What are the best Web Hosting Forums to learn more about the industry?

[Mason_TierNet]

I am looking for more web hosting forums to spend my time learning about the industry. Any advice will help.

 

[Artashes]

There used to be so many decent resources out there. Unfortunately the situation with hosting forums is drastically different today.

WebHostingTalk.com is still considered the industry's behemoth.

HostingDiscussion.com, in my superbly biased mind, is the second best community (operationally and content-wise).

 

[SenseiSteve]

I remember when I used to frequent at least a dozen web hosting forums, but one by one, they either completely disappeared or became riddled with spam.

 

[John @ S4]

HostingDiscussion.com, in my superbly biased mind, is the second best community (operationally and content-wise)

It's also a LOT easier on the eyes! WHT is in pretty desperate need of a visual refresh

 

[etechsupport]

As per my experience, hosting discussion and forumweb hosting is the best option to learn something new in the industry

 

[easyhostmedia]

I remember when I used to frequent at least a dozen web hosting forums, but one by one, they either completely disappeared or became riddled with spam.

yes a couple i used to use closed down with a message 'closed due to inactivity' as you say spam has a lot to do with it. If i see a forum clearly full of spam then i just wont visit it as it detracts from the forum mission, but also shows it is not monitored

digital point used to be a good forum but that seems dead these days

 

[HostOX]

I use to have a list, about 40-50 forums, now my list of forums is about 5 ten at a push. Problem is everyone just posts adverts same here too all new posts are mostly adverts and the majority don't even talk in the forums generally.

I think hosting forums need deeper restrictions such as 50 posts required after each advert for the next advertising post + a minimum 7 day wait since the first.

This would keep people interacting with the communities and keeping content up.

 

[John @ S4]

such as 50 posts required after each advert for the next advertising post

I agree with this on some level but the danger of imposing a minimum number of posts between adverts is that a lot of people will just post one word answers or rubbish instead of actually any meaningful or useful posts.

 

[SenseiSteve]

I thought the same, but one word replies or fluff posts will get deleted and infractions issued - case by case. I would think 3 posts per week could work. That's less than one per business day. Very doable.

 

[easyhostmedia]

I use to have a list, about 40-50 forums, now my list of forums is about 5 ten at a push. Problem is everyone just posts adverts same here too all new posts are mostly adverts and the majority don't even talk in the forums generally.

I think hosting forums need deeper restrictions such as 50 posts required after each advert for the next advertising post + a minimum 7 day wait since the first.

This would keep people interacting with the communities and keeping content up.

I think most people use Facebook as their platform. I remember I once set up a dolphin based forum website and got about 12 members, but then set up a Facebook group using the same name and got 2000 members

 

[HostOX]

I thought the same, but one word replies or fluff posts will get deleted and infractions issued - case by case. I would think 3 posts per week could work. That's less than one per business day. Very doable.

Sounds reasonable, it's just a great way to ensure people are not coming here just to post adverts and they actually contribute to the community.

You give, you get, easy life

 

[easyhostmedia]

Sounds reasonable, it's just a great way to ensure people are not coming here just to post adverts and they actually contribute to the community.

You give, you get, easy life

Not just to post adverts. In some third world countries, people will get paid for posting in forums, this is why forums get bombarded with spam

 

[SenseiSteve]

Not just to post adverts. In some third world countries, people will get paid for posting in forums, this is why forums get bombarded with spam

Honestly, I think the overwhelming reason for spam flooding a forum is due to poor moderation.

 

[John @ S4]

Honestly, I think the overwhelming reason for spam flooding a forum is due to poor moderation.

A part of that is users not reporting spam posts as well, it's really easy to just ignore them and think they are not your problem, until they build to a huge mass and then just decide a site is too spammy.

 

[easyhostmedia]

A part of that is users not reporting spam posts as well, it's really easy to just ignore them and think they are not your problem, until they build to a huge mass and then just decide a site is too spammy.

Anyone could report spam, but if the forum is not moderated then who would pick up these spam reports to remove the posts

 

[easyhostmedia]

Honestly, I think the overwhelming reason for spam flooding a forum is due to poor moderation.

True, it is upto admins and moderators to remove these. Most forum backends now have features where admins can block signups from certain countries etc., so things can be done to prevent a good chunk of spam before it can get posted

 

[Artashes]

A part of that is users not reporting spam posts as well, it's really easy to just ignore them and think they are not your problem, until they build to a huge mass and then just decide a site is too spammy.

We've never had and never will have this problem. Spam reports help, but we don't rely on them. We are uber proactive at moderating on our own. I, for one, always look through every single new post on every visit.

There are a lot of things that you said are correct. And there are a lot of things that Steve said that are correct as well.

You can bring the minimum post count requirement to 50, but real life shows most won't make 2-3 posts per day. Most will still come and try to post through the count in 1-2 days. As @SenseiSteve said, in spite of us deleting posts and warning users who post fluffy content, we'll still end up with a waterfall of nonsense posts, which will only increase moderating load of cleaning up. Finding that balance is important. We used to have a 25 minimum post requirement, that did not necessarily improve the quality of content. It also demotivated new members from joining. Once we dropped it to 15, I found that the quality of content has actually improved slightly as members no longer felt pressured into posting just for the sake of coming up with something to post. Number of new registrations have also slightly picked up.

I think having people that come here only to advertise is okay, too. Everyone should have a choice how to use the platform. Someone may not have the time for general posting. Someone may see far more benefit in contributing value and showing potential clients what they know and that they are community-driven ⏤ a factor that has always been key to me.