In June, I was the opening speaker for the inaugural HostCamp in Berlin, which was a side event for the larger WordCamp Europe.
My topic presentation and topic was Ethics in WordPress Hosting. It was a topic the event organizer, Jonathan Wold, and I talked about at length. The goal was to start a discussion about ethical issues facing the industry, what sort of behavior and policies people have and how to address them.
The event was by invitation and I cannot discuss what others shared because that was in private. My goal was to convince web hosting company executives that ethics matter, not just for the sake of being ethical. I wanted to show how even perceived unethical behavior could financially harm companies today with social media. So please act properly, it's in your best financial interest. One of the case studies is Digital Ocean which I wrote about and inspired the talk.
Kevin Ohashi
Latest posts by Kevin Ohashi (see all)
- Analyzing Digital Ocean’s First Major Move with Cloudways - February 28, 2023
- Removing old companies - June 28, 2021
- WordPress & WooCommerce Hosting Performance Benchmarks 2021 - May 27, 2021
WordPress & WooCommerce Hosting Performance Benchmarks 2021
WooCommerce Hosting Performance Benchmarks 2020
WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2020)
The Case for Regulatory Capture at ICANN
WordPress Hosting – Does Price Give Better Performance?
Hostinger Review – 0 Stars for Lack of Ethics
The Sinking of Site5 – Tracking EIG Brands Post Acquisition
Dirty, Slimy, Shady Secrets of the Web Hosting Review (Under)World – Episode 1
Free Web Hosting Offers for Startups
Speaking of ethics, it’s a shame many of the hosting listed in your ranks are part of EIG (everyone knows they suck). I get your trying to make money off affiliates but your rank list is flawed and not very helpful.
Seeing EIG hosts with very low ratings and actually using data to tell people why they are bad is unethical? Just because you think a company isn’t very good doesn’t mean you should exclude them. Only wildly awful behavior gets excluded from my site (see: Hostinger’s CEO encouraging an astroturfing campaign by his staff). EIG are a legitimate company, their business model isn’t about providing great service and I think we both agree on that. By tracking them I am able to write articles like: https://reviewsignal.com/blog/2016/01/19/the-rise-and-fall-of-a-small-orange/ and point at real data showing how their acquisitions have harmed the brands they acquired. Trust me, I make very little from EIG, showing people the real data doesn’t get a lot of signups for them. I won’t say I don’t get any, I think last year was around four? I don’t understand who reads my reviews and data and thinks it’s a good idea, but it does happen and I won’t turn down a check. I gave people the information, they made a decision, the best I can do is provide accurate information and present it fairly.