Hi everyone, I'm wondering if it's normal to be overcharged by astahost when you first get hosted, I applied (and got) for the basic plan while having 44 hosting point/credits. As soon as I got the plan activated my account went down to 2.99.

IS THIS NORMAL???

Well... actually that's how it works. Once you get accepted for hosting, you're credits come down to 3 and you'll have to pull up again. This is done to prevent people from accumulating too many credits and then applying for webhosting, because unless you are approved for webhosting, your credits don't decrease. This way you can't accumulate 200 credits over 2 months and then apply for hosting ... just isn't done that way.

If you had 30, why did you apply for the basic package? You should have applied for the standard package because now, if you want to upgrade, it'll cost you another 30 credits or so I guess... not sure... just check that up in the FAQ.

Hope this help you.

Hit it RIGHT on the money.

Also, it's advised that you shouldn't save up more credits then you'd need for your hosting...Because they are infact diminished to three.

You may also end up being in dept of credits to astahost if for example...You post something spammy, but was worth alot of credits, and then you rely on that...And it's deleted.

Then, chances are you'll be -X credits .
So keep your post count up, and do not spam.

I hope this, and what abhiram said will clear things up.

With all due respect, I don't think it makes any sense to diminish points down to 3 when you get aproved, I mean, what if (like me) I 'bought' the small package because (thinking on the whole community scope) I didn't want to create an unnecesary overload on the system... so I get punished for not asking for the big plan one time???? to be honest that doesn't make any sense to me... it's like if I have a phone company and then I say: you can buy this cheap cell, or this expensive one... if you buy the more expensive one then you'll overload my free service sending a lot of sms and pictures, but that's ok with me, because either or, I'm taking all your 'money' out of yor account.

I don't maybe I'm crazy or just cheap, but, when some says: "here, this thing costs X", it must cost X wheter you have 5 times X in your pocket...

I never knew about this, thank you for giving everyone this information.


I have to agree on this. It's really sad that most companies do this to their clients. I was actually planning to raise up to 500 credits and then apply for hosting but now I see that it can't be done. Honestly, some people actually HAVE jobs or go to college. Sometimes, there simply isn't enough time to post here every day, worrying about when your website will expire. But this is just the way it's like, you just can't do anything. After all, no one cares or listens to the "little people" nowadays, they just mindlessly care about their own needs (in this case, a community). Sad, really.

But as a little stream of light, look at it this way. Companies never pay any attention to the little people. I mean, just look out your windows, you will find greed and selfishness everywhere. That's just life, and that's just how things are...

At Guardian: Blahblahblah, empty talk.
But I agree that this is a little unfair especially if you (like I did :-/) gathered the credits in time. It would be fine with me, if 3 credits (time till I applied) had been taken away instead of giving me 3 extra, cos then I would have 40 more :-)
Why don't you just reconsider this rule?

Ok ruben, since you brought this issue up again, consider this:

Let's say I haven't got hosting yet. I'm busy accumulating credits and since my credits don't decrease by a credit a day, I come over to the forum now and then and post at my own convenience. I post for, say a month, and accumulate a 100 credits. Now, these credits don't decrease at all no matter how many days I stay idle because I'm not hosted. Then, I continue like this and accumulate 400 credits (and it is quite easy to do that within a month if you post properly). That's when I decide to apply for hosting and get it and I lose 30 credits in the bargain.

I'm now left with 370 credits which is more than a year. That means, I've got free hosting for a year and I don't have to post anymore for another year, after which I'll still be well within the grace period (5 days). What do you say to this?

That's why the credits are reduced to 3, so that you contribute regularly and maintain your credits.

Granted, this may not be the most efficient way to handle the credits issue and also for people who are unaware of the rule when applying for hosting (like yourself), but the way I see it, it's one sure fire method of making people stay active in the forums.

Why don't you think of a better method for resoloving this issue? I'm sure Opaque thought quite a bit about this and implemented it, but if you have a better idea, I'm sure he'll consider it.

Cheers .

Well put, abhiram. I couldn't have done it better myself.

See, the hosting here is Ad-Free and FREE in monetary respect, as long as you're willing to invest some time in making good posts. What we seek to do here is build up a good knowledge base of article/tutorials and tips & tricks.

In most cases it was noticed that people gathered a bunch of credits solely to get hosting (all the more better for them, since, till you get hosting your credit meter doesn't start ticking down) and then they'd vanish for ages. That's not how this service runs. If you are a good poster, you shouldn't have building up a decent number of credits after loosing out on most. It's only the first few days that you have to struggle. After that it's all nice and easy - as for example in my case, I've piled up enough credits to go on a 2 year long vacation And I'm a terrifically busy software developer - if I could squeeze out time enough to do this PLUS my own work - it shouldn't be a problem for most of you ?

And that's why I am here. I tried some other "free" but with ads sites, and I switched to astahost because it's add-free. I was also on other sites providing php, but far less efficient, that's why I'm still at astahost.
Of course, if my databases do not startup after the big astahost migration, I will reconsider my position.

Well, At the time of this posting, the migration has been completed so if your databases are working like mine are, then you have nothing to reconsider.

The change to the new server was completed about a week ago.

vujsa