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jchrastina
Hostony:

With the existing forum structure, I find myself constantly drilling into every posting to find anything related to the servers I am on. It is inefficient and time consuming.

The request for a clear-cut notification system AHEAD of time has been in your hands for a very long time, in one form or another. Months ago, suggestions were made that you create a single section in this forum at which you would constantly display current server status for ALL servers and, most importantly, scheduled outages. You have also had multiple requests for advance emails to account-holder email addresses. That would definitely be more pro-active than webpages each of us would have to visit.

These are all extremely good requests and one or more of them should be implemented by Hostony within the next few WEEKS. I really see no reason for you to NOT be able to create email distribution lists for each of your servers by the end of MAY, AT THE LATEST.

This would go a very long way toward demonstrating your support for and committment to YOUR loyal clients. We, in turn, can thus be much better providers for OUR clients.

Thanks.
MartinB
Yeah!!
jchrastina
Hostony,
Any response to this suggestion?
Stanly
We will think about this.
This is good idea at my opinion but such kind of changes are done not by me at our company, you know smile.gif
jchrastina
Stanly,
Well, I assume you can forward this suggestion to someone who CAN make the changes. I know, of course, that the people in charge already read and respond to Forum entries. Can't one of THEM reply? Is this suggestion / request so outrageous? I thnik it is very reasonable.
dingfelder
Any update ?

This is perhaps the most important thing that hostony could do to keep us happy (or atleast one of the most important).

Also, it is relatively easy to accomplish.

Low hanging fruit like this would go a long way towards making hostony seem more responsive to their customers
shaun
dingfelder you're being too polite.

put it this way, its a month since this question was raised. Since then Hostony has cause a LOT of unrest amongst its customers. yes CUSTOMERS. in the last few days ive reccomended another hosting company to 3 potential customers and if Hostony dont realise what theyre doing then they arent fit to run a business.

One month since this question was asked and no proper answer. disgusting.

sort it now or lose your customers and expect claims for compensation. SIMPLE
Danimal
QUOTE(shaun @ May 26 2004, 03:33 PM)
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

rolleyes.gif
shaun
are you familiar with the term spam Danimal?
LP_
A quick and dirty way would be to dedicate ONE thread for maintenance announcements. Then I guess we could all subscribe for email notification when the thread is updated.
Danimal
That's actually an excellent idea. I would like to add that thread should remain "locked," however, or in adiition to the notification email for the initial post, we'll all also get thity five notification emails from the "WHAT? Why didn't you tell us FOUR MONTHS AGO YOU JERKYHEADS!" reply posts as well.
Stanly
I've just forwarded your request to our big brass.
They must respod soon.
jchrastina
Thank you.
I know there are a lot of us who welcome some kind of pro-active maintenance and outage notification from Hostony.
jchrastina
A week has now passed.

Is Hostony ANY closer to setting up a single place or method for us to see server status and scheduled activity, either a webpage or emails to distribution lists for each server?

Please at least communicate your plans to implement or reject this proposal.
Stanly
I'm afraid this idea will be rejected.
MartinB
- 1 mailman.
- 1 list for each server
- People subscribe to the serverX list
- set only admins can send mails to the lists.

you need only send a mail to the serverX list with your msg/notice/report and the people involved will be happy.

i think it's not unimplementable and tedious.
jchrastina
QUOTE(dingfelder @ May 25 2004, 06:16 PM)
This is perhaps the most important thing that hostony could do to keep us happy (or at least one of the most important).

Also, it is relatively easy to accomplish.

Low hanging fruit like this would go a long way towards making hostony seem more responsive to their customers.

QUOTE


Hostony - I really belive you are missing a real opportunity here.

Some variation of the idea should NOT be rejected. Many ways to accomplish.

You HAVE to implement SOME notification or posting method for servers. It can certainly be restricted in some way, so only your real customers can access it, and only access postings for THIER own servers.

Do NOT reject it outright.
Barrin!
Especially with out proper justification. Come on... we're not asking that much of you.
hesterle
Hello,

I'm new to hostony, just started my plan a few days ago. My site is unreachable right now, I will open a support ticket.
However if this is all 'just' because of either a planed or an accidental outage, it would be less time consuming for hostony and us -your customers, to find outage information either by email or on a dedicated section of your support web site.

HE
Alexandre
Tell me please what is your domain name?
hesterle
Hello Alexandre,

Got support through ICQ, site was back up 10 mins after or so. Thanks for that!!!!

The outage is no big deal for me, at least not yet, as I only use my site for my family, however that could change.

In any case, having advanced notification for planed outages and timely notice for accidental ones would really make live easier.
Imagine someone running a business site, and a customer calls in "Hey your site is down, what’s up?" Owner: Ooh "uhh, oh?!? Really? Let me check. ok" Instead this someone could give a much more professional answer: " Yes, we know, sorry for the inconvenience. The site will be back up in xx minutes."
Doesn't that sound better? This is why notification is important.


HE
MartinB
this is exactly the point here.
jeff.buzzell
Wow, after signing up today and continuing to read the forums, it looks like I am going to have to really evaluate my 30 days free. If there is crappy service and MySQL outages, I can not stand for that. Hopefully we see imporivements to what everyone is talking about here.
Alexandre
We have upgraded all our software on the servers.
apache 1.3.31, mysql 4.0.18, PHP Version 4.3.7, etc...
MartinB
yes, the stability of server 20 seems best now.
i hope mail services progress too.
Danimal
QUOTE(jeff.buzzell @ Jun 14 2004, 05:46 PM)
If there is crappy service and MySQL outages

There isn't crappy service, and MySQL, like all things computer, is going to go down eventually wherever you go. Luckily, the great service will be there to help you fix any problems.

Please try to remember a sound word of customer service: happy people don't tend to comment because they're happy. Unhappy people are always anxious to voice their opinions. Take a look and see out of the hundreds or maybe thousands (?) of domains Hostony hosts how many different people are actually doing the complaining here. Three? Four?
splufdaddy
I feel like there should be some sort of newsletter that we can subscribe to. I just read through the forums that there's on online billing system (secure.hostony.com), you have tutorials for us to read on the Control Panels, and that your website is going through some upgrades. Why won't you tell us these things!?!? Granted I hate getting junk mail and spam, but we're asking to hear from you!! I never got an email that you were starting to offer Windows hosting (which I have known for a while) and I never got an email about your SPECIAL package (which I purchased after I found it for myself). Why you keep these things a secret to your customers is beyond me. I'd love a monthly newsletter that keeps us up to date on the goings on of HOSTONY. Let us know what hardware and software has been updated/switched out on your different servers, what ideas you guys are bouncing around in the office, and even introduce a different staff member each month.

The type of business you're in sells a non-tangible product. I cant hold your hosting in my hand, so we all judge the product by how good it is and how well it's serviced. The more we hear from you, the better we feel we're being serviced. We don't want to hear from you only once a year, when our bill is due. Of your many customers, I'm sure there's lots of people who rarely or never visit the forums. Offer an opt-in newsletter (or even a website that you update on a regular schedule), and I think it will be seen as a MAJOR step towards customer satisfaction, and it will go a long way to towards impressing prospective new customers.
will
Hostony Management,

Come on. Please answer the original questions posed in this thread. It's getting out of hand!

It's been more than two months since the first post in this thread was made. Keep us happy. Take the suggestions made in this thread onboard. Post a reply to it!

I think it's more than reasonable to have a server status page, a schedule of planned outages, etc. Especially take the newsletter idea on board - it's a good one!


Please note that this is not directed at the hostony technical & support staff - i have nothing but praise for the prompt, professional service you provide! keep up the good work!
MartinB
now domain/webmail/ give a 500 error, this is new.

Please the next time give an advice if you will change issues like that because all my accounts tell me "it not work your hosting give me an ERROR"

You say me now i need access the webmail directly with the :2095, is it permanent ? because i need change all the documentation i give to my reseller's clients.

thanks.
MartinB
Danimal:

we have nothing with support team, the support staff here is GREAT, and i think is great people too.

The service is not crappy, but, like all technology envolved things, it have problems, and if nobody post in this forum or in trouble tickets, support people maybe will don't hear of the existence of the problem.

Problems are normal, so, we only want to be 'noticed' about it.

Don't forget some people here are making business with the reseller packages, and need give answers and respond for all the problems our clients have.

I choose this hosting first of all, for the forum, and for all the solutions, not for all the problems. The only thing make me still here is the support people.

sorry my english, and have a nice day smile.gif
Vanya
mblendinger:
We'll try to upgrade our cpanel soft during the week-end. That should fix the issue. In any case we'll fix it.
Danimal
QUOTE(mblendinger @ Jun 14 2004, 11:30 PM)
we have nothing with support team, the support staff here is GREAT, and i think is great people too.

Well, I was only answering the guy who said the service was "crappy."

QUOTE(mblendinger @ Jun 14 2004 @ 11:30 PM)
Problems are normal, so, we only want to be 'noticed' about it.

Hey, me too. If they made that forum where we could all subscribe and be told of planned outages, I'd be the first one to subscribe. I'm just not to up on all the people who complain because computers, which routinely go down, go down every so often. It's the nature of the beast, so to speak.

QUOTE(mblendinger @ Jun 14 2004 @ 11:30 PM)
sorry my english, and have a nice day

You're English is fine. Believe me, I'm not one of those "typical" Americans who think that you MUST be able to speak English... OR ELSE! biggrin.gif

I'm still unclear on why we couldn't have a dedicated thread on service outages, but then again I suppsoe that's what the "News & Announcements" forum is for???
MartinB
well... we need something more than "planned downtimes noticies", we also need something like "hey guys, yes, the "X" service was down for X reason, but we fix it and the downtime was only X minutes!!!"

With that, we can answer our client's questions with known info and security, and not with:

"huh? huh.gif don't work? let me check!................................. oh! huh! yes! is down! let me ask my provider or read the forum if somebody have the same problem, ask me again tomorrow, maybe nobody give me an answer to my post in the forum today!"

wink.gif
Stanly
mblendinger, when we have unplanned downtime we provide our customers with the reason of it.
Anyhow, if we were not provide you, sorry for this.
I promise that this wil not happen in the future again.
MartinB
Stanly: I think your are talking about forum posts, or trouble tickets answers (if i make the question before, you and the all support staff always answer me, thank you for that!)

I think the point here is we need know if there is a problem and was fixed or not, how time the downtime was, etc, but not searching all the forum, i just want subscribe to the Server20-maillist and receive the mails with the problems and fixes and etc directly in my mail.

Maybe the solution for this is fix the mail features of the forum ? (i never receive mails from the posts i am subscribed.)
But maybe you don't want make a new category for each server in the forum and i think the maillist will be a best and more easy solution smile.gif
Danimal
QUOTE(mblendinger @ Jun 15 2004, 10:24 PM)
"huh? huh.gif don't work? let me check!................................. oh! huh! yes! is down! let me ask my provider or read the forum if somebody have the same problem, ask me again tomorrow, maybe nobody give me an answer to my post in the forum today!"

laugh.gif

Yes, I can see how that would not look too good for you.
jchrastina
It has been three months since my suggestion for Hostony to have some kind of NOTIFICATION system.

Yesterday (June 30), I opened a trouble ticket, as follows:

All of my websites (on server10) are DEAD.

What's happening???????

User/Staff Follow-ups
Alexander Brykulya
30-6-2004-9:07

All your sites are being up now.
It was a server reboot.
Sorry for may be inconvenience.


-------------
Best regards
Alexander Brykulya
Hostony Support Team


(Bold added by me)

WHY was there a server rboot?
If you had a SIMPLE posting of status or a SIMPLE method of notification, I would not have opened the ticket. I would already KNOW there is / was /will be a reboot of server10.
You guys really do a very good technical job, but you are REALLY, REALLY missing the boat on this need for communications of status to your clients.
ahodes1
There is definitely a need for a status/notification system. We're paying money, its not that hard to do, and we deserve it. All I want is to know what's up!
Dark Hedgehog
QUOTE(Danimal @ Jun 14 2004, 07:57 PM)
Please try to remember a sound word of customer service: happy people don't tend to comment because they're happy. Unhappy people are always anxious to voice their opinions. Take a look and see out of the hundreds or maybe thousands (?) of domains Hostony hosts how many different people are actually doing the complaining here. Three? Four?

God, so true. You took the words right out of my mouth.
MartinB
i count at least 11 with you wink.gif
Dark Hedgehog
I do agree with this idea.

But then again, I don't.

You see, when you find your site is down, the problem is up on the forum ready for your ears.
You just get too lazy to read it and wish for a shorter way to access it.

I find it easy to access the forums or if my site is down, I have optional hobbies I do.

I mean, its not like every server has to tell you exactly what is going on, its a part of customer service to make others happy.

But most that want to know what is going on should know by experience and outages and what-not.

I have seen so many downtimes, mysql downtimes, outages and what-not to know what exactly happens.

I don't really think its necessary, though it sounds like a great addition, but it remains hard work as well.

Maybe if they made a mailing list or whatever for problems it might work out.

But I doubt it would be necessary, given the varities of failures that occur.

But very good idea my friend, though it lacks supportive feedback.
Dark Hedgehog
QUOTE(mblendinger @ Aug 3 2004, 08:31 PM)
i count at least 11 with you wink.gif

11? What do you mean?
MartinB
nah, "how many different people are actually doing the complaining here. Three? Four?"

Look, I will be so happy if at least the mail's features of the forum will work some day.
only that. i'm lowering the needs.

best regards
Dark Hedgehog
Hmm. I see your point.

If they sent out email's of server status and things that are "needed" to know from their forums to registered members or registered members cpanel accounts on why their site is down, I think that would be cool.

But I think a mailing list is the best option, because the cpanel would probably be down as well as the site.
I just don't see it happening.
MartinB
exactly
bdsnyder
QUOTE(Stanly @ Jun 9 2004, 05:44 PM)
I'm afraid this idea will be rejected.

I've been lurking, thinking about becoming a customer,
waiting for the outcome of this idea, in my opinion REQUIREMENT.

Oh, well.....

HOSTONY = REJECTED
bdsnyder
Upon futher review of recent posts on this forum, I now
realize why there is not a "SERVER STATUS" thread.

Looks like HOSTANY servers go DOWN more than my GIRLFRIEND....
Danimal
Awwwww, you're not going to join? Shucks, and you seem like such a cool guy and all! And so clever!

sad.gif
conop
Dare to ask about your girl uptime but your monitoring service may be wrong.

Tip. Good monitoring tool monitors ALL services. laugh.gif
artrocity
laugh.gif laugh.gif

Now thats Funny !!!

laugh.gif laugh.gif
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