesn't work the way we want. I'll continue testing it though to see if it can be solved.

[wswd]

Thanks, I'll look into that one. In the meantime, any suggestion on what should be included in that template? This will be tested first and the template should be short in my opinion.

My suggestion:

- Budget
- Space
- Bandwidth
- Location of datacenter
- Shared hosting / VPS / Dedicated server / Cloud / I don't know
- If you are going to host special content, please describe it (for instance adult content, video hosting etc)
- If you require any special features, please list them here (for instance PHP, mySQL, cPanel, daily backups, parked domains)
- Anything else you'd like to mention to webhosts

Most if not all of those should be optional as some will not know much about what they want or need. They might need to discuss it with you guys first.

That looks good to me! The whole thing should be optional, but highly encouraged. For those who don't know what they need, knowing what they plan on hosting is going to be paramount, since we can generally figure out what they need by what they plan on hosting...even if they don't know what they need.

[Peo]

The form is here (http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/forms.php?do=form&fid=1). The form content will be submitted to Paid hosting requests. Feedback?

Not sure if it's possible to require members to use this form.

[Jan]

The whole thing should be optional, but highly encouraged.
And encouraged politely.

[Kwek]

I'd like to throw in my two cents as well.

If you feel that there shouldn't be a need for you to nudge the person requesting the hosting in the right direction due to a lack of mandatory requirements, I believe that you are free to advertise your web host in response to the request given that said reply satisfies whatever the request has explicitly stated. If they knew precisely what they needed, they probably would not be here; searching on Google with their exact requirements would yield faster and more results. In fact, there is even a web hosting directory on this site to facilitate the search for a web host given exact specifications, isn't there? I haven't looked at it in years, though, so I'm not sure how it stands now. One reason that they need to post on a forum is probably because they are unclear and need guidance as to what they really need. I do not think it unnecessary that they need to be prompted. If you demand that they fulfil a certain request template, you might as well point them to the web hosting directory.

[Peo]

Well, you've got a point Kwek. But filling out a form and getting several replies by real people representing hosts is something different than searching google or our directory of hosts. Some members might like it, others may not. On the other hand this request came from a web host. So, would web hosts be willing to post their offers to this forum through a form too? I doubt it.

I'm willing to test this out to see if those who request hosting will use it or prefer to just make a normal post.

[wswd]

I couldn't disagree more with Kwek, to be honest.

Google does not provide reviews and advice from real people, who have used or are currently using a service. Ever wonder why WHT is so popular? That's why. You get thousands of real people, industry professionals, who know what they're talking about. The same is true here, just on a smaller scale. There is a lot of combined knowledge on the forum here.

I've been in the industry 16 years, as of a few days ago. I know very well what the heck I'm doing. I know EXACTLY what I want, what specs I need, and how much I want to pay for it. But when I recently went looking for an east coast datacenter for some dedicated boxes or co-lo space, guess where I went? :)

People who have no idea what they're looking for do indeed show up on web hosting forums, but I'd say they are far, far outnumbered by the people who are experienced, know generally what they're looking for, and simply want some opinions/offers. At least that's what I have seen.

[Kwek]

People who have no idea what they're looking for do indeed show up on web hosting forums, but I'd say they are far, far outnumbered by the people who are experienced, know generally what they're looking for, and simply want some opinions/offers. At least that's what I have seen.

Ironically, if they are in the minority insofar that you'd say "far, far outnumbered", what phenomenon gives rise to this thread? If this forum is an exception to what you have seen generally on other forums, it is necessary that we are an exact mimic of something else?

A search on Google would probably yield more results from web hosting directories and web hosting forums like WHT, which may contain plenty of reviews depending on the exact host in question. Google doesn't provide anything; it simply gathers the collective knowledge of the world wide web, which includes this and other popular discussion forums. My point was that they do not need to post their requests. If they are indeed so experienced, they would be able to gather the necessary information from what is already out there. Every other day I see a new review on the usual web hosts popping up, which are then indexed by Google. This information will then be available to those who search. I'm not sure what you meant by "real people" in this case. Requirements alone on Google are not going to bring you straight to a web host's homepage. One might appear on the first page of the results, but there certainly is more information to dig into as well.

I'm not attempting to say that experienced people have no place seeking offers with very precise requirements on such forums, but we must be considerate of those who have not dabbled in the scene for long yet.

[wswd]

Ironically, if they are in the minority insofar that you'd say "far, far outnumbered", what phenomenon gives rise to this thread? If this forum is an exception to what you have seen generally on other forums, it is necessary that we are an exact mimic of something else?

Nope, not something from another forum at all. It was simply a suggestion that makes a whole lot of sense. The phenomenon that gives rise to the thread, is that recently I've noticed people are leaving out very basic information in their requests. What should be a simple one post request turns into 3 and 4 pages of question and answer sessions between potential clients and potential hosts.


Google doesn't provide anything; it simply gathers the collective knowledge of the world wide web, which includes this and other popular discussion forums.

You can spare me the Google 101 lesson. I know exactly what Google does and how it works, thanks. ;)

By "real people" I mean an active community of just that...real people...who are using the services, can answer any specific questions you might have, etc. If you use Google to lookup hosting reviews, for example, what are you going to come up with? I'm sure you know as well as I do that 99% of the review sites out there are BS. Sure, you might come up with a few forum posts somewhere. Many are probably years old. Forums are great for people who know what they're doing and what they want.


but we must be considerate of those who have not dabbled in the scene for long yet.

I think an optional form does just that. We are encouraging people to come up with real specifications, and those who don't know are more than welcome to go through the Q&A sessions just like they do now.

[Kwek]

Forums are great for people who know what they're doing and what they want.
What about those who do not know what they want?


I think an optional form does just that. We are encouraging people to come up with real specifications, and those who don't know are more than welcome to go through the Q&A sessions just like they do now.
How is that different from the current situation?

I understand what you are hitting at, but a mandatory form may intimidate the newbies, while an optional form doesn't really change anything. It may make it less of a hassle for some people to construct their hosting requests, but does it have any significant impact on the current situation that we are examining?

[Peo]

I say we try it and see what happens. It's optional, so if anyone is intimidated by the form, they can just post a normal request thread. It's live now.

[wswd]

What about those who do not know what they want?

Forums are great for them too. Forums are great for everyone. :)


but does it have any significant impact on the current situation that we are examining?

No clue. We haven't tried it yet. I'm sure hoping it does. :)


To go back to the people who don't know what they want, if I may. Ideally, people who don't know what they want shouldn't be in the request forum to begin with. They should first go to the "discussion" part of the forum, say what they're looking for, and get an idea on what they need, and then go make a request with that new-found knowledge. Then the request forums are simple and clean. That's ideally of course.

[Kwek]

To go back to the people who don't know what they want, if I may. Ideally, people who don't know what they want shouldn't be in the request forum to begin with. They should first go to the "discussion" part of the forum, say what they're looking for, and get an idea on what they need, and then go make a request with that new-found knowledge. Then the request forums are simple and clean. That's ideally of course.


That is the ideal situation in your opinion. When we leave things open, there is a greater amount of flexibility, and it is thus easier to make the general public happy; when we impose far too many constraints, people tend to shy away.

Anyway, I am not against the implementation of such a form, although I question its effectiveness. I guess now that Peo has made it available to the public we can all assess how well it works.

[Schmarvin]

Very nice template. Think one could be made up for the free hosting requests?

[sander k]

Which modification did you use now? Is that easy forums?

[Peo]

No, easy forms. :p Thanks sander!

[Peo]

Very nice template. Think one could be made up for the free hosting requests?

Yes, I'll do a shorter version for the free hosting section within a day or two.