wmvyr

Guys, thank you very much for all your input and opinions.

To sum it up:

1. Register your domain name separately from your hosting, most recommendations, Godaddy. (I learned that after buying the Bluehost package. Damn. Thanks Bluehost for misleading me and making sure that I couldn’t get one of my domains back from you. ??

2. I need a host that is wordpress friendly.

3. I need a host that wouldn’t censor me or my commenters for cuss words like “shit, hell, what the f*ck, or “vulgar” words like sex(even if you are referring to gender, etc…) and wouldn’t shut down the site without prior warning.

4. I need a host that wouldn’t shut down the site without prior warning and doesn’t spam your email.

5. I need a host that wouldn’t shut down your site or block it if they decide that some words go against “their morals”. Such as suddenly deciding that “poker” is a banned word even if when you signed up, it wasn’t in the TOS yet.

6. I need a host that doesn’t promise so much features only to find out that when you really use these features they will shut down your account without warning…such as using up the XXXX GB of space or bandwidth promised to you. (As for space, Bluehost said they will only give me the current offered space only when I use up the previous space alloted to me when I signed up for the account. I’m afraid of what would happen when I finally ask for that “automatic upgrade” from what people have been saying in their experiences.)

7. I need a host that has good customer service support only at the beginning of your subscription to them. In other words, a host that doesn’t have declining customer “service”.

8. I need a host that doesn’t have too many downtime.

I’ve read all the suggestions but it would help to have a summary or a list now.

Please suggest shared hosting and/or dedicated servers. For beginners and for future expansion of wordpress blog/s. It would be great if you share your experiences.

Thank you!

Wow! Thank for the suggestion Ipstenu and for your experience feedback. I’ll check it out.

Anyway, as for update, one of the worst things that I’ve read about Bluehost is when they will hold on to your domain name.

…as of this morning, it happened to me. They won’t let go of my domain name that expired and I didn’t pay for. I was planning on using GoDaddy to renew it.

When I talked to Bluehost customer support before, they said that they will hold the domain for around 60 or 90 days then after that they will let it go and it’s up to someone on the web to snatch it up. I thought some reseller took it a while ago only to find out that Bluehost held on to my domain and it’s client transfer prohibited.

This is the worst investment I’ve ever made in my life. I sorely regret not learning about these things in the past.

@whooami: Ah, I was asked where you work for so that maybe you could give me recommendations maybe about your host. Sorry, my bad. This should have been discrete. Disregard that question in this thread.

Resume thread:
So I’ve been searching and I’m really surprised at the recent increase in Bluehost complaints. Are the rankings about wordpress hosting here reliable?

Bluehost is my biggest waste of money and I sorely regret this.

I’m so scared to type even the word sh!t lest my site gets taken down by Bluehost without warning.

@whooami – Which hosting do you work for? As for wordpress, as I’ve said, the only reason I went with Bluehost (aside from the “features”) was because I wanted to help out www.ads-software.com and it’s in the list of hosts recommended by wordpress.

Also, I’m a bit concerned about hosting who will take down your site if you accidentally use one of their “banned words”…just found out that Bluehost will take down your site without warning if there’s a single word of f*ck in your whole site even if it’s from user comments and Bluehost has no list of words that shouldn’t be used in your site while you’re hosted with them. Apparently the word “poker” would get your site taken down too. Refer to previous posts.

Thanks for the recommendation whooami. That’s 2 people suggesting a small orange. I’ll check it out.

@figaro – Thanks, but I would really appreciate hosting experience with wordpress.

@adiant – Thanks for the insight but what would you recommend as hosting? Also, I was only making my points about “bad words”. I don’t usually talk like that only when I’ve reached my limit, I think.

mikokagome04 – Thanks, but really? The word “Paypal” would get you banned?

This is getting ridiculous!

Apparently your site would be shut down too if Bluehost finds the word POKER in your blog or any hints of gambling.

OMG…I wasted 2 years of subscription on Bluehost…I wouldn’t mind wasting the money if I wasn’t confident that www.ads-software.com recommends Bluehost.

The service is one thing, but to shut down your blogs/sites if you type just one word that they deem inappropriate…that’s just too much.

Considering they could shut you down too even if it’s not in the TOS yet as what happened to the link I posted above.

…and why terminate a site immediately, when Bluehost sends you more than 10 email messages when your subscription or domain is about to expire but couldn’t even bother to warn you about what you might be doing wrong. Sure you can read the TOS, but like in the term about profanity, what are these BANNED WORDS?!

Can’t even say sh-t now.

OMG! There was already a post about Bluehost’s TOS. That Bluehost is from Utah and they expect their customers to have moral standards.

I am a Christian, but that’s too much. Even if you’re careful about your words in your blog hosted by Bluehost, if someone posts a comment containing “bad words” such as F*CK, then Bluehost would take your site down immediately.

I only used Bluehost because it was HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by www.ads-software.com plus I wanted to help out www.ads-software.com.

But this is too much! Aside from Bluehost’s increasingly degrading customer service, to think that you have to be too wary of your words lest it might be a “bad word” and have your site taken down…this isn’t just about freedom of speech anymore. Goodness, what the heck is a blog for? I hate to say this, but I noticed that Livejournal seems better now considering I’ve read some celebrity blogs with some mild “bad words”. I mean, I am religious but you do acquire the language patterns of the world today most especially internet talk.

Can someone please bring up this issue to the mods or to Matt. Should have met up with him when he visited for the Camp.

I love wordpress and now I want www.ads-software.com. I haven’t had the chance to use it but I know I’ll be supporting this site and platform. But I am so torn as to what hosting I should buy now. I don’t want to transfer my posts from free blogs into my www.ads-software.com blog just to have Bluehost shut my site down if in case I miss out on any of those “bad words”.

Bluehost doesn’t even have a LIST of “bad words” which you could use to compare it from.

Hell am I supposed to talk English just to avoid their bloody system? Bollocks! No pun intended. I am utterly pissed off right now. I just wasted two years of subscription.

Please remove Bluehost from the recommended hosts on www.ads-software.com since there have been a lot of complaints already and the number is rising fast starting with the discovery that Bluehost’s customer support is not supportive these days anymore.

I would really appreciate a good recommendation. Thank you.

…and preferably a hosting company who wouldn’t shut down your website without warning in case you accidentally write “f*ck” in your post. (Wonder if “bloody <insert word here>” as cursing would go under Bluehost’s TOS radar?

WTF! What if that’s how I write?! F*ck!

LOL!

How about the other recommended hostings by www.ads-software.com? WordPress Hosting

Anyone has any experiences with these hosting companies aside from Bluehost? Thanks!

I am also worried because I’ve been reading a lot of blogs that have been experiencing a lot of downtimes from Bluehost. I’m also worried about free speech since someone’s account was terminated by Bluehost without warning just because of cussing in posts. I’m worried about a lot of blogs who got terminated by Bluehost without prior notice, especially those who use too much bandwidth even though they haven’t even reached the promised bandwidth allocation of Bluehost.

whooami, as I’ve said in the first post, this wasn’t an isolated incident.

To clear things up, I’ve started experiencing bad customer support from Bluehost the past few months. It seems that they are so impatient they would end the chat in a few minutes. Unlike before, they would patiently walk you through the problem and try to troubleshoot the problem. If they really can’t solve it they would pass you to another support person but they would inform you.

Last week, I had a chat with another Bluehost support but nothing was resolved. I just saw that the chat was ended by them. I didn’t heed those past few months, but as I look back, yeah…the customer support live chat hasn’t been helpful recently.

I read somewhere that it’s in Bluehost’s TOS that you can’t cuss.

What if you’re ranting in your blog? Bluehost would shut down your site if you use profanity? Where’s the freedom of speech?!

Makes me think if I have to use free blogs if I want to rant about anything just so I could protect my WP blog from getting abolished by my paid Bluehost account.

The only reason why I chose Bluehost is to support WordPress. Heck I should have just investigated more. I’ve been reading a LOT of complaints recently from other blogs most especially with downtime.

Should have just donated directly to WordPress.

I was very civil and calm and wasn’t even arguing with the support for the first chat but I had to have 3 chats with this person. He just kept on ending the chat like I’m taking up so much of his time.

Let’s see then if they’re going to take it out on my account. I’ve read a lot of posts wherein they had bad experiences with Bluehost and since they couldn’t seem to get their complaints through even with direct emails to the owner of Bluehost, they get their sites wiped out. Just like that.

I seriously hope they would start getting professional again.

…and 30 hours of downtime in one WP blog hosted on Bluehost…that’s too much right. Shouldn’t they treat me in a civil manner since I basically paid them for a year without using the hosting. (paid in advance…but it’s ok…as long as they were good to me, they were before but the past months this year…the support is just too impatient…it’s not like they’re spoon-feeding me with tech lingo…and I’ve been talking with them like you would with a buddy. Tsk.)

I’ll just research on better hosting that could also support WP. Or I’ll just donate directly to WP next time with a good host.

Thanks Otto42 for the input. Some people just told me about Godaddy. But their domain transfers/acquisition is good service?

Wow…after posting this, I can now magically log-in to Simple Scripts…after months of not being able to log in from the cpanel.

How…convenient…that I have to post something first before some kind of action takes place.

So, is Godaddy ok for WordPress?