Just curious who here no longer visits WHT (webhostingtalk)

InceptionHosting

Following on from the ‘who no longer visits LET’ post, I wonder how many people here ever bother with WHT?

I on occasion post adverts there, I VERY rarely get any sales from it, a handful a year if that, I really only post ads ther because it has good search engine visibility.

There was a more private discussion around it a while ago, as part of that I offered 1 year of hosting for $0.01 all you had to do what reply to the advert on WHT to qualify, I got 1 reply.

I also tracked the view numbers on WHT of a number of adverts, they all increment at almost identical numbers of views at exactly the same time at a random minute within a 120 minute period.

If you want him the view count on the adverts of any kind you will see a completely incremental pattern based on post time, which initially I.e first few hours would not be surprising but this continues for days and weeks which is so suspicious.

So I am interested on other peoples thoughts, I suspect WHT is a dead duck pretending to quack for ad revenue.

Especially interested in anyone that goes there to look at the adverts and also those that have ever paid for adverts there.

I honestly remember about it maybe once a month, if I go, I only go to post an advert.

9 years or so ago I could almost guarantee 5 replies to an advert and 10 sales, these days I get 0 replies and near enough 0 sales, even on the occasion I post a ridiculous offer just to see if HUMANS are looking, I suspect they are not.

yoursunny

I would go to WHT when I need PHP 5 shared hosting, but it's PHP 7 now so I no longer look there.

kuroneko23

Only when I want to read old drama

HostSlick

Im banned on WHT

Chievo

Wht is practically dead. My last visit there was 4-5 years ago and it was prsctically dead then so.

cybertech

wht is that?

Sova

I haven't gone there for years now.

DP

Ghost town.

scunthrope

There are very occasional decent offers mixed with a lot of very ridiculously -looking-like-a-money-laundering-front offers in the dedicated server offers board and that's about it

Fritz

Is WHT even still exist?

mikho

I've visited every now and then to browse thru the dedicated server section.
To see if there are any "acceptable" offers.... most are way out of my price range though and the visit is never for long.

WSCallum

Browse fairly regularly and we probably see about 2-5 new customers a month generally from there, I don’t think that’s too bad considering the sheer number of offers posted every day

But I agree its incredibly dead around there now compared to how it used to be, sometimes some interesting discussions pop up though

rcy026

I visit occasionally, but the amount of time between visits keep growing.
The design and layout just drives me crazy, I cant stand all the icons and 10 line signatures with colors and weird fonts. 90% of every page is pure crap.

chocolateshirt

Last visit 5 years ago, lol.. their forum seems outdated..

InceptionHosting

Well, let us take these offers as a baseline, the 3 newest and lest track them over the coming days.

VPSGet = 131 views 0 replies
Globalhostxyz = 126 views 0 replies
svenhost = 108 views 0 replies
All < 3 hours old.

The entire first page only has 1 actual reply and that was from the OP of the post haha.

You have to get to the 4th page to see an actual human reply and that was reporting downtime rather than using a support ticket...

I had to go all the way to the 57th page of offers dating back to 3rd of September to find an actual interaction asking the number of allowed EP processes on the hosting.

Some of the posts at this stage have near 5k views without a single response or question? ... BULLSHIT

Then we go all the way back to June (page 107) and the views are back down to a few hundred:

It looks like the ridiculous incremental artificial view inflation started around 27th Aug, where posts suddenly went from getting 200 ish views to 600 ish view overnight as standard which by September was up over 1000 as standard.

If you watch the older posts like MONTH's old posts you will see they also increment regularly, all of them.

So either they are doing this to make it look like it is worth money to their advertisers or they are getting hit like a mofo suddenly from aggregator bots and choosing to ignore it... again because it looks good for advertisers.

Highly suspect.

mikho

a premium account on WHT, so worth it!

vish

I visit WHT rarely if ever. On the order of 1 or 2 times every 6 months. I think the last time I was really active was in 2016

deank

I quit WHT like on 2010?

I do sometimes, once a month perhaps, visit. Nothing going on there. Responses are way too canned. If I were a bot, I'd like it though.

Finally, a fact that they are refusing to move on from long dead Vbulletin 4..., it just means they just don't care. They should have moved to Xenforo years ago.

Intelpentiumm

To be frank, I visit f=130 of WHT atleast once a week. From here, I think wscallum, HM etc are still posting there.
Also offers from hostwithlove, turnkey internet, skynet, ezpz, croc web etc are nice to watch.

Ark

Is WHT even exist?
3 years ago I guess

InceptionHosting

How about vpsboard not been there for years, it started well but got a bit culty one point might check it out again mandude was a good guy.

Edit: had a look, not a single reply to an offer in the last 30 days, might not be the best indicator but it is the one that’s sits right with me, the engagement volume.

vyas

I was going to write I only visit VPsBoard, LEB and Letshosttalk in addition to LES/T. But...

WHT only when I walk my dog.

bikegremlin

@AnthonySmith said:
Following on from the ‘who no longer visits LET’ post, I wonder how many people here ever bother with WHT?

I on occasion post adverts there, I VERY rarely get any sales from it, a handful a year if that, I really only post ads ther because it has good search engine visibility.

There was a more private discussion around it a while ago, as part of that I offered 1 year of hosting for $0.01 all you had to do what reply to the advert on WHT to qualify, I got 1 reply.

I also tracked the view numbers on WHT of a number of adverts, they all increment at almost identical numbers of views at exactly the same time at a random minute within a 120 minute period.

If you want him the view count on the adverts of any kind you will see a completely incremental pattern based on post time, which initially I.e first few hours would not be surprising but this continues for days and weeks which is so suspicious.

So I am interested on other peoples thoughts, I suspect WHT is a dead duck pretending to quack for ad revenue.

Especially interested in anyone that goes there to look at the adverts and also those that have ever paid for adverts there.

I honestly remember about it maybe once a month, if I go, I only go to post an advert.

9 years or so ago I could almost guarantee 5 replies to an advert and 10 sales, these days I get 0 replies and near enough 0 sales, even on the occasion I post a ridiculous offer just to see if HUMANS are looking, I suspect they are not.

My thoughts:
"I gotta pee."

OK, on a more serious note - not that I guarantee it will be any wiser:

I came across LET by chance. And grew to like it - it is (was?) rather fun, cool, and informative/educational.
Later, I joned LES, as it was created, for the feeling it is the spiritual successor of LET, but with more ethical concept at its core. And I mostly post in LES (can't remember last time I opened a new thread on LET, would have to check).
Having said that, LET has some knowledgeable members who's posts I like to read, or at least find them enternaining. And I do read it as well - often even post replies there.

WHT.
There are some knowledgeable members there who's posts are very useful, and who don't post on either LET, or LES.
But in many terms, it is like a bar:
A cute girl comes in.
Everyone wants to fuck her.
But no one is allowed to offer that.
So they just talk in terms of: "oh, it is best to be fucked by a guy who is -insert-commenter's-description-here- , and beware of guys who are -not-at-all-like-the-commenter-".

That policy, introduced for reducing spaming and shameless self-promotion, also results in rendering that forum partially uselles. Deadlock of a sort. Simple example:
User has a problem like I've had.
I've had that problem, solved it, and wrote down on my website how I had solved it - for future reminder, and in case it helps anyone else.
But I'm not allowed to link to that article - have to write it all from scratch (without an option to insert images).

So I still drop by to WHT, from time to time, but, at least in my experience, I got more useful advice and help from both LET and LES, than on WHT. And, while I still can offer help and advice to the others (which is rewarding and just feels good), it is less than convenient (no links, so have to re-write the same stuff over, and over again), and it is a bit one-way.

I'd rather contribute to a community that feels more like a good community. In terms of hosting and similar stuff - LES is the best match for that, in my experience and opinion at least.

Now, in terms of sales and marketing - it seems to me that LES is still, unfortunately, miles away from WHT, and still lagging behind LET even. Providers probably have a clearer picture of this, I could be wrong.
But LES is growing. I believe, if it stays on the right track, it will be N01. That is - this forum will become what we make of it. Even though the admin is a real prick.

InceptionHosting

@bikegremlin said: it seems to me that LES is still, unfortunately, miles away from WHT

I agree with everything else, just wanted to pick up on this point specifically.

While by volume that may well be true, by engagement, LES is lightyears ahead of WHT, it has been over 3 months since anyone even commented on an offer on WHT, go back 7 years or so that simply did not happen.

It is hard to even give away hosting on WHT because literally no one looks at the offers and all of the view numbers are clearly and obviously bogus.

deank

There are two types of traffics on places like WHT, LET, and here.

The first type is deal seekers who don't generally participate in its community and only post when one has to in order to get free stuff.

The second type is those who seek deals but also participate in discussions. You want this type of members more than the first. WHT lost and LET is losing this type of members.

Then there is someone like me who just exist to troll the shit out of idiots and freeloaders.

bikegremlin

@AnthonySmith said:

@bikegremlin said: it seems to me that LES is still, unfortunately, miles away from WHT

I agree with everything else,

After reading this, I had to check if the last word of my original post was chaned to "an angel" - would have made a great laugh/prank.

just wanted to pick up on this point specifically. While by volume that may well be true, by engagement, LES is lightyears ahead of WHT, it has been over 3 months since anyone even commented on an offer on WHT, go back 7 years or so that simply did not happen.

It is hard to even give away hosting on WHT because literally no one looks at the offers and all of the view numbers are clearly and obviously bogus.

No reason to doubt that - as I had said, providers probably have a better view of this.
Just to clarify (for my own curiosity):
There are less engagements in terms of fewer people clicking on the offer links, not just fewer comments, right?

Provided that is the case - there is still one more point (correct me again if I'm wrong):
Google seems to prefer WHT to other forums. And even LET to LES.
When googling hosting related stuff (at least from my country), I get WHT and LET more often.
This too will surely (hopefully) change over time. But it is still not the case.

So, provided a service/topic does get discussed on WHT, that's what Google will more often show when querying.

Didn't do any testing on this, it's mostly my subjective impression. Again - could be wrong.

Chievo

@deank said:
There are two types of traffics on places like WHT, LET, and here.

The first type is deal seekers who don't generally participate in its community and only post when one has to in order to get free stuff.

The second type is those who seek deals but also participate in discussions. You want this type of members more than the first. WHT lost and LET is losing this type of members.

Then there is someone like me who just exist to troll the shit out of idiots and freeloaders.

I would add the next. for hosting people LES for people who reach the hosting business and need something (VPS) LET. Because unfortunately LET is well known and appears into different forums for many years so if someone is looking for a VPS probably he would find it in LET . If he is more interested in the hosting and dedicate some hours to see the quality of LET probably would find LES. It is a funnel . In any case i have found firstly WHT then LET and after that LES and HB . Like a non hosting person probably for people like me this would be the funnel .

deank

The fact that LET is backing a former scammer as its spearhead figure host means it's got no hope.

I see it as one of main reasons for losing active members. It's still got shit load of deal seekers but those don't really help a community.

Chievo

@deank said:
The fact that LET is backing a former scammer as its spearhead figure host means it's got no hope.

I see it as one of main reasons for losing active members. It's still got shit load of deal seekers but those don't really help a community.

True . LET is more like a shop. I mean i need super duper super duper cheap VPS , no time investment just a quick purchase --> LET
I need VPS from quality hosting and be part of a community +time investment --> LES

Sure LET is problematic and lot of scammers but it is well known and google prefer LET but the prototype of person on LET vs LES is completely different in my eyes at least.

Mew

@AnthonySmith said:

There was a more private discussion around it a while ago, as part of that I offered 1 year of hosting for $0.01 all you had to do what reply to the advert on WHT to qualify, I got 1 reply.

Never bothered with visiting WHT, but reading this made me visit and register.

bikegremlin

@deank said:
The fact that LET is backing a former scammer as its spearhead figure host

Alpharacks guy?

deank

One of guys. It split into a few hosts of its own.

alwyzon

bikegremlin said: Google seems to prefer WHT to other forums. And even LET to LES.

Looking at backlinks, LET and WHT still dominate pretty much everything else and Google still relies heavily on backlinks (although, they became very good at filtering spammy links). According to Ahrefs: 1.027.117 backlinks for WHT, 280.034 for LET and just 47.040 for LES. And, some even quite valuable ones in favour of LET (in SEO terms), such as Wikipedia and news outlet links. So, Googles preferences might stay that way for a while.

However, from my view as a provider, it seems that LowEndSprit and the other green one are the only ones with active readers (or at least, readers that would care for my services): as a rather new player in the unmanaged VPS space, I recently posted an initial offer simultaneously in multiple related forums and pretty much the only ones that drove a significant amount of clicks and sales were LET and LES.

deank

Who wouldn't love LESbians?

No men would refuse it.

flips

Never visited WHT unless Google/DuckDuckGo or a link on LES or HostedTalk brought me there ...

InceptionHosting

@alwyzon said:

bikegremlin said: Google seems to prefer WHT to other forums. And even LET to LES.

Looking at backlinks, LET and WHT still dominate pretty much everything else and Google still relies heavily on backlinks (although, they became very good at filtering spammy links). According to Ahrefs: 1.027.117 backlinks for WHT, 280.034 for LET and just 47.040 for LES. And, some even quite valuable ones in favour of LET (in SEO terms), such as Wikipedia and news outlet links. So, Googles preferences might stay that way for a while.

However, from my view as a provider, it seems that LowEndSprit and the other green one are the only ones with active readers (or at least, readers that would care for my services): as a rather new player in the unmanaged VPS space, I recently posted an initial offer simultaneously in multiple related forums and pretty much the only ones that drove a significant amount of clicks and sales were LET and LES.

Interesting numbers, not at all surprising les is only at around 20% of the back links if LET but also quite encouraged by that as it is not even 10% as old as LET.

InceptionHosting

@deank said:
There are two types of traffics on places like WHT, LET, and here.

The first type is deal seekers who don't generally participate in its community and only post when one has to in order to get free stuff.

The second type is those who seek deals but also participate in discussions. You want this type of members more than the first. WHT lost and LET is losing this type of members.

Then there is someone like me who just exist to troll the shit out of idiots and freeloaders.

Good points. I had not considered that angle.

InceptionHosting

@bikegremlin said:

@AnthonySmith said:

@bikegremlin said: it seems to me that LES is still, unfortunately, miles away from WHT

I agree with everything else,

After reading this, I had to check if the last word of my original post was chaned to "an angel" - would have made a great laugh/prank.

just wanted to pick up on this point specifically. While by volume that may well be true, by engagement, LES is lightyears ahead of WHT, it has been over 3 months since anyone even commented on an offer on WHT, go back 7 years or so that simply did not happen.

It is hard to even give away hosting on WHT because literally no one looks at the offers and all of the view numbers are clearly and obviously bogus.

No reason to doubt that - as I had said, providers probably have a better view of this.
Just to clarify (for my own curiosity):
There are less engagements in terms of fewer people clicking on the offer links, not just fewer comments, right?

Provided that is the case - there is still one more point (correct me again if I'm wrong):
Google seems to prefer WHT to other forums. And even LET to LES.
When googling hosting related stuff (at least from my country), I get WHT and LET more often.
This too will surely (hopefully) change over time. But it is still not the case.

So, provided a service/topic does get discussed on WHT, that's what Google will more often show when querying.

Didn't do any testing on this, it's mostly my subjective impression. Again - could be wrong.

We did some experiments and CTR was around 0.4% after 1 month ish for VPS on WHT.

On the 0.01c shared hosting offer it was 0.01% after 1 week and I happen to know bear had a look at it because I got a warning on the first iteration of the offer

alwyzon

@AnthonySmith said:
Interesting numbers, not at all surprising les is only at around 20% of the back links if LET but also quite encouraged by that as it is not even 10% as old as LES.

Absolutely! Actually, quite impressive ones given the age of LES, in my opinion.

Ganonk

@HostSlick said:
Im banned on WHT

Congrats Sir

MaxKVM

Latest Infractions Received (30 point(s) total)
Permament: Profile Infraction
06-21-20 07:17 AM
Multiple User Names (Contact Helpdesk)

Cool. Very cool, WHT.

Permament:

Lee

@AnthonySmith said: without a single response or question

Years back and I am going back probably 15+ years on WHT, the forum software couldn't prevent bumping of threads, so commenting on offers was not allowed to preserve the order of the offers. The comments went into a moderation Q and rarely made it out as there were so many, I don't think they ever changed it. Hence you will rarely see comments on offers as they probably don't even look at them to approve unless bored.

InceptionHosting

@Lee said:

@AnthonySmith said: without a single response or question

Years back and I am going back probably 15+ years on WHT, the forum software couldn't prevent bumping of threads, so commenting on offers was not allowed to preserve the order of the offers. The comments went into a moderation Q and rarely made it out as there were so many, I don't think they ever changed it. Hence you will rarely see comments on offers as they probably don't even look at them to approve unless bored.

Certainly has not been the case for quite some time, at least the last 10 years I have been there, just tested it:

probably just set off an alarm in bears house. hehe

vpsgeek3333

@bikegremlin said:

@deank said:
The fact that LET is backing a former scammer as its spearhead figure host

Alpharacks guy?

Dustin!

vpsgeek3333

I visit WHT & LET only when someone sends me a link on discord to some drama thread & LES at least once a day

Lee

@AnthonySmith said: Certainly has not been the case for quite some time, at least the last 10 years I have been there, just tested it:

I think that is more to do with your account age and so on, if I posted it would be the same. I am probably wrong, it has been so long since I wanted to post in an offer. But I know it was true in the distant past.

The reality though is that WHT has long since had its day, so has forums like LET and this one to be fair, all competing for the exact same members with very few new ones. Each ending up with a small band of enthusiastic posters but mostly lurkers just looking for deals.

That said, back in the day WHT was a significant client builder for me and many others of that time, it really was the only place you would find when hunting for hosting. Rackshack forums used to be where all the providers were, even if you didn't actually buy from Rackshack and all the customers were at WHT.

Between 2004-2008 (My Peak), I was easily adding an extra £45-50k to my revenue every year just from WHT in new business, that resulted in a lot of long-term customers. That has all changed now for many reasons. So it continues to drift as long as the activity and advertisers remain. So I won't knock them too much, they were good for me in the past.

deank

WHT at its prime, which I think was around 2000 ~ 2005, was a fun place to be.

qps

I suspect there is some substantial view count manipulation going on. Not sure if it's by the owners of WHT or if it's bots/crawlers/scrapers or whatever, but there's simply no way that actual humans are looking this many times and the rate of conversion is so low.

Lee

@deank said: WHT at its prime, which I think was around 2000 ~ 2005, was a fun place to be.

The early years were amazing, I loved it. So much going on and so much to play for at the time. Social media wasn't a thing, everyone wanted a website so they could host a guestbook and were willing to pay good money to do it

Lee

@qps said: bots/crawlers/scrapers

It will be that. Just had a quick look and there are 881 'guests' online, it will all be bots. They could stop that but then it all adds to the sense of it being busy. and gets that view count up. Doubt they are intentionally manipulating it themselves.

bikegremlin

@Lee said:

@qps said: bots/crawlers/scrapers

It will be that. Just had a quick look and there are 881 'guests' online, it will all be bots. They could stop that but then it all adds to the sense of it being busy. and gets that view count up. Doubt they are intentionally manipulating it themselves.

Could it not be just people who came there after a google search?
At least in part?